Romanian Jewry During the Holocaust

The Miraculous Rescue of our Family in Bucharest

Here is another fact about my holy father, Rabbi Shmuel Deutsch, the Rebbe of Kretshnif, Bucharest. I witnessed the first part of the story, and I heard the second part from an eyewitness.

It was during January 1941. By virtue of my father being a revered rabbi, we lived in a large house in the Jewish Quarter of Bucharest.

At the entrance to the house was a synagogue where my father prayed his moving prayers with his followers.

One day, when I sat down to do my homework, the synagogue door was suddenly broken open with a loud bang. Between ten to fifteen Romanian Nazi Legionnaires barged in - wooden clubs in their hands, their eyes full of hatred, like fires burning, at the sight of Jews like us.

My father, along with ten of his followers, were engrossed in the evening prayer, and suddenly… the human animals swung their clubs in all directions, some on people's backs, some on hands, some in the legs and some in the face, yes in the face, without mercy…

I jumped up from my place as if I had been biten by a snake, and found myself a hiding place from where I could watch all that was happening. The images of the horror have not left my imagination until this very moment and will haunt me forever! That's how I knew.

In a moment's resourcefulness, with supernatural powers, I came to my senses and came out of my hiding place, ran to my mother's bedroom, and started screaming and yelling at her: "Onyoko, Legionnaires in the synagogue!" I grabbed her, trying to receive support and calm down, but she was just as nervous as I was.

My mother ran to the synagogue, her whole body trembled and shook, and she began to cry from heartbreak.

We all stood - my mother, my brother and I - at an observation point that hid our presence and witnessed the terrible situation we were in, with horror and fear in our hearts.

I saw them pushing all the men together and shouting "Jews, line up in a straight line, you are all coming with us today."

Then they turned to my father with a blood-curdling scream: "Jewish Pope, you are the first to come with us!"

My mother came out of hiding and ran to my father with his winter coat. My father took the coat from her hands, put it on and tied his gartel (a sash worn by chassidic men), and suddenly shouted in a loud voice:

"Yidden (Jews), hold tight to my sash, and I guarantee that whoever holds it will come back alive." Everyone crowded around him. The Legionnaires mercilessly continued to beat them brutally, as they broke and trampled everything in their path.

They went out towards the truck that was waiting near the house. All the Jews who were in the synagogue together with my father were pushed into the truck along with many Jews from the area. The truck then sped off and disappeared.

The commotion continued in the house and the synagogue as three of the Legionnaires continued to wreak havoc. They threw all the holy books on the floor of the synagogue in disdain, while venting their anger and frustrating with curses.

Suddenly we heard one of them ordering his friend: "Go get gasoline, today there will be a celebration here. We will burn their holy synagogue together with the women and children."

Trembling took hold of us all and we began to sob and whisper the words fo the Viduy (confession prayer said before death). We knew that only God could save us today from certain death.

Suddenly the door opened and the commander of the Legionnaires entered and said:

"You must not touch this woman, you must not burn her house, and you must not kill her! She is a good Jew!" He stopped for a moment, and we held our breath. We felt as if Elijah the prophet himself had come to save us.

Then he went on to explain his instructions: "Last year, I was a woodcutter… and this family was one of my regular customers. This woman would honor me every time I came to them with white bread, stuffed cabbage and other foods. Don't harm her!" He suddenly fell silent.

Then, as if on cue, the door opened and no other than my father stood bent over on the threshold of the house, followed by another nine of the ten worshipers of the synagogue.

We refused to believe what we saw, and astonishment was even visible on the Legionnaires' faces. They did not hide it and immediately asked: "How did you come back, Jews?".

My father held in his hand a signed letter from the commander of the Legionaries, Hirt Hidriani, in which my father's release along with the nine Jews who accompanied him, was confirmed.

I looked at my father and did not recognize him. His beard had changed its color from black to gray in just a few hours, and was shortened to half its length. Pain and joy were mixed together.

That night, I heard my father tell my mother about all the events, but I didn't want to listen. Fear and terror silenced my curiosity, even considering the fact that I was only eight years old.

But if we thought that was the end of it, then our mistakes became clear even quicker than we could digest the events.

The very next morning, the horror story returned to our districts!

Loud noises and shouts penetrated my ears. The shouts in Romanian got louder: "The Jewish Pope should come out." The nickname for "rabbi" was "Pope."

Our house was next to the church, suddenly we heard a door open form the direction of the church. I thought that now was the time; the father I loved and appreciated so much was going to be killed, and all of us together with him would be felled by the sword.

But suddenly I saw that the back gate of the house, facing the church, was the one that had been violently broken into. We hid together in one of the rooms, and anxiously waited for them to come.

My father stood with his feet together, looking like an angel. His eyes were closed and his lips murmured a prayer from the bottom of his heart to cancel the decrees and save him along with the whole family. It seemed as if he did not notice the gate opening with a shrill screech.

But here too, the circumstances suddenly changed…

At the door, stood the old priest from the church. He quickly and quietly entered our house.

As soon as he saw my father, he told him his plan: "Your Honor, come with your family to my home. There they will not be able to harm you."

And indeed it was. This priest, a Righteous Among the Nations, saved us. He went to the Legionnaires outside and told them that the rabbi had left the area and that they should not look for him, "he is in the forest together with all the Jews" he told them, and so we were safe.

The Journey of My Life, Eternal Roots - Rebbetzin Chana Moskowitz

Study hall in the town of Vizhnitz, Romania

The Malbim Synagogue in Bucharest, Romania

The Vizhnitzer Rebbe, Rabbi Eliezer Hager, and the Kapschnitzer Rebbe, Rabbi Avraham Yehoshua Heschel

The Spinka-Selish Rebbe, Rabbi Yitzchak Isaac Weiss, accompanied by this chassidim

The Vizhnitzer Rebbe, Rabbi Yisrael Hager, blessing a child through the window of a train on the platform in Chust, Romania

A Jewish couple travels to Marmorosch

Jews on market day in Marmarosch

Children from the cheder in Marmarosch-Sighet on a day trip

Yaakov Fisch and his two brothers, Satmar, Romania

A family working in farming in Romania

A Jewish family in the courtyard of their home in Iasi, Romania

The Feuerstein family, from the village of Botosani, Romania

Animal merchants in the marketplace in Chust, Romania

Rabbi Yisrael Shalom Yosef Friedman, the Bohusher Rebbe

Students of the Bais Yaakov school in Ober-Vishova

Yeshiva students in Bistrita, Romania

The gathering and arrest of Jews in Iasi at the time of the pogroms

The destroyed synagogue in Cluj, Romania

The pogrom in the train station in Iasi, Romania

Rabbi Chaim Greenberg, the rabbi of Iasi, Romania, carries a Torah on his way to the deportation train

Jews of Iasi, boarding a train to death during the pogrom against the Jews of their city

Jews waiting on the west bank of the Dniester River for their deportation to Transnistria, on the east side of the river

A memorial for the Jews killed in the Iasi pogrom

The interior of a synagogue in Bucharest that was desecrated by rioters

Officials writing lists at a collection centre of confiscated Jewish objects, established in Bucharest, Romania

Mass grave of pogrom victims in the Jewish cemetery in Iasi

A crowd gathers next to vandalized Jewish stores and business in Bucharest, Romania

Members of the Dameshek Eliezer Kibbutz of Agudath Israel in Sighet

Holocaust refugee girls listen to lectures given by rabbis Shmelke Dechner and Zeev Schwartz, Poalei Agudath Israel, Bucharest

Children who survived Transnistria in postwar Bucharest

Students of the Zichron Meir boarding school for child Holocaust refugees in Bucharest

A gathering of Jews in Dej postwar, calling for the return of survivors of concentration camps

The Skulener Rebbe, Rabbi Eliezer Zusha Portugal, accompanied by his chassidim, in the years he was in Romania postwar

Rabbis and students of the Mesivta Yeshiva for Holocaust refugees in Bucharest

A procession of the girls of Agudath Israel Ohel Rivka in Sighet

Students and teachers of the Talmud Torah school in Campulung, Bukovina