The Jews in the Eastern War ZoneAmerican Jewish Committee
History
The Jews in the Eastern War Zone
American Jewish Committee
World War, 1914-1918 -- Jews
The future of Roumania is of interest to the Jews for two especial
reasons: first, because the Jews of Roumania are deprived of their
rights as citizens in contravention of a solemn promise made by
Roumania to the Great Powers at the Berlin Congress in 1878;
secondly, because it will no doubt be Roumania’s aim to win back from
Austria-Hungary certain large territories, including Transylvania and
Bukowina, in which the bulk of the population is of Roumanian descent,
thus, if successful, incidentally, increasing the number of Jews under
Roumanian rule from about 250,000 to more than one million.
During the present war Roumania has given evidence of its hostile
attitude towards the Jews. Thousands of Jewish refugees who fled before
the savagery of the Russian army which invaded Bukowina, sought refuge
in Roumania. These were treated with great brutality by Roumanian
officials in the border towns. At the beginning of July, 1915, the
Government issued an order to the administrative authorities of all
the districts bordering on Austria-Hungary to expel all the Jews from
the localities near the frontier, and to send them to the interior of
the country. The officials took advantage of this edict to expel not
only the refugees, but also hundreds of Jewish citizens of Roumania
who had been living in the border towns for generations. The order
of expulsion was executed summarily, and the Jews were forced to
leave within forty-eight and in some cases with all their goods in
twenty-four hours. As a rule, they were not permitted to take their
belongings with them, and even under the most favorable circumstances
they had perforce to leave them behind because they knew neither their
destination nor their fate.
This action of the Government caused a great deal of adverse comment in
the press. “Vitorul” the official organ of the Liberal Party, now in
power, met these attacks, in its issue of July 12, 1915, as follows:
“Some of the newspapers pretend that the Ministry of Internal Affairs
has given orders that the native-born Jews established in the towns
bordering upon the northern frontier of Moldavia be sent into the
interior of the country. This news is inexact. The Minister of
Internal Affairs was not aiming at the Jews established in the towns
near the frontier or in any other place when he issued his order
of expulsion. The order given by the Minister of Internal Affairs
concerns only the alien subjects of a foreign country, and the
native-born Jews who, though not living in frontier towns go there on
business, acting as cereal brokers. And the purpose of the order is to
prevent such people from committing acts dangerous to the interests
of the population of the state. The peaceful Jewish population
living near the frontier is not the object of any hounding, as the
irresponsible newspapers would have it.”
The Bucharest “Adeverul” (Truth), an independent organ, and one of the
two newspapers in Bucharest which sympathize with the Jews, replied:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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