The Jews in the Eastern War Zone

by American Jewish Committee

ROUMANIA

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:

“In answer to the attacks of the Government organ upon the ‘irresponsible’ newspapers, we are in a position to publish a list of the ‘peaceful Jewish population’ which has been the subject of the most terrible persecutions by the authorities. We can give the names of the reserves, mobilized at the very moment, whose children have been driven from their homes. It is possible that the Minister of Internal Affairs did not mean to ‘aim,’ as the official organ says, at the Jews. If the Minister is innocent of the charge, we would like to know what punishment to inflict upon his subordinates who wilfully misrepresented his order.

“But it is not we who are irresponsible. It is the Government that tries to mislead the public with ambiguous statements. It says that the order referred only to the brokers, who may commit dangerous acts. We know that the law punishes crimes and delinquencies which have been committed, but does not anticipate crimes that may be committed. Then again, the law provides strict punishment for each delinquency and not a general and preventive punishment, such as deportation. Why is it that those who have committed the infraction have not been arrested and peaceful people are being punished instead?

“Even the Government recognizes that this preventive punishment is applied to the alien and such Jews as are only doing business though not living in those places. It means that the suspicion rests equally upon the alien and the Roumanian Jew, because the Jew, although not an alien, is of another religion. The suspicion then falls upon all the native-born Jews. Thus we see, that even if the official organ’s public interpretation of the law be correct, it is still the Jews who will suffer. But we cannot accept the explanation. It is false.