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Bucharest Jews Were Tortured, Killed in Holocaust Pogrom

(Jerusalem Post) Aaron Reich - On January 21, 1941, Iron Guard Legionnaires in Romania carried out a pogrom in Bucharest, killing 125 Jews. At the time, Bucharest was home to 100,000 Jews. The city was also home to the Iron Guard, a nationalist fascist paramilitary organization that was founded in 1927 and was staunchly anti-Semitic. Iron Guard leader Horia Sima held political power alongside fascist dictator Ion Antonescu. Both were in favor of taking Jewish property, but the Iron Guard wanted to take everything immediately. Antonescu wanted it to be a gradual and orderly process done through the law. The Iron Guard rebelled against Antonescu, storming government buildings and fighting soldiers. At the same time, the Legionnaires deliberately began a pogrom against the city's Jews. Mobs stormed homes and synagogues, Jews were captured and tortured at Iron Guard headquarters. Homes and neighborhoods were set ablaze as the city's Jews were funneled to specific areas where the men were tortured, women were raped and property was stolen. Jews were sometimes thrown out of buildings or killed in slaughterhouses. Eventually Antonescu quelled the rebellion. But months later he ordered the beginning of the Iasi pogrom that saw over 13,000 Jews massacred. According to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Romania was directly responsible for the murder of more Jews in the Holocaust than any country other than Germany.
2022-02-10 00:00:00
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