[B. Destruction of
the Jewish existence in Romania
1929-1939]
[5.17. Nationalization laws - emigration terror without
organized emigration 1938]
[1938: Nationalization of all
cooperative institutions - Reconstruction Foundation and Free Loan
kassas have to go - fight about the kassa system - the normal kassas
can stay]
The situation continued to deteriorate during 1938. In the spring of
that year the Romanian government decreed that all cooperative
institutions would be incorporated into government cooperatives. This
meant the end of the Reconstruction Foundation and Free Loan
kassas. JDC and its ICA partner
tried to prevent this liquidation, and ICA obtained the British
government's agreement to intervene with the Romanian government. As a
result, the liquidation, which was to have taken place on June 1, 1938,
was postponed. In the meantime, Alexander A. Landesco, a prominent
member of JDC's Executive Committee, who was of Romanian Jewish origin,
went to Bucharest to try to influence the government. At the same time,
Hyman intervened with the Romanian minister in Washington.
On June 16, 1938, Landesco cabled from Bucharest: "Liquidation
cooperatives Romania suspended one year." But on June 23 the minister
with whom Landesco had negotiated, Militia Constantinescu, went back on
his word and declared that the liquidations would soon begin.
Liquidators were in fact appointed on June 28.
ICA and JDC again tried in every possible way to influence the
Romanians. The State Department was asked to intervene. On July 21
James C. Dunn of the State Department wrote to Hyman that (p.216)
the Romanians had told the American representative in Bucharest that
Landesco had "misunderstood" the Romanian minister: what Constantinescu
had meant was not postponement for one year, but one year's time for
the cooperatives to liquidate. Since the Romanian government had not
received a prompt answer to this generous offer, it was now withdrawing
it and would liquidate the cooperatives as required by its laws. The
exchange of letters with the State Department continued into August,
but the State Department was inclined to blame JDC for not having
promptly accepted the Romanian offer and declined to take any further
steps in the matter. Fortunately, the remnant of the Romanian
kassas was saved by a ruling of the
Romanian Court of Cassation in March 1939.
(End note 81: Ibid.
[-- 48-Gen. & Emerg. Romania, general, 1938-39, 4/28/38 [28 April
1938];
-- report of Kahn and Schweitzer on meetings in Bucharest]
-- for correspondence with the State Department in June and August
1938.
See especially 5/27/38 [27 May 1938], memorandum by Paul
Baerwald. Executive
Committee, 5/19/39 [19 May 1939], Hyman's report).
[1938: Romania: All denationalized
Jews become foreigners: about 150,000]
In the meantime, denationalization proceeded. Two decrees, on September
15 and December 2, 1938, provided explicitly that
all denationalized Jews would henceforth be
treated as foreigners and required to obtain certificates of
identity that would authorize them to reside in Romania for one year at
a time. No licenses for trade, industry, or the professions would
normally be issued to such persons. The number of persons affected by
these decrees was in the neighborhood of 150,000.
(End note 82: Ibid.; memorandum re legalization of social welfare
activity in Romania, 3/1/39 [1 March 1939])
[Jewish organizations have to
close]
In the wake of these draconian laws, all Jewish organizations of a
political nature were ordered closed down. This affected the Union of
Romanian Jews led by Filderman and the Jewish political party
(Volkspartei).
[Language terror against Jews]
In certain areas of the country Jews were forbidden to use any language
except Romanian, even though that was not the language generally spoken
there.
[Emigration terror without
organized emigration - memorandum by Noel Aronovici]
Economic and political ostracism of Jews reached unheard-of
proportions. The only Jewish organization permitted to exist, declared
the foreign minister, would be a committee for the emigration of Jews.
(End note 83: Ibid.)
Paralleling the development in Poland, Romanian politicians now began
an intensified propaganda campaign for Jewish emigration. Illegal
immigration into Palestine was encouraged, and further declarations in
favor of Jewish emigration were made.
JDC, overwhelmed by the effects of Nazi expansion on Central (p.217)
European Jewry and deeply worried about the fate of Polish Jewry, which
was also facing threats of expulsion, did not know how to deal with the
Romanian situation. A memorandum by Noel Aronovici, himself a Romanian
Jew, proposed remedies in more or less traditional terms: more homes
for apprentices, vocational retraining, establishment of Free Loan
kassas (despite the fact that the
existing ones were being closed down), and aid to children.
(End note 84: R11, memorandum of December 1938)
[1937-1939: Not much help of JDC
possible]
Indeed, there was very little that JDC could do in this situation
except increase their help in the form of thinly disguised relief until
the overall situation eased. Attempts by the World Jewish Congress to
arouse public opinion by political action at the League of Nations met
with no greater success.
(End note 85: WJC submitted a sharply worded memorandum to a
subcommittee of the League of Nations that was supposed to investigate
complaints regarding the treatment of Jews in Romania, 3/1/39 [1
March 1939])
[There is the same suspicion like in Poland: The Yiddish speaking Jews
in Romania shall be exterminated, and the German Jews may go to
Palestine to create the new Israel state. And this is regulated by the
Zionists].
The feeling of gloom and lack of any real hope found its way into
Joseph C. Hyman's speech in September 1938, when he declared: "While we
sit here and talk of budgets, of quotas, of campaign agreements, a
remorseless torrent sweeps away everything that our brethren have
believed in, have prayed for, have fought for, and have built up during
their existence."
(End note 86: Speech by Joseph C. Hyman at the JDC National Council,
9/18/38 [18 September 1938])
JDC was trying its best to stem the flood, but those who directed its
fortunes were well aware not only of the hopelessness of their task but
also of the fact that the very foundations of their humanist and
liberal philosophy were being swept away.
Finally, as in Poland, the very grimness of the situation was beginning
to force upon local Jewry the necessity for unification. As in Poland,
JDC in 1939 tried to set up a Central Committee of Romanian Jews, for
economic purposes at first. But unlike Poland, negotiations in Romania
did not advance beyond a preliminary stage. Nothing had changed by the
time war broke out.
(End note 87: 48-Gen. & Emerg. Romania, general, Troper to JDC, New
York, 1/13/39 [13 January 1939])
