Chronology of Rescue of Jews in Romania
Jews of Romania – 53-56% of Romanian Jews survived the Holocaust (322,000-339,000 survived, 271,000-287,000 lost). Prewar population of Romania was 609,000.[1] The Jewish Council and their leaders obtained the support of Romanian opposition parties. These included the National Peasants’ Party, the National Liberal Party, Queen Mother Helena, clergymen and diplomats. Together they stopped planned deportations.[2] 60 Romanians have been honored for rescuing Jews.[3]
1859
Walachia and Moldavia are united to form a single country under the Ottoman Turks. Its center is Regat.
There are 135,000 Jews in Romania.
1878
Romania becomes an independent kingdom.
1913
Romania annexes southern Dobruja, which was until then part of Bulgaria.
1919
Romania takes over the province of Transylvania, which consists largely of ethnic Romanians. It also annexes the province of Bukovina from Russia, a province of Bessarabia. These gains enlarge the country by more than half.
It also creates enormous problems due to the pressures of displaced ethnic minorities. More than a third of Romania’s population is ethnic minorities.
Pre-1939, 80% of the Romania population lives in rural areas. The economy is largely agrarian and lacks a manufacturing base.
Romania, however, has large oil and mineral deposits.
1921
Romania associates itself with Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia in a Little Entente alliance, which has French support.
Later, Poland is brought into an alliance with Romania.
June 14, 1936
Archbishop Andrea Cassulo is appointed Papal Nuncio in Bucharest, Romania. He serves there until 1947, when he is forced out by the Communists.
January 22, 1938
250,000 Jews, one third the population of Romania, are deprived of their citizenship.
February 1938
King Carol II suspends the Romanian constitution and dissolves all political parties. Censorship is enforced in a dictatorial monarchy.
A new Romanian constitution enforces racial discrimination against Jews, particularly non-citizens. It also removes Jews from political parties and from the government. The legislation uses term “ethnic Romanian” to exclude Jews from public activities and occupations.
September 1938
Romania is significantly weakened by the Munich conference, which divides Romania’s neighbor and ally, Czechoslovakia.
November 1938
King Carol II orders the murder of opposition leaders, particularly those who had sought an alliance with Germany.
1939
68,000 Jews leave Germany
George Mandel-Mantello is appointed Honorary Consul of El Salvador in Romania, Czechoslovakia and Hungary, stationed in Geneva.
January 10, 1939
Hitler announces to the German Reichstag [Parliament] that a world war will result in “the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe.”
February 10, 1939
Pope Pius XI dies in Rome.
February 1939
Andrea Cassulo petitions the Vatican Secretary of State with a proposal to let 150,000 converted Jews be allowed to immigrate from Romania to relocate to Spain. Nothing comes of this project.
March 1939
Germany occupies Bohemia and Moravia. Hungary then takes over Czechoslovakia’s eastern province of Transcarpathia.
Romania is forced to sign a trade agreement with Germany. This trade agreement makes Romania economically dependent on Germany.
April 13, 1939
Britain and France issue an assurance to Romania guaranteeing its independence and territorial integrity.
March 2, 1939
Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli becomes Pope Pius XII.
March 15, 1939
German troops invade Czechoslovakia and occupy Prague.
May 17, 1939
White Paper of 1939: The British government restricts Jewish immigration to Palestine.
July 26, 1939
Reichszentrale für Jüdische Auswanderung (Central Office of Jewish Emigration) is established in Prague by Adolph Eichmann. This office is to force Jews to emigrate by expropriating their assets and removing all of their civil rights.
August 23, 1939
Germany and the Soviet Union sign the Nazi-Soviet Pact. Germany agrees to the annexation of Bessarabia by the Soviet Union.
September 1, 1939
Beginning of World War II: Germany invades Poland.
September 17, 1939
Soviet Army enters Poland’s eastern section. Hundreds of Jews trapped in the German section escape behind Soviet lines. Eventually, between 300,000-400,000 Jewish refugees flee. Though they are treated badly by the Soviet government, many survive the war.
September 28, 1939
Germany and the Soviet Union divide up Poland; German forces occupy Warsaw.
September 1939
By September 1939, nearly 70% of the 185,246 Jews in Austria had emigrated.
October 1939
Hitler extends power of doctors to kill mentally and physically disabled persons.
1940
Andrea Cassulo petitions the Romanian government to protect the rights of baptized Jews. Legislation is passed in August 1940 stating that Jews who convert to Christianity would still be considered Jews. These laws stated that a Jew is defined not by his religion but by his birth. Throughout 1940-41, Cassulo maintains that baptized Jews should be protected against anti-Jewish legislation.
May 20, 1940
Concentration camp established at Auschwitz. It will become the largest death camp in the Nazi system.
June 1940
With the surrender of France, Romania loses a principal ally and much of its political support.
June 27, 1940
Romania is forced to give up Bessarabia and northern Bukovina to the Soviet Union.
June 30, 1940
Hundreds of Jews are killed in Dorohoi by Romanian soldiers. Thousands of Jews flee to Bessarabia.
August 8, 1940
The Romanian government passes an anti-Semitic Statute of the Jews. These laws cancel Jewish citizenship and prohibit intermarriage. Jews are blamed for Romanian problems.
September 1940
Romania installs the “National Legionary State.” Anti-Semitic Iron Guard groups begin a campaign of terror against Jews. Jewish businesses, shops and factories are confiscated.
September 5, 1940
Vatican nuncio in Slovakia, Msgr. Giuseppe Burzio, writes an official dispatch to Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Maglione informing him of anti-Jewish regulations and persecutions in Slovakia.
Cardinal Roncalli of Turkey is told of the fate of Jews in Nazi occupied Poland.
September 7, 1940
Hitler sends military mission to Romania.
September 27, 1940
Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis alliance is signed.
October 1940
Twelve German army divisions enter Romania. Hitler considers these not to be an army of occupation but a military mission. Hitler wishes to maintain the illusion of Romania independence; however, it is clear that this is an occupation force to prevent Romania from going to the Allies.
Hitler supports Ion Antonescu as leader of Romania. Antonescu takes the title of Marshal and Konducator of Romania.
October 5, 1940
A law is passed that confiscates Jewish property in rural areas.
November 17, 1940
Law confiscates Jewish owned forests, saw mills and distilleries.
November 20-24, 1940
Hungary, Romania and Slovakia join the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis.
December 4, 1940
Confiscation of Jewish sailing vessels.
1941-44
Cardinal Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, as Papal Nuncio to Greece and Turkey, participates in the aid and rescue of thousands of Jews in Eastern Europe. He works with other Nuncios, including Monsignor Angelo Rotta in Hungary. He also works with US Ambassador in Turkey Laurence A. Steinhardt and Raymond Courvoiser, International Red Cross Director in Turkey. Among the Jews saved by Roncalli are Slovakian Jews caught in Hungary and Slovakia, Jews trapped in Transnistra, a Romanian-administered territory, and Jews in Budapest. He distributes, by diplomatic pouch to Vatican representatives, various Vatican documents that place Jews under the protection of the Holy See. He also works with the Agency for Palestine and distributes their immigration certificates. After the war, Roncalli makes a statement that he was in part able to help 24,000 Jews.
January 14, 1941
Hitler informs Antonescu of the plan to invade the Soviet Union and assures Antonescu of his complete support.
January 21-23, 1941
Anti-Jewish riots, conducted by the Iron Guard and Romanian citizens, attack Jewish quarters and destroy Jewish shops, businesses and houses. 127,000 Jews are murdered.
February 1941
Institution of legal anti-Semitic laws is introduced with the help of the German foreign office.
February 5, 1941
Hungarian government passes Law for the Protection of the State, which makes Jews liable for double punishment for similar offenses that are given to Christians.
March 1941
German foreign office sends Gustav Richter from Adolf Eichmann’s office to advise the Romanian government on the implementation of anti-Semitic laws similar to those that have been created in Germany.
March 18, 1941
Romanian government forbids conversion of Jews to Christianity, for reasons of racial purity. Jews who attempt to convert and clerics who convert them are threatened with severe punishment.
March 27, 1941
Law is passed that allows for the confiscation of 40,758 Jewish-owned houses and apartments.
National Romanianization Center is established to enforce anti-Semitic laws and regulations. It expels Jews from their houses and apartments. This plan was to totally remove Jews from Romanian economic and civil life.
May 15, 1941
A law called “Labor for the Common Good” was enacted, which removed the constitutional and parliamentary protection provided to Jews and specified that they be forced into labor battalions.
June 12, 1941
Antonescu meets with Hitler. Hitler tells him of his plans for the “Final Solution” for Jews. Antonescu then institutes his own mass murder of Jews in Bessarabia and Bukovina using the Romanian army helped by the SS murder squads of Einsatzgruppe D. 160,000 Jews are murdered with the help of local Ukrainians and Romanian civilians.
June 22, 1941
German army invades Soviet Union, called “Operation Barbarossa;” Nazi Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing squads) begin mass murder of Jews, civilian and Communist leaders. More than one and a half million people are murdered by the Einsatzgruppen.
Romanians join Hitler in the attack on the Soviet Union.
Romania sustains extremely heavy losses, especially in the battles for Odessa and Stalingrad.
40,000 Jews are forcibly expelled from villages and towns in Romania and their property is stolen. Many are put into detention camps or are transferred. Antonescu uses this era to “solve the Jewish question.”
July 31, 1941
Heydrich appointed by Göring to implement the “final solution of the Jewish question.”
1941
José Rojas, Spanish Minister in Bucharest, criticizes Nazi policy of persecuting Jews. He adamantly opposes the deportation of Jews and the brutal conditions imposed by the Nazis. He posts diplomatic protective signs on more than 300 houses where Jewish families live.
September 1941
150,000 Jews of Bessarabia and Bukovina survive the action of spring 1941 and are ordered to be expelled to Transnistria. During this deportation, tens of thousands of Jews die by direct murder, are starved to death or die of exhaustion. 90,000 Jews perish under Romanian control from fall 1941 to spring 1944.
During this period, Jews are placed in ghettoes and in special camps. German Einsatzgruppen and Romanian police enter camps and murder thousands of Jews.
September 17, 1941
The beginning of the general deportation of German Jews to the death camps.
October 1941
Antonescu personally gives the order that Bessarabia would be made Judenrein [cleansed of Jews]. Only 10,000 of the 90,000 Jews of Bukovina survive.
October 10, 1941
Cardinal Roncalli, Nuncio to Turkey, has an audience with Pope Pius XII. Roncalli writes in his private diary, “He [the Pope] asked me if his silence regarding Nazism was not judged badly.”
November 1941
Mihai Antonescu, Vice President of Romania, acting President of the Council of Ministers and Minister of Foreign Affairs, agrees to the deportation of Jews of Romanian nationality who are living in Germany or the German-occupied territories. (Mihai Antonescu is not related to Ion Antonescu.) Several thousand are in fact killed.
René de Weck contacts Red Cross urging them to protect Jews being murdered in Bucharest.
December 1941
Germany Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories declares, “As a matter of principle, no consideration should be given to economic interest…” This statement declares that killing Jews takes precedence over all other considerations, including use of Jewish labor for the war effort.
December 4, 1941
Andrea Cassulo intervenes to protect baptized Jews with Romanian dictator Mihai Antonescu. Cassulo also intervenes on behalf of non-baptized Jews. He asks the Queen Mother of Romania, Helena, to intervene on behalf of Jews. As a result, she helps and assures that aid will be sent to Jews deported to Transnistria.
December 6, 1941
Britain, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and South Africa declare war on Romania.
December 7, 1941
Japanese attacks Pearl Harbor. America declares war on Japan and, the next day, on Germany.
Night and Fog Decree: Hitler orders the suppression of anti-Nazi resistance in occupied Western Europe.
December 8, 1941
By the end of December 1941, the Nazis have murdered more than one million Jews.
December 23, 1941
Andrea Cassulo sends a report to Vatican Secretary of State Maglione describing the number of Jews who are threatened with loss of property and deportation. The Vatican replies that they do not believe that these Jews’ conversion to Catholicism is sincere and only is a means of protecting themselves. In Bessarabia, 40,000 Jews are baptized to prevent their deportation.
Early 1942
The Pope receives continued, detailed reports about anti-Jewish pogroms, and that deportees are destined for death. Various cardinals, bishops and papal nuncios stationed in Eastern Europe confirm reports. Vatican does not respond.
January 20, 1942
Wannsee Conference in Berlin: Heydrich outlines plan to murder Europe’s Jews.
February 15, 1942
First transport of Jews murdered at Auschwitz using Zyklon B gas.
February 17, 1942
Antonescu consolidates his power and abolishes the “National Legionary State.”
March 13, 1942
Vatican Nuncio in Budapest, Angelo Rotta, forwards an appeal from the World Jewish Congress requesting the Pope to persuade Slovakian leader and Catholic Monsignor Tiso to cancel the deportation of Slovakian Jews. A subsequent note of protest to the Slovak government from the Vatican Secretary of State is ignored.
March 19, 1942
330,000 German troops are stationed in Romania controlling vital areas and border posts.
June 4, 1942
The United States declares war on Romania.
August 1942
Initially, Mihai Antonescu agrees in writing to the deportation of Romanian Jews. Soon, Romanian leadership rejects this second phase to deport Romania’s Jews to the murder camps.
A Jewish council is formed that gains the support of the Queen Mother Helena of Romania and high ranking clerics, including Archbishop Balan.
Chief Rabbi of Romania Alexander Safran leads the Jewish effort to protect the 292,000 surviving Jews of Romania.
The Papal Nuncio in Bucharest, Romania, Archbishop Andrea Cassulo, who was the Dean of the Diplomatic Corps in Bucharest, along with Swiss diplomat René de Weck, protests the Romanian government’s announcement that they would deport Jews. On numerous occasions, Cassulo and de Weck intercede with Mihai Antonescu on behalf of the Jews of Romania.
Antonescu terminates the deportations of Romanian Jews, in part as a result of his disenchantment with Germany’s treatment of Romania and the way the war is going against Germany. In addition, the courageous leadership of the Jewish community in Romania is responsible for turning Romanian leadership around.
In the winter of 1942-1943, Antonescu agrees to let 70,000 Jews emigrate from Romania in return for a large payment by the Jewish community. Eichmann, hearing of this action, does all he can to prevent this plan from being accomplished. Nonetheless, 5,000 Jews are able to escape Romania with the help of Jewish Zionist underground organizations.
September 1942
Several Vatican diplomats request that Pope Pius XII end his public silence on Nazi atrocities against Jews. The Pope declines to take direct action to help Jews who are being murdered. He states: “The Holy See has done, is doing, and will do all in its power to help.”
September 30, 1942
The Romanian Foreign Minister informs Andrea Cassulo that the government would not recognize the baptism of Jews of northern Bukovina and Bessarabia. This is a repudiation of the nuncio’s policy of Jewish baptisms being recognized by the Catholic Church.
Fall 1942
Cassulo meets with Ion and Mihai Antonescu and questions them about their persecution of Jews.
October 2, 1942
Andrea Cassulo writes to Vatican Secretary of State Maglione about the continuing persecution of Jews. He blames the worsening situation on an “Orthodox nationalist spirit.”
October 9, 1942
Cassulo goes to Rome to discuss the persecution of Jews with Pope Pius XII, Maglione and others.
October 29, 1942
Andrea Cassulo intervenes on behalf of the rights of baptized Jews.
November 24, 1942
Andrea Cassulo sends memorandum to the Romanian minister of foreign affairs regarding the rights of baptized Jews.
December 24, 1942
Pope Pius XII, in his Christmas message, in a thinly veiled reference to Jews, states “hundreds of thousands who, through no fault of their own, and sometimes only because of their nationality or race, have been consigned to death or slow decline.”
February 1943
Andrea Cassulo meets with Romanian leader Antonescu and gives him a report to the Vatican from the Swiss Jewish community. Antonescu tells the nuncio that he has been considering aid for Jews in Transnistria and does not want to continue persecutions.
March 1943
Ion Antonescu rejects pressure by Nazi Foreign Minister Ribbentrop and Hitler to deport Jews to the east.
May 18, 1943
Andrea Cassulo writes a letter to Mihai Antonescu asking that the government allow the emigration of 8,000 orphans located in the provinces. He asks that the children be returned to Romania and taken to be cared for by Jewish families.
June 6, 1943
Andrea Cassulo reports to Vatican Secretary of State Maglione that he has negotiated an agreement with Romanian minister Lecca to protect Jews. These protections are: the limitation of deportations; the transfer of Jews from German-controlled areas to Romanian-controlled territories; protection of the lives of Jewish deportees; protection of the ghettoes; sending of medicine and clothing from the Red Cross; shipping of food and other supplies to Jewish refugees; allowing Jews to be paid for their labor; allowing Jews to correspond with their relatives; and allowing some Jewish orphans to be sent to Palestine.
Summer 1943
René de Weck saves more than 2,000 Jewish orphans in Moldavia from deportation. He also manages to protect Hungarian Jews in Romania.
July 16, 1943
British government tells Jewish Agency for Palestine that Jewish refugees who escape to Turkey will be given permission to enter Palestine.
Late 1943-early 1944
As a result of the Nazi empire collapsing and Antonescu wanting to polish his image, the policy was instituted to repatriate Jews who had previously been deported to Transnistria. Eventually, 15,000 Jews were repatriated in 1945.
Karl Kolb, of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is sent to Bucharest, Romania, in November 1943. In December, he makes numerous inspections of camps in Transnistria and arranges for relief to Jewish survivors there. Kolb is a 58-year old businessman from Thurigen. He is a representative of a local oil company. Kolb is an expert on shipping and transportation. He is sent with a mission to see if he can arrange to transport refugees overland via Bulgaria or by various sea routes. Kolb submits a report on conditions of Jews to the ICRC and Jewish organizations. In the report, Kolb recommends and advocates repatriating surviving Jewish deportees from Bessarabia and Bukovina. Kolb writes a strongly-worded letter to Mihai Antonescu asking him to support these repatriations. Kolb bombards Mihai Antonescu continually with requests to repatriate the deportees. Kolb also intervenes on behalf of Jewish community leaders who have been arrested, and is able to gain their release. Kolb is able to help 2,000 Jewish orphans and prevent Jews from being kept in ghettoes when they return to Romania proper. Karl Kolb also helps obtain and distribute food, clothing and medical supplies.
January 16, 1944
US Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau and Treasury Department officials report to President Roosevelt on the State Department’s suppression of information on the murder of the Jews of Europe.
January 22, 1944
President Roosevelt establishes the War Refugee Board (WRB) in response to the failure of the Allies to protect Jews from extermination. The WRB is charged with “taking all measures within its power to rescue the victims of enemy oppression who are in imminent danger of death.” Raoul Wallenberg is later selected for a mission to protect Hungarian Jews from deportation.
February 14, 1944
Romanian leader Ion Antonescu agrees to return Jewish deportees to Romania from Transnistria.
March 1944
Ira Hirschmann, representing the War Refugee Board in Turkey, works with Karl Kolb and Vladimir de Steiger of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Romania and helps to repatriate 48,000 Jews from Transnistria back to Romania. Hirschmann also demands an end to the persecution of Jews.
The War Refugee Board, the Yishuv, Angelo Roncalli and Laurence Steinhardt help bring 3,000 Eastern European Jews to Istanbul.
March 24, 1944
Roosevelt sends warning to Hungarian officials against mistreating the Jews.
Spring 1944
Karl Kolb distributes $100,000 from the Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and the American War Refugee Board. Kolb is able to get extremely favorable exchange rates in distributing the money to Jewish refugees. Kolb also acts as a go-between with Romanian Jewish charities to distribute relief funds. Kolb’s greatest contribution is trying to arrange for emigration and repatriation of Romanian Jews. Kolb has access to Mihai Antonescu and the support of Swiss Minister in Romania René de Weck. Kolb also works with the President of the Romania Red Cross, Jean Costinescu. Kolb also manages to coordinate between the numerous Jewish organizations, some of whom are in conflict with each other. Kolb often takes considerable risks, in concert with de Weck, to help Jews.
May 1944
Karl Kolb issues a sort of protective certificate to Jewish refugees. The ICRC is somewhat dismayed that Kolb has exceeded his authority on behalf of Jewish refugees in Romania. He is given a letter of warning by the Delegations’ Committee. In a letter of response, Kolb defends his actions on humanitarian grounds. He says in the letter, “The ICRC’s position over the problems of the Jews in South-Eastern Europe is well known to me. I know that my activities on behalf of the oppressed Jewish population in Romania cannot be based on Conventions.” He adds: “If I have been led into actions concerning the Jews to a greater extent than I expected at the start, it has only been in order to pursue the humanitarian aims of our institution. I would do the same and more for any other minority, as I have assured M. Mihaï Antonescu to his great satisfaction.”
May 1944
George Mandel Mantello issues thousands of El Salvador visas to Jewish refugees in Budapest through Consul Lutz’s office. Mantello publishes and publicizes a report of two escapees from Auschwitz death camp. He is soon arrested by Swiss police for violating Swiss neutrality.
June 6, 1944
D-Day: Allied invasion at Normandy, France, opens second front.
June 20, 1944
The National Democratic Bloc is created in Romania, with most major political parties participating.
July 19, 1944
Cardinal Angelo Roncalli, Vatican Nuncio in Turkey, future Pope John XXIII, appeals to Hungarian Regent Horthy on behalf of 5,000 Hungarian Jews with Palestine visas. Roncalli provides Vatican certificates for Jews in hiding. Roncalli works closely with members of the Yishuv rescue committee in Turkey, including Ira Hirschmann and Joel Brand.
August 1944
The Romanian government and Antonescu establish contacts with the Allies in the hope of ending Romania’s involvement with Germany.
Romania is liberated by the Soviet Union. 350,000 Romanian and Transnistrian Jews survive the war. 57% of the Jewish population under Romanian control, including Jews of Bessarabia and northern Bukovina, survive the Shoa.
August 23, 1944
Anti-fascist elements in the National Democratic Bloc overthrow Antonescu and form a new government. King Michael I proclaims, “Romania has accepted the armistice as proposed by the Allies. Romania will now fight on the side of the Allies.”
General Constantin Sanatescu is appointed prime minister. The new government abolishes all detention camps and annuls all anti-Jewish discriminatory racial laws.
September 12, 1944
Romania signs an agreement with the Soviet Union regarding its withdrawal from the Nazi empire. This deprives Germans of needed oil reserves.
This has a sobering effect on Bulgaria, Hungary and Croatia.
October 5, 1944
The British Colonial Office allows only 10,300 Jews to immigrate to Palestine. This will be at the rate of only 1,500 per month. This order rescinds an original offer made to the Jewish Agency of Palestine, which would originally allow all Jews reaching Turkey to enter Palestine.
October 15, 1944
Admiral Horthy tries to sue for peace with Soviet Union. Horthy is soon arrested by Nazi puppet government. Hungarian Arrow Cross and Nazis introduce new reign of terror and murder tens of thousands of Budapest Jews.
December 19, 1944
All remaining anti-Jewish legislation is removed.
Confiscated Jewish property and funds are not returned to Jews, nor does the state reimburse Jews for their losses.
Attempts to repatriate Jewish property or redress wrongs only stimulate existing anti-Semitism.
End of 1945
Karl Kolb and Vladimir de Steiger are recalled to Geneva by the ICRC.
May 8, 1945
V-E Day: Germany surrenders; end of Third Reich.
June 30, 1946
Karl Kolb resigns from the ICRC over policy decisions regarding refugee issues.
1947
20,000 Romanian Jews flee Romania due to economic depression.
Archbishop Andrea Cassulo, who had served in Bucharest, Romania, for 11 years, is forced out by the Communist regime. He is then assigned to be Apostolic delegate to Turkey.
1948
The State of Israel is founded.
Communist Party takes full control of Romania. Monarchy is abolished. Jewish organizations are banned.
After the founding of the State of Israel, most Romanian Jews go there. By the late 1980’s, only a few Jews will remain in Romania.
June 1950
Swiss diplomat René de Weck dies in Rome at the age of 63.
1952
Archbishop Andrea Cassulo, the Apostolic delegate to Turkey, dies. He is 83 years old.
1953
The state of Israel passes a law to honor those who rescued Jews during the Holocaust; a commission is established to recognize Righteous Among the Nations, non-Jews who saved Jews during the war. The Yad Vashem Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Memorial Museum is created. (It is now called Yad Vashem: The World Holocaust Remembrance Center.)
2017
60 Romanians have been recognized by Yad Vashem and the State of Israel for rescuing Jews in the Holocaust.
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[1] Bauer & Rozett, in Gutman, 1990, Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, s.v. “Estimated Losses in the Holocaust,” p. 1799, 1801; Benz, in Laqueur, 2001, The Holocaust Encyclopedia, s.v. “Death Toll,” p. 145; Ioanid, in Laqueur, 2001, The Holocaust Encyclopedia, s.v. “Romania,” pp. 577-580; Hilberg, 1985, p. 1220 states 270,000 lost
[2] Ancel, 1984 Ancel, in Gutman, 1990, Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, s.v. “Romania: Jews during the Holocaust, p. 1297
[3] Bender & Weiss, 2011, The Encyclopedia of the Righteous among the Nations: Europe (Part II).