Re: Migration to Romania, 1944-1946

Dear Iosif,

I admit my ignorance of the two papers you mention. When I have time,
I will read the paper by Mordechai Altshuler.

What I wrote in my previous Email referred only to the "old-time Jewish
residents of Chernivtsi" and I still believe that for this group they
are close
to the actual numbers.
You refer to the number of Jews in the Czernowitz REGION, irrespective
of whether they were residents of Czernowitz before the war.
When people were free to return from Transnistria, most of them,
whether previous residents of Czernowitz or not, came to Czernowitz,
where they still had relatives and where they felt safer.
Jewish refugees from Besarabia and families of Russian Jewish soldiers
also started arriving in Czernowitz by May or June 1944.
This explains the difference between the numbers you and I mention.

We know that the Jewish population of Czernowitz before the war,
numbered about 50 000. It is generally agreed that of these, some
were sent to Siberia by the Russians, retreated with the Russian army,
or were killed by Romanian and German soldiers.
About 27 000 were deported to Transnistria. Of the deported,
only about 50% - 60% survived and returned to Czernowitz.
About 20 000 Jewish residents were not deported and remained in the
city.
Few if any children were born to Jewish families during the war, while
the natural death rate continued as normal. In the spring of 1944
it is likely that there were in Czernowitz 19 000 Jewish people.
Add to this, the number of returnees and it is likely, that of the
original
Jewish population of Czernowitz, there were in the city in July 1944
about 34 000 people.
A few hundred were immediately conscripted into the Russian army
and sent to the front. Many of these were killed when the train
they were on was bombed by German forces.
We can assume that during the winter of 1944 - 1945
about 1000 crossed the border illegally.
The number of those who left legally in 1945 was about 12 000.
The number of those who left legally in 1946, was about 11 000.
Former Jewish residents of Czernowitz, who remained in the city
after 1946, was about 10 000.

Mimi

On Feb 4, 2013, at 2:14 AM, iosif vaisman wrote:

> Dear Mimi,
> you write that "No one knows exactly how many of the old-time Jewish
> residents of Chernivtsi left in 1945-1946 and how many stayed".
> Actually, these numbers are available, mostly from two papers based on
> the documents in Soviet archives:
>
> Mordechai Altshuler, The Soviet "Transfer" of Jews to Romania, Jews in
> Eastern Europe, 1998. No. 2 (36), p.57 (in English)
> and
> Mikhail Mitsel, Resettlement of Northern Bukovina Jews to Romania,
> Zametki po evreiskoi istorii, 2004, No. 44 (in Russian,
> http://berkovich-zametki.com/Nomer44/Mitsel1.htm)
>
> According to the documents, by July of 1944 there were 52,570 Jews in
> the Chernovtsy region. In 1944-1946 22,307 left for Romania (7,133
> men, 10,072 women, 5,102 children).
>
> Of those who applied for a permission to leave, 42 were denied for
> lack of documents confirming Romanian citizenship prior to June 28,
> 1940, and 1,044 withdrew their applications and were granted Soviet
> citizenship. If all the numbers are correct, about 30,000 Jews in
> Chernovtsy region did not try to leave.
>
> Copies of the documents are available at
> http://berkovich-zametki.com/Nomer44/Mitsel2.htm
>
> Best,
> Iosif
>
>
>
>
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Received on 2013-02-04 10:23:26