[Cz-L] Continuation of translation of the article about Zastawna

The last part I translated was about the conquest of Zastavna
and finished with the lines:

> In this house
> there had been the supply kitchen of the Russian army. It had been
> robbed and only statues of Lenin and Stalin and other personalities
> of the Russian Politbureau, which no one wanted, were lying around.
> During the reception, the celebrants took these statues out onto
> the streets and hung them from the fences.

I continue:

They poured their fury out on these, until there was nothing left of them
but shards. This to the great satisfaction of the conquerors.
The conquering German army based its command-post in the town
And at the same time the Romanians started to establish their rule.
Among the first returnees there stood out in particular the chief of police,
The friend of the Jews, the commissar Micoli. He warned the Jews not to be
too optimistic, and stressed that the subject of the Jews was directly under
the command of the commander of the army. At the same time he promised
that he would defend the Jews from being harmed by troublemakers.
During the transition period the Jews were saved from pogroms, not because
of the charity of the Gentiles, but because of the lack of leadership among
the hooligans. Some of their leaders had fled in 1940 and the remaining ones
had been deported by the Russians to Siberia. The Poles, the sworn enemies
of the Jews, had declared themselves as being of German nationality and had
emigrated to Germany in 1941 (my correction: should be 1940) according to
the Riebentrop - Molotov agreement. The hooligans, therefore remained
without leadership and without inciters and during the three days of anarchy
They were busy looting, while there was plenty to loot.

There was great tension, while awaiting with lack of certainty and great
apprehension the coming events. Already during the first week, Jews were
subjected to a complete curfew. Our main worry was the fate of the smaller
Jewish communities in the nearby villages. The silence which had settled on
the villages, did not bode well. And Job-like messages started arriving very
soon; the Jews of the villages Cucermik, Vaslauti, Viorcauti were murdered
by Ukrainian hooligans during the transition period. *
Among those murdered were people who originally had lived in the villages
and had returned to them, seeking "peace". Those Jews who lived in
the villages near the bridge over the Dniester, crossed into Galicia in
their fear of the hooligans and later were lost together together with the
Jewish communities of Poland.

The first worry of the new regime was what to do with those Jews who had
remained alive. Those who had not been touched by the hooligans.
The Jews from the villages of Cincau, Vasiliv, Tautri, Dorosauti,
Porhorlauti and Ocna were concentrated by the Romanian Gendarms
In the jail in the large village of Ocna.

The Jews of Zastawna who's relatives were prisoners in the Ocna jail made
desperate efforts to save them from death, endangered themselves by
disobeying the curfew, looked for connections with various authorities,
paid ransom, but the success was very minor and only a handful of people
were saved. The villages of the area became cleared of Jews and on the town
of Zastawna there descended deep mourning. We were eaten up by impotent
anger. This is what our Ukrainian neighbors could do to us, after we had
lived for generations as neighbors with respect for each other? In the event
of trouble, they had run for help to their Jewish neighbors and now when we
were in trouble, no one rose up to object and to halt the rioters in their
criminal activities.
                          _______________________________

* I have written the names of the villages as best I could, by
  transliterating them from the Hebrew. I will be grateful if someone would
  check the correct spelling of their names against an old Romanian map.

Mimi
        

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Received on 2013-02-27 20:30:01