Legionnaires' Rebellion and Bucharest Pogrom - The Bucharest Pogrom

The Bucharest Pogrom

The Bucharest pogrom was not a side effect of the rebellion, but a parallel event, purposefully organized to give legitimacy to the rebellion, and to equate the Legionnaires' opponents with Jew sympathizers.

Many parties took part in the riots against the Jews: police officers loyal to the Legionnaires, various Legionnaire organizations, the workers' union, student union, high-school students, Gypsies, and criminals. The attacks on the two Jewish boroughs (Dudeşti and Văcăreşti) began a few hours before the rebellion. Minister Vasile Iasinschi gave the order to set the Jewish neighborhoods on fire, and the masses stormed Jewish homes, synagogues, and other institutions. The Legionnaires' headquarters became torture centers, and Jews kidnapped from their homes were brought to them. Jews' homes were set on fire, and the Jews themselves were concentrated in places where they could be tortured to take their property, and have their women raped. Jews were murdered at random, but also at planned executions. Some Jews were thrown from the top floors of the police headquarters building, and others killed in the slaughterhouse. Military men did not take part in the pogrom, nor did police officers loyal to Antonescu. Those officers were forced to surrender their weapons and uniforms, and put under arrest.

Besides the purpose of extorting the Jews for their hidden property, sadistic youth (including teenagers) took part in the torture, for their own pleasure. The torture continued for hours and even days and nights, the torturers taking turns. The Jews were robbed of any possessions on their person, and sometimes even their clothes. They were made to give property hidden elsewhere, private or communal, and were often shot afterwards, as happened to the community's treasurer. Jews were coerced into writing suicide notes before being killed.

The persecutors were headed by Mircea Petrovicescu, the son of the Minister of the Interior who was deposed by Antonescu. Petrovicescu tied Jews to targets and shot them, aiming not to hit them, but to draw a line around them. He also used Jewish women stripped naked and tied with their backs to the target. After he was done shooting, they bore into the women's breasts with a drill, or cut them. Only one woman survived this treatment, but she was executed with other Jews. Legionnaire women took part in the pogrom; all survivors noted their involvement in the torture, and some of the worst acts of abuse were at their hands. According to the witnesses, Legionnaire women stripped Jewish men and hit their genitalia.

On 23 January, a few hours before the rebellion was quelled, a group of Legionnaires selected 15 Jews, at random. They took them in trucks to the local slaughterhouse, where they were shot. Five of the Jews, including a five year old girl, were hung on the slaughterhouse's hooks, still alive. They were tortured, their bellies cut, and their entrails hung around their necks in a parody of shochita, Kosher slaughter of cattle. The bodies were labeled "Kosher". The slaughterhouse was closed for a week to purge and clean the house of the results. When Antonescu appointed a military prosecutor to investigate the events at the slaughterhouse, he reported that

"he recognized three of his acquaintances among the “professionally tortured” bodies (lawyer Millo Beiler and the Rauch brothers). He added, “The bodies of the dead were hanged on the hooks used by slaughterers.”"

Of the slaughterhouse episode, the Romanian author Virgil Gheorghiu later wrote:

"In the big hall of the slaughterhouse, where cattle are hanged up in order to be cut, were now human naked corpses … On some of the corpses was the inscription "kosher". There were Jewish corpses. … My soul was stained. I was ashamed of myself. Ashamed being Romanian, like criminals of the Iron Guard".

During the pogrom, 125 Bucharest Jews were murdered: 120 bodies were eventually counted, and five never found. Other Jews, not from the Bucharest community, who happened to be in Bucharest at the time, may have also been killed. The Legionnaires ignited the Jewish synagogues and danced around the flames roaring with joy. To accomplish their mission, they used a fuel tanker, sprayed the walls of Kahal Grande (the great Sephardi synagogue), and lit it. It was completely burnt. In the various synagogues, the Legionnaires robbed the worshipers, abused them, took all valuables, tore up the Holy Scriptures and ancient documents. They destroyed everything, even the lavatories.

During the riots, 1,274 businesses, shops, workshops and homes were badly damaged or destroyed. After the suppression of the rebellion, the army took the Legionnaires' loot in 200 trucks (not including money and jewelry). Some synagogues were partly saved. The large Heichal Hakorali synagogue was saved from burning completely, because the Legionnaires didn't bring enough fuel. In the large synagogue was a Christian, Lucreţia Canjia. She begged the rioters not to burn the synagogue, reminding them of their Christian teachings. The synagogue was saved.