ROMANIAN "JUDENRAT" SEEKS INFORMATION ON DEPORTED JEWS

ROMANIAN "JUDENRAT" SEEKS INFORMATION ON DEPORTED JEWS
Rare signed document on letterhead of the "Centrala Evreilor Tarnaveni", the local "Jewish Central" office of the Romanian C.E.R., 1p. oblong 8vo., Tarnaveni, Feb. 8, 1943 to its corresponding office in Sighisoara. The writer asks that an inquiry be sent to a meeting of Jewish factory workers inquiring as to what tools and documents they intend to take with them when they are sent to be "resettled". Some stains about the file holes, else very good. Of course, these workers were never "resettled" but were instead sent to their deaths in the concentration camps. The Jewish Central, a Jewish institution similar to a Judenrat, was set up in Romania in 1942 by Romanian leader Ion Antonescu, in response to German pressure. The Central was forced to carry out all orders issued by the Romanian and German authorities regarding Jewish affairs. It was charged with carrying out two contradictory tasks: helping the German authorities organize the deportation of Jews to extermination camps in Poland, and serving the Romanian authorities, who wanted to use the council to steal money and property from the Jews and provide forced labor. The Central was dissolved in December 1944 after Romania's liberation, and its leaders jailed.