Life in the Shadow of Death

EXIBITION organized by

Dr. Lya Benjamin and Dr. Irina Cajal-Marin and hosted by

the Ministry of Culture and Cults

with the occasion of

The Day of the Holocaust in Romania

October 2005

During the second world war, the Jewish population of Romania wasn’t spared either from the tragic experience of the Holocaust. The anti-Jewish legislation, the forced transfer of the rural Jewish population to the district capitals, the introduction of the forced labor regimen; the pogrom of Iasi and the assassination by suffocation and dehydration of thousands of Jews on the death trains; the pogroms in Basarabia and Northern Bucovina, district of Dorohoi, as well as other regions of Romania and Transnistria; the introduction in this province of a systematic extermination regimen of the deportees as well as the native Jewish population; the purposeful degradation of all Romanian Jews, were all elements of the Romanian Holocaust.

(from the report of the International Committee for the Study of the Holocaust in Romania)

The Massacre of the Jews from Iasi – June 1941

The Pogrom of Bucharest – January 1941

Testimonies

Cult objects desecrated during the pogrom of January 21-23, 1941 – Bucharest

Snapshots from the Deportations to Transnistria – taken during the fall of 1941

TORA Scrolls

(Old Testament)

which the Jews did not part with even

on the last journey.

The Decision regarding the destruction of the metal matrixes of discs containing Jewish music or music interpreted by Jews

Barb-wire wreath in the memory of the young poet Selma Eisenberg

deceased in a concentration camp at the age of 18

work executed by Irina Cajal-Marin

Jews killed in the pogroms of Bucharest and Iasi, 1941

In the pogrom of Bucharest, between January 21 – 23, 1943, 122 Jews were killed, and thousands of Jewish homes, shops and synagogues were destroyed.

In Iasi, in the month of June 1941, more than 12,000 Jews were killed: part were shot to death, the rest died by suffocation in the death trains where they were locked for days on end, under the burning summer sun, deprived of water and air.

Partial view of the exhibition hall

NOTICE

Nr 17.492

November 28, 1942

The population is hereby notified that the sugar due for the month of October will be distributed beginning November 30, as follows:

Christians will receive 500 gram per person.

Jews ………………….100 gram per person

Gypsies ………………200 gram per person

Books written by Jewish authors, banned from all Romanian bookstores and libraries.

Costumes from the Baraseum Theater, a place of refuge for the Jewish actors excluded from all Romanian theaters.

Leon Alex

Life and Death in Black and White

Leon Alex

The Orchestra

Leon Alex

Death Dance

Leon Alex

Hallucinations

Leon Alex

The Thinker

Leon Alex

The Nightmare

Marcel Iancu

Life and Death in Black and White

Marcel Iancu

“Entire families, including children, were seized while they were praying to the Almighty. Rabbi Guttman, betrayed by the local priest, was forced to assist to the shooting of his two sons, who protested against the arrest of their father. He himself was not touched by the bullets.Neither the police nor the army protected the Jews.The criminal deeds exceed the limits of imagination. Animals kill but do not mutilate their victims. In this case, however, not even the lifeless bodies were spared.

We found bodies hanging by hooks at the slaughter house, with the inscription “Kosher”.

In the woods of Jilava, the teeth and nails of the cadavers were torn out. “

Marcel IancuBucharest, January 1941(Extracts)

Marcel Iancu

Renowned architect, painter and sketcher in Romania between the 2 world wars. His last exhibition was in Bucharest in 1939.In 1941 he immigrated to the Holy Land.From his extremely complex creation, the Holocaust pieces are the least known. His admirers don’t even mention the existence of these works. Even in Israel the respective works were displayed and catalogued only in the year 1990.In fact, Marcel Iancu started his Holocaust cycle even prior to immigrating to Israel, motivated by the gruesome events witnessed in Bucharest during the pogrom of January 21-23, 1941. The greatest impact was caused by the discovery at the slaughter house of the corpse of Michael (Mishu) Goldschlager, the artist’s brother in law. His body was among those hanging by hooks, with the inscription “kosher”.The theme of the Holocaust tackled by Marcel Iancu does not stop at the mere reflection of the pogrom of Bucharest. Rather, the cruelties of this event are depicted from multiple angles, exposing the brutality of the torturers and the suffering of the victims.We present here drawings from the catalogue of the exhibition "On the Edge - Holocaust Drawings", Jerusalem, 1990

Marcel Iancu

The stretched out fingers express desperate wails.

On the road without return

Sol. Omovici

Life and Death in Black and White

Sol. Omovici

Needless Shelter

The Convoys During our investigation regarding the Jewish sufferings in the years of fascist oppression, a special attention was given to the massacre that decimated the Jewish population of Iasi on June 29 and June 30, 1941. What took place at that time in the capital of Moldova, when thousands of Jews were exterminated by the most brutal means, constitutes a height of bestiality and should not be forgotten.

The Jewish World CongressRomanian Section

Sol. Omovici

• A grieving mother

• The great culpable

• The chestor courtyard

We considered necessary to reveal in this albumthe works of the painter Sol. Omovici, a survivor of the famous “Death Train" and eye witness of the terrible tragedy.The documentary value of the canvases featured in the present album will speak for posterity aboutthis gruesome drama of an entire community, which found itself one step away from total annihilation.

The World Jewish CongressRomanian Section

The Great Culpable

Sol. Omovici

• Toward the landfill

• Dumped corpses

But beyond the sentence sealing the guilt of the sadistic assassins, the facts must bepresented in their unveiled nakedness, not only as homage to those fallen “al kidush HaShem”, but also as a permanent act of accusation against the regime that initiated and promulgated the most heinous crimes.

The World Jewish CongressRomanian Section

Sol. Omovici

• Scene from the death train

• For a drop of water

“Once we reached the railroad station, we wereordered to lie flat on the ground, after which they started shoving us in crowded train cars meantfor the transport of cattle, which were hermetically sealed thereafter.

The ones tardy in climbing up would be beaten.Each train car was stuffed with 100-120 people, after which the doors were locked and the windows covered with planks. We soon realized that the goal was our death by suffocation.”

“Crowded one against the other in standing position, we were tortured by the intolerableatmosphere which reigned once the sliding door was shut.”

Sol. Omovici

• Hallucinations

• In a puddle at Podul Iloaiei

“Some ripped their garments off, delirious on topof a mound of corpses."“My dad had lost his mind and was biting at a plank in the train car, laughing hysterically. He wouldbite those around him, and me he tried to strangle. ““One of my neighbors had been tied by his hand and feet, so he wouldn’t bite those around him. The poor man had gone mad..."

Lazar Zin

Life and Death in Black and White

Lazar Zin

• The rabbi council

congregated in a special prayer.They are asking the Almighty to forgive the trespasses against the Jewish laws, which forbid the desecration of graves and the exhumation of the bones of the dead.

The bones extracted from the ground withgreat pains are being placed in paper sacs,marked with the inscription "Made in Germany“.

The drawings of the sketcher Lazăr Zin depictthe fate of the Jewish cemetery in Bucharest, Obliterated at the order of the Antonescu government. Being part of the forced labor department in chargeof this sinister task, Lazăr Zin drew the ornamentson the graves he was working to dislocate.

Lazar Zin

• Zoomorphic ornamentsspecific to the symbolism of the Judaic religion.

The first fallen tree in the graveyard.

“The painter Lazãr Zin, wrote dr. M. A. Halevy, as a remarkable artist of the forsaken people, joined the ranks of the anonymous resistanceand had the perseverance and fortitude to collectand preserve these documents sculpted in stone, so important for a a historian of the culture of Jewish Communities.” Over the 2 years that the dislocation operationscontinued at the Jewish cemetery, Lazãr Zin realized 53 drawings depicting the graveyard and the ornaments on the funeral stones.

Arnold Daghani

The Colors of Death

Arnold Daghani

• The Convoy and the Stables. Depicts the moment of arrival in the camp of Mihailovka, where the “Jewish slaves" were housed in stables. “Separated from the horses by a few planks,crowded one against the other, barely able tobreath."(aquarelle, 1942)

• ConsternationThe first reaction of those beyond the barb wire.

• Guards and prisoners at the execution site(ink on paper)

Arnold Daghani

• The stone quarry (aquarelle, 1942)Here the guards were amusing themselvestaking aim at empty brandy bottles placed onthe quarry walls, above the prisoners’ heads.No one was allowed to interrupt their work.

• Snow shovelingA replica to a drawing made in the concentration camp in 1943. In the winter of 1943 the Jews were sent to shovel snow in the neighboring villages. Theywere marching 30 km on foot each day, througha fierce wind.

• Etching Portrait of a female prisoner.The names inscribed are those of martyrs executed in the camps of Mihailovka.

Snow shoveling

Etching Portrait of a female prisoner.The names inscribed are those ofmartyrs executed in the camp ofMihailovka.

Arnold Daghani

Arnold DaghaniAll day I muse, all day I cry, aye me.I feel the pain that on me feeds, aye me.My wound I stop not, though it bleeds,aye me.

Toatã ziua meditez, toatã ziua plâng, vai mie. Simt durerea care mã cuprinde,vai mie.Rana nu mi-o tratez, deşi sângereazã,vai mie.Selma Meerbaum Eisinger, 1924 -1942

• Pietathe lowering of the lifeless bodyof Selma from the atticoriginal variant, realized in the concentration camp onDecember 30, 1942"Pieta", ulterior replica, realized in 1955

Selma Meerbaum Eisinger,a young German language poet, was born in Cernãuţi in 1924. She started writing poetry at the age of 5. She died in the concentrationcamp of typhus on December 16, 1942.Her first poems, published in Israel in1986, and in Germany in 1980, enjoyed aresounding success.

Selma Meerbaum Eisinger,

a young German language poet, was born in Cernãuţi in 1924. She started writing poetry at the age of 5. She died in the concentration camp of typhus on December 16, 1942. Her first poems, published in Israel in 1986, and in Germany in 1980, enjoyed a resounding success.

Arnold Daghani

Arnold Daghani

Mrs. Zucker, the mother of 2 twin girls. Her husband managed to escape. She andthe little girls were shot to death on December 10, 1943.

Fedea, a public guard. Even though he didn’t like the portrait and did not take it, he still paid the painter with 2 apples.A guard recruited from amongst the locals.Repatriated (aquarelle, 1946)

Nanino, the painters wife, at the window of their residence in Cernãuţi. She has a premonition of the fatal outcome.

Musia Korn was just 18 years of age, but looked like an old man. He died of intestinal tuberculosis. He was the last one in the family left alive. (aquarelle, 1942)

Arnold Daghani

Berşad, a village in Transnistria, painted from behind a window. Here too, same as Mihailovka, the more brutal the offensive against the deportees, the strongertheir wish to survive. (1943)

• Bersad (aquarelle, 1943)

Aurel Marculescu

Life and Death in Black and White

Aurel Marculescu

• After the evening prayer• The camp at Vapniarca (bedroom)• Firewood in the kitchen• The camp at Vapniarca (around the stove)

I encourage you to carefully study the the linescarved in the wood: they are harsh, painful – similarto the life he has known. A. Marculescu doesn’t weigh with false measures. The images remain impregnated on the retina, their memory persists with obsessive force, long after the last page has been turned.Sasha Pana

Aurel Marculescu

• The camp of Vapniarka • In the yard of the camp• On the train, heading toward the camp

A. Mărculescu suffered the impact of the fascist dictatorship more than other artists, since heexperienced the horrors of the deportation toVapniarca and other places of torture and death.

To the great benefit of the Romanian plastic arts,he was fortunate enough to survive these events. His health, however, was permanently damaged. His delicate organism bears and will always bear the unforgiving sequels of the suffering he endured. The pain which shines through in his eyes is alsoreflected in his works – gruesome and unforgiving documents. Creations of an artist of great depth, these works are brilliant artistic realizations. The etchings from thecollection "Ghetto and Camp“ bear double witness– as to events that seal the fate of a politicalregime, as well as as to the unfolding of a muchtested talent.

ION PASMinister of the Arts

Aurel Marculescu

The massacre at RâbniţaThe group of Jews from Romania imprisoned in the jailhouse of Râbniţa,a small township on the left bank of the Dniester, was executed in March1944. As if by miracle, 3 peoplemanaged to escape, among which thefuture writer Matei Gall, author of thenovel recounting this horrific event.

The last journey“There, on the frightening white of theUkraine, the shadows of the fallen areblacker than the darkest black of thepallet. The retina of the artist absorbsthe images, and the hand carveswith its last ounces of strengths in the hard wood.

Lint... barb wire... hunger... hunger... death... freedom...At night, in the yellow light of thefield-lamp, the hand of the artistcarves away with the knife-tip.“

VICTOR RUSSU

In their memory

And that of over 350,000 Jews,

Romanian and Ukrainian,

exterminated under the Antonescu regime,

between 1940 - 1944

Presentation realized and donated by

The Center for Monitoring and Combating Anti-Semitism in Romania

Centrul pentru Monitorizarea si Combaterea AntiSemitismului

Photo, adaptation,arrangement and realization of the presentation - Marco Maximillian Katz

Razvan Gateaja, Ana Maria Adritoiu and George Dumitriu – Graphics and Design

The rights to the materials featured in this presentation belong exclusively to the organizers of the exhibition “Life in the Shadow of Death”, Dr Lia Benjamin and Irina Cajal. This presentation was realized at the request and with the permission of the organizers of the exhibition. The rights to the digital presentation belong exclusively to MCA Romania. This presentation may be distributed, free of charge, only for educational purposes.

Life in the Shadow of Death

English translation and adaptation by Alexandra Beris

Material published by www.survivors-romania.org