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Despite the tremendous suffering of Romanian Jews during World War II, about half of the 760,000 Romanian Jews survived the Holocaust. This was due, to a great extent, to the efforts of the community leaders, Wilhelm Filderman, leader of the Federation of the Communities organizations (FUCE), Alexandru Șafran, the chief rabbi, A.L. Zissu, the Zionist Organization leader, community members, and non Jews, both in official positions and regular people from diverse social backgrounds.
From the beginning of the war, the community leaders succeeded in organizing an institutional network to provide religious services, education and social support. By virtue of the internal organization, medical assistance, social welfare, health education and culture continued to function, and the Zionist youth movements continued their activities in the underground. The community leaders succeeded in setting up 150 educational institutions in which more than 22,000 pupils, in primary, high schools and Jewish colleges for higher education continued their studies. Some 500 synagogues functioned throughout the country, and tens of mikvaot were in use. Health centers, hospitals and clinics were established. Various supportive institutions functioned: Tens of public kitchens distributed food to thousands of needy. Old age homes and orphanages were established. Cultural institutions were set up. A Jewish theater named "Barasheum”, was established in Bucharest, and philharmonic orchestras and choirs were set up in several towns, in which Jewish artists expelled from Romanian cultural institutions were able to continue their work.
Anti-Jewish measures, such the closing of many synagogues issued on September 11, 1940, and the yellow badge that was imposed by the national government on September 3, 1941, were annulled shortly after on Antonescu's order, following Șafran and Filderman's protests.
On December 16, 1941, FUCE was dissolved and replaced it by the Jewish Central (Centrala Evreilordin Romania), following the model of the Judenrat. The Jewish Central was created as a tool in Antonescu's plan to destroy Romanian Jewry. In fact, FUCE continued to operate underground, and Filderman remained the real leader of the community and led the fight against the resumption of deportations and other anti-Jewish measures.
This underground leadership was extremely active, sending dozens of memoranda to the authorities, including the royal family, the Church and the envoys of the neutral powers, and succeeded in preventing the expulsion and total destruction of the Romanian Jews.
In the summer of 1942, Romania accepted the Nazi plan to deport all Jews living in the Regat to the Belzec extermination camp in Poland. However, policies concerning Jews began to change in October 1942, and by November 1942 it became clear that the Romanian authorities were postponing the execution of this plan, and eventually gave it up completely. The deportations finally ended in March April 1943, as Antonescu began to seek peace with the allies.
The change in policy was a result of the situation on the front, Germany's refusal to provide Romania political guarantees, pressure from the Allied forces, and because of internal opposition mobilized by the underground council led by Filderman and Șafran, who asked King Mihai and his mother, Queen Elena, to intervene on behalf of the Jewish community. The underground council applied pressure on the authorities through various channels, including the Church, and envoys of neutral powers, including the International Committee of the Red Cross delegates Charles Kolb and Vladimir de Steiger, the Papal Nuncio to Romania, Monsignor Andrea Cassulo and the Swiss diplomat with the rank of minister plenipotentiary, Rene de Weck.
By the end of 1942, Antonescu also announced that he would allow Jews to ransom themselves and emigrate to Palestine. This plan failed to materialize, but Jewish organizations were able to provide significant relief and aid to the survivors of Transnistria.
Since the autumn of 1943, parachutists by the Hagana in Palestine, reached Romanian and helped the Jewish underground. Likewise, thanks to the change in policies towards the Jewish question, many Jews from Poland, Slovakia and Hungary, who succeeded in crossing the border from Nazi occupied Hungary found refuge in Romania.
Clothes, shoes, medicines, food, utensils were sent to the Jews in Transnistria, to those detained in concentration camps, and to those working in forced labor battalions. In January 1943, after the International Red Cross channeled large sums of aid money through the CAA (Central Aid Agency) to Romania, and the first delegation of the CAA and the Social Assistance Department of the Jewish Center headed by Fred Şaraga went to Transnistria.
Partial repatriation began in the second half of December 1943. On 20 December, the 6,052 inhabitants of Dorohoi were sent back to their hometown, and on 6 March 1944, a total of 1,846 of the more than 5,000 orphans were repatriated.
However, Antonescu's attitude towards the Jews remained ambivalent .Early in 1944, under German pressure, the underground leaders of the Zionist Organization and the Zionist youth movements were arrested. After a while, most of the older prisoners were released, and the younger ones were sent to Transnistria and to other detention centers in Romania.
On the other hand, the new underground leadership of the Zionist Organization managed, under the leadership of A.L. Zissu, to get permission to reopen the Palestine Office, which was even allowed to issue identity cards to the refugees from Poland, Hungary and Slovakia. The reopening of the Palestinian Office showed that Antonescu had decided in favor of the emigration of the Jews, and against the "Final Solution" which the Germans tried to dictate.
Illegal emigration also continued, and throughout the entire war, immigrants boats sailed from the ports of Romania, evading both the Nazis and the British navy at sea.
The ports of Romania were the only exit left open in Europe, and during the years of the war, over 13,000 Jews, on board of thirty one boats left from these ports. Two of them did not make it to Palestine: The "Struma," sank on 24 February 1942 with 764 emigrants on board, and "Mefkura" sank at the beginning of August 1944 with 390 emigrants on board, among them tens of orphans rescued from Transnistria.
Besides the Jewish self help, there were in Romania many acts of solidarity performed by non Jews, both in official positions and regular people of different ages and from diverse social backgrounds, among them, army officers, gendarmes, diplomats, priests, lawyers, teachers, peasants and workers. Sixty of them were awarded by the State of Israel, through Yad Vashem, the title of "Righteous Among Nations."
Leon Volovici, "The Victims as Eyewitness: Jewish Intellectual Diaries during the Antonescu Period" in: Randoph L. Braham ed., The Destruction of Romanian and Ukrainian Jews during the Antonescu Era, Boulder, CO: Social Science Monographs, 1997, 195-213
Jean Ancel, ed. Documents concerning the Fate of Romanian Jewry during the Holocaust ,Jerusalem, 1986, vol. 10, no. 96. 236, no. 131, 354-355
Iaacov Geller, The spiritual Resistance of Romanian Jewry during the Holocaust, Lod, 2003 (Hebrew)
Lia Benjamin, Prigoană şi rezistenţă în istoria evreilor din România, 1940-1944, Bucureşti, Editura Hasefer, 2001
Marius Mircu, Din nou șapte momente - din istoria evreilor din România: Oameni de omenie în vremuri de neomenie, Tel Aviv, Glob, 1987
