“We were surrounded by a living chain of soldiers with bayonets, police NCOs and officers with pistols in hand, ready to fire without any hesitation.”
Leonard Zăicescu, born in 1927, is a survivor of the Iasi Pogrom. He was only 14 years old in the summer when, together with his father, they were taken out of the house on Vasile Stroescu Street, taken to the police station, then boarded the “Iasi-Podu Iloaiei” train.
His father, injured when he was in the courtyard of the quaestau, was boarded on the “Iaşi-Călăraşi” train and died. Leonard survived, but the horrors experienced in the Chesturii courtyard, in the station square in Iasi and in the Iasi-Podu Iloaiei Death Train turned into painful memories of suffering and the disappearance of loved ones, but also of the loss of human dignity.
After the end of the war, he worked as a journalist and is a member of the Mixed Union of Writers, Artists and Journalists, studied philology, worked at Agerpres, in radio broadcasting, in cinematography and at several publications and magazines, until he was forbidden to active in the press, being Jewish. Later he was a teacher of Romanian in special education.
“During March-September 1941 – writes Alexandru Florian in the preface of the book -, the “Jews”, as the Cabinet spoke about the Jews, were exposed to actions of marginalization, removal from society or repression. This is how Ion Antonescu expressed himself at the Cabinet meetings: «We will have to inspire Romanians with hatred against the enemies of the nation. This is how I was brought up: with hatred against Turks, Jews and Hungarians” (April 8). All this incitement to hatred against the Jews turned into a set of orders regarding mass murder, deportation and death in Transnistria, and the signal for the start of the final solution was given in Iasi. The testimonies in this volume are important because they show a unique experience of a 14-year-old young man facing death, due to the will of others. Of a criminal death.”
Leonard Zaicescu – On the express train to death. From the testimonies of a survivor of the Iasi Pogrom. Second edition added. Edited by Elisabeth Ungureanu. Foreword by Alexandru Florian. Polirom Publishing House. Co-edited with the Publishing House of the National Institute for the Study of the Holocaust from Romania “Elie Wiesel”. 287 pages
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