Unul dintre colegii mei americani, primind textul meu despre scriitorii evrei care n-au scris „nici măcar o epigramă despre Holocaustul din Transnistria”, mi-a trimis mesajul de mai jos, care cuprinde comentariul unui „evreu romând american”, persoană oarecum implicată în subiect, a avut în familie evrei care au trecut prin Transnistria. Redau întocmai comentariul românului nostru evreu în America. Urmează separat răspunsul meu.

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Am trimis ce mi-ai trimis unui artist evreu roman american care traieste in New York si a carui familie a fost deportata in Transnistria. Iata mai jos ce mi-a raspuns. Ar trebui sa traduci din engleza in romana ce e mai jos ca sa intelegi si ce spune lumea anglo saxona despre acest subiect. Poti traduce automat folosind online aceasta interfata: https://translate.google.com/

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Din pacate stiu. Mama cu parintii ei au fost deportati din Bucovina (traiau la Radauti/Suceava). Tata a ajuns si el in Transnistria.
Ambii au evitat sa-mi povesteasca prea mult (e tipic pentru supravietuitori), am mai aflat de la prieteni ai lor care au fost si ei acolo. Unul din lucrurile care mama mi-a spus, e ca au fost in lagar, cu sirma ghimpata in jur, nu cum zice persoana asta, cu gradina in conditii de lux….
Cu tata a fost si mai rau. Unde a ajuns, romanii au facut “experiente medicale” pe ei: i-au hranit cu sfecla furajera, au injectat zeama de porumb in sira spinarii… multi au murit atunci, iar cine a supravietuit a avut sechele pe tot restul vietii, unii au paralizat, altii, ca tata, au avut ciroza, din care a si murit. Si probabil din cauza asta, am avut o sora care a murit la 5 ani (au refuzat sa-mi spuna de ce), si eu m-am nascut cu problema de auz care o stii! Am apucat sa cunosc citiva din cei cu care fusese el in lagar. Toti erau bolnavi. Am cunoscut si prieteni ai mamei din lagar, multi au avut probleme psihologice (si mama mea, de altfel).
Citez:
MARIUS, care susține că are un bunic înmormîntat în Transnistria, dar nu se grăbește să ne spună în ce localitate este înmormântat. Minte!
Daca crezi ca a avut de unde sa stie… crezi ca eu stiu unde inmormintata sora bunicii mele care traia la Viena (si care s-a “evaporat” atunci)… sau alta sora a bunicii care traia la Londra si a murit in bombardamente… sau sotia unui frate al tatalui meu, mama verisoarelor mele care traiau la Moscova… (era din Odesa si imediat inainte de izbucnirea razboiului se dusese acolo, si urmele ei au disparut). De la mine au aflat ca a fost masacrul de la Odesa si din zona din jur, nu au stiut!

Tin minte ca am citit o carte despre ce s-a intimplat atunci. Sovieticii au minat statul major romanesc, si l-au aruncat in aer. Rezultat: trupele romane au declansat un masacru, dar nu se va sti niciodata exact numarul de victime, e imposibil. Ai mai multe detalii aici, in romaneste:
https://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masacrul_de_la_Odesa
Dar spuneam de cartea asta: unul din cele mai socante detalii, era ca trupele germane de exterminare au fost de fata, fara insa sa participe direct la ce faceau romanii, si marturii oculare colectate de la citiva din membri Einsatzgruppen dupa razboi au declarat ca pina si lor li s-a facut greata de bestialitatea aratata de soldatii romani…

Dar sa ne intelegem: parintii mei nu au spus vreodata o vorba rea despre romani, in ciuda tuturor lucrurilor prin care au trecut. Tata imi povestea de Viorica Agarici, care a salvat evrei din trenurile mortii (legat de pogromul de la Iasi)…

Nu stiu daca ai citit jurnalele lui Mihail Sebastian: De 2000 de ani, si Jurnal 1935-1944? Ambele le gasesti si in traducere in engleza. Merita sa citesti, nu numai ca documente istorice, dar si pentru paralelele cu situatia din zilele noastre (in special cu antisemitismul si fanatismul universitar).

Citeva chestii ca background:
http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2031066,00.html
According to the 1930 Census, there were 759,000 Jews in Romania before World War II. Historians estimate that 280,000 to 380,000 were killed by Romanian forces during the war, mainly in the areas of Moldova and Ukraine they occupied as part of the German thrust into the Soviet Union. Today there are fewer than 10,000 Jews living in Romania.
The communist regime, which was in power in Romania from 1945 to 1989, developed a strong nationalistic streak which, according to Holocaust historian Radu Ioanid, „tried to dilute or completely deny the responsibility of Romanians in the slaughter of the Jews, placing all the blame on the Germans.” The education system has changed little since the fall of communism, and many Romanians still believe that their country’s role in the Holocaust was minimal.

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/memories-of-the-holocaust-kishinev-introduction-and-acknowledgements
Undoubtedly, there were many more such cases the details of which we will never know. Thousands others died during the death march to Transnistria. This was clearly planned before the deportations. Under the instruction of „The manner of dealing with those who do not comply? (Alexeanu)”, General Topor undoubtedly meant the elimination of those who could not walk the distance under the inhuman conditions. The report makes this explicitly clear by describing the preparations along the deportation routes: „… each 10 kilometers a grave for about 100 persons where those lagging the convoys will be gathered, shot and buried.” (p.47)
(Asta ti se pare ca o pregatire de “vacanta”?)

https://www.dw.com/en/the-forgotten-holocaust-in-transnistria/a-17387303
„From all the towns in the area, people were sent off on foot to Transnistria, with no exceptions,” explains Bursug. How many of these people drowned in the Dniester, how many were shot on the death marches and how many actually reached Transnistria only to die there is not even clear to historians. The figure quoted most often is somewhere around 410,000 victims.
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Just from in and around Chernivtsi alone, some 100,000 Jews were sent to Transnistria by the Romanians, says Bursug. He has helped collect the stories of survivors and put together little brochures so that the experiences of those who lived through the horrors of the Transnistria Holocaust are not lost and forgotten.
The stories describe what awaited the Jews „beyond the Dniester”: abandoned villages, deserted farms, ruined towns – left over from a region that witnessed fierce fighting.
„The Romanians left people to die with no shelter, no heating material, no warm clothes. There was diphtheria, typhus and forced labor. There was no money to be earned anywhere, and people died by the hundreds every day,” said Bursug.
„We knew what was going on in Transnistria. Relatives from Bessarabia were there. We received letters, but not in the mail, of course. I remember one German officer who brought us letters, and we gave him money,” he said.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transnistria_Governorate
The Holocaust
Map of the Holocaust in Ukraine and Romania. Massacres marked with red skulls.
Many Jews were deported to Transnistria from Bessarabia and Bukovina.[12][13] During the period 1941–1944, 200,000 Romani people and Jews became victims[14] of the Romanian occupation of Transnistria.[15] Not being Romanian territory, Transnistria was used as a killing field for the extermination of Jews. Survivors say that in comparison with the Holocaust of Nazi Germany, where deportations were carefully planned, the Romanian government did not prepare to house thousands of people in Transnistria, where the deportees stayed. The people were instead placed in crude barracks without running water, electricity or latrines. Those who could not walk were simply left to die.[16] In total, around 150 ghettos and camps functioned in Transnistria.[17]
In Odessa, between 80,000 and 90,000 of the city’s roughly 180,000 Jews remained at the time the Germans and Romanians captured the city on October 16, 1941. Six days later, a bomb exploded in the Romanian military headquarters in Odessa, prompting a massacre of Jews; many were burned alive. In October and November 1941 alone, Romanian troops in Odessa killed about 30,000 Jews.[18] Transnistria was the site of two concentration camps and several de facto ghettos (which the Romanian wartime government referred to as „colonies”).[19] In addition, most of the remaining Jews in Bessarabia (84,000 of 105,000) and northern Bukovina (36,000 of 60,000) were herded into these as well.[20] A striking paradox is the fact that most of Romanian Jews (375,000) under Antonescu regime survived WW2.[21] The Holocaust Encyclopedia (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum) writes that „Among the most notorious of these ghettos… was Bogdanovka, on the west bank of the Bug River… In December 1941, Romanian troops, together with Ukrainian auxiliaries, massacred almost all the Jews in Bogdanovka; shootings continued for more than a week.” Similar events occurred at the Domanevka and Akhmetchetkha camps, and (quoting the same source) „typhus-devastated Jews were crowded into the ‘colony’ in Mohyliv-Podilskyi.” Other camps, also with very high death rates, were at Pechora and Vapniarka, the latter reserved for Jewish political prisoners deported from Romania proper.[19] Many Jews died of exposure, starvation, or disease during the deportations to Transnistria or after arrival. Others were murdered by Romanian or German units, either in Transnistria or after being driven across the Bug River into the German-occupied Ukraine. Most of the Jews who were sent to the camps in Transnistria never returned. Those who survived, around 70,000, returned to Romania in 1945 to find that they had lost their houses.[16]
Even for the general population, food in Transnistria was very scarce, through lack of Romanian planning.[16] According to one survivor’s account, people would gather outside a slaughterhouse and wait for scraps of meat, skin and bones to be thrown out of the slaughterhouse after the cleaning each morning. He remembers that they were fighting for the bones „just like dogs would” and that people were starving to death.[16] Among the survivors were Liviu Librescu[22] and Norman Manea.