The former Police Headquarters, Iași

On Sunday morning, June 29, 1941, Jews were shot on the streets of Iași. The spared ones were lined up and escorted from Tătărași, Păcurari, Sărărie, Nicolina neighborhoods to the Police Headquarters on Vasile Alecsandri street, no. 6. Thousands of Jews were crammed into the courtyard. After 11 am, a commission started to sort the people arrested, releasing some of them. Later, some of those who received a ticket with the sign ”free” were shot on the streets on their way back home. Others were brought back to the Police Headquarters.

„Around 1:30 PM, gendarmes and Romanian soldiers, Romanian civilians as well as German soldiers created a perimeter stretching along Vasile Alecsandri, Cuza Vodă, Brătianu, and Piața Unirii Streets […] Around two o`clock, already inside the station courtyard, the captors opened fire on their prisoners with machine guns, other automatic weapons, and hunting rifles. One of these was the Legionnaire Dumitru Dumitriu who owned an adjoining mechanic`s shop.”- (Radu Ioanid, Pogromul de la Iași, 2021).

It is difficult to estimate the total number of victims. There are summary reports that mention 300 victims, other sources speaking about 900 dead, and in front of the Court of Justice in Bucharest, major Constantin Darie estimated between 3000-4000 people dead or injured.

Those who survived the massacre in the Police Headquarters courtyard were taken to the train station and boarded the trains that headed to Podu Iloaiei and Călărași.

„All long Alecsandri street, from the front of the Police Headquarters to the Cuza Vodă street and beyond, the road was crowded with sanitation equipment. Carts used for transporting garbage were now carrying the dead. The victims of the massacre were thrown into the stinking carts of the municipality. One dustman grabbed the dead man` s head, another his legs, swung him two or three times, and struggling, blew him into the crumpled cart until it was full. The sanitation workers and the street cleaners worked hard under the surveillance of the clerks. Only this time they weren`t loading trash, but humans. ”-Leonard Zăicescu, a survivor of Iași Pogrom.

Brucăr Șmil (43 years old, commissioner) Caufman Heiner (37 years old, merchant); Feurer Eizik (54 years old) and Marcel (19 years old), father and son; Goldner Smil (49 years old, accountant) and Erza (14 years old, student) father and son; Goldstein Heinrich (66 years old, cardboard worker); Goldstein Iosef (34 years old, merchant); Gutman Leizer  (40 years old, watchmaker); Iancovici Solomon (64 years old, merchant);  Maier Lazăr (20 years old, civil servant) and Maier Pincu (49 years old, civil servant); Pulver Aron (36 years old, watchmaker); Rizil Avram (32 years old, school principal); Schieber Iosif (39 years old, dental technician); Schwartz Avram (25 years old, civil servant).