Iași Train Station

After the massacre from the Police Headquarters courtyard, „ the transfer of some 2500 Jews who had survived the massacre to the train station began at eight o`clock at night A police sub-inspector, two police officers, two police chiefs, and twenty guards were charged with this operation. The convoy, guarded by Romanian policemen, were colstered by a group of German officers and soldiers with two tanks and two motorcycles. At the train station, after a lengthy headcount during which the guards made the almost 2500 Jews lie face down on the ground, their captors packed them onto an ordinary freight train. During the boarding, soldiers and Romanian Railway Company workers crammed the greatest possible number into each wagon. The train only left the station on June 30, at dawn. The same morning, at around four o`clock, at the Police Headquarters another contingent of 1900 Jews was formed up to be loaded onto a second train. A summary report sent by Iași prefect Col. Dumitru Captaru at 9:20 am specifically refers to Mihai Antonescu, the vice president of the Minister Council, as being behind the deportation order.” (Radu Ioanid, Pogromul de la Iași, 2021).

„But for us, the ones buried in the manure and urine of the horses there in the station square, we were neither earthworms, nor flies, nor venomous snakes, and people, like us, trambled on us without questions or remors.” – Leonard Zăicescu, a survivor of Iași Pogrom.

The first train that left the station to Călărași had 33 carriages and over 2400 persons. After seven days, only 1011 people reached their destination. The second train to Podu Iloaiei had 18 wagons and 1902 persons. After 8 hours, only 700 people arrived at their destinations. Those trains are remembered as the „Death Trains”.