The Holocaust Diaries: Book IV
Saviors of the Just
by
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ODESSA, SOVIET UKRAINE
ON THE ODESSA WATERFRONT
When our forces and the German Wehrmacht invaded this area, known then as the Soviet Ukraine, approximately 200,000 Jews evacuated back into Russia along with the Soviets. Odessa became the only haven for the 100,000 or so who remained. Or so they thought.
"As soon as the Germans flooded the city, they massacred probably in the neighborhood of eight thousand," the governor of Transnistria, Gheorghe Alexianu, reported to the dictator of Romania, Ion Antonescu. "Machinegunned them, right in the streets and gutters, every last one of those Jews who -- "
"Jews! Jews! I'm sick of the name!" Ion barked. "They're communists as far as I'm concerned. Fucking communists, every last one of them. They kiss Russian ass and shit on us. Hang them all! Haul their asses out of their houses and out of the ghettos in Odessa and hang them all!"
Chuckling and smiling, Alexianu said, "Just after Colonel Davidescu sent your order this morning to Fourth Army Command Headquarters in Odessa, General Trestioreanu went out and, before noon, had five thousand Jews hanged in the public squares of the city."
"I would have loved to have been there, Gheorghe. I'll give the same order again if I have to. Execute two hundred Jews for every officer killed, one hundred for every one of our soldiers. You've gotten the word -- my orders -- out to everyone? Right, Gheorghe? I don't want any Jew left standing."
"General Nicholae Macici of the Second Army Corps has informed me that about twenty-five thousand have been rounded up and packed into Odessa's municipal jails. And General Ion Iacobici, the commander of the Fourth Army, had our troops and gendarmerie drive another nineteen or twenty thousand into a town square near the harbor."
A huge, wooden, make-shift fence donned the perimeter of the quaint, picturesque park that occupied a prime piece of real estate adjacent to the harbor entranceway. Trees and walkways and benches lined the stone embankment. Groves of trees and shrubs surrounded the open grasslands and the numerous, cement parking areas.
All throughout the afternoon hours, the last columns of Jews were hurried inside the wooden enclosure. Our soldiers and their German SS advisers, were dispersed at strategic points, supervising the operation. It was the local police that did all of the dirty work.
Some Jews were told that several ships would soon arrive to take them to Turkey and then on to Palestine. Most, however, were much more cynical. They shuffled around stonefaced, obviously bewildered and apprehensive. They knew that no ship would dare dock near this rocky side of the harbor.
One young boy stood on his father's shoulders. Cautiously, he raised his head above the top of the wooden wall and looked out.
"Only police and soldiers, Father. They have machineguns and -- and -- " His voice went silent for a second.
"And what, son?"
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Book Four
SAVIORS OF THE JUST
The Holocaust in Romania during World War II
Throughout the war, Roosevelt backs the transfer of "Joint” and US funds to Joint and WEJ contacts in Europe to assist Jews anywhere even if the funds fall into enemy hands or pad their bank accounts. What also follows the cash to Europe is Roosevelt's Riot Act -- his assurance to all pro-German and pro-Nazi governments and their leaders in the specific countries of Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, France, Slovakia, and Croatia that American air power and bombing raids on their cities and industrial complexes will be matched by other threats of retribution and war crime trials after the war for those who do not protect their Jews. These threats begin to have an immediate effect on the powers-that-be inside of Romania.
The dictator of Romania, Ion Antonescu, embarks early on in the war on a plan he calls Romanianization -- a calculated scheme to deliberately rid his nation of over a half million Jews. During this period, he ships hundreds of thousands of his Jews to Transnistria where many are slaughtered. However, stiff opposition to his policies emerge, primarily led by Antonescu's deputy prime minister, Mihai Antonescu, and a powerful coterie of his friends and pro-Allied associates which include the young King Michael and his family.
With the intervention of Pope Pius XII and the Vatican through his papal nuncio in Bucharest and with the onset of American air power, Roosevelt's Riot Act, and the news of Hitler's defeat at Stalingrad, Ion Antonescu vacillates and capitulates to the opposition. He brings a halt to the deportation of Romanian Jewry to Poland and agrees to transport the Jews who still remain alive in Transnistria back to Romania proper.
Leo V. Kanawada, Jr.
About the Author
Dr. Leo V. Kanawada, Jr. was born in 1941 in Flushing, Long Island, New York, and educated at Bucknell University, where he received his Bachelor of Science Degree in Secondary Education. His Masters of Arts Degree in American History was awarded by The Maxwell School at Syracuse University, and his Ph.D. in History by St. John's University, Jamaica, New York.
After serving as a decorated captain of Infantry, United States Army, with the Second Infantry Division in 1966 in South Korea and in the Vietnam War in 1967 with the 71st Assault Helicopter Company and as a platoon leader with the 196th Light Infantry Brigade, Americal Division, Kanawada returned to his hometown and taught in the Hicksville Public Schools for thirty years. In the Department of History at Hicksville High School, he created and taught a Humanities Honors Program for the Gifted and Talented and was later honored and inducted into the Hicksville Hall of Fame. He was also cited in Who's Who in New York, in Who's Who Among America's Teachers, and in the Directory of American Scholars.
His first book, authored in 1982, was a scholarly work on the presidency and American foreign policy entitled FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT'S DIPLOMACY and American Catholics, Italians, and Jews (UMI Research Press/Pro Quest). And later as an elder and president of his Church, he published SOMETHING WORTHWHILE: The Life and Times of The Parkway Community Church, 1628-1981 (Exposition Press). The five volumes in THE HOLOCAUST DIARIES (AuthorHouse) were a labor of love, realized after more than a decade of research, writing, and devotion.
Lee Kanawada lives with his wife, Carol, in Long Island, New York.