Advanced Search

Learn About The Holocaust

Special Collections

My Saved Research

Login

Register

Help

Skip to main content

Plastic plaque memorializing Romanian Jews killed in the Holocaust

Object | Accession Number: 2016.486.2

Engraved plaque dedicated to the memory of Natan Mayer, who was killed during the June 29, 1941, pogrom in Iași, Romania, and his wife Malvina, a Holocaust survivor. It was created following Malvina’s death in 1984, and donated by their child to a synagogue in Iași. In September 1940, Romania fell under the rule of a radical military coalition led by General Antonescu and the Iron Guard, a fascist, anti-Semitic military group that collaborated with the Nazis. In November, Romania joined the Axis Alliance and began passing many anti-Semitic laws similar to Germany’s Nuremberg Laws. Romania participated in the German attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941. On June 26, Romanian authorities accused members of the Jewish community of being Soviet collaborators, prompting Romanian and German soldiers, local police, and civilians to carry out widespread raids, beatings, and murders during the next few days. On June 29, Natan was likely among the thousands of Jews forced to march through the streets, with their arms raised, as observers hit them with projectiles and beat them with weapons. This group was marched to the Chestura, the central headquarters of the police, where soldiers and policemen opened fire and massacred hundreds. That night, Natan and the approximately 2,500 survivors were forced into overcrowded, unventilated cattle cars at the train station. Natan was among the hundreds that had died during the 17 hour trip, likely from injuries, suffocation, heat exhaustion, or dehydration. The survivors were likely sent to ghettos in nearby towns.

Date
commemoration:  1941 June 29
commemoration:  1984 December 09
Geography
use: Iasi (Romania)
Language
Romanian
Classification
Identifying Artifacts
Category
Plaques
Credit Line
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Comunitatea Evreilor din Iasi
 
Record last modified: 2023-06-13 16:15:24
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn560345