Wilhelm Filderman was an important leader in the Romanian Jewish community from the 1920s through the particularly lethal period of ethnic cleansing of the 1940s when the fascist, totalitarian regime of General Ion Antonescu and the antisemitic and ultranationalist Iron Guard party held sway. Romanian Jews and - to a lesser degree the Roma and Sinti - had been subjected to savage pogroms, expropriation of property, and threat of deportation. While Antonescu’s partnership with the Iron Guard had ended violently in 1941 with Antonescu seizing control of government after a failed coup attempt by the Guard, his campaigns against the Jews of Romania continued unabated. Atrocities only increased after Romania entered the war on Germany’s side after Operation Barbarossa: cooperating with German Wehrmacht and the Einsatzgruppen, initiating murderous pogroms (Iasi, Odessa), and deporting the Jews of Bessarabia and Bukovnia to slave labor camps in Transnistria - Bogdanovka and Domanevka for example - where massacres continued and people died of hunger, disease and overwork. Filderman, a lawyer by profession, chaired the Union of Romanian Jews - which he represented in the Romanian parliament - and Romania’s Federation of Jewish Communities. He was a fearless advocate for civil rights and an end to political, economic and religious discrimination against Romania’s Jews. He fought Antonescu’s attempts to deport Jewish refugees. While he could do little to save the Jews of Bukovnia and Bessarabia, Filderman was able to prevail upon Antonescu to suspend plans for deporting Romanian Jews to Polish extermination camps. A former classmate of Antonescu, Filderman was nevertheless deported to Transnistria himself, but the intervention of the Papal nuncio and ambassadors from Switzerland and Sweden helped secure his release.
--Michael D. Bulmash, K1966
Browse the Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection.
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Romanian Iron Guard Legion Stamps
2014.1.253
Three stamps mounted on blue paper. The left stamp is brown and shows a young man. The middle stamp has a green and black geometric design on a white background. The right stamp shows the young man again.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Two stamps with pictures of Codrenau, the founder of the Iron Guard, and a stamp bearing the symbol of the Iron Guard. The Iron Guard was the right-wing movement and political party in Romania beginning in 1927 and lasting until World War II. It was ultra-nationalistic, fascistic, anti-communist and promoted the Orthodox Christian faith. It was virulently antisemitic, even demanding a policy of state-wide antisemitism. When Ion Antonescu came to power in September 1940 he brought the Iron Guard into the government, at which point it launched extremely violent and murderous attacks on Jews. In 1941, Antonescu suppressed the Iron Guard revolt. The Iron Guard's commander Horia Sima and other leaders escaped to Germany.
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Postcard from Romania
2014.1.354
Front: Image of 'Musee militaire du Parc Carol a Bucarest' next to two postage stamps, one green with 'Posta Romana 1839-1939 and image of man and woman' other brown with profile of man. Back: Handwritten message.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Antisemitism in Romania prior to World War II was extreme, but escalated to mass murder once the war began. As in Germany, Romanian Jews were stripped of their civil rights. In January 1941, the Fascist Iron Guard Legionnaires attacked and laid waste to the Jewish Quarter of Bucharest. Thousands of Jews were slaughtered. The Romanians became an ally of the Nazis with the German invasion of the Soviet Union. The Romanian army under dictator Ion Antonescu, cooperating with Einsatzgruppe D, massacred over 100,000 Jews in Bessarabia and Bukovnia. As well, massacres occurred in the Western Ukraine and Odessa. Throughout the summer of 1942, survivors of the massacres in Bessarabia and Bukovnia were deported to death camps in Transnistria, where 120,000 perished from starvation, hypothermia, disease and murder. Antonescu himself ordered the execution of more than 35,000 Jews from Odessa during the siege. In all, approximately 400,000 Jews were murdered during Antonescu's dictatorship. Targu-Jiu was a concentration camp for political internees and Jews.
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Official Document with W. Filderman Signature Stamp Regarding Extra Religious Services
2012.1.67
Half sheet of typewritten message in Romanian.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
A note regarding the obligatory nature of the Synagogue's extra religious services on December 1st, "for the Crown and country." William Filderman was an important leader of the Jewish community in Romania. As a former classmate of Ion Antonescu, he was able to prevail upon him to hold back on deporting Jews to Nazi death camps as a consequence of which many Romanian Jews survived the Holocaust.
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Official Document with W. Filderman Signature Stamp Regarding Forced Labor Camps
2012.1.69
Typewritten documents on onionskin paper in Romanian.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
A document issued by the Federation of Jewish Communities Unions in Romania regarding the rules for all Romanian Jews, following the implementation of forced labor camps. It describes how every Jewish association should relocate funds, what efforts must be made by everyone from local communities, and what helping activities must begin as soon as possible. Signed (in part) by Dr. Wilhelm Filderman, a prominent lawyer and Jewish leader in Romania who endeavored to save Jewish lives in an horrifically antisemitic Romania.
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Official Document with W. Filderman Signature Stamp Regarding Official Dispositions from War Department
2012.1.66ab
Typewritten documents on onionskin paper in Romanian.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Note from November 1941 regarding the Official Dispositions from War Department for requisition of all Synagogues, Temples, Association Houses. There will be a so-called "Real Estate Census" between 1942 and 1946.
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Official Document with W. Filderman Signature Stamp Regarding Jewish Work Requirements
2012.1.68
Typewritten documents on onionskin paper in Romanian.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Subsequent to General Headquarter Order No. 55874 Nov. 20, 1941, the Federation of Jewish Communities Unions in Romania informs all Jewish organizations how to proceed after the end of the "National Labour Activities," in which Jewish qualified workers are forced to integrate. It includes rules about what is allowed and what isn't allowed: "The Jews must be present on the State Work Department from every District, every month. They must not travel out of the District limits. They must inform the Internal Ministry authorities about their presence at home. They will be taken on every moment at Prahova Oil & Gas Distilleries."
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Official Document with W. Filderman Signature Stamp Regarding Property Documents
2012.1.71
Typewritten document on onionskin paper in Romanian.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: A note regarding all the judicial requirements and property documents for the Jewish organizations to combat the requisitions of their houses and religious temples.
[Related item: 2012.1.70]
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Official Document with W. Filderman Handwritten Initials Regarding Property Documents
2012.1.70
Half page with short message typewritten in Romanian.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: A note regarding all the judicial requirements and property documents for the Jewish organizations to combat the requisitions of their houses and religious temples.
[Related item: 2012.1.71]
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Romanian Forced Labor Identification for Jewish Worker
2014.1.163
Front: Tan cover with black printed text and symbol. Includes a purple hand stamp as well as the backs of several staples.Interior: Includes a photograph and biographical information for the worker, as well as calendars with various writing and stamps on them.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Issued to Rudolf Psalt with his photo and more than 200 handstamps in all probability for each day of work between April and December 1942.
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Envelope from Targu Jiu, Romania
2014.1.197
Front: A tan envelope with writing in blue ink, a red postage stamp, and red and black hand stamps.Back: A black hand stamp.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
This 1942 censored Romanian cover from the vicinity of the transit/concentration camp Targu Jiu. During this period Romania was under fascist dictator Ion Antonescu, who was an ally of Nazi Germany. Targu Jiu was the site of a transit camp where many Jews and political prisoners were interned prior to being sent to Transnistria.
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Postcard from Jasenovac Concentration Camp
2014.1.198
Front: A white postcard with black printed postcard lines and text. Includes writing in pencil and several green hand stamps.Back: Pencil writing on black printed lines.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: A card from the Jasenovac concentration camp. The Jasenovac complex was a string of five camps on the bank of the Sava River, about 60 miles south of Zagreb. It is currently estimated that the USTASA regime murdered between 77,000 and 99,000 people in Jasenovac between 1941 and 1945.
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Identity Card for Janette Kornreich from Bukovnia: “Oficiul Judetean al Evreilor Cernăuti – Carte de Identitate”
2012.1.18
Front: Identification card with stapled black and white photograph of a young girl crossed out in blue ink and large yellow Star of David. Titled, "Oficiul Judetean Al Evreilor Cernăuţi Carte de identitate."Back: Printed and written text including identification number 39939.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
This identity document shows 11-year-old Romanian student Janette Kornreich, who lived in Cernăuţi in Northern Bukovina, and includes signatures and seals from 1941, 1942 and 1943. Almost the entire Jewish community of northern Bucovina was destroyed by the deportations to the death camps over the Dniester River. The ultimate fate of Janette Kornreich is unknown. While she may have been swallowed up in the nightmare that was Transnistria, there is a hopeful hint of a different outcome in her record at Yad Vashem: Janette’s parents had converted to Christianity (she is on a list of converts) and she therefore may have been spared the fate of other Jews. As well, her ID is signed for 1943 when the very worst aspects of the murderous treatment of the Jews in Transnistrian slave labor camps were beginning to abate, and she may have survived.
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Romanian Jews “Relocation Program” Money Donation
2014.1.434ab
A: Typed list of 71 names. B: Half sheet with 'Centrala Evreilor Din Romania' purple hand stamp in upper left.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
In 1943, Romanian (Transnistrian) Jews were being sent to concentration camps, but the Third Reich was promoting it as a “Relocation Program.” Some Jews were collecting money to help relocated families to re-settle. These two documents concern these money donations. This generated one of the worst depredations during WWII as both Jew and non-Jew suffered more than 200,000 deaths with many deportees dying of starvation and exposure in de facto concentration camps, while thousands of others were simply massacred by Romanian troops who occupied the portion of Russian territory involved. One of the more notorious events was the week-long shootings in the Bagdanovka Shtetl, leaving 30,000 dead.
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Letter from Romanian Jews During the Holocaust
2012.1.394
Typewritten letter on "Centrala Evreilor din România" stationery. Includes signatures in blue and green.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: A typed document on "Jewish Center of Romania" letterhead, to the Tarnava-Mare Office of Relief and signed by three Jewish doctors. Concerns methods for individuals to send food, medicines and clothing to Jewish deportees from the Transnistria region of Romania. Between 280,000 to 380,000 Jews were murdered in Romania and the war zones of Bessarabia, Bukovina and Transnistria. "Deportation" was a euphemism, as part of the process involved killing many Jews before deporting the rest in the "Trains of Death" (in reality long exhausting marches on foot) to the East.
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Postcard Commemorating Death of Zelea Codreanu
2014.1.279
Front: A sepia photograph of Romanian men in the street.Back: White postcard with black printed postcard lines. Includes writing in blue ink as well as purple and blue postage stamps, as well as two black hand stamps.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Romanian postcard commemorating the 70th anniversary of the death of Iron Guard leader Zelea Codreanu, and his exile in Spain. Overprint on stamp of Iron Guard symbol with a picture of party members marching.