The Iași Pogrom, June 1941: The Police Courtyard and the “Death Trains”

In late June 1941, days after Romania joined the war against the Soviet Union, thousands of Jews were murdered in Iași and on two “death trains”. The Wiesel Commission report (2004) states that “the physical destruction of Romanian Jewry… began with the Iasi pogrom.”

The City in the Summer of 1941

On 22 June 1941 Romania invaded the Soviet Union together with Germany. Iași, the capital of Moldavia, became a frontline city. On 29 June about 45,000 Jews lived there, according to the Wiesel Commission report; Yad Vashem estimates about 51,000, because Jews from surrounding villages had been moved into the city in early 1941. The regime of Ion Antonescu, in power since September 1940, was already persecuting them.

After Soviet air raids, the authorities spread a false accusation: Jews, they claimed, were signalling to enemy aircraft. According to the Commission, police and officers even staged “attacks” on soldiers to suggest a Jewish uprising. On 27 June Antonescu telephoned the garrison commander, Colonel Constantin Lupu, ordering him to “cleanse Iasi of its Jewish population”, and repeated the order on the night of 28–29 June.

“Black Sunday”

At 9 p.m. on 28 June an air-raid alarm sounded and shooting broke out across the city. Through the night and the next morning Jewish homes were looted, women were raped and people were murdered in the streets. Thousands of Jews were arrested and marched to the courtyard of police headquarters, the Chestura. On 29 June, which Yad Vashem calls “Black Sunday”, many were shot in that courtyard: Yad Vashem describes thousands, the USHMM describes hundreds.

The Wiesel Commission lists the perpetrators: the Iași police with gendarmes and police from Bessarabia, Romanian army soldiers, youths armed by agents of the Special Intelligence Service (SSI), Wehrmacht soldiers of the 30th Army Corps, and local civilians — a list of 286 civilian participants survives. The Commission notes that Einsatzgruppe D did not take part.

The “Death Trains”

On 30 June the survivors of the courtyard were loaded onto two sealed freight trains. The first, bound for Călărași in southern Romania, shuttled back and forth for about seven days. According to the Commission, up to 5,000 Jews were put on board and only 1,011 arrived alive; police counted 1,258 bodies. When the train stopped at Roman, Viorica Agarici, head of the local Red Cross, brought the deportees water and food; Yad Vashem recognised her as Righteous Among the Nations in 1983.

The second train went to Podu Iloaiei, 15–20 kilometres away, and took about eight hours. According to the official account quoted in the report, 1,900 Jews boarded and 1,194 died. Survivor Iancu Țucărman recalled that his wagon held 137 people, of whom eight survived.

How Many Were Murdered

There is no single agreed figure, and each source gives a different one. The Commission writes that the Romanian SSI acknowledged 13,266 Jewish dead, while the Jewish Community, after its own census, counted 14,850. The court that tried the perpetrators in 1948 found that “more than 10,000” were murdered. The USHMM writes of “at least 4,000” killed in the city of Iași, not counting the trains.

Trial, Recognition and Remembrance

The main trial ended in June 1948 with 57 defendants and 165 witnesses, most of them survivors. Twenty-one defendants were sentenced to life with hard labour, and several were acquitted. In 2004, after the commission chaired by Elie Wiesel, did President Ion Iliescu name “the pogrom of Iasi” and place responsibility on the Antonescu regime. On 30 June 2021 the Romanian Parliament held its first solemn session for the victims.

Remembrance continues. In 2011 the remains of at least 40 victims found near Popricani were buried in the Iași Jewish cemetery. In June 2026, on the 85th anniversary, the remains of another 22 victims from mass graves in the Popricani forest were buried there in the presence of Israel’s President Isaac Herzog.

Memorial Sites for Visitors

• Museum of the Iași Pogrom — in the House of Museums (Casa Muzeelor), Strada Vasile Alecsandri 6, the former police headquarters. Created by the Elie Wiesel Institute with the USHMM; photographs, testimonies, documents and artefacts. Open Tuesday–Sunday 10:00–17:00 (cIMeC museum guide).
• The obelisk in front of the Great Synagogue — Strada Sinagogilor.
• The Jewish cemetery at Păcurari — mass graves under concrete slabs and a memorial to the victims of the pogrom and the trains. The gate is locked; arrange with the community.
• Podu Iloaiei — mass grave and monument in the Jewish cemetery, about 20 km west.
• Târgu Frumos — marked mass grave and monument in the Jewish cemetery.
• Roman railway station — a bust of Viorica Agarici.

The annual commemoration takes place around 28–29 June: a “March of Life” to the cemetery and ceremonies in Iași, Podu Iloaiei and Târgu Frumos.