MANY PEOPLE helped me with their advice, financial support, and, most important, time. George Soros personally supported the project with a generous grant, allowing me to work without interruption on the book for a year. Marcus Raskin, director of the Institute of Policy Studies in Washington, D.C., during my 1989 Soros fellowship there, helped me in numerous ways. Raul Hilberg, uncontested dean of Holocaust studies, frequently shared with me his impressive expertise on the Holocaust in Romania. Jean Ancel, who almost single-handedly laid the foundation of Romanian Holocaust studies, eased my work with numerous excellent suggestions and important historical information. Abraham Peck opened the doors of the American Jewish Archives in Cincinnati, where I found important sources. Paul Stahl and Isac Chiva, distinguished French academics, sharpened the manuscript and helped me better situate a complicated subject in a wider context.
Special acknowledgment goes to my colleagues and friends on the staff of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, who supported this project for many years with encouragement and access to archival materials acquired all over Europe. Sara Bloomfield, executive director, lent her support to publication, bestowing the prestigious imprimatur of the museum. Brewster Chamberlin volunteered precious time for long discussions of a complicated topic. Both he and Paul Shapiro negotiated agreements of cooperation with various Romanian, Ukrainian, and Moldovan government agencies and surveyed records that included documents amounting to hundreds of thousands of pages. Michael Berenbaum, former director of the museum’s Research Institute, helped with numerous kind suggestions. More recently Paul Shapiro, of the museum’s Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, contributed institutional support and personal enthusiasm. The staff of the museum’s archives and library made my life as a researcher much easier than it might have been. Michael Gelb and Benton Arnovitz edited the manuscript with patience, care, and dedication, contributing in an essential way to the final form of the book. Leo Spitzer and Vladimir Tismaneanu gave the project early and important encouragement.
Ivan R. Dee, my American publisher, who suffered with grace the anticipation of this manuscript, deserves special praise. Cindy Nixon brought a special commitment to the expert editing of the manuscript.
Finally, I wish to thank from the bottom of my heart the hundreds and hundreds of Jewish and Gypsy Holocaust survivors in the United States, Europe, and Israel who shared with me their painful memories. This book is dedicated to them and the loved ones who never returned to them from the Romanian killing fields.
R. I.
Washington, D.C.
November 1999