Anti-jewish Disorders Sweep Rumania; Hundreds Slain

Anti-Jewish disorders were reported today in various parts of Rumania as Iron Guard violence mounted to what is expected to be a climax tomorrow, when re-internment ceremonies will be held for Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, executed Guard leader.

(Reports reaching Budapest said 2,000 persons, many of them Jews, were slain in the outbreaks, including 200 Jews and leftists killed in Ploesti and many in Galati when Guardists stormed the Jewish quarter. The London News-Chronicle and Daily Herald also featured reports of anti-Jewish riots in Rumania.)

The newspaper Universal confirmed reports that three Jews were murdered last night at Targusorul near Ploesti. Their “disfigured bodies” were discovered in a ditch alongside the Ploesti highway, the paper said.

Another story in Universal confirmed anti-Jewish outbreaks in the town of Brails, where Jewish-owned moving picture houses, business firms and factories were taken over by the Iron Guard. Even ritual baths belonging to the Jewish community were expropriated, the paper said.

“The legionary movement (Iron Guard), acting under orders of its local commander, Teodor Straja, is continuing action for romanization of commercial, industrial and economic life,” the dispatch declared. “After going through the necessary legal formalities, the movement has taken possession of the Jewish-exploited Herdan mills. The Legion has named Constantine Balaban, chief of ‘legionary policy for maintenance of order,’ as director of the expropriated flour mill.”

Other Jewish property seized, according to Universal, includes a timber company, a cinema and the bathhouse of the Jewish community. All property which has been seized will be administered directly by the Iron Guard, the paper stated.