Painted metal plaque memorializing Romanian Jews killed in the Holocaust

Painted plaque dedicated to the memory of Sura Galpert and Ghidale Aron, who were likely murdered in the June 29, 1941 pogrom in Iași, Romania, the regional capital of Moldavia. It was created postwar, and donated to a synagogue in Iași by Estera Aron, the daughter of Sura and wife of Ghidale. 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 Iași 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, thousands of Jews were forced to march through the streets, with their arms raised, as observers hit them with projectiles and beat them with weapons. They were marched to the Chestura, the central headquarters of the police, where soldiers and policemen opened fire and massacred hundreds. That night, approximately 2,500 survivors of the massacre were forced into overcrowded, unventilated cattle cars at the train station. Hundreds of these evacuees died from injuries, suffocation, heat exhaustion, or dehydration during the 17 hour trip. The survivors were likely sent to ghettos in nearby towns.