Dov Shmuel on The Iasi Pogrom

I was born in 1921 in a small town in East Moldova. At age 14, I went to Iasi to learn how to be a tailor. I worked there until the pogrom. Then I was taken as a hostage and held in one of the schools in Iasi. We were there for a week but for the last three days before the pogrom, no-one was allowed to visit us and bring us food… On the Saturday night, the pogrom began. By chance I was standing outside and saw colored flares in the sky. This apparently marked the beginning of the pogrom. They came at four in the morning and took us to the police station. I saw convoys of people walking with their hands up whilst policemen beat them with the butts of their rifles…whoever fell was stepped upon. We arrived at the police station and the courtyard began to fill up with people. Then one officer announced that all the children and the old people will be freed…They gave a slip of paper with a police stamp and the word “Liber” printed on it. I was a tall twenty-year old and didn’t look like a child. …the policeman didn’t look when he handed me the slip and I got out of the station…I thought that the best thing would be to go to work and just then four hooligans with metal bars came my way and I knew they would kill me. So I immediately changed direction and headed for home. Directly behind me was an old man with a beard whom they jumped and probably killed. I fled even as I glanced behind me. When I passed the courtyard of the synagogue, I saw my brother-in-law walking with his hands raised and my intuition started working. I entered the courtyard where the toilets of the stores were and hid away in one of the toilets. I calculated how long it would take for this line of Jews to pass by and I came out. No-one in sight. I turned right into Bokshinsko Square and then I saw my brother walking with his hands raised. I jumped a few fences and arrived home…it was a miracle. The lady there gave me a glass of milk….For three days I hid in a storeroom during the day and slept at home at night.There were no people around only police. Then the pogrom was over, 14,000 Jews dead… Source: Yad Vashem Archive O.3/10186 [Hebrew].