Orphans return to Romania from Transnistria

With the German defeat at Stalingrad, and the heavy losses suffered by the Romanian army at the front, the specter of a German defeat in the war galvanized the Romanian government to establish contacts with the Allies and negotiate with them. This shift had major ramifications on their policies towards the Jews. Many of the bureaucratic impediments in the path of Romanian Jewry that had prevented them from sending help to the Jews in Transnistria were removed, and connections were reestablished with the various ghettos in Transnistria. On 12 November 1943, the Romanian government agreed to the repatriation of Jewish orphans under age 12, which after deliberations was raised to 15. On 15 February 1944, 1,884 Jewish orphans who had been gathered together in Mogilev-Podolski and Tiraspol were allowed to return to Romania. In March 1944, the Jewish leadership in Bucharest obtained permission to repatriate a further 1,400 orphans from Transnistria. The children were brought to Iasi, and from there, were sent to various communities in Romania.