Marchel Markowich

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MAMA23TURO

Before the war

Marchel Markowich was born in Tulcea, Romania. Tulcea was a port city on the Danube.In the little town there were 650 Jews, 1 big synagogue and 2 small ones.

During the war 

In 1939 was the first anti - semitic act,all the Jews of the town were thrown out of the states educational institutions, university ,high-school and kindergartens and anti-semitic rules were established.In 1940 the fascist regime forced all the jewish men to clean the streets of Tolcea for a “guest”, and after a hard work of months without payment they found out that the guests are the Nazies, from that point more anti-semitic rules were established such as: “Jews aren't allowed to enter the market during the day”. On 26.6.1941 the war between Russia and Romania broke out, all the Jews were deported to the mines (60 km from Tulcea) and there they were forced to quarry. For months they worked around the clock till one day a carriage with soldiers on it took some of  the Jews from the mine to the recruiting office. There they were told to pack a sack with clothes for 3 months only, they had 2 days to say goodbye to their families and were forced to go on a ship to an unknown location. After the ship, on the 11.5.1942 they went on a train. They rode for many hours and at the end they got to Transnistria. Suddenly, they weren’t in Romania anymore, they were in Russia.Thousands of Jewish people from Romania were brought there and the soldiers assigned them jobs like working in factories. Most of the men were sent to the woods, including Marchel.

The soldiers gave them an ax and a big saw and a 3 kg piece of metal. They slept in an old barn, they could still smell the stink of the animals . Every morning they had mamaliga and a sweet beverage, that food was supposed to last for the whole day. They woke up before sunrise and walked 8 km into the woods.

Marchel was 16-17 years old at the time but there were older men too. In the woods, there were 1000 people, 24 of them were from Tolcea. They worked under difficult weather condition, the work was tough and soldiers supervised. There was one sergeant that was especially mean,who used to whip the men that didn't work fast enough with a horse’s tail.

After three months they expected to return home as they were promised. One morning in October they were told to leave everything behind and come. They were happy, they thought they were finally coming home. They walked until they saw railroad tracks but it wasn't the station. They were told to take off all of their clothes and get into a little train with only three wagons. It was freezing outside and in the train they were washed with warm water. Everyone wanted to stay the longest under the water,as much as they could. When they finished showering they stood cold and wet outside. Then the soldiers threw the clothes at them. They ran and fought each other for a piece of clothing, after that they went back to camp disappointed. 

 In Russia the winter is very cold but they continued working in the snow and mud even though their feet were frozen .They were forced to cut down trees and build roads with them.

A year passed, and one day the colonel came to their camp. He declared: “Gentlemen,  you don't want to die Or don't you have the power to work anymore? You don't have power? I will send you down. There, waiting for you our guys and German friends, there the machine gun is talking”. Then he made a sound of a machine gun by grinding his teeth. The colonel told them that if they don’t work they will be sent to “Bogdanovca” but Marchel and his mates misheard and thought he said “Bondurivka”, which was the name of the camp they were staying in. They didn't understand and thought he was crazy. A few days later, they heard voices of women approaching them, the voices came closer and they saw a group of  30 Gypsy women with their children. The women were crying and begging for some bread and water for their children. They helped as much as they could but for the time the Gypsies were there Marchel and his mates only received bread twice. The workers sat next to the military force and they chatted about the Gypsies. The soldiers told them: “tomorrow they will see the sun but the moon they won't be able to see”. Which means that they are going to kill them tomorrow. All the Jewish workers started to question whether they would ever return home. Every morning  when the soldiers counted them they found out some of them were missing but they all knew, they weren't missing they were dead. One day, there was a lightning storm, and while they were working lightning hit one of the trees and fell on Marchel. He needed water but no one had except for Haimovich, another Jew that worked with Marchel. He had a small bottle of water. At first he didn't want to give water but eventually he came around and gave him a few drops of water. From that incident Marchel has a scar till today. 

One morning in March 1944 all the workers woke up, ate mamaliga and drank coffee. In the afternoon, they expected the soldiers to come back with the lunch mamaliga but surprisingly they didn't come. They stood at roll call for hours but the soldiers with food didn't come. It became dark so the soldiers took them back to camp. In the evening everyone talked about the roll call and then went to sleep. At night Marchel heard the sound of bombs. It had been a year since Marchel had seen an airplane. In the morning, Marchel and his mates got the usual coffee and mamaliga and waited till the soldiers with new supplies but they still didn't come. The soldiers at the camp decided to take the prisoners to the closest train station called “Kodima”. They walked 14 km to the train station where they saw many casualties and heard that the Russians were getting closer.  Then Marchel and his mates decided to escape and go back home. They didn't know the way and they couldn't use any kind of vehicle because of their status. They went from one village to the other. They didn't have food and could only drink water from cisterns in the villages they visited. On the way they met some people they knew or had just met in the camp. Marchel talked about this one man, he said that he was tired and  going to rest just for a bit, at that point we knew he wouldn't make it. From May 1942 until March 1944 marchel was in Transnistria, 22 months. 

 They made it to Romania and entered the city “Iasi”.  But couldn't go into the market or the city square so they went to the train station, from where they took a train to a station close to the Danube River, from there they walked to the river. It was freezing. As they got closer to the port they saw a ship leaving the dock, from afar the captain of the ship saw them and decided to come back to the port and take them home. Till this day, Marchel wonders if the captain knew they were Jewish or prisoners. Marchel deeply regrets that he didn't thank the captain. They got off the ship and went home  not knowing if their parents were alive. As Marchel got closer to the house he saw his dog barking. It recognized Marchel although a year and 10 months passed since they had been together.  They were both happy. Marchel found his family and his belongings, but there was  one thing he forgot.   When he got off the ship, he forgot his bag. They had been in Tulce for 2 days when the Romanians came and took them again. This time to the border between Romania and Russia where they built bunkers in the mud. They worked there from April to August 23rd, 1944 when Marchel and his mates woke up and didn't see any of the soldiers.  They asked some other workers they found bringing sand there and they said that the war between Russia and Romania was over and they became allies. On that day Marchel was finally free. He went home, where a new government canceled the Anti-semitic laws. 

After the war

Some Zionist organizations started to pop up  and people from Israel (Mandate Palestine) started to train the Jews of Tulce by teaching them Hebrew, Agriculture and History.

After the agreement between Russia and Romania the Communists came and turned Romania into a Communist country. There was a lack of food and life was hard. All the Jewish people that had suffered for years wanted to make “Alia” to Israel. The Communists wanted everyone to work for them so they banned people above the age of 18 from leaving Romania. Marchel’s wife,Ester was 19 years old, at that time they weren't married yet. Her family moved to Israel but she had to stay. Marchel and Ester got married in 1951 without their parents and two years later, in 1953  their first daughter was born. Marchel worked as a manager in a factory for canned goods.But still the money wasn't enough and they were hungry. In October 1963, they got permission to leave Romania. They could bring only 40 kg and the rest of their belongings they had to give to the Communists. Marchel and his family made “Alia” and two years later another daughter was born. When they got to Israel they wanted to go to “Kiryat Bialik” but they were only allowed to live in “Kfar Saba”. They lived in “Yoseftal” neighborhood for 29 years. Because of Marchel’s experience in factories he got a job in “Yahin” factory for concentrate juices. He worked there for 35 years until he retired. Today Marchel lives with his wife in Kfar Saba. He has a beautiful family, two daughters, five grandchildren and two great grandchildren.

We asked him what message he would like to pass to the next generation. He answered that the most important thing is to keep talking and telling the stories so that the horrors of the Holocaust we never be forgotten.