Mihai Rosca, Mihail Chichifor and Mihai Nichifor, anti-Semitics charged with organization of a pogrom against Jews in the village of Balaceana in the province of Bukovina, in July, 1930, were freed by a district court here. The trial had been postponed many times. All three denied knowledge of the pogrom.
The Balaceana outbreak was one of the worst of a series of anti-Jewish attacks in the province of Bukovina. After the notorious anti-Semitic agitators Danila and Totu had toured the country-side inciting peasants, all Jewish houses in the district were painted with swastikas to enable attackers to single them out.
Jews who were on the streets were killed, a large number wounded and the local synagogue and all Jewish shops were looted and demolished. Soldiers were sent to the town from a near-by garrison and were compelled to fire on the mob before it would disperse. Fifty peasants were arrested, but were later released.
Anti-Jewish attacks also occurred in other near-by towns. In Borsha the entire Jewish district was burned to the ground.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
