19th century
Expulsions of Jews called 'vagrants'
1867-1868·Roumanie, Galați
The toll is reproduced exactly as the source states it — never rounded, never added to another. Tolls overlap from one event to the next.
families turned back on the Danube, several drowned
Under the ministry of Ion Brătianu, Romania applies vagrancy laws to Jews who lack papers and undertakes to expel them from the country. In Galați, on the Danube, families who have been driven out are put on boats and set down on the opposite bank, which the Ottoman authorities refuse to let them reach; sent back and forth from one shore to the other, several drown in the river.
The episode provokes a diplomatic intervention by the Western powers and an outcry among European Jewish organizations, without changing the nature of the policy: it will continue in other administrative forms. The Danube expulsions will remain the first international alarm over the fate of the Jews of Romania.
- Period :
- 19th century
- Type :
- Expulsion
- Region :
- Central and Eastern Europe
- Country :
- Roumanie
Dépêches consulaires britanniques et françaises de Galați ; archives de l'Alliance israélite universelle.