Sabin Motora
Sabin Motora | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1892 |
| Died | 12 December 1970 (aged 77–78) Târgu Mureș, Romania |
| Occupation | Military officer (Romanian Gendarmerie) |
| Awards | Righteous Among the Nations (1983) |
Sabin Motora (1892, Câmpeni, Alba County – 12 December 1970, Târgu Mureș) was a Romanian career officer in the Romanian Gendarmerie. As commander of the Vapniarka and Grosulovo internment camps during World War II, he defied orders and took measures to evacuate Jewish prisoners from Vapniarka to Grosulovo, closer to the Romanian border, rather than transferring them eastward to be handed over to the Germans. He later brought the prisoners back to Romania by train. In 1983, he was posthumously recognized as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem for risking his military career and his own life to save Jewish lives.[1]
Early life and military career
Sabin Motora was born in 1892 into a family from the Apuseni Mountains, which was actively involved in the political and cultural life of the Romanians of Mureș County. He completed his commercial studies but was conscripted in 1915 as an officer in the Austro-Hungarian Army following the outbreak of World War I. Less than two years later, he crossed the Carpathians and was integrated as an officer in the Romanian Army.[2]
In 1920, he was transferred to the Romanian Gendarmerie with the rank of captain. Between 1934 and 1937, having been promoted to major, Motora was appointed commander of the Gendarmerie Training Center in Lugoj. During this posting, he served alongside the young military physician Ștefan Odobleja, who is considered the unrecognized father of cybernetics.[2]
World War II
Commander of Vapniarka
During World War II, Motora initially commanded the internment camp in Caracal. In May 1943, he was appointed the fourth commander of the Vapniarka camp in Transnistria (present-day Ukraine), a position he held until the camp's closure six months later. The camp held Jewish deportees from Bukovina as well as Jews from Romania who had been deported on political grounds or for other alleged offenses.[1]
Motora proved to be more humane than his predecessors. He improved conditions in the camp by allowing the prisoners to organize a canteen and to run their own cultural and religious programs. The treatment of prisoners by gendarmes and officers also improved under his command.[3]
Transfer to Grosulovo
As the front approached Vapniarka, Motora organized the transfer of the majority of prisoners by train southward to Grosulovo (present-day Velyka Mykhailivka, Ukraine), where he continued as commander. This decision directly contravened the order he had received to transfer the prisoners eastward, in a forced march intended to result in their deaths en route or their handover to German forces.[1]
At Grosulovo, Motora instituted even more permissive rules. He allowed prisoners to organize a canteen, work in agriculture outside the camp, procure food from external sources, conduct their own cultural programs, and receive packages and aid from relatives and humanitarian organizations. Several prisoners from the Slivina camp were also transferred to Grosulovo.[2]
Evacuation to Romania
In the spring of 1944, under pressure from the Red Army led by Marshal Rodion Malinovsky, German and Romanian troops were forced to retreat from Transnistria. At that moment, Motora was responsible for 611 Jewish prisoners. He organized their evacuation and, after a three-week quarantine, loaded them onto a train and brought them to Bucharest. From there, the prisoners were transferred to the Târgu Jiu camp, where they were held until their release in August 1944.[2]
Motora succeeded in bringing 608 of the 611 prisoners safely to Romania. The three who did not arrive had escaped en route with the complicity of the guards watching over the train.[2]
Post-war life
Upon his return to Romania, Motora was investigated for three weeks by the Siguranța (secret police), the Secret Intelligence Service, and the General Inspectorate of the Gendarmerie, on suspicion of collusion with the prisoners. Authorities also attempted to incriminate him over a gold Schaffhausen watch that he had received from a prisoner as a token of gratitude, with the knowledge of the other detainees.[2]
Many of the Jews saved by Motora emigrated to Israel or to other countries, while others went on to hold various positions, some of them quite prominent, in Romania's new political and state leadership. Motora himself was integrated into civilian service at the Ministry of Commerce, and upon retirement he received a military pension. He died on 12 December 1970, at the age of 78, in relative obscurity.[2]
Recognition
On 3 March 1983, Yad Vashem posthumously conferred upon Motora the title of Righteous Among the Nations, at the request of several of the Jews he had saved.[1]
In 1990, following the fall of the communist regime, Israeli Ambassador to Romania Zvi Mazel commemorated Colonel Sabin Motora in a ceremony held at the Embassy of Israel in Bucharest and presented the family with the Righteous Among the Nations medal.[2]
In accordance with Order No. 678 of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, dated 6 June 2005, the Mureș County Gendarmerie Inspectorate was renamed the "Colonel Sabin Motora" Mureș County Gendarmerie Inspectorate, effective 15 June 2005.[2]
Motora is also featured in the first exhibition room of the Odesa Holocaust Museum.[4]
See also
References
- 1 2 3 4 "Motora Sabin". Yad Vashem. Retrieved 28 March 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Colonelul Sabin Motora a fost comemorat de jandarmii mureșeni". Adevărul (in Romanian). 8 August 2022. Retrieved 28 March 2026.
- ↑ "Sabin Motora". Institutul Național pentru Studierea Holocaustului din România "Elie Wiesel" (in Romanian). Retrieved 28 March 2026.
- ↑ "Sabin Motora, un mureșean, "Drept între popoare", la Muzeul Holocaustului din Odessa" (in Romanian). 20 December 2019. Retrieved 28 March 2026.