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Final Report of the International Commission on the - Minority Rights ...

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<str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> thousands <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> Romanian Holocaust-era documents that are now available for research. The Holocaust<br />

did not arrive in Romania like a meteorite from outer space. Nor did it arrive from Nazi Germany. The<br />

rise <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> fascism and Nazism in Western Europe may have increased <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> c<strong>on</strong>fidence <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> Romanians with<br />

radical antisemitic views, and may have increased <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> chances that <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g>y might <strong>on</strong>e day play a role in<br />

government. But <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g>ir antisemitism was not dramatically altered by those developments. Hitler’s rise did<br />

not substantially change Romanian antisemitic ideology. Hitler’s rise opened <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> door to <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> possible<br />

implementati<strong>on</strong> <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> antisemitic programs that had been discussed in principle for decades. The<br />

antisemitism <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> Nati<strong>on</strong>al Christian Party and <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> Ir<strong>on</strong> Guard, <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> genocidal regime <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> I<strong>on</strong> Ant<strong>on</strong>escu,<br />

and <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> lengthy history <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> Holocaust denial in Romania since World War II all rested firmly <strong>on</strong> <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g><br />

foundati<strong>on</strong>s <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> a century <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> antisemitism preached at <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> highest levels <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> Romanian political and<br />

intellectual life. The separati<strong>on</strong>, expropriati<strong>on</strong>, deportati<strong>on</strong>, and murder <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> Jews were not new <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g>mes in<br />

<str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> 1930s and 1940s. The Holocaust had deep Romanian roots and must be dealt with as an integral part<br />

<str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> Romanian history<br />

See Institutul Central de Statistică, Recensământul General al Populaţiei României din 29 Decemvrie<br />

1930, 10 vols. (Bucureşti, 1938-1940), Vol. IX, pp.440-443. For a summary presentati<strong>on</strong> <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> statistics,<br />

see Sabin Manuilă and D.C. Georgescu, Populaţia României (Editura Institutului Central de Statistică,<br />

Bucureşti, 1938).<br />

All citati<strong>on</strong>s are from Octavian Goga, România a Românilor (Sibiu, Tipografia Săteanului, 1936).<br />

See Article 27 <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> “Dorinţele partidei naţi<strong>on</strong>ale în Moldova” and Article 21 <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> “Proclamaţia de la<br />

Islaz,” cited in Carol Iancu, Evreii din România, 1866-1919: De la excludere la emancipare (Bucharest,<br />

Editura Hasefer, 1996), pp.52-54. (French editi<strong>on</strong> appeared in 1978.)<br />

On <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> period <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> Russian dominati<strong>on</strong> <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> principalities and <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> European guardianship following <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g><br />

Crimean War, see Barbara Jelavich, Russia and <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> Formati<strong>on</strong> <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> Românian Nati<strong>on</strong>al State<br />

(Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1984), chapters 1 and 2; and Iancu, op.cit., pp.56-65.<br />

M<strong>on</strong>itor Oficial, June 19 and 20, 1866.<br />

See Iancu, op.cit., pp.74-80.<br />

Parliamentary Speech <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> April 30, 1868, in Din Scrierile şi Cuvîntarile lui I<strong>on</strong> C. Bratianu, Vol. 1<br />

(Bucureşti, Carol Gobl, 1903), pp. 441, 445-6<br />

M<strong>on</strong>itorul Oficial, January 4, 1870.<br />

M<strong>on</strong>itorul Oficial, December 20, 1870.<br />

See Iancu, op.cit., 1996, pp.105-109.<br />

Speech <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> December 16, 1869 in I.C. Codrescu, Cotropirea judovească în România (Bucureşti, Noua<br />

Typographia a Laboratorilor Români, 1870).<br />

Industria Naţi<strong>on</strong>ală, industria străină si industria ovreească faţă cu principiul c<strong>on</strong>curenţei<br />

(Bucureşti, 1866), p.30.<br />

Speech <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> September 5, 1879, in Vasile C<strong>on</strong>ta, Opere Complecte (Bucureşti, 1914), pp. 647, 660.<br />

Speech in Senate, October 10, 1879, cited in Iancu, op.cit., p.240.<br />

Ioan Slavici, Soll si Haben—Chestiunea Ovreilor din România (Bucharest, 1878). For any<strong>on</strong>e who<br />

has read Holocaust-related documents in <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> archival repositories <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> România, <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g>re is a chilling echo <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g><br />

Slavici’s language in <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> language <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> Românian perpetrators <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> Holocaust. Many Jews were drowned<br />

in <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> Dniester River during <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> forced deportati<strong>on</strong>s <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> Jews from Bessarabia and Bukovina to<br />

Transnistria in 1941. The river was <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> Dniester, not <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> Danube, but Ant<strong>on</strong>escu’s intenti<strong>on</strong> to eliminate<br />

<str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> entire Jewish community <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> regi<strong>on</strong>, to <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> last individual, was <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> same.<br />

Ioan Slavici, “Semitismul IV” (1908).<br />

On Eminescu, see <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> excellent summary in Le<strong>on</strong> Volovici, Nati<strong>on</strong>alist Ideology and Antisemitism:

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