The Jewish Trail of Tears The Evian Conference of ... - Haruth.com

The right-wing Christian Front government of fifty-seven year old Rumanian poet
and Premier Octavian Goga enacted anti-Semitic legislation, “following closely the Hitler
pattern,” that eliminated Jews from a variety of professions and occupations, banned the
use of Yiddish, barred the employment of Rumanian non-Jewish servants and closed all
Jewish newspapers. 167 These anti-Semitic policies, he asserted, would continue regardless
of who occupied the premiership. 168 He sought the denaturalization of Jews who had
become Rumanian citizens after 1918. 169 Furthermore, Goga announced that his
Government sought to expel five hundred thousand “vagabond” Jews (out of a total
Jewish population of 1,000,000-1,500,000/19,000,000) who came into Rumania
“allegedly…as refugees” and who lacked any rights to citizenship.
Forty-four year old King Carol von Hohenzollern II declared that two hundred
fifty thousand Jewish refugees from Galicia and Russia who had entered Rumania
following the end of the Great War had arrived “illegally” and did not constitute “a good
element” of the population. Such “invaders” were not protected by minority rights
treaties and must be removed from the body politic. 170 Rumania would only serve as a
temporary haven for these now stateless Jews and would offer “asylum [only] until
167 New Republic, 93, no. 1209 (February 2, 1938): 350-351.
168 Tampa Tribune, February 3, 1938, 1.
169 Goga was appointed by King Carol on December 28, 1937 until his forced resignation on February
10, 1938. He was a high profile Rumanian anti-Semite and leader of the avowedly anti-Jewish National
Christian Party. The Party’s slogan was “Rumania for Rumanians!” Minority rights had been guaranteed
through the Treaty of St. Germain (1919). It was suspected by the French and the British that Rumania,
under Goga, wanted to strengthen ties with Nazi Germany. In support of Goga’s anti-Jewish policies the
official German news service raised the issue of minority rights for Germany in the Sudetenland and the
British suppression of the Boers and the Arabs in Palestine. Time, 31, no. 3 (January 17, 1938): 26-27.
170 Time, 31, no. 3 (January 17, 1938): 26-27.
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