The Romanian Orthodox Church and the Holocaust

Ion Popa

Description

In 1930, about 750,000 Jews called Romania home. At the end of World War II, approximately half of them survived. Only recently, after the fall of Communism, are details of the history of the Holocaust in Romania coming to light. Ion Popa explores this history by scrutinizing the role of the Romanian Orthodox Church from 1938 to the present day. Popa unveils and questions whitewashing myths that covered up the role of the church in supporting official antisemitic policies of the Romanian government. He analyzes the church's relationship with the Jewish community in Romania, with Judaism, and with the state of Israel, as well as the extent to which the church recognizes its part in the persecution and destruction of Romanian Jews. Popa's highly original analysis illuminates how the church responded to accusations regarding its involvement in the Holocaust, the part it played in buttressing the wall of Holocaust denial, and how Holocaust memory has been shaped in Romania today.

List of Abbreviations
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. A dangerous "symphonia": the church-state relationship and its impact on the Jewish Community of Romania before 22 June 1941
2. Perpetrator, Bystander or Saviour? The Romanian Orthodox Church and the Holocaust (1941-1944)
3. The Jewish Community of Romania and the Romanian Orthodox Church in the aftermath of the Holocaust (1945-1948)
4. Cleansing the past, rewriting history: The Romanian Orthodox Church from active involvement in the Holocaust to the whitewashing process
5. Forgetting the truth, forgetting the dead: the use of the Holocaust for political and religious agendas and the persistence of anti-Semitism (1945-1948)
6. Behind religious harmony: The Romanian Orthodox Church and the Jewish Community during the communist era (1948-1989)
7. The Romanian Orthodox Church, Holocaust memory and anti-Semitism during the communist era (1948-1989)
8. Nationalism, anti-Semitism and the Romanian Orthodox Church after 1989: Understanding the context of Holocaust memory's re-emergence in post-communist Romania
9. The Romanian Orthodox Church and Holocaust memory after 1989
Conclusion
Appendix
Bibliography
Index

Sujets

• Religious Intolerance
• 20th Century
• Modern
• Holocaust
• HISTORY
• Histoire
• The Holocaust
• Modern history
• Obermodern-Zutzendorf
• Holocauste

Informations

• Publié par: Indiana University Press
• Date de parution: 11 septembre 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780253029898
• Langue: English

Extrait

THE ROMANIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH AND THE HOLOCAUST
STUDIES IN ANTISEMITISM
Alvin H. Rosenfeld, editor
THE ROMANIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH AND THE HOLOCAUST
ION POPA
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press
Office of Scholarly Publishing
Herman B Wells Library 350
1320 East 10th Street
Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA
iupress.indiana.edu
2017 by Ion Popa
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Cataloging information is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN 978-0-253-02956-0 (cloth)
ISBN 978-0-253-02989-8 (ebook)
1 2 3 4 5 22 21 20 19 18 17
CONTENTS
List of Abbreviations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. A Dangerous Symphonia : The Church-State Relationship and Its Impact on the Jewish Community of Romania before June 22, 1941
2. Perpetrator, Bystander, or Savior? The Romanian Orthodox Church and the Holocaust (1941-1944)
3. The Jewish Community of Romania and the Romanian Orthodox Church in the Aftermath of the Holocaust (1945-1948)
4. Cleansing the Past, Rewriting History: The Romanian Orthodox Church from Active Involvement in the Holocaust to the Whitewashing Process
5. Forgetting the Truth, Forgetting the Dead: The Use of the Holocaust for Political and Religious Agendas and the Persistence of Anti-Semitism (1945-1948)
6. Behind Religious Harmony: The Romanian Orthodox Church and the Jewish Community during the Communist Era (1948-1989)
7. The Romanian Orthodox Church, Holocaust Memory, and Anti-Semitism during the Communist Era (1948-1989)
8. Nationalism, Anti-Semitism, and the Romanian Orthodox Church after 1989: Understanding the Context of Holocaust Memory s Reemergence in Postcommunist Romania
9. The Romanian Orthodox Church and Holocaust Memory after 1989
Conclusion
Appendix
Bibliography
Index
ABBREVIATIONS
ADSS -Actes et Documents du Saint Si ge relatifs la Seconde Guerre Mondiale
ANR -Arhivele Na ionale ale Rom niei [The Romanian National Archives]
ASCOR -Asocia ia Studen ilor Cre tin Ortodoc i din Rom nia [The Association of Christian Orthodox Students in Romania]
ASUR -Asocia ia Secular-Umanist din Rom nia [The Secular-Humanist Association of Romania]
BOR -Biserica Ortodox Rom n [The Romanian Orthodox Church-the journal of the Holy Synod]
CDE -Comitetul Democratic Evreiesc [The Jewish Democratic Committee]
CME -Congresul Mondial Evreiesc [The Jewish World Congress]
CNSAS -Consiliul Na ional pentru Studierea Arhivelor Securit ii [The Council for the Study of the Securitate Archives]
CSIER -Centrul pentru Studiul Istoriei Evreilor din Rom nia [The Center for the Study of the History of Romanian Jews]
DIE -Direc ia de Informa ii Externe, Romanian Foreign Secret Service during the Communist period
FCER -Federa ia Comunit ilor Evreie ti din Rom nia [The Federation of Jewish Communities of Romania]
INSHREW -Institutul Na ional pentru Studierea Holocaustului din Rom nia, Elie Wiesel [The Elie Wiesel National Institute for the Study of the Holocaust in Romania]
IOM -International Organisation for Migration
ITS -International Tracing Service
PNG -Partidul Noua Genera ie [The New Generation Party]
PRM -Partidul Rom nia Mare [The Greater Romania Party]
ROCOR -The Russian Orthodox Church outside Russia
USHMM -United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
WCC -The World Council of Churches
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
T HIS BOOK IS LARGELY BASED on my PhD, which I completed at the University of Manchester, United Kingdom. I would like to express my gratitude for the wise supervision of Dr. Jean-Marc Dreyfus and of Professor Daniel Langton. Their careful and gentle advice guided me always in the right direction. I am indebted to Professor Dan Stone, and Dr. Ewa Ochman for their encouragement and feedback. I am also grateful for the comments and guidance of Dr. Cathy Gelbin, Dr. Ana Carden-Coyne, and Professor Maiken Umbach who were in various moments involved as advisors on my PhD panels.
From 2010 to 2012, I was the recipient of the Saul Kagan Claims Conference Advance Shoah Studies Doctoral Fellowship, New York, which was tremendously important for the advance of this project. I am grateful not only for the financial support, but also for the advice I received from the committee members and from fellow grant recipients during our annual meetings. I should mention the names of late Professor David Cesarani and of Professors Alvin Rosenfeld, Steven Katz, Dalia Ofer, and David Silberklang, as well as the support of Saul Kagan Claims Conference Fellowship administrators Chavie Brumer and Lori Schuldiner Schor.
The University of Manchester, School of Arts, Languages and Cultures, granted me the School Award (2012-2013), and I am really thankful for this. During the last stages of the editorial preparation of the manuscript I was a postdoctoral fellow at the Yad Vashem International Institute for Holocaust Research (October 2014-January 2015) and a DRS postdoctoral fellow at the Freie Universit t Berlin (2015-2016). Discussions with staff and colleagues at Yad Vashem and Freie Universit t helped me often to clarify ideas and to have a broader picture on Churches attitudes toward the Jewish community. I am especially indebted to Professors David Silberklang, Dina Porat, Dan Michman, Dr. Iael Nidam-Orvieto, and Dr. Eliot Nidam-Orvieto from Yad Vashem International Institute for Holocaust Research and to Professor Gertrud Pickhan and Dr. Gregor Walter-Drop from Freie Universit t.
In Romania, I have always received valuable counsel from Dr. Alexandru Florian, Director of the Elie Wiesel Institute for the Study of the Holocaust in Romania and from Dr. Adrian Ciofl nc , the Director of the Center for the Study of the History of Romanian Jews. The same can be said about Dr. Radu Ioanid, Director of the International Archival Program, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, who helped me with his comments, advice, and access to documentation. I am also indebted to the History Department at Ovidius University, Constan a, and especially to Professor Florin Anghel for their assistance.
A project like this would have not been possible without the help of the many librarians and archivists from Romania, Israel, and the United States who supported me with their guidance and benevolence. I am equally grateful to the Indiana University Press s reviewers and editors for their suggestions, corrections, and support.
In 2013, I benefited from a Tziporah Wiesel Fellowship at the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Discussions with other fellows, the feedback I received on my project, and the wealth of documentation available at the center were all very important. This book was also made possible (in part) by funds granted to the author through an Ausnit Fellowship at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The statements made and views expressed, however, are solely the responsibility of the author. I am also grateful to the Emerging Scholars Program at the Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies for its support in the preparation of the manuscript and of the book proposal.
Last but not least, I would like to express my gratitude to Ella, my wife, for her permanent support and encouragement, and to my parents who, although not academically educated, were the first to instill in me a passion for history.
P ERMISSION
Several paragraphs from chapter 1 , subchapter Patriarch Miron Cristea s political and religious influence in deciding the fate of the Romanian Jews (February 1938-March 1939), and the first paragraph of the introduction of this book, were published previously in Ion Popa Miron Cristea, the Romanian Orthodox Patriarch: His Political and Religious Influence in Deciding the Fate of the Romanian Jews (February 1938-March 1939), Yad Vashem Studies , vol. 40, no. 2 (2012), pp. 11-34. I am grateful to Yad Vashem Studies for its permission to re-use that material here.
I thank the Romanian National Archives for the permission to use photographs from its collection. I especially express my gratitude to Ms. Alina Horvath, the superior advisor of the Image and Communication Department of the Romanian National Archives for her support.
THE ROMANIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH AND THE HOLOCAUST
INTRODUCTION
I N THE SUMMER OF 2010, a scandal arose when the Romanian Central Bank decided to issue five special coins celebrating the five patriarchs 1 of the Romanian Orthodox Church. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM), in Washington, DC, and the Elie Wiesel National Institute for the Study of the Holocaust in Romania (Institutul Na ional pentru Studierea Holocaustului din Rom nia, Elie Wiesel-INSHREW), in Bucharest, protested the decision because it meant commemorating Patriarch Miron Cristea, whose term as prime minister of Romania (1938-1939) marked the opening of a systematic campaign of anti-Semitic persecution by successive Romanian governments that resulted in the devastation of the Romanian Jewish community during the Holocaust. 2 Despite this criticism, the National Bank of Romania (NBR) went ahead and i