Andrew Handler, Susan V. Meschel, eds.. Red Star, Blue Star: The Lives and Times of Jewish Students in Communist Hungary, 1948-1956. Boulder and New York: Columbia University Press, 1997. x + 224 pp. $31.50, cloth, ISBN 978-0-88033-384-9.
Reviewed by Nicolae Harsanyi
Published on HABSBURG (November, 1998)
The fall of communism in Eastern Europe characterize any Romanian government, and the brought about, as a natural consequence, the revi‐ Jews were protected during World War II. sion of each country's historical narratives. With Since the end of 1989, Romania's newly con‐ the ideological control gone, historians have en‐ stituted political arena contains a rather vocal ex‐ gaged in a painful or proud process of rewriting treme right-wing segment interested in maintain‐ history, aspiring to fll in the blanks created by ing and heightening xenophobic nationalism. former taboos. The most sensitive periods in this Freedom of speech has permitted historians with respect were those which had been rewritten by chauvinistic and anti-semitic tendencies to treat communist historiographers to closely suit the the Antonescu era as a government worthy of em‐ momentary and successive interpretations of his‐ ulation. They are attracted to it for two reasons: tory by the party leadership. One such episode is frst it was staunchly anti-communist and second Romania's role in the Holocaust. it promoted political mobilization that would fur‐ The destruction of more than 270,000 Roma‐ ther the greatness of the Romanian nation, while nian Jews is a lesser known chapter of the Holo‐ shielding it from the dangers of Western liberal‐ caust. The regime of Marshal Antonescu ism, Eastern communism, Jewish international‐ (1940-1944) has an ambivalent record of slaughter ism, etc. At this juncture, history, instead of re‐ of Jews and reluctance to participate in the depor‐ gaining its status of independent enterprise, re‐ tations to the death camps operated by the Nazis. mains the work of a political clientele. This was very convenient for the historiographers Historians and political scientists from three of the Ceausescu era: to ignore the former and up‐ continents addressed this complex phenomenon hold the latter, supporting in this way the multi‐ within the "International Scholars' Conference on lateral ofcial revival of Romanian nationalism. the Fate of Romanian and Ukrainian Jews Under According to their version, anti-Semitism did not the Antonescu Regime" held in Washington, D.C. on June 25-26, 1996. This volume, edited by Ran‐ H-Net Reviews dolph L. Braham, is the outgrowth of this scholar‐ period ranging from June 1941 to September 1942 ly gathering organized under the auspices of the Romania's policy toward Jews set out on more United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and radical paths, emigration was never eliminated as the Rosenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies of an option. The case of the steamship Struma illus‐ the City University of New York. trates this point and also underlines the Romani‐ Randolph Braham organized the material of an government's refusal to comply with German the book (13 chapters, each of them a study by a requests that the Jews be deported to the death diferent author), into four parts, refecting the camps in Poland. While pointing out that Jewish common focus of the studies: "Setting the Stage," emigration was a growing source of proft for Ro‐ "The Drive Against the Jews," "The Foreign Fac‐ manian transport companies and bureaucrats, tor," and "Notes and History Cleansing." Dalia Ofer views Romania's delay and subsequent cancellation of deportations of Jews to Belzec as Lya Benjamin's study, "Anti-Semitism as Re‐ "a manifestation of Romania's quest for autonomy fected in the Records of the Council of Ministers, in policymaking," and "a sign of sovereignty (p. 1940-1944: An Analytical Overview," is based on 36)." research in more than 100 records covering the meetings of the Council of Ministers and the Cabi‐ To conclude the frst part of the book, Ran‐ net Council. She focuses on four issues: the dolph L. Braham makes a jump from the years of regime's project for restructuring society along World War II to the 1990s by writing a study with ethnocratic lines through Romanianization, the a quite self-explanatory title: "The Exculpatory racist terms in which Jewishness was formulated History of Romanian Nationalists: the Exploita‐ in political discourse, ethnic cleansing as a local tion of the Holocaust for Political Ends." After re‐ variant of the Final Solution, and the rise of a new viewing the features of post-1989 revisionist inter‐ type of anti-Semitism. Although there was a pretations of Romania's role in the Second World change in Antonescu's approach to the Jewish War and the Holocaust, the study underlines how question (from destruction to support of emigra‐ this revisionist trend of Romanian nationalist his‐ tion) determined by the fortunes of the war, Ben‐ torians has relied on the accounts, largely un‐ jamin is keen to point out that this turn in the founded, of Dr. Moses Carmilly-Weinberger, the Marshal's and the state's policy was not intended wartime rabbi of the Neolog Jewish community in to save the Jews, but "rather an attempt by promi‐ Cluj, and of Dr. Raoul Sorban, a professor of art nent fgures of the Antonescu regime to save history at the University of Bucharest. Randolph themselves by supposedly protecting the Jews (p. Braham succeeds very well in underscoring that 14)." the rehabilitation campaign of Marshal Antones‐ cu and his regime, besides belittling or ignoring In her chapter on "Emigration and Immigra‐ the suferings inficted on the Jews, also has a tion: The Changing Role of Romanian Jewry," strong anti-Hungarian dimension, a familiar Dalia Ofer examines "the roots and evolution of theme of mainstream Romanian nationalism. Romania's emigration policy in the larger context of the ideologies, policies, and predicaments of The second part of the book deals with the Ro‐ the Holocaust period (pp. 19-20)." She points out manian authorities' destructive drives against the that it was only in the late 1930s that the Romani‐ Jewry of Romania, Bessarabia, and Transnistria in an government considered emigration as an alter‐ 1941-1942. Through his study "The Jassy Massacre native for solving the "Jewish" problem, echoing of June 29-30, 1941: An Early Act of Genocide international plans for the mass settlement of Against the Jews," Radu Florian pays tribute to his Jews in areas outside of Europe. Although in the own father and brother who perished in this
2 H-Net Reviews event. In addition to the killings of Jews in the ing solely on ofcial documents issued by military streets and the courtyard of police headquarters commanders, prefects, Governor Alexianu, and on June 28-29, Radu Florian links the episode of the Prime Minister's Ofce, Ancel presents the the two "death trains" to the massacre [1], thus ex‐ plight of the convoys of Jews gathered from north‐ tending the latter's temporal scope to July 6. The ern Moldavia, Bukovina, Bessarabia, Transnistria, author also attempts to establish responsibility and Odessa as they were driven to the crossing for the massacre by correlating the few available points on the Bug and into the hands of the Ger‐ documentary sources with subsequent statements mans. by some organizers of the carnage. Based on as‐ Special attention is given to the camps of Bog‐ sumptions of chain-of-command structures danovka and Domanevka where Jews were mur‐ through which information was circulated, Flori‐ dered by the thousands or died in the hundreds an assigns the principal guilt to Ion Antonescu, as decimated by typhus. With a sort of grisly irony, the one who "sanctioned the massacre and ab‐ the Romanian forces proved their inability to han‐ solved not only the Romanian but also the Ger‐ dle so many Jews, the latter becoming a "night‐ man army units of all responsibility for the mare" for the local authorities: in November 1941 crimes committed (p. 78)." Regrettably, Florian's prefect Isopescu of Golta district (where Bog‐ study is the result of scholarly research only; this danovka was located) was terrifed at the chapter could have been enriched by the author's prospect of "the imminent arrival of tens of thou‐ personal recollections as a direct witness and sur‐ sands more Jews, even before he had managed to vivor of the events. Thus he might have contrib‐ bury the thousands of corpses of Jews who had al‐ uted his own evidence concerning the controver‐ ready been murdered (p. 112)." sial question of the extent to which the massacre An equally disturbing study, with many was the work of the Romanian army or German methodological similarities, is that of Paul A. troops, as claimed by the nationalist revisionist Shapiro on "The Jews of Chisinau (Kishinev): Ro‐ historiographers. When Florian mentions that manian Reoccupation, Ghettoization, Deporta‐ some Romanian army ofcers (Richard Filipescu, tion." It draws on new documents from the State Petru Serban, and Alexandru Manole) opposed Archives and the Ministry of National Security of the massacre, he neglects to say how this opposi‐ Moldova in Chisinau, presenting a detailed look at tion materialized. Unfortunately, there is no refer‐ the creation, administration, and liquidation of ence that may send an inquisitive reader to a the Chisinau ghetto between the summer of 1941 source containing this information. and the spring of 1942. Shapiro presents the fate Jean Ancel's chapter on "The Romanian Cam‐ of the some 10,000 Jews remaining in Chisinau af‐ paigns of Mass Murder in Transnistria, 1941-1942" ter the city's reoccupation by the Romanian army deals not only with what its title suggests, being in July 1941. The author meticulously documents rather a succinct monograph about the region un‐ the measures taken by the authorities to concen‐ der Romanian rule. It presents the main factors trate the Jewish population within an overcrowd‐ through which Romania exercised its power as ed area (Visterniceni) of Chisinau, how the ghetto occupier: the army, the gendarmerie, the police, was administered, as well as the relationship be‐ and the Ukrainian militia. It is only after he has tween the Jewish Committee of the Ghetto and fnished drawing such a general picture that Jean government representatives. Shapiro emphasizes Ancel narrates the destruction of at least a quar‐ that most of the authorities' orders were carried ter of a million Jews during the winter of out in a disorderly and arbitrary manner, proving 1941-1942 as part of the general campaign of that the ghetto was conceived only as a holding "cleansing the ground" (curatirea terenului). Rely‐
3 H-Net Reviews point until deportation to Transnistria. Against Ioanid highlights Mihai Antonescu's use of the Ro‐ the revisionist claim that the Chisinau ghetto and manian Jews as a bargaining chip in secret negoti‐ its inhabitants were destroyed by "wild men at ations with the Allies, the consequence of which the periphery," Shapiro demonstrates that these was the protection ofered to them by the Romani‐ actors were military and civilian ofcials of Ion an consular ofces in 1943 and 1944. The change Antonescu's wartime regime (p. 178). in the policy towards the Jews abroad came as a While Ancel's and Shapiro's studies mostly result of the eternal Hungarian-Romanian rivalry: present the voices of the perpetrators, those of the if in 1942 the Romanian diplomatic interests were victims are heard in Leon Volovici's article, "The still centered on the property of Romanian Jews Victim as Eyewitness: Jewish Intellectual Diaries living abroad, in 1943 the treatment of the Jews During the Antonescu Period." Using the diaries of became an "image" problem for Romania itself, as Mihail Sebastian, B. Branisteanu, and Emil Dori‐ dispatches of the Romanian Ministry of Foreign an, Volovici focuses on the evolution and nature Afairs emphasized that Hungarian Jews in Cen‐ of relations between Romanian and Jewish intel‐ tral and Western Europe enjoyed preferential sta‐ lectuals in 1940-1944. These three men, who re‐ tus. fused to be labeled as "assimilated" (p. 196), were The following two chapters of the third sec‐ players in a drama of historical signifcance with tion of the book provide the voices of observers an unforeseeable ending. Besides rich refections from two geographically rather distant areas. on the anti-Semitism permeating the Romanian Raphael Vago, in his "The Situation of Romanian ofcial and popular discourse, the diaries, rather Jewry During the Antonescu Period: Reactions than providing factual information, abound in and Perceptions of the Yishuv," extends an exhor‐ meditations on their authors' experience of dis‐ tation to further research, rather than proposing crimination and gradual exclusion, as well as the a general overview of the major events in the pe‐ experience of their community. Since an integral riod, through several case studies. After analyzing part of their intellectual ordeal was the long such issues as the means and channels of commu‐ process of waiting to see what their fate would be, nication the Yishuv (the Jewish community of a certain psychological paralysis overcame the di‐ British-controlled Palestine) maintained with the arists, in spite of the fact that all three of them Jews in Romania, its chains of command and deci‐ kept open channels of communication with sever‐ sion-making, and the eforts to rescue Jews from al personalities representing the powers of the destruction, Vago infers that, despite the correct day. Volovici also ascertains that these diaries re‐ picture the Yishuv had of the sequence of events veal the "paradoxical behavior and double stan‐ in Romania, this picture eventually became a puz‐ dard of the Romanian authorities toward 'their' zle: "the assessments between the Romanian Zion‐ and 'alien' Jews (p. 212)." ist movements and the Yishuv often difered on Three studies make up the third part of the the signifcance of developments (p. 248)." book, dedicated to "the foreign factor" in the his‐ While Vago's study is based on Israeli sources, tory of the Holocaust in Romania. Radu Ioanid, in Carol Iancu ("The Jews of Romania During the An‐ his study "The Fate of Romanian Jews in Nazi Oc‐ tonescu Regime as Refected in French Diplomatic cupied Europe," holds Ion Antonescu directly re‐ Documents"), on the other hand, relies on unpub‐ sponsible for the deportation to the camps in lished documents in the French Foreign Afairs Poland of the Romanian Jewish citizens living in Ministry's archives to examine three issues: anti- Germany, Austria, France, Czechoslovakia, Semitic legislation in Romania, the policy of Ro‐ Poland, and the Netherlands. On the other hand, manianization, and violence against the Jewish
4 H-Net Reviews population. On all three aspects the French gov‐ ans Andrei Pippidi, Serban Papacostea, and Dinu ernment was kept up to date through the reports C. Giurescu, who, through their positions and of its diplomatic representatives in Bucharest, writings, are exercising a considerable infuence who were sympathetic to the plight of the Roma‐ on the development and training of future gener‐ nian Jews, and at the same time could not miss ations of historians. the irony in some of the actions of the Romanian In his study "Fascism, Anti-Semitism, and authorities. Thus, Ambassador Jacques Truelle Mythmaking in East Central Europe--the Case of could not help remarking that the Romanianiza‐ Romania" Vladimir Tismaneanu views the revival tion policy, the slow pace of which was caused by of nationalism, the cult of Antonescu, and anti- difculty in replacing Jewish personnel with Ro‐ Jewish attitudes in the wider context of the East manians, inevitably "led to the Germanization of European countries. In his assessment of national‐ business (p. 260)." Carol Iancu also introduces lit‐ ism, the author draws on a factor that has seldom tle known data for the scholars of the Romanian been revealed in the literature on nationalism, Holocaust: Transnistria was also a place to which the psychological element: the roles resentment, the Germans deported signifcant numbers of national dignity, and self-aggrandizement have Jews from Western Europe: 8,600 from Holland, played in East European post-communist nation‐ 11,600 from France, 7,000 from Belgium (p. 264). alist revivals, all relying heavily on narratives of >From the time of the Antonescu regime, the repeated victimization. At the same time, Tisman‐ last section of the book takes the reader to con‐ eanu points out that "anti-Semitism is a central temporary Romania, focusing on the eforts to motif of these narratives of martyrdom, self-glori‐ cleanse the dictator's image through myths and fcation and exclusionary practices (p. 321)." In historical revisionism. Victor Eskenasy's study, the discussion of present-day anti-Semitism, not "Historiographers Against the Antonescu Myth," only in Romania, but also in Hungary, Croatia, presents the stages in the evolution of Marshal and Poland, Tismaneanu raises another interest‐ Ion Antonescu's image from the leader of a dicta‐ ing issue: in the post-1989 discourse of hatred, torial regime to an emblematic national hero, and anti-Semitism frequently also assumes the form of the endeavors of a few historians with a humanis‐ anti-North Americanism. tic, democratic background to contain the devel‐ The book ends with an extensive study on oping "cult" through a clear appraisal of Antones‐ "Marshal Antonescu's Postcommunist Rehabilita‐ cu and his regime. Besides the rehabilitation drive tion: Cui Bono?" by Michael Shafr. By providing initiated by the Central Committee of the Romani‐ an answer to the question raised in the title, this an Communist Party after 1971, Eskenasy points article throws light on the seamy intricacies of to the role played by the expatriate Romanian mil‐ current Romanian politics. He notes the weight lionaire Iosif Constantin Dragan in supporting that some political operators, like Corneliu Vadim (materially and morally) the development of the Tudor and Adrian Paunescu, can wield due to Antonescu cult and the enrollment of a section of their former association with the Securitate, with the intellectual elite motivated by nationalist pro‐ nationalist circles basking in nostalgia for Ceaus‐ paganda, sycophancy, or simple opportunism escu's "golden age" of terror. With the support of rather than genuine historiographical interest. I.C. Dragan, the same people are also active in the Moreover, it is the latter who have also been ac‐ propagation of Marshal Antonescu's cult. Shafr tive in the extreme nationalist and xenophobic re‐ demonstrates that the resurrected cult of Antones‐ visionist political stream after 1989. Nevertheless, cu is a screen for the "forces of old to undermine Eskenasy's study ends with a review of the "hope Romania's imperfect democracy" (p. 393) and to reserve," i.e. the contemporary Romanian histori‐
5 H-Net Reviews preserve their hold on power in the post-1989 ly, it will help Romanians come to terms with years. "Antonescu's fgure serves both as a model their past. Therefore its translation and publica‐ for legitimization and as blueprint for a future in tion in Romanian should be made a priority. which communist values are no longer relevant, Notes: but power based on ethnocentrism combined [1]. The same events are presented more ex‐ with a measure of populism is (p. 390)." The au‐ tensively by Radu Ioanid in The Sword of the thor unmistakably proves the links between the Archangel: Fascist Ideology in Romania (Boulder; prominent revisionist historians (Gheorghe New York: East European Monographs, distrib‐ Buzatu, Ion Ardelean, Ioan Talpes, Ilie Neacsu, the uted by Columbia University Press, 1990). late Mircea Musat, to mention only some of them) and the structures of power in Ceausescu's Roma‐ [2]. A comprehensive body of documents in nia: the Securitate and the communist party appa‐ English, German, and Romanian concerning this ratus. In addition, Shafr does not fail to mention debate can be found at the homepage of Halb‐ that the eforts of these revisionist historians are jahresschrift fur suedosteuropaische Geschichte, not only limited to the rehabilitation of Marshal Literatur und Politik located at http://home.t-on‐ Antonescu's regime, but also focus on the exoner‐ line.de/home/totok/ion.htm. ation of the Iron Guard, both having been Copyright (c) 1998 by H-Net, all rights re‐ "wronged" by communist historiography. served. This work may be copied for non-proft I would like to commend the editor for educational use if proper credit is given to the re‐ putting together this collection of studies, which is viewer and to HABSBURG. For other permission, rich thanks to its diverse methodological and dis‐ please contact
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Citation: Nicolae Harsanyi. Review of Handler, Andrew; Meschel, Susan V., eds. Red Star, Blue Star: The Lives and Times of Jewish Students in Communist Hungary, 1948-1956. HABSBURG, H-Net Reviews. November, 1998.
URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=2466
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
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