Romania and the Holocaust: Delicate Reappraisal of a Fateful Past
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
1 / 2011 ROMANIA AND THE HOLOCAUST: DELICATE REAPPRAISAL OF A FATEFUL PAST Guest Editor: Daniel Ursprung (Zürich) Hidden in plain sight. The Holocaust Memorial in Bucharest. (Photo: Daniel Ursprung) Online Journal of the Center for Governance and Culture in Europe University of St. Gallen www.gce.unisg.ch Managing Editor Maria Tagangaeva Center for Governance and LANDIS & GYR Culture in Europe Last Update 26.11.2012 STIFtuNG University of St.Gallen Table of Contents Romania and the Holocaust: Delicate Reappraisal of a Fateful Past Editorial 3 The Cult of Antonescu and the Delayed Reappraisal of the Romanian Holo- caust Mariana Hausleitner, Free University of Berlin 4 Reception of the Final Report of the International Commission for Investiga- tion of the Romanian Holocaust (“Wiesel Commission”) William Totok, Berlin 7 Perceptions of the Holocaust in Contemporary Romania: Between Film and Television Victor Eskenasy, Frankfurt am Main 10 Romanian Interest in the Deportation of Roma to Transnistria (1942-1944) Viorel Achim, Nicolae Iorga Institute of History, Bucharest 13 Euxeinos 1 (2011) 2 Romania and the Holocaust: Delicate Reappraisal of a Fateful Past uring the Second World War, Romania of it throughvaluable new archival discover- Dwas directly responsible for the deaths ies and findings, outside this circle of spe- of between 280,000 and 380,000 Jews and ap- cialists there has not been a broad societal proximately 11,000 Roma. This is one of the debate about Romania’s responsibility for the most important insights of the final report persecution and murder of Jews and Roma. of the Historical Commission led by Nobel The following articles illuminate the Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel, which was theme from diverse perspectives. Mariane Editorial appointed in 2003/04 by Romanian President Hausleitner traces an overview of the nature Iliescu to investigate the role of Romania un- of engagement with the Antonescu regime in der the regime of the military dictator Ion the postwar period, especially focusing on Antonescu. The Romanian authorities only the flourishing Antonescu cult after 1990, and acknowledged the responsibility of the An- briefly discusses the current state of research. tonescu Regime reluctantly. The trigger for In William Totok’s article the reaction to the the establishment of the Wiesel Commission Wiesel Commission’s report is described. The was not the desire to deal with the past, but author notes that in purely quantitative terms rather the increasingly apparent outrage in a hostile-revisionist reception prevailed, Western countries over the denial or trivial- while a historical-critical reception only ap- ization of the Romanian role in the Holocaust, peared to a limited extent. Victor Eskenasy including by official representatives of the notes a similar phenomenon in terms of pop- state like Iliescu himself. The official acknowl- ular depictions of the Holocaust in film and edgement of the responsibility of the Roma- television. Despite an impressive number of nian state for the mass murders must also serious scholarly works and document col- be seen in the context of the country’s then lections, in this area a very ambiguous han- forthcoming admission to NATO and the EU. dling of the issue still prevails. There are three Nearly seven years after the state officially main reasons for this: the prevalence of deni- recognized its responsibility for the crimes of alism as a result of traditional anti-Semitism, the Antonescu regime, there is no sign of a the reluctance of prominent intellectuals to critical public discourse on this dark chapter address the general public, and finally the of Romanian history and no general aware- inaccessibility of the specialist literature due ness of this tragedy in wide circles of the to high prices and limited editions. Finally, public. Some of the recommendations of the Viorel Achim’s contribution focuses on a too commission have indeed been implemented often forgotten aspect of the Holocaust: the – like the establishment of a Holocaust Me- deportation of about 25,000 Roma in Roma- morial in Bucharest. As the items in this is- nian-occupied Transnistria (the area between sue of Euxeinos show, however, indifference the rivers Dniester and Bug), nearly half of and apathy continue to prevail, while the whom did not survive. Compared to the popular treatments of the topic in the media nineties, the reappraisal of Romanian History get bogged down in vague statements in the in relation to the Holocaust and the Second best case, while in the worst case they deny World War has indeed made some progress. responsibility. Although by now not only for- Nonetheless, as these articles demonstrate, a eign historians, but increasingly also Roma- critical examination of its own history on a nian historians have dealt with the topic and broad basis may still be a while in coming. brought to light many specific aspects Daniel Ursprung, Zürich Euxeinos 1 (2011) e-mail: [email protected] 3 The Cult of Antonescu and the Delayed Reappraisal of the Romanian Holocaust by Mariana Hausleitner, Free University of Berlin fter General Antonescu came to power there was no earning potential, and the de- Ain September 1940, Romania became an portees could only secure food by selling important ally of the German Reich. Ion An- their meager portable possessions to farmers. tonescu ruled for five months jointly with the Jews from Bessarabia, in particular, came to Iron Guard, a widespread fascist movement. Transnistria without any possessions follow- In January 1941, the Iron Guard attempted ing long marches. Hundreds of thousands to oust the general through an insurrection. starved or died of deficiency diseases like Hitler sided, however, with the general, as epidemic typhus. In Bucharest Ion Antones- order was the German Reich’s priority in Ro- cu, who had risen to Marshal, had allowed mania. The country was intended as a staging a plan to ethnically cleanse Romania to be ground for the scheduled attack on the Soviet drawn up. In October 1941, Sabin Manuilă, Union and its oil wells were of central impor- director of the Central Statistical Institute, tance to the German war effort. During the devised a plan for the systematic expulsion insurrection a pogrom occurred in Bucharest, of 3.5 million non-Romanians. Communities in which over one hundred Jews were mur- of Romanian minorities from abroad were dered. to be settled in place of the Hungarians and In the first weeks after the attack on Ukrainians, while Manuilă spoke cynically the Soviet Union, the persecution of the Jews of a “one-way transfer” of Jews and Gypsies/ took on a new dimension. In the city of Iaşi Roma. The first 20,000 Roma were deported in northeastern Romania on June 29, 1941, in 1942. In 1943, the intended expulsion of around 13,000 Jews were murdered by gen- over one million Slavs from Bessarabia and darmes, soldiers, armed legionnaires and ci- North Bukovina remained in its earliest stag- vilians. There were many more victims in the es, because the condition of the Romanian summer of 1941 in Bessarabia and North Bu- army had drastically worsened after the de- kovina, districts which the Romanian army feat at Stalingrad. Already by the spring of had been forced to evacuate in June 1940 due 1944 the Red Army had captured Bessarabia to a Soviet ultimatum. After the recapture of and North Bukovina. On August 23, 1944, these areas, through the end of 1941, between Marshal Antonescu and Prime Minister Mi- 45,000 and 60,000 Jews were murdered by hai Antonescu were arrested by the King. the Romanian army and small units of the As a result, the Romanian army was able to German Einsatzgruppe D. In August 1941, make an about-face, fighting thereafter on the German Reich ceded the Ukrainian terri- the side of the Red Army to recapture North tory between the Dniester and Southern Bug Transylvania, which Hungary had gained by rivers, called Transnistria, to its Romanian the Second Vienna Award of 1940. ally as an occupation zone. Afterwards, the Ion and Mihai Antonescu were put to Gendarmerie deported Jews from Bukovina death on June 1, 1946, after a trial in which the and Bessarabia to that area. This region was mass murder of the Jews and Roma played utterly devastated throughout the war, and only a marginal role. At its center stood the roughly 130,000 Jews fled or were killed. The Romanian army’s devastation of the territory largest massacres were carried out here: in of the Soviet Union. However, the magnitude Odessa the Romanian army murdered about of the mass crimes was known, because in 20,000 Jews in October 1941. In Transnistria 1946 Matatias Carp, the secretary of the Fede- Euxeinos 1 (2011) 4 Mariana Hausleitner ration of Jewish Municipalities published presentatives of the Hungarian minority left many documents in Black Book. The Suffer- the room in protest. Streets were named af- ing of the Jews of Romania 1940-1944 (Cartea ter Antonescu and busts of himinstalled in neagră. Suferinţele evreilor din România several large cities. Countless publications 1940-1944). This book disappeared from Ro- appeared celebrating him as a patriot who manian libraries, however, after Stalin or- reclaimed Bessarabia and the Bukovina in dered the confiscation of the corresponding 1941. Many Romanian politicians themselves Black Book about the mass murder of Jews in hoped for annexation of both regions af- the territory of the Soviet Union. ter the collapse of the Soviet Union. At that After 1949 only the murders in Iaşi time Romanian historians in the Republic of were discussed in Romania and the Weh- Moldova also took up the Cult of Antonescu, rmacht was blamed for them. Nothing was while members of the Slavic minorities vehe- published about Bessarabia and North Bu- mently criticized it.