ANA BĂRBULESCU

Abstract

This study focuses on the antisemitic narratives of 19th-century Romania, claiming that even when similar labels are used to construct a social category, the resulting narratives differ, depending on the intended public and the author(s)’ purpose. We consider three categories of analytical sources – folk literature products, cultivated literature products, and political writings authored by representatives of Romanian literature, aiming to reconstruct, for each one of them, the symbolic frame used to depict Jewishness.

Keywords: antisemitism; Romania; 19th century; stereotypes

CEEOL: https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=1303994

MARIAN PĂTRU

Abstract:

The study examines the visual antisemitism propagated by two gazettes for peasants published in Transylvania, one before 1918 (Gura satului – Village Voice) and one during the interwar period (Lumina satelor – The Light of Villages’). By researching caricatures on Jews and the stereotypes about them, the current study highlights the continuities and discontinuities in the antisemitic imaginary articulated by the two periodicals.

Keywords: visual antisemitism, Romanian gazettes for peasants, Transylvania, interwar Romania, The Lord’s Army.

CEEOL: https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=1304007

IOAN SEBASTIAN CRINTEA

Abstract:

This article aims to present the nationalism and antisemitism promoted by N. Davidescu in the interwar period. I was interested to analyze the first and so far unnoticed connections with these ideologies that he had at the beginning of his literary career. The ambiguities of
the early part of his life became a violent form of antisemitism in the later 1930s. Using unclear concepts such as “Romanian spirit”, “collective soul”, and “territorial collectivity”, he developed an antisemitic ideology with the goal of demonstrating the dangerous character of the Jews’ presence in Romania. They were accused of dominating the country and ruining its economy. The Jews were portrayed as aggressors, and the Romanians were threatened to be subjugated by them. The only chance to defeat those depicted as conquerors was to erect a totalitarian state that would successfully defend the Romanian people.

Keywords: antisemitism, nationalism, interwar Romania, Nicolae Davidescu, Jews

CEEOL: https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=1304016

ADINA MARINCEA

Abstract:

Despite legal condemnations of the Romanian war criminals and the existing – but poorly implemented – legal sanctions, we see an increasing rehabilitation of historical figures responsible for the Holocaust in Romania. A reframing and rewriting of history are taking
place through the whitewashing of the most radical interwar fascist criminals and ideologues as “martyrs” and anti-communist “prison saints”. Antisemitic, ultranationalist ideas and discourses of the Romanian interwar far-right are being repackaged with the help of the online environment, and a reversal of the victim/perpetrator roles occurs. This is done by a network of actors, ranging from grassroots neo-legionary, Orthodox fundamentalist, and ultranationalist groups, right-wing football ultras, and “alternative” media up to the highest form of representative democracy. The 2020 legislative elections marked a historical turn through the access to power of “radical return” parties and politicians reviving fascist inter-war symbols for the first time after 1989. As a result, far-right senators are livestreaming political declarations honoring war criminals such as Mircea Vulcănescu and downplaying the Holocaust, normalizing such revisionist, denialist attitudes. The current study maps the contemporary far-right network of actors who actively contribute to this process of rehabilitation, rewriting, and circulation of fascist interwar memory through digital videos, memes, blog articles, social media content, and public chats. The study employs a network analysis and a qualitative content analysis, starting from a corpus of posts extracted from 28 Romanian far-right Telegram channels. The analysis uncovers the discursive mechanisms employed in this process of far-right digital memory activism.

Keywords: Holocaust, war criminals, Legionary movement, far-right, digital memory activism

CEEOL: https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=1304027

MAX-ANTON LÖSCHE

Abstract:

Football subcultures like those of ultras and hooligans are infamous for their proximity and welcoming attitudes towards far-right and right-wing extremist actors and ideologies in Eastern Europe. Romania makes no exception. While not all ultras or hooligans can be categorized as far-right or right-wing extremists, this article takes a close and in-depth look into the political expression, mentalities, and networks of the Romanian football subculture. Through research from the inside of the social media channels, stadiums, and events set up by the groups analyzed in this paper, the author focuses on three main elements: political expression and opinions of Romanian ultras and hooligans, their networks in Europe, and the threat they pose to the democratic society through violence. The article concludes that taking the developments in the football subculture seriously means to understand the three mentioned elements as a dangerous synthesis that can become a threat, one that is overlooked or generally downplayed by the state authorities.

Keywords: football, fascism, hooligans, racism, legion

CEEOL: https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=1304062

POMPILIU-NICOLAE CONSTANTIN

Abstract:

Lenke Ziszovits-Popper was born in 1909 into a Jewish family in Petrozsény, a town in the Austro-Hungarian empire, which was renamed Petroșani after 1920, when it became part of Romania. She is recognized as a prominent tennis player representing the Oradea Athletic club, her sporting achievements during the 1920s and 1930s making her one of the leading female athletes in interwar Romania. Despite the challenging circumstances of her era, which was marked by antisemitism, she embraced her ethnic identity, actively participated in her community, and competed in a tennis tournament even in Nazi Germany, where she secured a trophy. However, Lenke Ziszovits-Popper was forced to cease her sporting activity after Northern Transylvania was annexed by Hungary, which resulted in the exclusion of Jewish individuals from sporting activities. Furthermore, she was forcibly relocated to the Oradea ghetto, where she was subsequently transported to the extermination camp in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Her life was tragically ended in the gas chamber. Her premature death contributed to her falling into oblivion in the context of the historical transformations within Romanian society. This research aims at rehabilitating the historical significance of Lenke Ziszovits-Popper, not only as an athlete and a representative of modern women in interwar Romania but also as a notable figure of the Jewish community and a Holocaust victim.

Keywords: Holocaust, tennis champion, Jewish personality, interwar Romania

CEEOL: https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=1304107

ȘTEFAN BOSOMITU

Abstract:

This article analyzes several cases in which Jewish ethnics were indicted, convicted, and executed by the authorities of the Antonescu regime. In most cases, the facts of which they were accused were assimilated by the prosecutors and judges to the sphere of conspiratorial illegal communist activity without sufficient or clear evidence to prove this. The method entailed at least two benefits for the authorities: on the one hand, it supported the idea of the predominance of Jews in the communist movement, thus justifying the correlation of Jewishness with the “Bolshevik danger”; on the other hand, it justified the antisemitic policies and anti-racial laws of the Ion Antonescu regime. From this point of view, my article’s objective is an analysis of these stories based on historical sources, which seeks to unveil and reinterpret such “captive” histories.

Keywords: antifascism, World War II, death sentences, antisemitism

CEEOL: https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=1304110

EMANUEL MARIUS GREC

Abstract:

Romanian postwar trials were not just acts of justice, retribution, and pedagogy but also a platform where perpetrators tried to excuse their behavior during the war by emphasizing their so-called “humanity,” “friendship to the Jews”, lack of choices, as well as a way to
present their own twisted interpretation of “the law”. In this study, I focus on the trial of Nicolae Macici, arguably the most symbolic perpetrator from the Odesa Massacre, while trying to map how public accusers framed his case, how the general established his defense, and how these aspects interacted with the historical case of the Odesa Massacre. Some of the main questions presented here are: What was the role Macici played in the massacre, as presented in the trial? What did Macici say about his own actions and those of others? How did other accused people and witnesses relate to the general, and how did they interpret the roles of the orders and the military hierarchy within the Romanian Army? In which ways did the prosecutors present him, and why did they choose to do so? By reconstructing and deconstructing specific aspects of the postwar trial of General Macici, we can relate not only to the events of the massacre itself but also to see how the mind of a perpetrator works.

Keywords: Odesa Massacre, postwar trials, Holocaust in Romania, Nicolae Macici, genocide

CEEOL: https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=1304115

PETRE MATEI

Abstract:

This article examines 286 compensation claims submitted in the summer of 1970 by survivors from Buzău County, Romania. The analysis encompasses three categories of claims: from Jews (169 compensation forms), from either sedentary or nomadic Roma (109), and from “political prisoners” (8). The study’s objective is to assess to what extent, and under what conditions, this collection of compensation claims can contribute to our understanding of the Holocaust in Romania. Given that the primary purpose of these claims was to secure West-German compensation rather than to provide historical information (which was consequently presented and filtered by both the claimants and the Romanian authorities), the article concludes that this collection of compensation claims can only prove useful, if considered within its specific context and approached with caution. The study thus offers insights into the complexities of using such compensation claims as historical sources and their potential limitations in Holocaust research.

Keywords: Holocaust, genocide, Jews, Roma, compensation, Romania, Buzău County, Râmnicu Sărat County, ITS, AROLSEN archives

CEEOL: https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=1304118

ANCA BĂLAN

Abstract:

The main aim of this approach is to complete the picture of how the Romanian Orthodox Church (ROC) relates in the post-communist period to the role it played in the interwar period in the unfolding of the Holocaust in Romania. Three models of the Holocaust will be correlated to answer whether the ROC is an optic community in the sense that Eviatar Zerubavel confers to this concept: the institutional model of the church, the scientific model, and the social model. We consider the institutional model of the Holocaust to be at the intersection of the models corresponding to the two levels of the church under consideration: clerical (including the episcopal one) and lay. In structuring the episcopal model, we used the thematic analysis of articles dealing with the Holocaust or a related topic in the publications of the Patriarchate and the inland Metropolises, the period of analysis being 1990-2023. For the same period, the social pages of priests, laymen, and laity associations, macro- and micro-social media influencers are analyzed at clerical and lay level. The main conclusion of the analysis of the correspondence between the mnemonic models of the Holocaust mentioned above is that the ROC acts as an optic community. At the same time, the Romanian Orthodox church shows itself as a mnemonic community that recalls the past regarding the phenomenon of the Holocaust in Romania in a certain way and constrains how this past is recalled.

Keywords: Romanian Orthodox church, mnemonic model, Holocaust in Romania, optic community

CEEOL: https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=1304124