Romania and the Holocaust

JLEES · Post by **JLEES** » 20 Jan 2003 12:16

I’ve read a number of books over the years that touched on Romania’s involvement in the Holocaust. One of the books made a point about how Romania murdered the second highest number of Jews, after that of Nazi-Germany, and that many of the perpetrators were never brought to justice because they switched sides in 1944. Is this true? Was there war crime trials for those Romanian’s whom participated in those actions after the war, or have they been overlooked for the most part due to the Cold War, which followed?
James

David Thompson · Post by **David Thompson** » 20 Jan 2003 18:07

James -- There were a number of war crimes trials conducted by the Romanians after WWII, in which various officials, including Marshal Ion Antonescu, were shot or hanged, while others were imprisoned.

The US Holocaust Memorial Museum website has photographs of Antonescu's execution accessible from:

http://www.ushmm.org/research/collections/

There is also a pdf version of Matatias Carp's "Holocaust in Romania," which gives details of some of the war crimes trials, at:

http://www.hungary.com/corvinus/lib/carp/carp.pdf

Schmauser · Post by **Schmauser** » 21 Jan 2003 01:41

Yes the Romanians preferred to do the killing themselves. I have figures from massacres they committed, but can't access them at the moment. I'm sure that most of those responsible were never brought to justice. Mainly the Army committed atrocities and the Iron Guard had a hand in the slaughter aswell.

~Regards Schmauser

Victor · Post by **Victor** » 21 Jan 2003 13:40

The subject of the Romanian Holocaust has been discussed the previous year in the topic Holocaust in Romania in the Holocaust section of this website. I suggest you try to find it for additional information (regarding Romania murdering a number of Hebrews second only to Germany).

There were trials in 1945. Between 14 and 22 May, the "People's Court" trailed and convicted 38 persons, mostly military personnel. 29 were sentenced to death, but it was later commuted to life in prison. Unfortunately, the Communist dominated government used this trials to get rid of people who had practically no involvement in those crimes.

The second trial took place in July. 16 were convicted: 4 life, 12 between 3 and 25 years and 4 people were acquitted.

Others were later put on trial for war crimes, including, as I already said, some who had nothing to do with it. After the Communists became stronger and stronger the real problem for them was to eliminate those who opposed the new regime (and there were many), not only those guilty of war crimes.

johnny_bi · Post by **johnny_bi** » 22 Jan 2003 07:56

An other interesting site is http://www.uvr.go.ro/Carti/jewish.html
You may find here some data and confessions of Dr. Wilhelm Filderman, head of the Jewish Community in Romania during war. The information is very interesting and reliable, being given by the head of the Jewish Community in Romania.
I think that this may enlight also the position of the Romanian politicians.
Personally I think that the situation, in Bessarabia especially, was much more complicated than many writers want to admit. I also think that the problems in Bessarabia began in the summer of 1940 when the Bessarabia was took over by the Russians from the Romanians. Unfortunatelly, nobody talk about the Romanians deported by Russians in Siberia - even today there are many whole Romanian villages in Siberia... many of the deported Romanians eventually died, many priests, mayors and other Romanian representatives were killed by the Russians. I think that there also many Romanians died ... It would be unfair not to mention about all the people that died there ...

BI

David Thompson · Post by **David Thompson** » 22 Jan 2003 08:22

Johnny -- Thanks for posting the link!

johnny_bi · Post by **johnny_bi** » 22 Jan 2003 12:21

For Schmauser : I suggest you to read the link I gave above ... It is a big difference between Iron Guard and the dictatorship of Marshal Ion Antonescu ... The marshall was not a fascist ...
I think that a more complex analysis has to be done to search and enlight the bad thing and the good things ... I think that it would be wrong to judge an event only in black and white and not to dig for facts, documents and testimonies... The testimony of Wilhelm Filderman seems to be one of the few that is credible...

BI

johnny_bi · Post by **johnny_bi** » 22 Jan 2003 12:52

And by the way the above-mentioned link by Victor is http://www.thirdreichforum.com/phpBB2/v ... php?t=2093

BI