interwar romania
DESCRIPTION
Interwar Romania. Regat. Nation-state before WWI Moldavia, Wallachia, Dobrogea After WWI gained Bessarabia Bucovina Transylvania (Siebenburgen) Banat Crisana- Maramures. The Romanian Jewries: Wallachia. Bucharest W Type: acculturated, wealthy - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Interwar Romania
Regat
• Nation-state before WWI– Moldavia, Wallachia, Dobrogea
• After WWI gained– Bessarabia– Bucovina– Transylvania (Siebenburgen)– Banat– Crisana- Maramures
The Romanian Jewries: Wallachia
• Bucharest– W Type: acculturated, wealthy
• Peasants & bourgeoisie & intelligentsia: antisemitism
The Romanian Jewries: Moldavia
• E type• Cities – proletarian• Yiddish, Hasidism• Strong antisemitism
The Romanian Jewries: Crisana- Maramures
• Before: Hungary• E type• Hasidism x Haskala• Zionism x Bund
The Romanian Jewries: Bukovina
• Before: Austria• E type: poverty, yiddish, orthodox• No strong antisemitism (emancipation 1867)• Czernowitz (Cernauti)
The Romanian Jewries: Bessarabia
• Before: Russia (Odessa)• E type: yiddish,
orthodox• Proletariat + lower
middle class• Kishniev (Chisinau)
The Romanian Jewries: Transylvania & Banat
• Before: Hungary• yiddish, orthodox x neolog• Urban middle class:
„Hungarians of Mosaic faith“ strong antisemitism
• N Transylvania (Maramures) more of E type (towns, yiddish, hasidism)– Satmar (Satu- Mare)– Sighet
Demography, Economics, Identity: Romania
• 1930: 757 000 Jews by religion: – 4,2% of population
Demography, Economics: Wallachia
• Bucharest– Jews 12% of population– High bourgeoisie- BANKERS
Demography, Economics: Moldavia
• Iasi– 1/3 Jewish
• Small towns• Industry + commerce,
professions, crafts
Demography, Economics: Crisana- Maramures
• Poverty, Hasidim• commerce, professions, crafts
Demography, Economics: Bukovina
• Czernowitz (Cernauti)– 40% Jewish
• Little towns, villages• Great poverty• commerce, professions, crafts
Demography, Economics: Bessarabia
• Kishniev (Chisinau)– 36% Jewish
• Little towns, villages• Great poverty• commerce, professions,
crafts
Demography, Economics: N Transylvania (Maramures)
• E pattern• Szatmar (Satu- Mare) 23%• Sighet 40%• towns, villages
Demography, Economics: S Transylvania + Banat
• W pattern• Cluj 14%• Timisoara 10%• towns, villages• Jews= commercial
and industrial middle class
Identity
• FEW: „Romanians of Mosaic faith“– Antisemitic tradition– Berlin Treaty – no citizenship for Jews
assimilation impossible• Autonomous Jewish culture only in Bessarabia
and Bukovina
The Jewish Question
• Emancipation 1923– Regat– Problem: newly gained territories
• Jews stateless
• Liberal Party, National Peasant Party – opposed to radical antisemitism
• League of National Christian Defense – radically antisemitic– Prof. Alexandru CUZA – Uni of Iasi
League of National Christian Defense
• 1928 manifesto of the National- Christian Defense League:
• "Romanian brethren! The Land of the Romanians faces a great peril. The kikes, with assistance from Judaized Romanians and the political parties, as tools of the kikes, are gambling with the future of the Country and Folk."
Jewish PoliticsRegat:
Wallachia, Moldavia
• UER (Union of Romanian Jews)– Bucharest bourgeoisieRomanizationFor legal equality & full
emancipationFILDERMAN Not Zionist: Political not
national emancipationAlliances with Romanian partiesBelieved in doykait
New Territories: Transylvania, Bukovina, Bessarabia
• Bund: Bessarabia& Bukovina
• Agudat Israel: Bessarabia (Tsirelson), Transylvania
X• Zionism: Bessarabia
(Kishniev) & Bukovina
ZionismRegat:
Wallachia, MoldaviaNew Territories:
Transylvania, Bukovina, Bessarabia
• Transylvania: more assimilated to Hungary– N – Hasidic communities –
backwards– Romanian antisemitism
Zionism• 1928: Jewish National Club
in Parliament – (supported by Tsirelson)
• Moldavia– Galician type Jewry– Zionism
• Zionism focused on building Palestine no conflicts with UER: Jews in Romania
Jewish PoliticsRegat:
Wallachia, MoldaviaNew Territories:
Transylvania, Bukovina, Bessarabia
1930´s :
antagonism among UER & Jewish Party diminished (x fascism)
1936 CENTRAL COUNCIL OF ROMANIAN JEWS, led by FILDERMAN
Education
• Bessarabia, Bukovina– important centers of secular culture– Tarbut and Yiddish schools in Bessarabia
Radical Antisemitism: Overview
Moderate R• King Carol• 1938-40 ROYAL
DICTATORSHIP• 1940 loss of territories
(USSR, Hungary, Bulgaria) – abdicated
Radical R• IRON GUARD
– Corneliu CODREANU• 1937 short lived
government under poet Octovian GOGA
• 1940 FASCIST REGIME: IRON GUARD + Marshal ION ANTONESCU
• 1941 ANTONESCU seized complete control and destroyed Iron Guard
Radical Antisemitism: Details
• 1934 NATIONAL WORK LAW– 80% of employees must be Romanians
• King supported Jewish emigration to Palestine – supported also by Codreanu (radical R)
• Goga- Cuza regime:– Jewish rights must be revoked– Jewish newcomers (after 1919) must be expulsed– Jewish newspaper shut down– Expulsion from professional organizations
Radical Antisemitism: Details
• 1938– March – King´s coup – new government leader an
ORTHODOX PATRIARCH– Late 1938 – brutal campaign x the Iron guard,
Codreanu murdered– King abolished constitution DICTATORSHIP
• 1939 – 270 000 Jews deprived of their citizenship
Radical Antisemitism: Details• 1940
– Summer: loss of Bessarabia and N Bukovina– Racial laws (certain exemption for pre-war citizens) Jews:
• Can not own land• Can not publish newspapers• Can not be in the army• Can not make part of public life• Can not deal in goods• Can not marry gentiles• Can not convert• Jewish institutions closed and parties outlawed• Numerus clausus at high schools
Romania : center for illegal immigration to Palestine
Radical Antisemitism: Details
• 1940– Sep – King abdicated– Iron Guard government + Marshal
ANTONESCU = BEGGINING OF HOLOCAUST in Romania
• 1941– Jan – BLOODY POGROM IN BUCHAREST– ANTONESCU SEIZED THE POWER
• „good Jews“ – Regat, S Transylvania• Bessarabia, Bucovina – Jews murdered
during the reconquest from the USSR
1944• King MIHAI– COUP X ANTONESCU– ROMANIA JOINED
ALLIES– 57% of Romanian Jews
still alive – more than anywhere else in ECE