The Ioanid Gang ( Romanian : Banda Ioanid ) is the name given by Communist propaganda to a group in Communist Romania named after two of its members, Alexandru and Paul Ioanid. They were accused of carrying out on 28 July 1959 the most famous bank robbery in a Communist state .
189-475: An armed group of six Jewish Romanian intellectuals and Communist Party cadres (Alexandru Ioanid, Paul Ioanid, Igor Sevianu, Monica Sevianu, Sașa Mușat, and Haralambie Obedeanu) were alleged to have stolen 1,600,000 Romanian lei (about 250,000 US dollars in 1959) from an armoured car of the National Bank of Romania in 1959. The first five were alleged to have been in a getaway car, while Obedeanu
378-469: A Leninist program was about to be adopted). According to Frunză, although contrasted by the Communist press with its previous equivalent, the measure was supposedly much less relevant—land awarded to individual farmers in 1923 was more than three times the 1945 figures, and all effects were canceled by the 1948–1962 collectivization . It was also then that, through Pătrășcanu and Alexandru Drăghici ,
567-625: A planned economy were enforced beginning 11 June 1948. The first five-year plan , conceived by Miron Constantinescu 's Soviet-Romanian committee, was adopted in 1950. Of newly enforced measures, the arguably most far-reaching was collectivization —by 1962, when the process was considered complete, 96% of the total arable land had been enclosed in collective farming , while around 80,000 peasants faced trial for resisting and 17,000 others were uprooted or deported for being chiaburi (the Romanian equivalent of kulaks ). Chiaburs were defined by
756-523: A European power, and his own fascist sympathies , made King Carol II , who was still largely identified as a philo-Semite , adopt racial discrimination as the norm. In the recent election, over 25% of the electorate had voted for explicitly antisemitic groups (either the Goga-Cuza alliance (9%) or the Iron Guard's political mouthpiece, TPT(16.5%)), and as a result, Carol was forced to let one of
945-653: A Stalin-backed group around Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej before and after the large-scale Grivița Strikes . In 1934, Stalin's Popular Front doctrine was not fully passed into the local party's politics, mainly due to the Soviet territorial policies (culminating in the 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact ) and the widespread suspicion other left-wing forces maintained toward the Comintern. The Communists did, nevertheless, attempt to reach consensus with other groupings on several occasions (in 1934–1943, they established alliances with
1134-418: A building across the street from his apartment. Moreover, also for months preceding July 1959 the phones of the "Ioanid Gang" members had been tapped. In the aftermath, several of the friends with whom they had talked lost their jobs or positions. After 28 July, the group was said to have engaged in reckless spending on luxuries, depicted in the original Reconstruction movie. It is, however, highly unlikely that
1323-542: A constitution a clause excluding from the right of suffrage all who did not profess Christianity. On December 4, 1864, Jews in Romania were barred from practicing law. When Charles von Hohenzollern succeeded Cuza in 1866 as Carol I of Romania , the first event that confronted him in the capital was a riot against the Jews. A draft of a constitution was then submitted by the government, Article 6 of which declared that "religion
1512-594: A crucial role in supporting the Communist Party's rise to power as the Soviet military command virtually ruled the city and the country ( see Soviet occupation of Romania ). After having been underground for two decades, the Communists enjoyed little popular support at first, compared to the other opposition parties (however, the decrease in popularity of the National Liberals was reflected in
1701-416: A draft of a constitution granting universal suffrage . He proposed creating two chambers (of senators and deputies respectively), to extend the franchise to all citizens, and to emancipate the peasants from forced labor (expecting to nullify the remaining influence of the landowners – no longer boyars after the land reform ). In the process, Cuza also expected financial support from both
1890-496: A large part of a community of foreign creditors and traders, Jews were harassed by the hospodars of the two Principalities. Moldavia's Prince Stephen IV (1522) deprived the Jewish merchants of almost all the rights given to them by his two predecessors; Petru Rareș confiscated Jewish wealth in 1541, after alleging that Jews in the cattle trade had engaged in tax evasion . Alexandru Lăpușneanu (first rule: 1552–61) persecuted
2079-657: A number of Romanian Armed Forces officers, and armed Communist-led civilians supported by the National Democratic Bloc arrested dictator Ion Antonescu and seized control of the state ( see King Michael's Coup ). King Michael then proclaimed the old 1923 Constitution in force, ordered the Romanian Army to enter a ceasefire with the Red Army on the Moldavian front, and withdrew Romania from
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#17327934914782268-684: A person living in Romania at the time, let alone such educated individuals, could have imagined being able to get away with such behaviour unnoticed by the surveillance apparatus. Moreover, in Obedeanu's case for example, the crew making the Reconstruction film resorted to bringing furnishing props, including carpets, furniture and curtains, to his apartment in order to show how he had spent the money. Obedeanu never really changed his spending habits, unlike apparently (according to Irene Lusztig ) Sevianu, leading some to believe that, in trying to stage
2457-417: A piece of legislation was voted to deprive Jewish children of the right to be educated in the public schools – they were to be received only if and where children of citizens had been provided for, and their parents were required to pay preferential tuition fees . In 1898, it was passed into law that Jews were to be excluded from secondary schools and the universities. Another notable measure
2646-537: A purge in the Securitate ranks – by accusing officers of incompetence in solving the case – as well as to remove most remaining Jews from leading positions inside the government and the Communist Party . Yet another contention with no evidence is that the executions were staged, so that the five men would have their records erased and become undercover agents abroad. Since most evidence has been filtered by
2835-526: A steady pace in its suppression of" class enemies ", until as late as 1962–1964. In 1962–1964, the party leadership approved a mass amnesty , extended to, among other prisoners, ca. 6,700 guilty of political crimes . This marked a toning down in the violence and scale of repression, after almost twenty years during which the Party had acted against political opposition and active anti-communist resistance , as well as against religious institutions (most notably,
3024-422: A stereotypical image of the regime as illegitimate. The early Communist Party had little influence in Romania. This was due to a number of factors: the country's lack of industrial development , which resulted in a relatively small working class (with industry and mining employing fewer than 10% of the active population ) and a large peasant population; the minor impact of Marxism among Romanian intellectuals ;
3213-406: A ten-year term before the applicant was given an evaluation). The gesture was doubled by a show of compliance – 883 Jews, participants in the war, were naturalized in a body by a vote of both chambers. Fifty-seven persons voted upon as individuals were naturalized in 1880; 6, in 1881; 2, in 1882; 2, in 1883; and 18, from 1886 to 1900; in all, 85 Jews in twenty-one years, 27 of whom in
3402-533: A time when troops were suffering major defeats on the Eastern Front , the PCdR proposed that all parties form a Blocul Național Democrat ("National Democratic Bloc"), in order to arrange for Romania to withdraw from its alliance with Nazi Germany. The ensuing talks were prolonged by various factors, most notably by the opposition of National Peasants' Party leader Iuliu Maniu , who, alarmed by Soviet successes,
3591-401: A very short term in which this could be achieved – 20 days); However, Carol II himself was highly hostile to antisemitism . His lover, Elena Lupescu , was Jewish , as were a number of his friends in government , and he soon reverted to his original policies (that is, fiercely opposing the antisemites and fascists), but with a newly violent sting. On February 12, 1938, he used
3780-651: Is consistently carrying out the policy of enclosing and eliminating capitalist elements". Gheorghiu-Dej, who remained an orthodox Stalinist, took the position of Premier while moving Groza to the presidency of the Presidium of the Great National Assembly (de facto President of the People's Republic ). Executive and PMR leaderships remained in Gheorghiu-Dej's hands until his death in 1965 (with
3969-609: Is known about the group members (journalists, a physicist, a history professor, and a Securitate colonel, all of them were fully cognizant of the Romanian situation) and about the political climate at the time, as well as on recollections of some family members, another scenario also seems likely. Following prolonged Securitate surveillance of the group, which resulted in the accumulation of evidence about conversations with dissident tones, members may have been blackmailed including threatened with harm against their families and themselves, and promised some reprieve or even permission to leave
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#17327934914784158-493: Is no obstacle to citizenship "; but, "with regard to the Jews, a special law will have to be framed in order to regulate their admission to naturalization and also to civil rights ". On June 30, 1866, the Bucharest Synagogue was desecrated and demolished (it was rebuilt in the same year, then restored in 1932 and 1945). Many Jews were beaten, maimed, and robbed. As a result, Article 6 was withdrawn and Article 7
4347-463: Is safe to place the minimum number of Jewish emigrants from 1898 to 1904 at 70,000. By 1900 there were 250,000 Romanian Jews: 3.3% of the population, 14.6% of the city dwellers, 32% of the Moldavian urban population and 42% of Iași . Land issues and Jewish presence among estate leaseholders accounted for the 1907 Romanian Peasants' Revolt , partly antisemitic in message. During the same period,
4536-718: The Francs-tireurs ' Olga Bancic , Nicolae Cristea and Joseph Boczov . As Romania came under the rule of Ion Antonescu and, as an Axis country, joined in the German offensive against the Soviets , the Communist Party began approaching traditional parties that were engaged in semi-clandestine opposition to Antonescu: alongside the Social Democrats , it began talks with the National Peasants ' and
4725-922: The Balkans established communities in Wallachian-ruled Oltenia . In Moldavia, Scarlat Callimachi 's Code (1817) allowed Jews to purchase urban property, but prevented them from settling in the countryside (while purchasing town property became increasingly difficult due to popular prejudice). During the Greek War of Independence , which signaled the Wallachian uprising of 1821 and the Danubian Principalities ' occupation by Filiki Eteria troops under Alexander Ypsilantis , Jews were victims of pogroms and persecutions in places such as Fălticeni , Hertsa , Piatra Neamț ,
4914-617: The Conservative Party , although including Junimea' s leaders, did not do much to improve the Jews' condition – mainly due to PNL opposition. Nonetheless, during this same era, Romania was the cradle of Yiddish theatre . The Russian-born Abraham Goldfaden started the first professional Yiddish theatre company in Iași in 1876 and for several years, especially during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 Romania
5103-682: The Dniester ( see Cumania ); they may have been present in some Moldavian fairs by the 16th century or earlier. The earliest Jewish (most likely Sephardi ) presence in what would become Moldavia was recorded in Cetatea Albă (1330); in Wallachia , they were first attested in the 1550s, living in Bucharest . During the second half of the 14th century, the future territory of Romania became an important place of refuge for Jews expelled from
5292-651: The Eastern bloc —notably, the anti-"Cosmopolitan" campaign in which Joseph Stalin targeted Jews in the Soviet Union, and the Prague Trials in Czechoslovakia which removed Jews from leading positions in that country's Communist government. At the same time, a new republican constitution , replacing its 1948 precedent, legislated Stalinist tenets, and proclaimed that "the people's democratic state
5481-518: The Great Depression in Romania , and the series of strikes infiltrated (and sometimes provoked) by the interior wing signified relative successes ( see Lupeni Strike of 1929 ), but gains were not capitalized—as lack of ideological appeal and suspicion of Stalinist directives remained notable factors. In parallel, its leadership suffered changes that were meant to place it under an ethnic Romanian and working-class leadership—the emergence of
5670-710: The Kingdom of Hungary and Poland by King Louis I . In Transylvania , Hungarian Jews were recorded in Saxon citadels around 1492. Prince Roman I (1391-1394?) exempted the Jews from military service , in exchange for a tax of 3 löwenthaler per person. Also in Moldavia, Stephen the Great (1457–1504) treated Jews with consideration. Isaac ben Benjamin Shor of Iași ( Isak Bey , originally employed by Uzun Hassan )
5859-534: The National Bank of Romania was passed into full public ownership (December 1946), and, in order to combat the Romanian leu 's devaluation , a surprise monetary reform was imposed as a stabilization measure in August 1947 (severely limiting the amount convertible by people without an actual job, primarily members of the aristocracy). The Marshall Plan was being overtly condemned, while nationalization and
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6048-513: The National Liberal parties. At the time, virtually all the interior leadership was imprisoned at various locations (most of them interned at Caransebeș or in a concentration camp near Târgu Jiu ). Some communists, such as Petre Gheorghe , Filimon Sârbu , Francisc Panet or Ștefan Plavăț , tried to establish organised resistance groups; however, they were quickly captured by the Romanian authorities and executed, as were some of
6237-601: The National Peasants' Party against King Carol II and the Gheorghe Tătărescu government (who had intensified repression of Communist groups), finding themselves placed in an unusual position after the Iron Guard , a fascist movement, signed an electoral pact with Maniu; participation in the move was explained by Communist historiography as provoked by the Social-Democrats ' refusal to collaborate with
6426-564: The People's Democratic Front (FND), which won with 93.2 percent of the vote. By then, however, the FND had taken on the same character as other " popular fronts "in the Soviet bloc. The member parties became completely subservient to the PMR, and had to accept its" leading role "as a condition of their continued existence. Groza, however, remained Prime Minister. A new series of economic changes followed:
6615-624: The Ploughmen's Front , the Hungarian People's Union , and the Socialist Peasants' Party ), and small Communist groups became active in the leftist sections of mainstream parties. In 1934, Petre Constantinescu-Iași and other PCdR supporters created Amicii URSS , a pro-Soviet group reaching out to intellectuals , itself banned later in the same year. During the 1937 elections , the Communists backed Iuliu Maniu and
6804-637: The Roman Empire had established its rule over Dacia . Inscriptions and coins have been found in such places as Sarmizegetusa and Orșova . The existence of the Crimean Karaites , an ethnic group adherent of Karaite Judaism , suggests that there was a steady Jewish presence around the Black Sea , including in parts of today's Romania, in the trading ports from the mouths of the Danube and
6993-712: The Romanian Revolution , but Romania kept its socialist-era constitution until 1991. Romania also retained its membership in the Warsaw Pact until its dissolution on 1 July 1991; that role had been largely symbolic since the late 1960s. The PCR co-ordinated several organizations during its existence, including the Union of Communist Youth , and organized training for its cadres at the Ștefan Gheorghiu Academy (future SNSPA ). In addition to Scînteia , its official platform and main newspaper between 1931 and 1989,
7182-627: The Romanian Roman Catholic and Greek-Catholic Churches). Estimates for the total number of victims in the 1947/1948-1964 period vary significantly: as low as 160,000 or 282,000 political prisoners, and as high 600,000 (according to one estimate, about 190,000 people were killed or died in custody— ). Notorious penal facilities of the time included the Danube-Black Sea Canal , Sighet , Gherla , Aiud , Pitești , and Râmnicu Sărat ; another method of punishment
7371-766: The Secu Monastery , Târgoviște , and Târgu Frumos . Jews in Galați managed to escape over the Prut River with assistance from Austrian diplomats. Weakened by the clash between Ypsilantis and Tudor Vladimirescu , the Eterists were massacred by the Ottoman intervention armies, and during this episode, Jewish communities engaged in reprisals in Secu and Slatina . Following the 1829 Treaty of Adrianople (which allowed
7560-600: The Socialist-Communist Party ( Partidul Socialist-Comunist ) and, soon after, the Communist Party of Romania ( Partidul Comunist din România or PCdR ). Government crackdown and competition with other socialist groups brought a drastic reduction in its membership—from the ca. 40,000 members the Socialist Party had, the new group was left with as much as 2,000 or as little as 500; after
7749-636: The Transnistria Governorate . An additional 135,000 Jews living under Hungarian control in Northern Transylvania also were murdered in the Holocaust, as were some 5,000 Romanian Jews in other countries. On the current territory of Romania, between 290,000 and 360,000 Romanian Jews survived World War II (355,972 persons, according to statistics from the end of the war). During the communist regime in Romania , there
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7938-510: The Twentieth Party Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , in which Khurshchev initiated De-Stalinization , Gheorghiu-Dej issued propaganda accusing Pauker, Luca and Georgescu of having been an arch-Stalinists responsible for the party's excesses in the late 1940s and early 1950s (notably, in regard to collectivization)—despite the fact that they had occasionally opposed a number of radical measures advocated by
8127-535: The Wallachian uprising of 1821 , Jews were victims of pogroms and persecutions . In the 1860s, there was another riot motivated by blood libel accusations. Antisemitism was officially enforced under the premierships of Ion Brătianu . During his first years in office (1875) Brătianu reinforced and applied old discrimination laws, insisting that Jews were not allowed to settle in the countryside (and relocating those that had done so), while declaring many Jewish urban inhabitants to be vagrants and expelling them from
8316-480: The fall of one-party rule in 1989 , Romanian historians generally asserted that the party only had around 1,000 members at the end of World War II. Other researchers argue that this figure may have been intentionally based on the Muscovite faction figures and, as such, underestimated to undermine the influence of the internal faction; this estimate was afterwards promoted in post-communist historiography to reinforce
8505-687: The genocide carried out in the lands of Romania as part of the Holocaust . The latter, coupled with successive waves of aliyah , has accounted for a dramatic decrease in the overall size of Romania's present-day Jewish community. During the reign of Peter the Lame (1574–1579), the Jews of Moldavia, mainly traders from Poland who were competing with locals, were taxed and ultimately expelled. The authorities decided in 1650 and 1741 that Jews had to wear clothing evidencing their status and ethnicity. The first blood libel in Moldavia (and, as such, in Romania)
8694-525: The left-wing of the political spectrum, in currents originating in Poporanism – which favoured the claim that peasants were being systematically exploited by Jews. World War I , during which 882 Jewish soldiers died defending Romania (825 were decorated), brought about the creation of Greater Romania after the 1919 Paris Peace Conference and subsequent treaties. The enlarged state had an increased Jewish population, corresponding with
8883-611: The " prison faction " ( political prisoners who looked to Gheorghiu-Dej as their leader) and the one around Ștefan Foriș and Remus Koffler . The exterior faction of the party was decimated during the Great Purge : an entire generation of party activists was killed on Stalin's orders, including, among others, Alexandru Dobrogeanu-Gherea , David Fabian , Ecaterina Arbore , Imre Aladar , Elena Filipescu , Dumitru Grofu , Ion Dic Dicescu , Eugen Rozvan , Marcel Pauker , Alexander Stefanski , Timotei Marin , and Elek Köblös . It
9072-580: The 1848 Wallachian revolutionaries, the Islaz Proclamation , called for "the emancipation of Israelites and political rights for all compatriots of different faiths". After the end of the Crimean War , the struggle for the union of the two principalities began. Both parties, Unionists and anti-Unionists sought support of Jews, with each promising full equality; and proclamations to this effect were issued between 1857 and 1858. In 1857,
9261-499: The 1859 regulation, soldiers and civilians would walk the streets of Iași and some other Moldavian towns, assaulting Jews, using scissors to shred their clothing, but also to cut their beards or their sidelocks ; drastic measures applied by the Army Headquarters put a stop to such turmoil. In 1864, Prince Cuza, owing to difficulties between his government and the general assembly, dissolved the latter and decided to submit
9450-434: The 18th century, the size of the Jewish population increased after around 1850, and more especially after the establishment of Greater Romania in the aftermath of World War I . A diverse community, albeit an overwhelmingly urban one, Jews were a target of religious persecution and racism in Romanian society from the late-19th century debate over the " Jewish Question " and the Jewish residents' right to citizenship , to
9639-528: The 1920s and the 1930s, most of its activists were imprisoned or took refuge in the Soviet Union , which led to the creation of competing factions that sometimes came into open conflict. That did not prevent the party from participating in the political life of the country through various front organizations , most notably the Peasant Workers' Bloc . During the mid-1930s, due to the purges against
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#17327934914789828-421: The Archipelago , Joseph Nasi , backed both Heraclides and Lăpușneanu to the throne); several violent incidents throughout the period were instigated by princes unable to repay their debts. During the first short reign of Peter the Lame (1574–1579) the Jews of Moldavia, mainly traders from Poland who were competing with locals, were taxed and ultimately expelled. In 1582, he succeeded in regaining his rule over
10017-625: The Axis. Later party discourse tended to dismiss the importance of both the Soviet offensive and the dialogue with other forces (and eventually described the coup as a revolt with large popular support). The King named General Constantin Sănătescu as prime minister of a coalition government which was dominated by the military, but included one representative each from the National Liberal Party, National Peasants' Party and Social Democratic Party, with Pătrășcanu as Minister of Justice —the first Communist to hold high office in Romania. The Red Army entered Bucharest on 31 August, and thereafter played
10206-419: The Berlin treaty on the matter, it was attacked by the Romanian press. The Lascăr Catargiu government was, however, concerned – the issue was debated among ministers, and, as a result, the Romanian government issued pamphlets in French , reiterating its accusations against the Jews and maintaining that persecutions were deserved and came as retribution for the community's alleged exploitation of
10395-437: The Brătianu government through the Mârzescu Law (named after its proponent, Minister of Justice Gheorghe Gh. Mârzescu ), passed in early 1924; Comintern sources indicate that, around 1928, it was losing contact with Soviet overseers. In 1925, the question of Romania's borders as posed by the Comintern led to protests by Cristescu and, eventually, to his exclusion from the party ( see Balkan Communist Federation ). Around
10584-515: The Communist Party absorbed the Romanian Social Democratic Party and attracted various new members. In the early 1950s, the group around Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej , with support from Stalin, defeated all other factions and achieved full control over the party and country. After 1953, the party gradually theorized a "national path" to communism. At the same time, however, the party delayed the time to join its Warsaw Pact brethren in de-Stalinization . The PCR's nationalist and national communist stance
10773-402: The Communist Party had been outlawed in Romania). A large party purge was put in motion in 1958, a year characterised by a move away from Soviet Russia – the Soviet troops stationed in Romania since 1944 were leaving the country – and critics of party chief Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej are ousted. The purge takes the shape of a "Romanian ethnicisation" of the party, ethnic Jews and Hungarians being
10962-498: The Communists consecrated their control of the legal system—the process included the creation of the Romanian People's Tribunals , charged with investigating war crimes , and constantly supported by agitprop in the Communist press. During the period, government-backed Communists used various means to exercising influence over the vast majority of the press, and began infiltrating or competing with independent cultural forums. Economic dominance, partly responding to Soviet requirements,
11151-519: The Cossacks occurred in 1652, when the latter came to Iași on the occasion of the Vasile Lupu's daughter marriage to Timush , the son of Bohdan Khmelnytsky , and during the rule of Gheorghe Ștefan . According to Anton Maria Del Chiaro , secretary of the Wallachian princes between 1710 and 1716, the Jewish population of Wallachia was required to respect a certain dresscode . Thus, they were prohibited from wearing clothes of other color than black or violet, or to wear yellow or red boots. Nevertheless,
11340-445: The Danubian Principalities endured great hardships. Massacres and pillages were perpetrated in almost every town and village in the country. When peace was restored, both princes, Alexander Mavrocordatos of Moldavia and Nicholas Mavrogheni of Wallachia, pledged their special protection to Jews, whose condition remained favorable until 1787, when both Janissaries and the Imperial Russian Army took part in pogroms . The community
11529-416: The General Secretary. After that purge, Gheorghiu-Dej had begun promoting PMR activists who were perceived as more loyal to his own political views; among them were Nicolae Ceauşescu , Gheorghe Stoica , Ghizela Vass , Grigore Preoteasa , Alexandru Bârlădeanu , Ion Gheorghe Maurer , Gheorghe Gaston Marin , Paul Niculescu-Mizil , and Gheorghe Rădulescu ; in parallel, citing Khrushchevite precedents,
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#173279349147811718-411: The Groza cabinet representatives threatened to kill 1,000 students they had rounded up in custody. In February 1948, the Communists ended a long process of infiltrating the Romanian Social Democratic Party (ensuring control through electoral alliances and the two-party Frontul Unic Muncitoresc —Singular Workers' Front, the PCR had profited from the departure of Constantin Titel Petrescu 's group from
11907-400: The Ioanid Gang acted out their own roles, either simply forced or possibly having been told that their death sentences would be commuted in return. There were several unusual things about the story in its most common version. Beyond accusations based on various ideological guidelines, no reasons for the alleged robbery, or for the Ioanid group to have perpetrated it, were ever given. Although
12096-600: The Ioanid group, was permitted to leave the country with his family and go to Brazil around 1961, shortly after the alleged incident; this has led some to believe that he may have been the agent through whom the government communicated its promises and made them credible. Apart from the original Reconstruction movie produced by the Romanian state and widely screened before Communist Party members, there have been several other movies and documentaries, including Reconstruction (2001) by Irene Lusztig and The Great Communist Robbery (2004) by Alexandru Solomon. The film Closer to
12285-403: The Iron Guard, the party was on the road to achieving power, but the dictatorship of king Carol II crushed this. In 1934–1936, PCR reformed itself in the mainland of Romania properly, with foreign observers predicting a possible communist takeover in Romania. The party emerged as a powerful actor on the Romanian political scene in August 1944, when it became involved in the royal coup that toppled
12474-400: The Jewish community debated the method of assessment. The rich Jews, for unclear reasons, refused to advance the money, and the middle class argued that the sum would not lead to tangible enough results; Religious Jews insisted that such rights would only interfere with the exercise of their religion. Cuza, on being informed that the Jews hesitated to pay their share, inserted in his draft of
12663-443: The Jewish population in Wallachia was estimated at between 5,000 and 10,000 people, almost all Sephardi . Of these, the larger part resided in Bucharest (probably as many as 7,000 in 1839); and at around the same time, Moldavia was home to about 12,000 Jews. In parallel, the Jewish population in Bukovina rose from 526 in 1774 to 11,600 in 1848. In the early 19th century, Jews who sought refuge from Osman Pazvantoğlu 's campaign in
12852-404: The Jewish savant Daniel de Fonseca at his court). Another anti-Jewish riot occurred in Bucharest in the 1760s, and was encouraged by the visit of Ephram II , Patriarch of Jerusalem . In 1726, in the Moldavian borough of Onițcani , four Jews were accused of having kidnapped a five-year-old child, of killing him on Easter and of collecting his blood in a barrel. They were tried at Iași under
13041-406: The Jews and the Armenians – it appears that he kept the latter demand reduced, asking for only 40,000 Austrian florins (the standard gold coins ; about US$ 90,000 at the exchange rate of the time) from the two groups. The Armenians discussed the matter with the Jews, but they were not able to come to a satisfactory agreement in the matter. While Cuza was pressing in his demands,
13230-399: The Moon (2014) by Nae Caranfil , starring Harry Lloyd , Vera Farmiga , Mark Strong and Joe Armstrong , is fictional and very loosely connected to the real events. History of the Jews in Romania The history of the Jews in Romania concerns the Jews both of Romania and of Romanian origins, from their first mention on what is present-day Romanian territory. Minimal until
13419-410: The National Democratic Bloc was dissolved on 8 October 1944; instead, the Communists, Social Democrats, the Ploughmen's Front , Mihai Ralea 's Socialist Peasants' Party (which was absorbed by the former in November), the Hungarian People's Union (MADOSZ), and Mitiţă Constantinescu 's Union of Patriots formed the National Democratic Front (FND), which campaigned against the government, demanding
13608-674: The PCR was still highly disorganized and factionalized, it benefited from Soviet backing (including that of Vladislav Petrovich Vinogradov and other Soviet appointees to the Allied Commission ). After 1944, it was leading a paramilitary wing, the Patriotic Defense ( Apărarea Patriotică , disbanded in 1948), and a cultural society, the Romanian Society for Friendship with the Soviet Union . On PCdR initiative,
13797-478: The PCdR made possible the creation of the Bloc, which was designed as the basis of a future anti-Axis government. Parallel contacts were established, through Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu and Emil Bodnăraș , between the PCdR, the Soviets, and King Michael . A seminal event also occurred during those months: Ștefan Foriș , who was still general secretary, was deposed by with Soviet approval by the rival " prison faction "(at
13986-567: The PCdR protested Northern Transylvania 's cession to Hungary later in the same year (the Second Vienna Arbitration ), but evidence is inconclusive (party documents attesting the policy are dated after Nazi Germany 's invasion of the Soviet Union ). As the border changes sparked a political crisis leading to an Iron Guard takeover—the National Legionary State —the interior wing's confusion intensified:
14175-437: The PCdR. In the years following the elections, the PCdR entered a phase of rapid decline, coinciding with the increasingly authoritarian tone of King Carol's regime (but in fact inaugurated by the 1936 Craiova Trial of Ana Pauker and other high-ranking Communists). Journals viewed as associates of the party were closed down, and all suspected PCdR activists faced detention ( see Doftana Prison ). Siguranța Statului ,
14364-465: The PMR and resulted in a wave of arrests. While refusing to allow dissemination of Soviet literature exposing Stalinism (writers such as Ilya Ehrenburg and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn ), Romanian leaders took active part in the campaign against Boris Pasternak . Despite Stalin's death, the massive police apparatus headed by the Securitate (created in 1949 and rapidly growing in numbers) maintained
14553-425: The PMR briefly reorganized its leadership on a plural basis (1954–1955), while Gheorghiu-Dej reshaped party doctrine to include ambiguous messages about Stalin's legacy (insisting on the defunct Soviet's leader contribution to Marxist thought, official documents also deplored his personality cult and encouraged Stalinists to self-criticism ). In this context, the PMR soon dismissed all the relevant consequences of
14742-402: The PMR leadership officially questioned its own political support, and began a massive campaign to remove"foreign and hostile elements" from its rapidly expanded structures. In 1952, with Stalin's renewed approval, Gheorghiu-Dej emerged victorious from the confrontation with Ana Pauker , his chief "Muscovite"rival, as well as purging Vasile Luca , Teohari Georgescu , and their supporters from
14931-404: The PMR was occupied by the conflict between the " Muscovite wing ", the " prison wing "led by Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej , and the newly emerged and weaker" Secretariat wing "led by Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu . After October 1945, the two former groups had associated in neutralizing Pătrăşcanu's—exposed as" bourgeois "and progressively marginalized, it was ultimately decapitated in 1948. Beginning that year,
15120-648: The PMR, associated with Constantin Doncea (June 1958). On the outside too, the PMR, leading a country that had joined the Warsaw Pact , remained an agent of political repression: it fully supported Khurshchev's invasion of Hungary in response to the Revolution of 1956 , after which Imre Nagy and other dissident Hungarian leaders were imprisoned on Romanian soil. The Hungarian rebellion also sparked student protests in such places as Bucharest, Timișoara , Oradea , Cluj and Iași , which contributed to unease inside
15309-418: The Party as the common enemies of communism in Romania. Thus, they were subjected to abuses by the cadres. In 1950, the party, which viewed itself as the vanguard of the working class , reported that people of proletarian origin held 64% of party offices and 40% of higher government posts, while results of the recruitment efforts remained below official expectations. During the period, the central scene of
15498-568: The Romanian secret police , infiltrated the small interior wing and probably obtained valuable information about its activities. The financial resources of the party, ensured by Soviet support and by various satellite organizations (collecting funds in the name of causes such as pacifism or support for the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War ), were severely drained—by political difficulties at home, as well as, after 1939, by
15687-483: The Romanian fascist movement known as the Iron Guard began a massive antisemitic campaign, torturing and beating Jews and looting their shops (see Dorohoi pogrom ), culminating in the failed coup accompanied by a pogrom in Bucharest, in which 125 Jews were killed. Military dictator Ion Antonescu eventually stopped the violence and chaos created by the Iron Guard by brutally suppressing the rebellion, but continued
15876-612: The Romanian military and occupying key installations, Michael agreed and dismissed Rădescu, who fled the country. On 6 March, Groza became leader of a Communist-led government and named Communists to lead the Romanian Armed Forces as well as the ministries of the Interior (Georgescu), Justice ( Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu ), Communications ( Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej ), Propaganda ( Petre Constantinescu-Iaşi ) and Finance ( Vasile Luca ). The non-Communist ministers came from
16065-476: The Romanian scholar Andrei Oișteanu argued that such ethnic and religious social stigma was uncommon in Moldavia and Wallachia, as well as throughout the Eastern Orthodox areas of Europe. The first blood accusation in Moldavia (and, as such, in Romania) was made April 5, 1710, when the Jews of Târgu Neamț were charged with having killed a Christian child for ritual purposes´. The instigator
16254-854: The Russian side in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878. The war was concluded by the Treaty of Berlin (1878), which stipulated (Article 44) that the non-Christians in Romania (including both Jews and Muslims in the newly acquired region of Northern Dobruja ) should receive full citizenship. After a prolonged debate at home and diplomatic negotiations abroad, the Romanian government ultimately agreed (1879) to abrogate Article 7 of its constitution. This was, however, reformulated to make procedures very difficult: "the naturalization of aliens not under foreign protection should in every individual case be decided by Parliament " (the action involved, among others,
16443-410: The Securitate chief Alexandru Drăghici (he had been married to, and recently divorced from, the sister of Drăghici's wife Martha Cziko; following the divorce, Drăghici had vowed to destroy him). During many months preceding July 1959 (the date of the alleged heist), at least one of the members, Obedeanu, was aware of being followed and of being constantly watched through binoculars by the Securitate from
16632-400: The Securitate, the truth is extremely hard to discern, especially since Securitate files are unlikely to contain any self-incriminating notes of the staging of the heist, and restrict themselves to following the official story-line. All those accused in the robbery were Jewish Communist intellectuals, all of whom had been party members during the years of underground activity (between 1924–1944
16821-691: The Social Democrats (who were falling under the control of the pro-Communists Lothar Rădăceanu and Ștefan Voitec ) and the traditional Ploughmen's Front ally, as well as, nominally, from the National Peasants' and National Liberal parties (followers of Tătărescu and Alexandrescu's dissident wings). As a result of the Potsdam Conference , where Western Allied governments refused to recognize Groza's administration, King Michael called on Groza to resign. When he refused,
17010-522: The Social Democrats in March 1946). The Social Democrats merged with the PCR to form the Romanian Workers' Party ( Partidul Muncitoresc Român, PMR ) which remained the ruling party's official name until 24 July 1965 (when it returned to the designation as Romanian Communist Party ). Nevertheless, Social Democrats were excluded from most party posts and were forced to support Communist policies on
17199-705: The Twentieth Soviet Congress, and Gheorghiu-Dej even argued that De-Stalinization had been imposed by his team right after 1952. At a party meeting in March 1956, two members of the Politburo who were supporters of Khruschevite reforms, Miron Constantinescu and Iosif Chişinevschi , criticized Gheorghiu-Dej's leadership and identified him with Romanian Stalinism. They were purged in 1957, themselves accused of being Stalinists and of having been plotting with Pauker. Through Ceaușescu's voice, Gheorghiu-Dej also marginalized another group of old members of
17388-542: The addition of communities in Bessarabia , Bukovina , and Transylvania . On signing the treaties, Romania agreed to change its policy towards the Jews, promising to award them both citizenship and minority rights , the effective emancipation of Jews . The 1923 Constitution of Romania sanctioned these requirements, meeting opposition from Cuza's National-Christian Defense League and rioting by far right students in Iași ;
17577-533: The allegations no longer surfaced during the following period. During the Russo-Turkish War of 1806–1812 , the Russian invasion was again accompanied by massacres of Jews. Kalmyk irregular soldiers in Ottoman service, who appeared in Bucharest at the close of the Russo-Turkish War, terrorised the city's Jewish population. At around the same time, a conflict emerged in Wallachia between Jews under foreign protection ( sudiți ) and local ones ( hrisovoliți ), after
17766-482: The anti-Jewish message first expanded beyond its National Liberal base (where it was soon an insignificant attitude), to cover the succession of more radical and Moldavian-based organizations founded by A.C. Cuza (his Democratic Nationalist Party , created in 1910, had the first antisemitic program in Romanian political history). No longer present in the PNL's ideology by the 1920s, antisemitism also tended to surface in on
17955-408: The antithesis of the views of Codreanu ), Carol was determined that Romania should not fall into the near-absolute economic and political control that many of its neighbors already had, and moved to theatrical resistance against Nazi ideology. Romanian Communist Party The Romanian Communist Party ( Romanian : Partidul Comunist Român , [parˈtidul kɔmuˈnist rɔˈmɨn] , PCR )
18144-568: The appointment of more Communist officials and sympathizers, while claiming democratic legitimacy and alleging that Sănătescu had dictatorial ambitions. The FND was soon joined by the Liberal group around Tătărescu, Nicolae L. Lupu 's Democratic Peasants' Party (the latter claimed the legacy from the defunct Peasants' Party ), and Anton Alexandrescu 's faction (separated from the National Peasants' Party ). Sănătescu resigned in November, but
18333-461: The basis of democratic centralism ; it was also reported that only half of the PSD's 500,000 members joined the newly founded grouping. Capitalizing on these gains, the Communist government shunted most of the remaining parties aside after the 1948 elections (the Ploughmen's Front and the Hungarian People's Union dissolved themselves in 1953). The PMR fought the elections as the dominant partner of
18522-440: The closing of Romanian-Soviet cultural ventures such as Editura Cartea Rusă at the end of the decade. Industrialization along the PMR's own directives highlighted Romanian independence—one of its consequences was the massive steel-producing industrial complex in Galați , which, being dependent on imports of iron from overseas, was for long a major strain on the Romanian economy. In 1957, Gheorghiu-Dej and Emil Bodnăraş persuaded
18711-414: The community alongside other social categories, until he was dethroned by Jacob Heraclides , a Greek Lutheran , who was lenient to his Jewish subjects; Lăpușneanu did not renew his persecutions after his return on the throne in 1564. The role of Ottoman and local Jews in financing various princes increased as Ottoman economic demands were mounting after 1550 (in the 1570s, the influential Jewish Duke of
18900-411: The community published its first magazine , Israelitul Român , edited by the Romanian radical Iuliu Barasch . This process of gradual integration resulted in the creation of an informal Jewish Romanian identity, while conversion to Christianity , despite encouragement by the authorities, remained confined to exceptional cases. From the beginning of the reign of Alexandru Ioan Cuza (1859–1866),
19089-660: The condition of unity in upholding the agreed-upon policies. The highest body within the PCR was the Party Congress , which began in 1969 to convene every five years. The Central Committee was the highest body when Congress was not in session. Because the Central Committee met only twice a year, most day-to-day duties and responsibilities were vested in Politburo. The party leader held the office of General Secretary and, after 1945, held significant influence over
19278-492: The country with the help of the Jewish physician Benveniste, who was a friend of the influential Solomon Ashkenazi ; the latter then exerted his influence with the Prince in favor of his coreligionists. In Wallachia, Prince Alexandru II Mircea (1567–1577) engaged as his private secretary and counselor Isaiah ben Joseph, who used his influence on behalf of the Jews. In 1573 Isaiah was dismissed, owing to court intrigues, but he
19467-400: The country with their families, if they went along with the staging of the robbery to serve several government and personal purposes. In this event, the government failed to uphold its end of the bargain. As a parallel, in what was a highly unusual move for those times when nobody was allowed to leave Romania, another Jewish Securitate officer, Ion Crișan, incidentally described as "friend" of
19656-546: The country. According to the 1905 Jewish Encyclopedia : "A number of such Jews who proved their Romanian birth were forced across the Danube, and when [the Ottoman Empire ] refused to receive them, were thrown into the river and drowned. Almost every country in Europe was shocked at these barbarities. The Romanian government was warned by the powers; and Brătianu was subsequently dismissed from office". Cabinets formed by
19845-409: The country. The emigration of Romanian Jews on a larger scale commenced soon after 1878. By 1900 there were 250,000 Romanian Jews: 3.3% of the population, 14.6% of the city dwellers, 32% of the Moldavian urban population and 42% of Iași . Between the establishment of the National Legionary State (September 1940) and 1942, 80 anti-Jewish regulations were passed. Starting at the end of October, 1940,
20034-410: The creation and success of Corneliu Zelea Codreanu 's Iron Guard and the appearance of new types of anti-Semitic discourses ( Trăirism and Gândirism ). The idea of a Jewish quota in higher education became highly popular among Romanian students and teachers. According to Andrei Oișteanu 's analysis, a relevant number of right-wing intellectuals refused to adopt overt anti-Semitism, which
20223-491: The early conflict between the PCdR and other minor socialist groups has been attributed to the legacy of Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea 's quasi-Poporanist ideas inside the latter, as an intellectual basis for the rejection of Leninism .) The PCdR's "foreign" image was because ethnic Romanians were a minority in its ranks until after the end of World War II: between 1924 and 1944, none of its general secretaries
20412-402: The election that confirmed the Bloc won around 48 percent of the vote. He concluded that had the election been conducted fairly, the opposition parties could have won enough votes between them to form a coalition government, albeit with far less than the 80 percent support opposition supporters long claimed. The following months were dedicated to confronting the National Peasants' Party , which
20601-523: The event, authorities may have offered Sevianu money based on his more immediate needs (unlike the others, Sevianu was unemployed). Nora, Obedeanu's wife, was arrested at the same time as her husband but not accused; she was held for two months, which was the maximum allowed by law at the time. It has been indicated that Nora was interrogated only about the content of conversations among group members, and found out about bank robbery accusations only upon her release from prison. All these aspects, together with
20790-469: The eventual acceptance of all immigrants other than Jews. Antisemitism was carried into the PNL's mainstream, and was officially enforced under the premierships of Ion Brătianu . During his first years in office, Brătianu reinforced and applied old discrimination laws, insisting that Jews were not allowed to settle in the countryside (and relocating those that had done so), while declaring many Jewish urban inhabitants to be vagrants and expelling them from
20979-632: The exception of 1954–1955, when his office of PMR leader was taken over by Gheorghe Apostol ). From the moment it came to power and until Stalin's death, as the Cold War erupted, the PMR endorsed Soviet requirements for the Eastern Bloc . Aligning the country with the Cominform , it officially condemned Josip Broz Tito 's independent actions in Yugoslavia ; Tito was routinely attacked by
21168-424: The external and internal wings: while Gheorghiu-Dej retained his general secretary position, Ana Pauker , Teohari Georgescu , and Vasile Luca became the other main leaders. The Central Committee had 27 full members and 8 candidate members The post-1945 constant growth in membership, by far the highest of all Eastern Bloc countries, was to provide a base of support for Gheorghiu-Dej. The conference also saw
21357-399: The first in a series of repressions, and, in the context of trial, allowed for several communist activists (including Leonte Filipescu ) to be shot while in custody—alleging that they had attempted to flee. Consequently, Argetoianu stated his belief that"communism is over in Romania", which allowed for a momentary relaxing of pressures—begun by King Ferdinand 's granting of an amnesty to
21546-585: The first mention of the PCdR as the Romanian Communist Party (PCR), the new name being used as a propaganda tool suggesting a closer connection with the national interest . Party control over the security forces was successfully used on 8 November 1945, when the opposition parties organised a demonstration in front of the Royal Palace to express solidarity with King Michael, who was still refusing to sign his name to new legislation, on
21735-449: The first ruler ( Domnitor ) of the united principalities, the Jews became a prominent factor in the politics of the country. This period was, however, inaugurated by another riot motivated by blood libel accusations, begun during Easter 1859 in Galați . Regulations on clothing were confirmed inside Moldavia by two orders of Mihail Kogălniceanu , Minister of Internal Affairs (issues in 1859 and 1860 respectively). Following adoption of
21924-550: The forming of a splinter group around Gheorghe Tătărescu , the National Liberal Party-Tătărescu , who later entered an alliance with the Communist Party). Soon after 23 August, the Communists also engaged in a campaign against Romania's main political group of the time, the National Peasants' Party, and its leaders Iuliu Maniu and Ion Mihalache . In Victor Frunză 's account, the conflict's first stage
22113-504: The freeing of those arrested. This was the first time that the Orthodox clergy participated in attacks on Jews. It was due to the clergy's instigations that in 1714 a similar charge was brought against the Jews of the city of Roman – the murder by a group of Roman Catholics of a Christian girl-servant to Jewish family was immediately blamed on Jews; every Jewish house was plundered, and two prominent Jews were hanged, before
22302-490: The government. Between 1974 and 1989, the General Secretary also held the office of President of Romania . Ideologically, the PCR was committed to Marxism–Leninism , a fusion of the original ideas of German philosopher and economic theorist Karl Marx , and Lenin, was introduced in 1929 by the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin , as the party's guiding ideology and would remain so through much of its existence. In 1948,
22491-475: The grants were curtailed during following decades, when Jews were only allowed to settle in Gyulafehérvár ( Alba Iulia ). Among the privileges granted was one allowing Jews to wear traditional dress; eventually, the authorities in Gyulafehérvár decided (in 1650 and 1741) to allow Jews to wear only clothing evidencing their status and ethnicity. The status of Jews who had converted to Eastern Orthodoxy
22680-651: The land reform carried out by the Ion I. C. Brătianu cabinet also settled problems connected with land tenancy. During the interwar period, thousands of Jewish refugees from the USSR migrated to Romania. Political representation for the Jewish community in the inter-war period was divided between the Jewish Party and the Federation of Jewish Communities of Romania (the latter was re-established after 1989). During
22869-489: The latter tried to impose a single administration for the community, a matter which was finally settled in favor of the hrisovoliți by Prince Jean Georges Caradja (1813). In Habsburg -ruled Transylvania, the reforms carried out by Joseph II allowed Jews to settle in towns directly subject to the Hungarian Crown . However, pressure placed on the community remained stringent for the following decades. By 1825,
23058-428: The left-wing political spectrum was dominated by Poporanism , an original ideology which partly reflected Narodnik influence, placed its focus on the peasantry (as it notably did with the early advocacy of cooperative farming by Ion Mihalache 's Peasants' Party ), and usually strongly supported the post-1919 territorial status quo—although they tended to oppose the centralized system it had come to imply. (In turn,
23247-567: The majority of the former, alongside Romanian and Bessarabian Jews in general, to camps, prisons and makeshift ghettos in occupied Transnistria ( see Holocaust in Romania ). Most Jews from the PCdR category were held in Vapniarka , where improper feeding caused an outbreak of paralysis, and in Rîbnița , where some 50 were victims of the authorities' criminal negligence and were shot by retreating German troops in March 1944. In June 1943, at
23436-439: The meantime died; c. 4,000 people had obtained citizenship by 1912. Various laws were passed until the pursuit of virtually all careers was made dependent on the possession of political rights, which only Romanians could exercise; more than 40% of Jewish working men, including manual labourers , were forced into unemployment by such legislation. Similar laws were passed in regard to Jews exercising liberal professions. In 1893,
23625-457: The monarch that he appoint Communist sympathizer Petru Groza as Prime Minister, with the Soviet government suggesting it would reinstate Romanian sovereignty over Northern Transylvania only in such a scenario. Frunză claimed however that Vyshinsky also intimated a Soviet takeover of the country if the King failed to comply, and that, under pressure from Soviet troops who were supposedly disarming
23814-610: The monarch went to his summer home in Sinaia and refused to sign any government decrees or bills (a period colloquially known as greva regală —"the royal strike"). Following Anglo-American mediation, Groza agreed to include politicians from outside his electoral alliance, appointing two secondary figures in their parties (the National Liberal Mihail Romniceanu and the National Peasants' Emil Hațieganu ) as Ministers without Portfolio (January 1946). At
24003-500: The more active propagandists, such as Pompiliu Ștefu . A statistic of the Siguranţa reports that, in Bucharest, between January 1941 and September 1942, 143 individuals were tried for communism, of which 19 were sentenced to death and 78 to prison terms or forced labour . The antisemitic Antonescu regime established a distinction between PCdR members of Jewish Romanian origin and those of ethnic Romanian or other heritage, deporting
24192-412: The numerous cases of sentences based on false accusations, have led some, including relatives of the alleged robbers, to doubt that any robbery actually took place or that those charged with the crime really committed it, especially as there was no actual direct identification of the accused by the supposed witnesses. One conjecture is that the case was manufactured by the government in an attempt to justify
24381-554: The occasion of his name day . Demonstrators were faced with gunshots; around 10 people were killed, and many wounded. The official account, according to which the Groza government responded to a coup attempt, was disputed by Frunză. The PCR and its allies, grouped in the Bloc of Democratic Parties, won the Romanian elections of 19 November , although there is evidence of widespread electoral fraud . Years later, historian Petre Ţurlea reviewed an incomplete confidential PCR report about
24570-495: The official press, and the Romanian-Yugoslav Danube border became the scene of massive agitprop displays ( see Tito–Stalin split and Informbiro ). Uncomfortable and possibly threatened by the reformist measures adopted by Stalin's successor, Nikita Khrushchev , Gheorghiu-Dej began to steer Romania towards a more "independent" path while remaining within the Soviet orbit during the late 1950s. Following
24759-464: The only woman involved, had her sentence commuted to forced labor for life because she was pregnant with her second child. In 1964, following an amnesty of political prisoners, she was allowed to emigrate to Israel. In 1960, the government issued a propaganda film, Reconstituirea ("Reconstruction"), to be viewed only by Communist Party members, which reconstructed the way in which the heist had allegedly been planned and carried out. The jailed members of
24948-409: The participants. According to Frunză, this culminated in a 13 February 1945 demonstration outside the Royal Palace , and followed a week later by street fighting between Georgescu's Communist forces and supporters of the National Peasants' Party in Bucharest. In a period of escalating chaos, Rădescu called for elections. The Soviet deputy foreign minister Andrey Vyshinsky went to Bucharest to request
25137-560: The party issued several local and national publications at various points in its history (including, after 1944, România Liberă ). The party was founded in 1921 when the Bolshevik -inspired maximalist faction won control of Romania's Social-Democratic party—the Socialist Party of Romania , successor to the defunct Romanian Social-Democratic Workers' Party and the short-lived Social Democratic Party of Romania (the latter
25326-447: The party. Some Jewish intellectuals, though being former underground fighters, are accused of lacking working class consciousness . Paul Ioanid's Soviet connections have become a burden, and the personal vendetta of Alexandru Drăghici and his wife Martha (née Cziko) against Alexandru Ioanid for having divorced the sister of Martha Drăghici, is given the ideological spin of him having gravely strayed from "Socialist morals". Based on what
25515-487: The party—alleging that their various political attitudes were proof of" right-wing deviationism ". Out of a membership of approximately one million, between 300,000 and 465,000 members, almost half of the party, was removed in the successive purges. The specific target for the "verification campaign", as it was officially called, were former Iron Guard affiliates. The move against Pauker's group echoed Stalinist purges of Jews in particular from other Communist Parties in
25704-526: The persons on trial were accused of intending to donate the money to Zionist organisations that would send Romanian Jews to Israel, the stolen sum was in lei, which at the time could not be exchanged for hard currency anywhere in the world. Besides, none of the accused had been Zionists. Given that Communist Romania was a police state , and unprecedented measures of strict control and surveillance were supposed to have been enforced in all areas of society (phone calls were routinely monitored , correspondence
25893-528: The policy of oppression and massacre of Jews, and, to a lesser extent, of Roma . After Romania entered the war at the start of Operation Barbarossa , atrocities against Jews became common, starting with the Iași pogrom . According to the Wiesel Commission report released by the Romanian government in 2004, between 280,000 and 380,000 Jews were murdered in the Holocaust in Romania and the occupied Soviet territories under Romanian control, among them
26082-666: The pro- Nazi government of Ion Antonescu . With support from Soviet occupational forces , the PCR pressured King Michael I into abdicating, and it established the Romanian People's Republic in December 1947. The party operated as the Romanian Workers' Party ( Partidul Muncitoresc Romîn between 1948 and 1964 and Partidul Muncitoresc Român in 1964 and 1965) until it was officially renamed by Nicolae Ceaușescu , who had just been elected secretary general. Other legal, political parties existed in Romania, but their influence
26271-651: The real criminals were discovered by the authorities. Under Constantin Brâncoveanu , Wallachian Jews were recognized as a special guild in Bucharest, led by a starost . Jews in both Wallachia and Moldavia were subject to the Hakham Bashi in Iași, but soon the Bucharest starost assumed several religious duties. Overtaxed and persecuted under Ștefan Cantacuzino (1714–1716), Wallachian Jews obtained valuable privileges during Nicholas Mavrocordatos' rule (1716–1730) in that country (the Prince notably employed
26460-477: The reign of John Mavrocordatos (1744–1747): a Jewish farmer in the vicinity of Suceava reported the prince to the Porte for allegedly using his house to rape a number of kidnapped Jewish women; Mavrocordatos had his accuser hanged. This act aroused the anger of Mahmud I 's kapucu in Moldavia, and the prince paid the penalty with the loss of his throne. During the Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774 , Jews in
26649-470: The right of self-determination ). In 1924, the Comintern provoked Romanian authorities by encouraging the Tatarbunary Uprising in southern Bessarabia, in an attempt to create a Moldavian republic on Romanian territory; also in that year, a Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic , roughly corresponding to Transnistria , was established inside the Soviet Union. At the same time,
26838-421: The rising violence between political groups as context to seize absolute power (a move which was tacitly supported by the liberals who had come to view him as a lesser evil in comparison to Codreanu's fascist movement). As an authentic Romanian nationalist (albeit, one who had a view of a Westernized, forcefully industrialized Romania at the expense of the peasants whom he viewed with disdain; making him completely
27027-595: The rural population. The emigration of Romanian Jews on a larger scale commenced soon after 1878; numbers rose and fell, with a major wave of Bessarabian Jews after the Kishinev pogrom in Imperial Russia (1905). The Jewish Encyclopedia wrote in 1905, shortly before the pogrom, "It is admitted that at least 70 per cent would leave the country at any time if the necessary traveling expenses were furnished". There are no official statistics of emigration; but it
27216-481: The same period, a division in ritual became apparent between Reform Jews in Transylvania and usually Orthodox ones in the rest of the country (while Bessarabia was the most open to Zionism and especially the socialist Labor Zionism ). The popularity of anti-Jewish messages was, nevertheless, on the rise, and merged itself with the appeal of fascism in the late 1920s – both contributed to
27405-479: The same time, several Jews rose to prominence and high social status, with most families involved in Moldavian banking around the 1850s being of Jewish origin. After 1832, following adoption of the Organic Statute , Jewish children were accepted in schools in the two Principalities only if they wore the same clothing as others. In Moldavia, the 1847 decree of Prince Mihail Sturdza compelled Jews to abandon
27594-550: The severing of connections with Moscow in France and Czechoslovakia . Consequently, the executive committee of the Comintern called on Romanian Communists to infiltrate the National Renaissance Front (FRN), the newly created sole legal party of Carol's dictatorship, and attempt to attract members of its structures to the revolutionary cause. Until 1944, the group active inside Romania became split between
27783-401: The state to withdraw their licenses and reassess their citizenship. Although illegal, the measure was popular and it was commented that, in its case, legality had been supplanted by a "heroic decision". According to Oișteanu, the initiative had a direct influence on antisemitic regulations passed during the following year. The threat posed by the Iron Guard, the emergence of Nazi Germany as
27972-437: The success of state repression in driving the party underground and limiting its activities; and finally, the party's "anti-national" policy, as it began to be stated in the 1920s—supervised by the Comintern, this policy called for the breakup of Greater Romania , which was regarded as a colonial entity "illegally occupying" Transylvania , Dobruja , Bessarabia and Bukovina (regions that, the communists argued, had been denied
28161-558: The supervision of Moldavian Prince Mihai Racoviță , and eventually acquitted following diplomatic protests. The event was echoed in several contemporary chronicles and documents — for example, the French ambassador to the Porte , Jean-Baptiste Louis Picon , remarked that such an accusation was no longer accepted in "civilized countries". The most obvious effects on the condition of the Jewish inhabitants of Moldavia were witnessed during
28350-831: The synagogue were burned to death in the building; a few escaped after being given protection and refuge by a priest. In 1803, shortly before his death, the Wallachian Metropolitan Iacob Stamati instigated attacks on the Bucharest community by publishing his Înfruntarea jidovilor ("Facing the Jews"), which pretended to be the confession of a former rabbi ; however, Jews were offered refuge by Stamati's replacement, Veniamin Costachi . A seminal event occurred in 1804, when ruler Constantine Ypsilanti dismissed accusations of ritual murder as "the unfounded opinion" of "stupid people", and ordered that their condemnation be read in churches throughout Wallachia;
28539-413: The target. The chief ideologue put in charge of the purge was Leonte Răutu who, in spite of his Jewish roots, had become a stauch Romanian national communist . The "gang" members were even accused of planning to assassinate Răutu. Vladimir Tismăneanu sees the whole affair in the light of a typical Bolshevist show trial , with the Romanian national communists set out to remove Jewish intellectuals from
28728-458: The time of the party's Fifth Congress in 1931, the Muscovite wing became the PCdR's main political factor: Joseph Stalin replaced the entire party leadership, including the general secretary Vitali Holostenco —appointing instead Alexander Stefanski , who was at the time a member of the Communist Party of Poland . The interior wing began organizing itself as a more efficient conspiratorial network through regained Comintern control. The onset of
28917-544: The time, Groza's party and the PCR came to disagree on some issues (with the Front publicly affirming its support for private land ownership), before the Ploughmen's Front was eventually pressured into supporting Communist tenets. In the meantime, the first measure taken by the cabinet was a new land reform that advertised, among others, an interest into peasant issues and a respect for property (in front of common fears that
29106-498: The time, it was headed by former inmates of Caransebeș prison); replaced with the troika formed by Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej , Constantin Pîrvulescu , and Iosif Rangheț , Foriș was discreetly assassinated in 1946. Several assessments view Foriș's dismissal as the complete rupture in historical continuity between the PCdR established in 1921 and what became the ruling party of Communist Romania . On 23 August 1944, King Michael,
29295-799: The traditional dress code. Before the Revolutions of 1848 , which found their parallel in the Wallachian revolution , many restrictive laws against Jews were enacted; although they had some destructive effects, they were never strictly enforced. In various ways, Jews took part in the Wallachian revolt; for example, Constantin Daniel Rosenthal , the painter, distinguished himself in the revolutionary cause, and paid for his activity with his life (being tortured to death in Budapest by Austrian authorities). The major document to be codified by
29484-455: The tried PCdR. The PCdR was thus unable to send representatives to the Comintern, and was virtually replaced abroad by a delegation of various activists who had fled to the Soviet Union at various intervals (Romanian groups in Moscow and Kharkiv , the sources of a " Muscovite wing " in the following decades). The interior party only survived as an underground group after it was outlawed by
29673-567: The two estimates). Despite initial interdictions under the Russian occupation of 1829 (when it was first regulated that non-Christians were not to be regarded as citizens), many of the new immigrants became leaseholders of estates and tavern -keepers, serving to increase both the revenue and demands of boyars , and leading in turn to an increase in economic pressures over those working the land or buying products (usual prejudice against Jews accused tavern-keepers of encouraging alcoholism ). At
29862-687: The two into his cabinet- he instantly chose the Goga-Cuza alliance over the rabid fascism of the Iron Guard (according to modern historian of the Balkans, Misha Glenny, he also thought that this would "take the sting out of the Guard's tail"). On January 21, 1938, Carol's executive (led by Cuza and Octavian Goga ) passed a law aimed at reviewing criteria for citizenship (after it cast allegations that previous cabinets had allowed Ukrainian Jews to obtain it illegally), and requiring all Jews who had received citizenship in 1918–1919 to reapply for it (while providing
30051-440: The two principalities to freely engage in foreign trade), Moldavia, where commercial niches had been largely left unoccupied, became a target for migration of Ashkenazi Jews persecuted in Imperial Russia and the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria . By 1838, their number seems to have reached 80,000, and over 195,000, or almost 12% of the country's population, in 1859 (with an additional 50,000 passing through to Wallachia between
30240-553: The upper echelon faced investigation from Georgi Dimitrov (as well as other Comintern officials) on charges of " Trotskyism ", and, since the FRN had crumbled, several low-ranking party officials actually began collaborating with the new regime. At around the same time, a small section of the exterior wing remained active in France, where it eventually joined the Resistance to German occupation —it included Gheorghe Gaston Marin and
30429-690: The violent repression of creditors peaked under Michael the Brave , who, after killing Turkish creditors in Bucharest (1594), probably engaged in violence against Jews settled south of the Danube during his campaign in Rumelia (while maintaining good relations with Transylvanian Jews). In 1623, the Jews in Transylvania were awarded certain privileges by Prince Gabriel Bethlen , who aimed to attract entrepreneurs from Ottoman lands into his country;
30618-410: The years, the PCR massively increased to become entirely submitted to Ceaușescu's will. From the 1960s onward, it had a reputation for being far more independent of the Soviet Union than its brethren in the Warsaw Pact. However, it also became the most hardline party in the Eastern Bloc , which harmed its relationship with even the Communist Party of the Soviet Union . It collapsed in 1989 in the wake of
30807-403: Was deportation to the inhospitable Bărăgan Plain . Nationalism and national communism penetrated official discourse, largely owing to Gheorghiu-Dej's call for economic independence and distancing from the Comecon . Moves to withdraw the country from Soviet overseeing were taken in quick succession after 1953. Khrushchev allowed Constantinescu to dissolve the SovRoms in 1954, followed by
30996-407: Was a communist party in Romania . The successor to the pro- Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania , it gave an ideological endorsement to a communist revolution that would replace the social system of the Kingdom of Romania . After being outlawed in 1924, the PCR remained a minor and illegal grouping for much of the interwar period and submitted to direct Comintern control. During
31185-455: Was a baptized Jew who had helped to carry the body of a child, murdered by Christians, into the courtyard of the synagogue . On the next day five Jews were killed, others were maimed, and every Jewish house was pillaged, while the representatives of the community were imprisoned and tortured. Meanwhile, some influential Jews appealed to Prince Nicholas Mavrocordatos (the first Phanariote ruler) in Iași, who ordered an investigation resulting in
31374-407: Was a mass emigration to Israel , and in 1987, only 23,000 Jews lived in Romania. Today, the majority of Romanian Jews live in Israel , while modern-day Romania continues to host a modest Jewish population. In the 2011 census , 3,271 people declared themselves to be Jewish. Jewish communities on what would later become Romanian territory were attested as early as the 2nd century AD, at a time when
31563-456: Was added to the 1866 Constitution ; it read that "only such aliens as are of the Christian faith may obtain citizenship". For the following decades, the issue of Jewish rights occupied the forefront of the Regat 's political scene. With few notable exceptions (including some of Junimea affiliates – Petre P. Carp , George Panu , and I.L. Caragiale ), most Romanian intellectuals began professing antisemitism ; its most virulent form
31752-431: Was alleged by authorities to have been involved in Max Goldstein 's bomb attack on the Parliament of Romania ; all major party figures, including the general secretary Gheorghe Cristescu , were prosecuted in the Dealul Spirii Trial . Constantin Argetoianu , the Minister of the Interior in the Alexandru Averescu , Take Ionescu , and Ion I. C. Brătianu cabinets, equated Comintern membership with conspiracy , ordered
31941-453: Was alleged to have been in a telephone cabin, keeping the bank's phone line busy. The case was investigated by the Securitate , Communist Romania's secret police , and the supposed perpetrators were arrested within two months. They were rounded up in night-time raids, tried behind closed doors, and all but one sentenced to death . The executions, also kept under secrecy, including for family members, were carried out in 1960. Monica Sevianu,
32130-445: Was also subject to persecutions by the locals. Jewish children were seized and forcibly baptized. Ritual-murder accusations became widespread, with one made at Galați in 1797 leading to exceptionally severe results – with Jews being attacked by a large mob, driven from their homes, robbed, waylaid on the streets, and many killed on the spot, while some were forced into the Danube and drowned, and others who took refuge in
32319-403: Was annihilated after the Tămădău Affair and show trial of its entire leadership. On 30 December 1947, the Communist Party's power was consolidated when King Michael was forced to abdicate . The Communist-dominated legislature then abolished the monarchy and proclaimed Romania a " People's Republic ", firmly aligned with the Soviet Union. According to the king, his signature was obtained after
32508-500: Was appointed stolnic , being subsequently advanced to the rank of logofăt ; he continued to hold this office under Bogdan the Blind (1504–1517), the son and successor of Stephen. At this time both Danubian Principalities came under the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire , and a number of Sephardim living in Istanbul migrated to Wallachia, while Jews from Poland and the Holy Roman Empire settled in Moldavia. Although they took an important part in Ottoman government and formed
32697-419: Was centered on Communist allegations that Maniu had encouraged violence against the Hungarian community in newly recovered Northern Transylvania . The Communist Party, engaged in a massive recruitment campaign, was able to attract ethnic Romanians in large numbers—workers and intellectuals alike, including some former members of the fascist Iron Guard . By 1947, it grew to around 710,000 members. Although
32886-428: Was continued under the leadership of Nicolae Ceaușescu. Following an episode of liberalization in the late 1960s, Ceaușescu again adopted a hard line by imposing the " July Theses ", re-Stalinizing the party's rule by intensifying the spreading of communist ideology in Romanian society and at the same time consolidating his grip on power whilst using the Party's authority to brew a persuasive cult of personality . Over
33075-543: Was established in Wallachia by Matei Basarab 's Pravila de la Govora and in Moldavia by Vasile Lupu 's Carte românească de învățătură . The latter ruler (1634–1653) treated the Jews with consideration until the appearance of the Cossacks (1648), who marched against the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and who, while crossing the region, killed many Jews; the violence led many Ashkenazi Jews from Poland took refuge in Moldavia and Wallachia, establishing small but stable communities. Massacres and forced conversions by
33264-424: Was first effected through the SovRoms (created in the summer of 1945), directing the bulk of Romanian trade towards the Soviet Union. The Communist Party held its first open conference (16–22 October 1945, at the Mihai Viteazul High School in Bucharest ) and agreed to replace the Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej – Constantin Pîrvulescu – Iosif Rangheț troika with a joint leadership reflecting an uneasy balance between
33453-508: Was ill-reputed through its association with A. C. Cuza's violent discourse; nevertheless, a few years later, such cautions were cast aside, and anti-Semitism became displayed as "spiritual health". The first motion to exclude Jews from professional associations came on May 16, 1937, when the Confederation of the Associations of Professional Intellectuals ( Confederația Asociațiilor de Profesioniști Intelectuali din România ) voted to exclude all Jewish members from its affiliated bodies, calling for
33642-408: Was intercepted, and secret police informants were common) a plan such as the one allegedly designed by the group would have been exceedingly difficult to carry out. It is also highly unlikely that the members of the "Ioanid Gang" could have been unaware of these facts. One of them, Alexandru Ioanid, was a colonel in the Securitate and, according to Victor Frunză, he had been related through marriage to
33831-400: Was limited and they were subordinate to the constitutionally-authorised leading role of the PCR. All other legal parties and entities were part of the Communist-dominated National Front . The PCR was a communist party , organized based on democratic centralism , a principle conceived by Russian Marxist theoretician Vladimir Lenin , which entails a democratic and open discussion on policy on
34020-440: Was made in 1710, when the Jews of Târgu Neamț were charged with having killed a Christian child for ritual purposes. An anti-Jewish riot occurred in Bucharest in the 1760s. During the Russo-Turkish War, 1768–1774 , the Jews in the Danubian Principalities had to endure great hardships. Massacres and pillages were perpetrated in almost every town and village in the country. During the Greek War of Independence , which signalled
34209-413: Was not harmed any further, and subsequently left for Moldavia where he entered the service of Muscovy 's Grand Prince Ivan the Terrible . Through the efforts of Solomon Ashkenazi, Aron Tiranul was placed on the throne of Moldavia; nevertheless, the new ruler persecuted and executed nineteen Jewish creditors in Iași , who were decapitated without process of law. At around the same time, in Wallachia,
34398-401: Was of Romanian ethnicity. Interwar Romania had a minority population of 30%, and it was largely from this section that the party drew its membership—a large percentage of it was Jews , Hungarians and Bulgarians . Actual or perceived ethnic discrimination against these minorities added to the appeal of revolutionary ideas in their midst. Shortly after its creation, the PCdR's leadership
34587-459: Was persuaded by King Michael to form a second government which collapsed within weeks. General Nicolae Rădescu was asked to form a government and appointed Teohari Georgescu to the Ministry of the Interior , which allowed for the introduction of Communists into the security forces. The Communist Party subsequently launched a campaign against the Rădescu government, including the mass demonstration of 24 February that resulted in four deaths among
34776-448: Was refounded in 1927, reuniting those opposed to communist policies). The establishment was linked with the socialist group's affiliation to the Comintern (just before the latter's Third Congress): after a delegation was sent to Bolshevist Russia , a group of moderates (including Ioan Flueraș , Iosif Jumanca , Leon Ghelerter , and Constantin Popovici ) left at different intervals beginning with January 1921. The party renamed itself
34965-411: Was the expulsion of vocal Jewish activists as "objectionable aliens" (under the provisions of an 1881 law), including those of Moses Gaster and Elias Schwarzfeld . The courts exacted the oath more judaico in its most offensive form – it was only abolished in 1904, following criticism in the French press. In 1892, when the United States addressed a note to the signatory powers of
35154-413: Was the home of Yiddish theatre. While its center of gravity would move first to Russia, then London , then New York City , both Bucharest and Iași would continue to figure prominently in its history over the next century. When Brătianu resumed leadership, Romania faced the emerging conflict in the Balkans , and saw its chance to declare independence from Ottoman suzerainty by dispatching its troops on
35343-591: Was the one present with advocates of Liberalism (in contradiction to their 1848 political roots), especially Moldavians, who argued that Jewish immigration had prevented the rise of an ethnic Romanian middle class . The first examples of modern prejudice were the Moldavian Fracțiunea liberă și independentă (later blended into the National Liberal Party , PNL) and the Bucharest group formed around Cezar Bolliac . Their discourse saw Jews as non-assimilated and perpetually foreign – this claim was, however, challenged by some contemporary sources, and by
35532-424: Was to be Ana Pauker 's mission to take over and reshape the surviving structure. In 1940, Romania had to cede Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina to the Soviet Union and Southern Dobruja to Bulgaria ( see Soviet occupation of Bessarabia , Treaty of Craiova ); in contrast with the general mood, the PCdR welcomed both gestures along the lines of its earlier activism. Official history, after ca. 1950, stated that
35721-420: Was trying to reach a satisfactory compromise with the Western Allies (and, together with the National Liberals' leader Dinu Brătianu , continued to back negotiations initiated by Antonescu and Barbu Știrbey with the United States and the United Kingdom). In early 1944, as the Red Army reached and crossed the Prut River during the Second Jassy–Kishinev Offensive , the self-confidence and status gained by
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