Refusal of Romania to withdraw a coin with an image of former Romanian orthodox church patriarch Miron Cristea is “insensitive” to the memory of Holocaust victims.
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum says the refusal of Romania’s central bank to withdraw a coin with an image of a prime minister who stripped Jews of their citizenship before World War II is “insensitive” to the memory of Holocaust victims.
The Anti-Defamation League also condemned the decision and urged President Traian Basescu Friday to ensure that information about the anti-Semitic actions of Miron Cristea is included with each coin.
The museum in Washington, D.C., said Cristea’s tenure as Romania’s premier from 1938 to 1939 “marked the opening of a systematic campaign of anti-Semitic persecution by successive Romania governments that resulted in the devastation of the Romanian Jewish community during the Holocaust.”
“We are shocked and disappointed that the National Bank of Romania has decided to honor Miron Cristea, even after consideration of his anti-Semitic actions and statements,” Anti-Defamation League director Abraham H. Foxman said.
As prime minister, Cristea was responsible for revising Romania’s citizenship law, stripping about 225,000 Jews — or 37 percent of the nation’s Jewish population — of citizenship.
Some 280,000 Jews and 11,000 Roma, or Gypsies, were killed during the pro-fascist regime of dictator Marshal Ion Antonescu, who was prime minister from 1940 to 1944 and executed by the Communists in 1946.
Only about 6,000 Jews live in Romania today.
Tags: Christianity, Israel, News
August 22nd, 2010 at 3:31 am
Who the hell is this “The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum” that they think they can tell a sovereign state what coins to mint ?
August 22nd, 2010 at 1:22 pm
Miron Cristea served only briefly as a prime minister.He was before anything else the first PATRIARH of yhe ROMANIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH after it gained independence from the patriarhy of Constantinopole.The coin is part of a series of five coins commemorating five patriarhs.This article is biased and missrepresenting the real facts.The leaders of all christian denominations should stand up against this kind of harrasement by extremist zionism.What next?Urge the Vatican to retire commemorative coins and medals depicting all the popes for helding antijewish views?
August 22nd, 2010 at 2:51 pm
I have to say that I agree with the USHMM. Cristea was an evil man who supported Hitler both in word and deed. The commemoration of such a person is deeply hurtful to the memory of the victims of that dark period. In response to the two previous comments, the USHMM can’t tell Romania what to do, of course, but it can offer its opinion, and I’m unsure what is biased and misrepresntative about the article.
August 23rd, 2010 at 11:26 am
The refusal of the Romanian National Bank to withdraw a coin with the head of a man who was indirectly responsible for the the death of thousands of innocent people at the hands of the fascists is an absolute
disgrace ,reflecting badly on the Romanian Orthodox Church and the Government
August 23rd, 2010 at 2:09 pm
What about president Roosevelt.He denied entrance in USA to tens of thousands of jews escaping nazi Germany.Ships would wait for weeks in New York harbor before being sent back to Germany.Isnt that a disgrace that his head is depicted on commemorative coins and medals?Wasnt he indirectly responsable for the death of thousands of inocent people?You should learn the historical facts before jumping to conclusions .following blindely the propaganda po people who have an agenda does no good.Ignorance is the mother of all monsters in this world.
August 23rd, 2010 at 6:31 pm
Church and political leaders often have to make difficult political decisions and are influenced by their own cultural background and prejudices. I know very little about Miron Christea except what I have read on Wikipeadea. It doesn’t sound good but then neither did the US and UK alliance with Stalin during the 2nd World War which left much of Eastern Europe under the misery of Communist rule and led to millions more deaths in labour camps etc. In the 20th century various Christian leaders in the UK, US, Australia, South Africa etc have all been guilty of supporting policies that led to great suffering for other religious and racial groups.
August 25th, 2010 at 10:47 am
There is an old saying in English in regard to the case of Miron Cristea in relation to the actions of others’ Two Wrongs do Not make a Right’