The Treatment of the Jew in the Romanian Legislation (1938-2008) Cover Image
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The Treatment of the Jew in the Romanian Legislation (1938-2008)
The Treatment of the Jew in the Romanian Legislation (1938-2008)

Author(s): Alexandru Florian
Subject(s): History
Published by: Institutul National pentru Studierea Holocaustului din Romania ELIE WIESEL
Keywords: Jews; Legislation; Holocaust

Summary/Abstract: The paper studies the image of the Jew in Romanian politics between 1938 and 2008. From a wide range of aspects that define a political system, we have selected for this topic the legislative component only. This choice is based on the following reasons: 1) the Jewish presence in legislation constitutes a direct indicator of anti-Semitism as State policy; 2) the anti-Jewish legislation was the first step in the history of the Holocaust in Romania; 3) the image of the Jew in post WWII laws also reflects anti-Semitic moderate mentalities, considering that any reference to Jews is made indirectly or by omission (the subject is a connotation). For the period of 1938-1944, we examined with priority the role of religion and Orthodox mystique in the elaboration of anti-Semitic legislation. Another issue taken into discussion is the identification of some symbolical or institutional obstacles which, after 1990, prevented the recovery of the history and memory of the Holocaust in Romania, as subjective elements within the public and intellectual space. In this context, we made a radiography of public manifestations of Holocaust denial, of the lack of reaction from the State towards radical negationism and of the belayed reaction against the tendency to rehabilitate war criminals. All these aspects have been identified and structured under three collocations: 1) the Jew as enemy (the period of Holocaust); 2) the Jew as victim (the post war period) and 3) the recovery of the memory of a history which has been considered controversial in Romanian culture.

  • Issue Year: III/2011
  • Issue No: 04
  • Page Range: 36-57
  • Page Count: 22
  • Language: English