Romanian nationalists and the Holocaust : the political exploitation of unfounded rescue accounts

In the 1970s-80s official Romanian historiography began to revise Romania's record during the Nazi era. After 1990, this tendency developed into a revisionist historiography which attempts to show that the only Holocaust in Romania was that perpetrated by the Hungarians in northern Transylvania, that Romania was a safe harbor for Jews, and that Antonescu was a savior. Historians ignore the fact that in 1941-42 his regime murdered 270,000 Romanian and Ukrainian Jews in Transnistria, or they depict this murder as a self-defense measure against pro-Soviet elements. States that Antonescu was an inveterate antisemite who changed his policy only in 1943, after Stalingrad. Chs. 4-7 (pp. 95-226) deal with the alleged rescue activites of Raoul Şorban in Hungarian-annexed Cluj. In the 1980s Şorban emerged as a rescuer who had helped Jews fleeing from Hungary in 1944. His claims were supported by Moshe Carmilly-Weinberger, a Jewish leader who had abandoned his community in Cluj and was interested in whitewashing his own name. However, Éva Semlyén, the only person whom Şorban had tried to rescue, did not corroborate Şorban's story. Şorban has been awarded the title of Righteous Gentile by Yad Vashem; Romanian nationalists exploit his story to support their claims, and Şorban himself supports the new "Antonescu myth". Pp. 241-276 contain testimonies by Éva Semlyén and by another "rescued" person. Includes bibliographical references and index. vi, 289 pages ; 24 cm.