Central Bank shamed for minting coin commemorating anti-semitic leader

Romania’s central bank (BNR) has been attacked by diplomats and civil society for minting a commemorative coin of a head of the country’s Orthodox Church who - in the role of Prime Minister - triggered the persecution of Jews during World War II

September 2010 - From the Print Edition

As Prime Minister between 1938 and 1939, Miron Cristea called for Jews to be expelled from Romania and his policies revoked the citizenship of around 225,000 Jews.
Romania joined the war on the side of the Nazis and, in 1941, began a regional campaign of terror against the Jews which culminated in the murder of over 100,000 in Odessa and its surroundings.
Civil rights groups were incensed that Romania should shame the memory of holocaust victims by celebrating such a controversial figure.
“BNR chose to continue to feature on a commemorative coin a well-known anti-Semite and totalitarian leader, who also propagated hate toward other Christian denominations,” said Radu Ioanid, director of the international archival programs division at Washington DC’s Holocaust Museum.
US Ambassador to Romania Mark Gitenstein also voiced his ‘disappointment’ at the decision.
The minting was part of five commemorative silver coins the BNR issued last July dedicated to the leaders of the Romanian Orthodox Church during the pre-war period, the Fascist Marshall Antonescu era and the Communist dictatorship.
The BNR refused to withdraw the coins and said the minting did not commemorate Cristea’s short tenure as Prime Minister, but his role as head of the Church.
But as leader of the Church, Cristea began his race-hate campaign against the Jews.
“One has to be sorry for the poor Romanian people, whose very marrow is sucked out by the Jews,” the Patriarch wrote in 1937, cited in the Final Report by the International Commission on the Holocaust in Romania. “Not to react against the Jews means that we go open-eyed to our destruction... To defend ourselves is a patriotic duty.”
A BNR statement argues that the whole activity of the bank is orientated without exception in the “spirit of respect of the values of humanity, democracy and multiculturalism”.
“In a clumsy way, the BNR tried to separate Miron Cristea the Patriarch, from Miron Cristea the Prime Minister - which is plainly ridiculous,” adds Radu Ioanid. “Cristea fanned the same flames of hate as the head of the Romanian government and as the leader of the Orthodox Church.”