Dr. Rázvan Pârâianu
Panel 6 The Jewish Minorities
Abstract
On the 21 January 1938 the newly appointed Romanian government issued a decree on citizenship revision regarding mainly the Jewish population. This was one of the central themes expounded by the National Christian Party (NCP) program entitled “Romania to the Romanians.” According to the National Christian Party leaders, the Romanian Jewish population had dramatically increased after the First World War – partially due to the state’s acquisition of new territories such as Transylvania, Banat, Maramureş, Bukovina, and Bessarabia, partially as the result of a significant Jewish emigration from Galicia. According to these NCP leaders, the Jews were understood as being excluded from the minority treaty the Romanian state signed with the Allied Powers in 1919 as well as other international treaties. Therefore, they could be deprived of their citizen rights, and eventually even be forced to leave the country. This was one of the first measures in a series of anti-Semitic laws and decrees to be legislated in the following years.
