ANSWERS AND CLARIFICATIONS

Dear Mrs Tamara H. Collins,

I am a Romanian, born in 1917, and a member of the Iron Guard since 1936. I escaped Romania in 1948, as the Communist took over my country. I have lived 4 years in Austria, 21 years in Germany and 25 years in USA.

Reading the article in the New York Times, 23 of April, "Remembering the Holocaust's 5 Million "Others" , I found the assertion: "Poland was not home of a fascist organization like the Iron Guard in Romania", which I consider libelous for us and, because it is important for us that you, as a catholic priest, are correctly informed, with this letter we send you also some documentary material:

There are two elements in your accusation:

1. The Iron Guard itself, which, because you listed it as a fascist organization, has to be accused of murdering scores of Jews.

2. The country Romania as such, hosting that fascist criminal organization, "Iron Guard".

About the Iron Guard . From its beginning it was covered with insults and calumnies by the anti-religious and anti-nationalistic circles, like

- anarchic and terroristic organization,

- It is in the service of foreign countries,

- They are in the pay of Hitlerite.

- They are printing counterfeit banknotes, and so on....

But the most outrageous calumny was brought agauinst it, it was in 1941, short after the so called "rebellion", - in reality it was Antonescu's coup d'Itat against the National Legionary State proclaimed on 14 of Sept. 1940, short after the abdication of King Carol -. That accusation asserts that during that "rebellion", the Legionaries murdered many Jews, whom they butchered like cattle and hung on meat hooks at Bucharest's slaughterhouse. That accusation was first brought by the book "On the verge of disaster" , which was put together by Eugene Cristescu, the chief of Antonescu's Secret Service.

In the annex we are giving you the true story on this matter, "The debunking of a legend: the 'Holocaust' of the Bucharest's Slaughterhouse" , and "A Legionary's view point"

In short, it was on November, 1940, that the Slaughterhouse was visited by two strange persons, who asked the director for permission to take some picture from inside. The director was astonished, what for do they need those pictures ? But three months later he discovered the puzzle by seeing in the book " On the verge of disaster" the forged photos with human corpses hunging on meat hooks.

The employees of the slaughterhouse signed a protest against that lie, that there were human beings murdered and hunged on meat hooks in the slaughterhouse. Their protest was published on 12 of February 1941 in the national newspaper "Universul", and signed by all employee of the slaughterhouse. In 1946, under communist rule, started the trials of war criminals, when the director of the slaughterhouse was accused of that crime, but the attorney general had to close his file and exonerate him.

1. About t he Iron Guard.

The founder of the Iron Guard was Corneliu Zelea Codreanu.

a. In 1920 The University of Iassy, where Codreanu was a student, decided to open the academic year without the religious service. It was Codreanu and his friends who opposed physically that opening, by blocking the entrance into the University until that decision was revoked. They were successfully.Attached a copy of that chapter from his book " For my legionaries" .

b. About this organIzation, " The Legion of Archangel Michael", called also "Iron Guard ", following we bring the considerations of a foreign researcher of interwar nationalistic movements in Europe, Walter Haagen, published in his book " Die geheime Front ", pp. 277-278: " The Iron Guard ", or "The Legion" emerged at the end of 1920 at the University of Iassy; a group of Romanian students formed this organization under the leadership of Corneliu Zelea Codreanu . It is customary to list the "Iron Guard" with fascist and national-socialist movements. However, the Iron Guard did not imitate those two kinds of movements; it grew from its own distinct roots. It has absolutely nothing to do with the numerous clones of fascism and national-socialism of other countries. It can not be related to movements in Italy and Germany that were contemporary to it. The political classification that holds good in Central and Western Europe do not hold good for it. It was authoritarian, not totalitarian; there is a vast difference. It never was aggressively nationalistic, but conservatively nationalistic, even when dealing with culture; it never was placed at the extreme right, as a political reaction, but adopted a stance of social reform; unlike fascism and national-socialism, it did not rely on the petty bourgeois, on office workers and similar social strata that proliferated after WW I, but first and foremost it relied on the Romanian peasant masses, on the young professionals and on the students."

"In the first place it differed from the established state political parties of Italy and Germany through its Christian religious spirit which verged on mysticism. Codreanu had the air of a prophet rather than of a political chief and was venerated by his followers almost as a saint. Moreover, the "Fghrerprinzip" (the principle of a leader's supremacy) was never a fixed dogma with the Iron Guard : decisions were not always made by Codreanu, but also by a collegium, a sort of "Forum" , made up of tried legionary commanders."

c. In his book, " La bKte sans nom " (The beast without a name" - EnquKte sur les responsabilitI - (The Communism, named as such by Sir Winston Churchill in a description of his efforts to destroy the "BKte sans nom" before it is not too late, description made within the "Council of the Five" ), page 200, the author, M. Charpeleu, makes the remark: "The Legionary Movement has paid with more than 60.000 years of prison, with more than one thousand dead, (strangled or massacred) - without counting the tortures in the prisons, exiled, confiscation of their assets, prohibition to get any state or private jobs for its members, the campaigns of most infamous calumnies and all other means of imaginable persecutions, the honor of being for more the a quart of century in Romania the indomitable champion in the fight to defend the values of Western Civilization."

d. Further we bring excerpts from the " Political Testament" of Iuliu Maniu, the president of the " National Peasants' Party" and the unanimously recognized exponent of the democracy in Romania:

"Corneliu Codreanu based his Legion on three ideas: that of Nationalism, that of Christian religion and that of a regenerated man. With the exception of the Jewish problem, there were no differences between us and the legionaries. We met as young representatives in Parliament, and the Legion made swift and important progress among the younger generation. True, there was a Jewish question, because the Jews had become the most numerous national minority after the Hungarians, and were first in economic power. All educated professions had been taken over by the Jews."

e. The third idea Maniu mentioned as Codreanu's ideas for his Legion, was to regenerate the men called tomorrow to lead the country, that is, to get them incorruptible at the attempts of the Jews to get them as their tools. To show how far succeeded Codreanu in that direction, we bring an excerpt from the Report of the lawyer Blum at the meeting of CC of the Romanian Communist Party, after the starting of the Hungarian uprising of 1956.

In the whole history of the communist regime in Romania, the key word was represented by the concept of " Resistance" . In no other country behind the Iron Curtain, was there such an extended conflict between the population and the communist regime as was in Romania, with armed fighting in the mountains, with upheaval of the peasantry all over the country.

In the moment in Hungary started the anti-communist upheaval of 1956, the leaders of Communist Party panicked, fearing that there could occur such an upheaval in Romania too.

At the meeting of the CC called to analyze the situation, the lawyer Blum, who was attached to CC for highly important judicial questions, made the following report:

"I am not against the legionaries, oh, Lord, forgive me, but I have to mention them first because they are the first who came to our attention. They are the most dangerous enemies of our regime, in spite of the fact that they were arrested and imprisoned over 15.000.

As much as I know in a direct form from political prisoners, the legionary danger for us is greater than ever. They dominate the whole world of the political prisoners through their steadfastness, through all their behavior and through their moral resistance. I have to add that even my kinsmen, the Jews, among whom were some younger rabies, were morally conquered by the legionaries through their attitude and their behavior. They even gave me concrete cases when they were respected and helped by the legionaries, and these legionaries were not afraid of communists, of the regime's adversity. Part of these legionaries were set free, and outside they behave in the same manner, defying the regime and full of hope that it will collapse.

In their resistance against the communist regime the legionaries were joined by army officers, especially the war prisoners who came back from Russia. There they were indoctrinated by some of them who were legionaries. These legionaries maintained all the period they were in Russia among all other prisoners a high optimistic nationalistic moral."

2. About the holocaust against the Jews in Romania, which is your concern, let us tell you that

a. during the war, the legionaries were imprisoned in Romania, or they were put together with Jews and communists in the concentration camps of Germany. After January 1941, when Antonescu, with the consent of Hitler ousted the legionaries from the government and arrested them, who could escape the police and fly to Germany, there they were put in concentration camp.

b. For the rest of the holocaust story in Romania, I will use a communication made by the Senator Ion Coja in the Romanian Parliament, which I found reprinted in his book " Our legionaries" , (Legionarii nostri), publisher " Kogaion" & " Buna Vestire" , Bucharest, 1997, Chapter III," Was there in Romania a holocaust against the Jews?" , pp 67-73:

- "Our meeting has proposed itself to discuss the most grave accusation it has ever been brought against our nation, accusation of genocide, of holocaust against the Jews. I do not intend to hide my hope that we, together, will find out that they, who are bringing that accusation, that during the years 1940-1944 in Romania took place a holocaust against the Jews, are wrong."

I am acknowledging openly that I am nurturing this hope, which is overpasses in its dimmensuion only by my impotence to impose the evidence and its meaning; my impotence to lie myself and the others, and doing so, sinning even more than those who eventually committed that deeds and whom we are trying now to consider honestly and with full responsibility, sine ira et sine studio:

- We can not declare ourselves content only by counting the victims, without asking ourselves what were the cause of the conflict. It is self evident that, when the victim's only sin was that he was born in an ethnic or religious group, the sin of the perpetrator aggravated to the utmost.

- For the whole of our discussion it is important to accept the fact easy to be verified, that the geography of the holocaust in Romania covers only a small part of the country, namely only two zones:

a. Northern Transylvania which, after the Dictate of Vienna of Hitler and Mussolini, on 30 August 1940, was ceded to Hungary, where the violence first was perpetrated against the Romanians and later, under the pressure of the Germans, it intensified also against the Jews. (See Annex).

Further we have to mention the fact, that from Northern Transylavnia and even from Hungary the Jews were flying into Romania to escape deportation. Did they know that in Romania they were not arrested and deported ?

In a telegram from Budapest to Berlin, dated 11 of July 1944, number 1939, the German Consul Veesenmeyer in Hungary claimed that: "While we demand from the (Hungarian) government the strictest procedures against the Jews, the Romanians are allowed to treat the Jews there in a much more tolerant way. From Romania are currently sailing even regular transport of Jews to Palestine, according to the report of Hungarian Embassy in Bucharerst. In the last few weeks numerous Hungarian Jews crossed the border illegally into Romania, where they are openly tolerated, treated as political refugees and allowed to emigrate to Israel."

These facts are confirmed by the telegram of German Embassy in Bucharest to Berlin, dated July 14, 1944, No.1217: "The facts found at the Consulate General of Klausenburg (Cluj), have been verified, namely that the Hungarian Jews, who flee to Romania, are being treated as political refugees and they are allowed by the Romanian government to emigrate to Palestine."

For more information about the fate of the Jews in Northern Transylvania, we attach the brochure " Distorssions and Misrepresentation that bring insult to the memory of the victims of the Horthy's reign of terror", by Dr.Oliver Lustig, historian, Romanian citizen of Jewish descent, deported by the Hungarians, who acknowledges also the holocaust against the Romanians, and who states that in Romania there were no Jews deported or murdered.

b. The other zone, of Northern Moldavia, the Bessarabia and Transnistria, which was near to the front line between the German-Romanian and the Russian troops. What happened there constitute the most important part of our discussion today. But before we remember what happened in this zone, we have to mention an established fact, that the violence was limited to these two zones only, which means that in Romania as a whole did not exist the mentality of harassing persons just because they belong to other ethnic or religious groups.

- What happened in this part of Romania?

On 26 of June 1940, the Russian government issued a ultimatum to Romania that in three days it has to retreat its administration from Bessarabia and Northern Bucovina. In this part of the country were many Jews. During the retreat of the Romanian army and administration, the Jews, joined by other communists, attacked the retreating army and civilians, beating, insulting and even killing them. The army had the strict order not to respond.

In continuation we will bring a citation from the book " So started the holocaust in Romania" , by the historian Gheorghe Buzatu, Majadahonda, Bucharest, 1996:

To conclude this answer to your assertion, that " Poland was not the home of a fascist organization like the Iron Guard in Romania ", we bring three more excerpts from declarations made by leading Jewish personalities:

1. Chief Rabbi Dr. Alexander Safran of Romania during the years 1940-1947 , made a declaration in the Romanian Parliament in March, 1995, where he was invited, (from "Parliamentary Chronicle", March 27-29, 1995, The Senate of Romania):

"In the course of those decades, we have all lived a tumultuous life. People have gone through dreadfully times everywhere, in Romania, in Europe, with devastating reverberation throughout the whole world. And miracle happened in spite of all the adversities. Persecuted, oppressed, maimed, robbed, humiliated, the Jews have nevertheless kept alive the Jewish community of Romania by an inexplicable miracle.....

"After all the massacres, almost the whole Jewish population of the Ancient Kingdom of Romania and Southern Transylvania remained alive."

2. Prof. Moshe Carmilly-Weinberger of Israel was chief rabbi of Cluj, (Klausenburg) , Northern Transylvania during the WW II, and in 1988 he visited Romania -. For a time in Israel, he joined the diplomacy and became head of the Department for Romania, Hungary and Poland. Professor Moshe Carmilly-Weinberger, speaking in his lecture at "Nicolae Iorga Historical Institute" in Bucharest about Romania's important role in the action of salvation the Jews in Northern Transylvania between 1940-1944, said:

"Hungary assassinated 80% of its Jews, whom it sent to gas chambers at Auschwitz-Maidanek, while Romania wanted to rescue what ever there was to rescue, and threw the life belt to those who were drawing. The Romanian people strived to save their faith in human kindness and we, the Jews, are and will be grateful for this." (from "Tribuna Romaniei", Year VIII, Nr. 369, 1 August 1988).

3. Dr. W. Filderman, former president of the Jewish Community in Romania during the WW II, at a suite in 1956 in Berne, Switzerland, (from the monthly newspaper "Stindardul", Mgnchen, October 1978), declared:

"In the time of Nazi domination I was in permanent touch with Marshal Antonescu, (then the head of the State), who deed everything in his power to smooth the life of the Jews facing the racist persecution of the Nazism. I witnessed emotional scenes of human aid and solidarity between Romanians and Jews during the Nazi imperialism in Europe. I will give the following examples. Due to the authoritative intervention of Marshal Antonescu the deportation of 20.000 Jews from Bucovina was hindered. He gave me passports in white to save the life of the Jews flying from Hungary, whose life was in jeopardy. Owing to his policy, the fortune of the Jews was put under a improvised institution, registered in a manner that allowed its return at convenient moment. I mention all these in order to emphasize the fact that the Romanian people, as far as it has the control of its country, has demonstrated his human feelings and moderate policy."

In 1936, when in Spain raged the civil war, Ion I. Mota, the second in importance at the founding of the Legionary Movement, has said: "There they are shooting in the face of Jesus Christ. The foundation of the Christian World is trembling. Could we stay indifferent?" And with six others of his comrades he went to Spain to fight for Christ, and fall on 13 of January 1937 on the front at Majadahonda, near Madrid. In his Testament to his parents he wrote: "So I understood the meaning of my life, I loved Jesus Christ and went happily to dye for Him."

We are accustomed to be attacked from all parts, but, as dedicated Christians we are, it is most painful for us when the attack is coming from followers of the same Jesus Christ.

In 1939, as Poland was invaded by the Germans, many thousand Poles went to Romania to escape German persecution. They were welcomed in Romania and part of them are still there. as we acknowledge it from an interview in the newspaper "Romania libera", Internet edition Sept. 21, 1999, where Mrs. Prof. Dr. hab. Alieja Grzeskowiak, President of the Polish Parliament visited Romania and declared: "I am pleased to hear that the Polish minority in Romania is respected, and I would be glad if all other nations would treat the Polish minority as well as the Romanians and the Romanian State are doing."

September 30, 1999

Sincerely, yours

Traian Golea