U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515December 1, 1995
Dear Representative D'Amato:
Your joint letter with Representative Christopher Smith to Romania's President Ion Iliescu of July 18, 1995 in which you express your concern at the setting up of a bust of General Ion Antonescu in two Romanian locations, and at the failure of the Romania police to discover alleged antisemitic hate crimes when children climb on tombstones in order to reach fruit in near-by trees in a Jewish cemetery and doing so overturn the tombstones, is based on untruths and misrepresentations.
General Antonescu is not honored because he persecuted the Jews or any other minority of Romania; he is honored because he fought and gave up his life in the defense of the Romanian people and its homeland. He is acknowledged as one of the few brave European leaders who, when their country was occupied by the nazi armies, refused to deport the Jews. He protected and saved hundreds of thousands of Romanian Jews who emigrated to Israel, as attested by the then Chief Rabbi of Romania, Alexandru Nafran, by the then President of the Jewish Community of Romania, W. Fielderman, and by many other truthful Jewish and non-Jewish sources. It is for the Romanian people to decide when to honor its defenders without interference; the Romanian Parliament did not pretend to have the United States remove from the seat of American government the statue of General Albert Pike, who has been indicted for treason to his country, and under whose command unspeakable atrocities were committed with his knowledge at Pea Ridge, Arkansas. You are curiously blind to the honoring of the fascist leader Horthy in Hungary, although Horthy's butchering of Jews during World War II was so extreme that he had to be tempered by the Hitlerites themselves. Did you write a similar letter to the Hungarian Parliament about that? Horthy did round up and send to Auschwitz hundreds of thousands of Jews, a thing General Antonescu did not do.
The Romanian police failed to find a criminal hate act in the overturned tombstones in the Jewish cemetery because there was none. The Romanians are not and never were antisemitic and full of hatred; it is for that reason that such large minorities choose to come and live in Romania over the centuries, where the Romanians have always received them and allowed them to prosper for thousands of years; the minorities came as they pleased and left when they pleased, to emigrate to Israel or Germany or the United States or wherever they pleased.
Your definition of "Antonescu's Iron Guard" demonstrates your enormous ignorance of the whole matter. The Iron Guard was never Antonescu's; after a brief understanding between General Antonescu and the Iron Guard, the general hunted down, persecuted, imprisoned and killed the members of the Iron Guard. Those who escaped were interned in German concentration camps alongside of the Jews, the Gypsies, and the political dissidents; and that is why the Iron Guard was exonerated at the Nuremberg war crimes tribunal. It is highly desirable that letters of condemnation and resolutions be based on facts, not on allegations, untruths and misrepresentations.
The U.S. Congress and Senate had no difficulty granting communist China the most favored nation status, in spite of red China's most bloody and inhumane liquidation of its political dissidents. Communism has torturously murdered approximately 150 million human victims - one hundred and fifty million. Obviously, the Romanian police's failure to demonize the children who climbed on a few tombstones is more important to you than the torturous death of one hundred and fifty million innocent human victims.
Sincerely yours,
The Honorable Christopher Smith
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515December 1, 1995
Dear Representative Smith
Your joint letter with Representative Alfonse D'Amato to Romania's President Ion Iliescu of July 18, 1995 in which you express your concern at the setting up of a bust of General Ion Antonescu in two Romanian locations, and at the failure of the Romania police to discover alleged antisemitic hate crimes when children climb on tombstones in order to reach fruit in near-by trees in a Jewish cemetery and doing so overturn the tombstones, is based on untruths and misrepresentations.
General Antonescu is not honored because he persecuted the Jews or any other minority of Romania; he is honored because he fought and gave up his life in the defense of the Romanian people and its homeland. He is acknowledged as one of the few brave European leaders who, when their country was occupied by the nazi armies, refused to deport the Jews. He protected and saved hundreds of thousands of Romanian Jews who emigrated to Israel, as attested by the then Chief Rabbi of Romania, Alexandru Nafran, by the then President of the Jewish Community of Romania, W. Fielderman, and by many other truthful Jewish and non-Jewish sources. It is for the Romanian people to decide when to honor its defenders without interference; the Romanian Parliament did not pretend to have the United States remove from the seat of American government the statue of General Albert Pike, who has been indicted for treason to his country, and under whose command unspeakable atrocities were committed with his knowledge at Pea Ridge, Arkansas. You are curiously blind to the honoring of the fascist leader Horthy in Hungary, although Horthy's butchering of Jews during World War II was so extreme that he had to be tempered by the Hitlerites themselves. Did you write a similar letter to the Hungarian Parliament about that? Horthy did round up and send to Auschwitz hundreds of thousands of Jews, a thing General Antonescu did not do.
The Romanian police failed to find a criminal hate act in the overturned tombstones in the Jewish cemetery because there was none. The Romanians are not and never were antisemitic and full of hatred; it is for that reason that such large minorities choose to come and live in Romania over the centuries, where the Romanians have always received them and allowed them to prosper for thousands of years; the minorities came as they pleased and left when they pleased, to emigrate to Israel or Germany or the United States or wherever they pleased.
Your definition of "Antonescu's Iron Guard" demonstrates your enormous ignorance of the whole matter. The Iron Guard was never Antonescu's; after a brief understanding between General Antonescu and the Iron Guard, the general hunted down, persecuted, imprisoned and killed the members of the Iron Guard. Those who escaped were interned in German concentration camps alongside of the Jews, the Gypsies, and the political dissidents; and that is why the Iron Guard was exonerated at the Nuremberg war crimes tribunal. It is highly desirable that letters of condemnation and resolutions be based on facts, not on allegations, untruths and misrepresentations.
The U.S. Congress and Senate had no difficulty granting communist China the most favored nation status, in spite of red China's most bloody and inhumane liquidation of its political dissidents. Communism has torturously murdered approximately 150 million human victims - one hundred and fifty million. Obviously, the Romanian police's failure to demonize the children who climbed on a few tombstones is more important to you than the torturous death of one hundred and fifty million innocent human victims.
Sincerely yours,
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