Legal Tools Instead of Weapons: Jewish Resistance to the State Takeover of Urban Real Estate and Businesses during the Antonescu Regime

Authors

Stefan Cristian Ionescu, Chapman UniversityFollow

Files

Description

"I will investigate the different forms of Jewish resistance to the Antonescu regime, focusing on the use of legalities to bypass the process of Romanianization or Aryanization or state takeover of businesses and urban real estate, a process that aimed to exclude Jews from the local economy and, ultimately, from society.¹ The use of legal tools, mainly sabotage and judicial contestation by tens of thousands of Romanian Jews, was resistance to the Holocaust at its best.² If the seizure of Jewish properties, businesses, and jobs, as envisioned by Romanianization’s social architects, had succeeded, it would have meant starvation, homelessness, forced labor detachments, deportation to Transnistria, and the destruction of Jewish communities.3 According to contemporary accounts (diaries), Jews considered the struggle to stay alive and preserve their livelihoods (including properties, jobs, and businesses) as resistance to Antonescu’s antisemitic policies.⁴ Additionally, the Antonescu bureaucrats considered Jews’ massive use of legalities as resistance to Romanianization using terms such as 'resistance,' 'opposition,' and, most frequently, 'sabotage.'⁵ My study is based on official documents produced by state bureaucrats, judicial bodies, Jewish communities, foreign diplomats, and personal narratives of Romania’s inhabitants.⁶ I will begin with an overview of the World War II Antonescu regime and its antisemitic policies, especially Romanianization, and a brief history of Jewish responses to these persecutions. I will then explore legal resistance and sabotage as the main forms of Jewish resistance to the Romanianization of urban real estate and businesses."

ISBN

9780813225890

Publication Date

6-2014

Publisher

Catholic University of America Press

City

Washington, DC

Disciplines

Cultural History | European History | Holocaust and Genocide Studies | Jewish Studies | Other History | Political History | Public History | Social History

Comments

In Patrick Henry (Ed.), Jewish Resistance Against the Nazis.

Recommended Citation

Ionescu, Stefan, “Legal Tools Instead of Weapons: Jewish Resistance to the State Takeover of Urban Real Estate and Businesses during the Antonescu Regime,“ in Patrick Henry (ed.). Jewish Resistance against the Nazis (Washington DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2014).

Copyright

Catholic University of America Press