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Description
Probably the most important domestic project of the pro-Nazi Antonescu regime, the policy of Romanianization of the economy had ambitious goals. It aimed to seize Jewish-owned real estate and to redistribute it to “deserving” Romanians, state agencies, and welfare organizations and to increase the share of ethnic Romanian entrepreneurs and skilled employees through purchasing Jewish companies, adopting business and labour restrictions against Jews and “foreigners,” training and funding ethnic Romanian professionals and would-be entrepreneurs, and establishing new companies to displace minority and foreign competitors. While this project looked feasible on paper, in practice, it faced major obstacles, including a lack of funds from aspiring ethnic Romanian entrepreneurs to buy Jewish companies or to create new ones. To address it, the authorities established the Romanian Credit Institute (ICR) to fund ethnic Romanians who wanted to acquire foreign and Jewish companies and, thus, to contribute to the so-called positive aspect of Romanianization. Drawing on petitions and official memos, reports, statistics, correspondence, and newspaper articles, this chapter examines the significant yet neglected history of the ICR Aryanization bank during the Second World War and immediate post-war period, including its “achievements” and setbacks, the criticism it faced, and continuities and changes in its activity.
ISBN
9781032767444
Publication Date
11-11-2024
Publisher
Routledge
City
New York, NY
Disciplines
Cultural History | European History | Holocaust and Genocide Studies | Jewish Studies | Other History | Political History | Public History | Social History
Recommended Citation
Ionescu, Stefan. "The Rise and Fall of an Aryanization Bank: The Romanian Credit Institute, 1941–1951." In A Marketplace Without Jews: Aryanization and the Final Solution in Southeastern Europe, edited by Rory Yeomans, 39-62. New York: Routledge, 2025.
Copyright
Routledge
Included in
Cultural History Commons, European History Commons, Holocaust and Genocide Studies Commons, Jewish Studies Commons, Other History Commons, Political History Commons, Public History Commons, Social History Commons
Comments
In Rory Yeomans (Ed.), A Marketplace Without Jews: Aryanization and the Final Solution in Southeastern Europe.