August 20, 2010
THE UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM OBJECTS TO CRISTEA COIN
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum expresses strong objection to the decision of the Romanian National Bank to mint a coin honoring former Patriarch Miron Cristea. Cristea’s tenure as Prime Minister (1938-1939) marked the opening of a systematic campaign of antisemitic persecution by successive Romania governments that resulted in the devastation of the Romanian Jewish community during the Holocaust. Miron Cristea’s antisemitic statements, his calls for Jews to be expelled from Romania, and the active role he played in the denaturalization of more than a quarter of a million Romanian Jews are well documented in the Final Report of the International Commission on the Holocaust in Romania, chaired by Nobel Peace Laureate Elie Wiesel. This report, prepared with the intense involvement of the Museum, has been endorsed by Romanian President Traian Basescu as well as his predecessor Romanian President, Ion Iliescu. Museum Director Sara Bloomfield commented that, “The misguided decision of the Romanian National Bank to honor Miron Cristea is insensitive to the memory of the victims and inconsistent with the great progress Romania has made in acknowledging its past.”
