UC Riverside

This dissertation is an examination of records relating to the Romanian Orthodox Church during the Second World War. Using primarily resources from The Romanian National Archives in Bucharest, the research focuses primarily on the decisions made by the Church's leaders in the Holy Synod. The Romanian government leading up to the war was a dictatorship led by a king and had a close relationship with the Church.

During the war the Church remained close to the central government under Marshall Ion Antonescu, who was an ally to Germany's Hitler. Publicly the Church was one of Antonescu's greatest supporters. The Church's leaders rationalized supporting the Romanian government before and during Antonescu's regime using popular notions of Romanian nationalism. Antonescu reciprocated the Church's support with laws and policies that favored the Romanian Orthodox Church legally and financially above other

confessions. One of these policies was to put restrictions on certain minority religious groups and outlawing them. Their resources were confiscated and often gifted to local Orthodox parishes. Another important law prohibited Jews from becoming Christians. The Orthodox Church's implementation of this law demonstrates that the Church supported the Romanian government's anti-Jewish philosophy and policies. The actions of other Christians who ignored the prohibition are used as contrasting examples to the Orthodox Church's policy.

While the Church did not participate with the Romanian government and military in perpetrating the Holocaust, the Church's strong presence in Transnistria indicates that the Church's clergy had direct knowledge of the violence there. The failure to take action in this area represents a moral failure by an institution that touted itself as Romania's moral compass. Based on the Church's wartime actions it was complicit in the Antonescu regime's crimes. Following the Antonescu regime's collapse in August 1944 the Romanian Orthodox Church quickly reversed its stance on many of its wartime policies.