Valerian Trifa

Valerian Trifa
Trifa (third from left), withHoria Sima,Traian Brăileanu,and Valeriu Neagoe at a student celebration during the National Legionary State, Bucharest, 10 December 1940.
Born	Viorel Trifa (1914-06-14)June 14, 1914 Câmpeni,Austria-Hungary
Died	January 28, 1987(1987-01-28)(aged 72) Cascais,Portugal
Citizenship	Romania(until 1947?);United States(1957–1980)

Valerian Trifa(Romanian pronunciation:[valeriˈanˈtrifa];secular nameViorel Donise TrifaRomanian pronunciation:[vi.oˈrelˈtrifa];June 28, 1914 – January 28, 1987) was aRomanianOrthodoxcleric andfascistpolitical activist who served asarchbishopof theRomanian Orthodox Episcopate Of America.For part of his life, he was anaturalizedcitizen of theUnited States,until he was stripped of his American citizenship for lying about his involvement in the murder of hundreds of Jews during theHolocaustandWorld War II.

A prominent affiliate of theIron Guard,a Romanian fascist organization also known as the Legionary Movement, Trifa played a part in provoking theLegionnaires' Rebellionof 1941. Hisantisemiticdiscourse was suspected of helping instigate the parallelpogromagainst theJewish communityinBucharest.After being singled out as a rebel byIon Antonescu,Romania'sConducătorand a competitor of the Iron Guard, he spent the final years ofWorld War IIinNazi Germany,as a detainee with privileged status. Trifa subsequently made his way into the United States, where he came to lead theRomanian-AmericanOrthodox community into opposition with the mainOrthodox Church in Communist Romania.

Beginning in 1975, his wartime activities came to the attention of theUnited States Department of Justice,and the subsequent inquiry made Trifa relinquish his American citizenship in 1980. He moved toPortugalin 1982, was ordered to be expelled in 1984, and was still there – fighting his expulsion in the courts – when he died in 1987.

The scandal's ramifications came to involve several institutions, including theNational Council of Churches,Radio Free Europe,West Germanlaw enforcement, and theIsraeliand Portuguese governments, while allegations surfaced that Romania's secret police, theSecuritate,was using the controversy to advance its own goals.

Biography

Early life and activism

Born inCâmpeni,Transylvania(at the time inAustria-Hungary), he was the son of schoolteacher Dionisie Trifa, and the nephew ofIosif Trifa,an Orthodox priest who foundedOastea Domnului( "The Lord's Army" ).He studied at the school of his native village, then at the Horia Gymnasium of Câmpeni and the Gheorghe Lazăr High School ofSibiu,from which he graduated in 1931.Between 1931 and 1935, he studied theology at theUniversity of Chișinău,graduatingmagna cum laude.He then studied philosophy at theUniversity of Bucharestand, in 1939, history and journalism at theUniversity of Berlin.Trifa's first employment was withOastea Domnului,being charged with managing its publishing house: he issued the movement's eponymous magazine, its other journalLumina Satelor,and the books of his uncle Iosif.

While a student, Trifa joined the Iron Guard, and was a contributor to itsOrăștie-basedLibertateanewspaper; in 1940, during theNational Legionary State(the period when the Iron Guard was in power), he was elected president of the National Union of Romanian Christian Students, a Legionnaire organization.

Legionnaires' Rebellion and the Bucharest pogrom

Although hostile to the Guard's new leader,Horia Sima,he became involved in the January 1941 confrontation between Sima's Legionnaires andIon Antonescu.In early 1941, the conflict for power turned into an Iron Guard-led failed rebellion and apogromagainst theJewishpopulation inBucharestwhere over one hundred Jews and Romanians were massacred.

Known as theLegionnaires' Rebellion,the event was partly motivated by the killing of aGerman Reichresident and localAbwehrchief, Major Döring — which was probably accomplished with assistance from theBritishIntelligence Service.In this context, Trifa issued several statements which played a part in instigating the riots.They were noted for theirantisemiticremarks, and included arguments such as "A group of Jews and Jew-lovers are ruling everything".In one of hismanifestos,Trifa blamed the Jews in general for Döring's assassination, while nominating two politicians associated with Antonescu (Eugen Cristescuand the former Undersecretary of theInteriorAlexandru Rioşanu), whom, he alleged, were protectors of the Jews.His text, which relied on the assumption that Döring had been killed byGreekagents and formed part of a Legionnaire press campaign,read:

... the protectors and defenders of this Greek-origin assassin are: Eugen Cristescu, chief of the [Romanian] secret service and a former confidant ofArmand Călinescu[the formerPrime Ministerand Iron Guard adversary, assassinated by the Legionnaries in 1939] and Alexandru Rioșanu, the man of the Jews and of the Greeks.... We demand the replacement of all Jew-turned [jidovite] persons inside the government.

Internment and early self-exile

Following Antonescu's repression of the rebels, Viorel Trifa fled to the Reich, where he wasinternedin the camps ofSachsenhausen,BuchenwaldandDachau.Romanian authorities tried himin absentia,alongside other Iron Guard leaders, and sentenced him tolife imprisonmentandlabor.In early 1943, while in Buchenwald, Trifa was among the prominent Legionnaires who agreed to disavow Sima's policies (the group also included Vasile Iașinschi,Ilie Gârneață,Constantin Popovici, Dumitru Grozea, and Corneliu Georgescu).According to historian Radu Ioanid, this move was mediated by German officials, who hoped to obtain a reconciliation between Antonescu and the Iron Guard.Ioanid, who described the Legionnaires' internment as a "bearable regime" in comparison to that of other prisoners in the same camps, noted that they were visited by high-ranking Nazi officials who warned them not to engage in any political activity.In a June 2007 article, theItalianweeklyL'Espressodefined Trifa as "a guest in Germany, protected by the Nazis".

After Trifa was freed, he was briefly secretary toMetropolitan bishopVisarion PuiuinViennaand thenParis,and, following the end ofWorld War II,he was a professor ofancient historyin Italy, at aRoman Catholiccollege.He moved to the United States on July 17, 1950, using theDisplaced Persons Immigration Law.According toL'Espresso,this was made possible by the intervention of a "high-ranking [Italian Catholic] prelate".He became a naturalized citizen in 1957.

He was subsequently a writer at theSoliaRomanian languagenewspaper inCleveland,Ohio.At the Congress of the dissidentRomanian Orthodox Church in Americaheld inChicagoon July 2, 1951, Trifa was chosen bishop and then moved toGrass Lake,Michigan,where the headquarters of the Romanian Orthodox Episcopate is located.This came after he led his congregation in occupying the residence, thus chasing away representatives of the Orthodox Church in Romania — as the latter was by then subordinated to theRomanian Communist Party.

In 1955, he gave the opening prayer before theUnited States Senateand he became a member of the governing board of theNational Council of Churches.Fifteen years later, he became an archbishop, as his church wanted to affirm its autonomy.

Department of Justice investigation

As early as 1957, Charles Kremer, a Romanian-borndentistand Jewish community activist, was involved in collecting evidence to have Trifa tried forwar crimesin the American justice system.In time, Kremer succeeded in bringing attention to his cause: according toTime,Trifa's file was reopened "largely through his efforts".

TheUnited States Department of Justicestarted its case against Trifa in 1975, the core of its argument being that he entered the United States under false pretenses, hiding his Iron Guard membership.American authorities also reported that Trifa had mentioned his internment in Nazi camps, but had not made it clear that he had benefited from preferential treatment.In October 1976, a group of members of the Concerned Jewish Youth organization took over the headquarters of the National Council of Churches building, as a protest against the refusal of the organization to oust Trifa.The archbishop was ousted from the body in November, after the Council stated that, in what concerns Nazi atrocities, "we cannot allow any doubt about a complete repudiation".

When focus shifted to his role in the 1941 Rebellion, Trifa denied his involvement,despite being confronted with evidence (sent by theRomanian government),including a photo of him in an Iron Guard uniform and texts of his pro-Nazi speeches and articles. He claimed he was not ashamed of his past, as he had no alternatives and he did what he thought was best for the Romanian people, and attributed authorship of his 1941 inflammatory speeches to other persons.He nevertheless admitted having lied to American authorities upon entering the United States.Further evidence against Trifa was a postcard addressed to Nazi leaderHeinrich Himmlerand signed by "Viorel Trifa". Trifa denied ever writing it, but, using imaging techniques, Americanforensic scientistsmanaged to recover alatent fingerprintidentified as belonging to him.

TheOffice of Special Investigations (OSI)of the U.S. Justice Department was established in 1979 for the purpose of expelling Nazi war criminals that had entered the U.S. OSI prosecuted Trifa with the intention of stripping him of his U.S citizenship and deporting him. The trial began in October 1982. Trifa wanted to avoid being returned to Romania, where he had been convictedin absentiain 1941 and sentenced to life imprisonment. He agreed to settle the case, acknowledging that he had been a member of the Iron Guard and had concealed this information when he entered the U.S. He agreed to leave the U.S. within 60 days.

TheIsraeliprosecutorGideon Hausnerpressured for theextraditionof Valerian Trifa so that Israel could try Trifa forcrimes against humanity,and famed Nazi hunterZev Golanwas instrumental in coordinating between the Simon Wiesenthal Center and Israeli Police in seeking a trial, but the Israeli government never made any official extradition claim, nor issued any warrants.An offer for extradition was made in April 1983 by the OSI, but was rejected by the Israeli government.When news of this refusal leaked to the Israeli press, a polemic was sparked between Hausner andMenachem Begin's executive, but the latter chose not to reconsider its earlier decision.According toThe New York Times,the stance may have implied that "the Israelis did not feel they could build a sufficient war crimes case against [Trifa]."In parallel, Charles Kremer stated his dissatisfaction with Israel's decision.

At the time, Trifa's early convictions caused another scandal. In May 1979, upon instructions fromNoël Bernard,Radio Free Europe's Romanian contributor Liviu Floda interviewed Trifa on his Church's activities.Bernard's initiative was allegedly questioned by Floda and his employers alike.News of the interview's broadcast caused virulent reactions inside the United States, and resulted in a hearing by a subcommittee of theUnited States House Committee on International Relations.

Renunciation of citizenship and Portuguese refuge

In 1980, Trifa gave up his American citizenship.In 1982, he left the United States to avoid deportation due to the ongoing investigation.He had earlier agreed to deportation before an immigration judge inDetroit,explaining that the trial was placing a financial strain on his congregation.

Nevertheless, his adversaries considered Trifa's action an admission of guilt, in respect to both the technical charge and the accusations of war crimes.According toTime,although Trifa's defense team rejected the claims, it did not deny Trifa's fascist and antisemitic convictions and speeches, including the 1941 statements, but stated that its client had no intention of causing a pogrom.They also argued that Valerian Trifa had acted after being forced to choose between the pro-Sovietand the pro-Nazi camps, contending that antisemitism was "rampant at the time."

After spending two years searching for a country to give him refuge, he settled inEstoril,Portugal.In an interview he gave shortly before leaving, Trifa claimed that he had "happened to get put in a moment of history when some people wanted to make a point. The point was to revivethe Holocaust.But all this talk by the Jews about the Holocaust is going to backfire. "

In autumn 1984, the Portuguese authorities declared Trifa an undesirable, and indicated that he had failed to reveal his fascist sympathies when requesting and obtaining a temporaryvisa.According toReuters,Portuguese officials indicated that "it was against Portugal's interests for Archbishop Trifa to live here and he must leave as soon as possible."Initially, they allowed the prelate three months to leave the country's territory.Trifa contested the decision with theSupreme Administrative Court,which put off his actual deportation for several years.

The deportation was still in progress when Valerian Trifa died at the age of 72, in aCascaishospital, during emergency treatment for aheart attack.

Legacy

Beginning in the late 1980s,Ion Mihai Pacepa,a former general in the communist secret police (theSecuritate) who defected to the United States, claimed that Trifa had been the victim of aframeupengineered by his former colleagues.Pacepa linked this to an alleged trip by Romanian bishopBartolomeu Ananiato the United States, of which he claimed was a common attempt of the regime and the main Orthodox Church to quell the dissidence of Romanian-American Orthodox believers.

In a 2003 article forRevista 22,Noël Bernard's wife, Ioana Măgură Bernard, noted that her husband was being targeted by the Securitate, and argued that, especially after the Trifa interview, the communist institution attempted to stir up animosity inside Radio Free Europe in order to have Bernard stripped of his position.Based on evidence from her husband's Securitate file, she also described Bernard's mysterious 1981 death as an assassination, arguing that it formed the culmination of various failed attempts to silence him.

In 2007, journalists atL'Espressocited Trifa among the suspected war criminals who, it claimed, may have been actively aided by theRoman Catholic Churchin avoiding investigation.The magazine suggested that the frequency of such cases could help explain why Italy had been resisting theratificationneeded for opening theInternational Tracing Servicearchives managed by theInternational Committee of the Red Crossand kept inBad Arolsen.

The papers of Dr. Charles Kremer, dating from 1930 to 1984 and documenting his lifelong work to bring Trifa to justice, are housed in the Special Collections of Lloyd Sealy Library, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, in New York City.

Further reading

• Feigin, Judy and Mark M. Richard, The Office of Special Investigations: Striving for Accountability in the Aftermath of the Holocaust, US Department of Justice, December 2006
• Gerald J. Bobango,Religion and Politics: Bishop Valerian Trifa and His Times,East European Monographs, Boulder & New York, distributed byColumbia University Press,1981.
• Traian Lascu,Valerian, 1951–1984,Knello, Detroit, 1984.
• Ion Mihai Pacepa,Red Horizons: Chronicles of a Communist Spy Chief,Regnery Gateway, Washington, D.C., 1987.
• Dr. Charles H. Kremer Papers, housed at theLloyd Sealy Library Special Collections,John Jay College of Criminal Justice (view upon request)