Alexandre Safran. Une vie de combat, un faisceau de lumière by Carol Iancu (review)

Abstract

reviews 377 highlyintelligent, unusuallygiftedand moral,whichwould need no law' thoughBulgaria'sleadingbiologist contested ideas ofracialpurity, pointing out thathumanevolution'does not takeplace [.. .] withinthe boundsof limited and short historical periods'. Aboutone in twoGermandoctorsbecame Nazis, 25 per centjoined the SA and 10 per centgraduatedto the SS; but we are told moreprecisely howVienna'shealthcare system was Nazifiedand used to implement racial policies.The exclusion ofJewsand insistence oftheoathofloyalty to Hitler resulted inthelossofoverhalfVienna'sdoctors and medicalfaculty; a secret orderofAugust1939obligeddoctorsand midwives to report casesofhandicapped children;SS doctorsset up a 'heredity and racial care' system; a 'BloodProtection Law' cameintoforce in 1941, andtheViennaPublicHealth Officeimplementeda 'euthenasiaprogramme'.The killingof helpless undesirables could begin.Oppositionto Nazi racialhygiene had been rare. Braveopposition bythree scientists of Jewish origin isrecorded; a fewGerman gentiles also opposed it; and a Catholictheologian who advocatedpositive eugenics was thrown outofGraz forprotesting againstthe1938pogrom. OtherCentralEuropeancountries werelessenthusiastic. In Italy,where Mussolinirejectedthe idea of Nordic superiority, antisemitism was not widespread. In Hungaryitwas,but therewas a rangeofalternative scapegoats ,including Germansand liberalpoliticians. Hungarianambivalence precludeda home-grown holocaustbut theGermansenforced it,and racialist ideaswereto re-surface thereafter thecollapseofCommunism. Roger Griffiths providesa conclusion.Flauntinghis wide reading,he invokesBrock,Dürrenmatt and Mies van der Roh, among many other luminaries; introduces conceptssuch as 'palingenetic metaphysicality', and citesElissa Marder'suse of Baudelaireand Flaubert'as documents of the "temporaldisorders" of modernity, whosebitter fruit is decentered deracinated space, and a disjointedtime withouttranscendence'. Some sense emerges occasionally, butGriffiths's luxuriant verbiage usually overwhelms it. Pretentious and self-indulgent, theconclusion chimesneither withthecareful examination of ideas and processeswithwhichthisvaluable book begins, nor the informative case studieswhichformitscore. It shouldhave been excised. London PhilipLongworth Iancu, Carol. Alexandre Safran.Uneviedecombat, unfaisceaudelumière. Université PaulVal éry, Montpellier, 2007.318pp.Appendices. Bibliography. Index. €20.00. Alexandre Safran (191 0-2006) was, at thetimeofhis installation as chief rabbiofRomaniainMarch1940attheage oftwenty-nine, theyoungest chief rabbiintheworldand was calleduponto shoulder an enormous responsibility .Romania'sJews,subjecttopersecution undera raft ofantisemitic legislationintroduced in theyearsfollowing Romania's territorial expansionafter theFirst WorldWar,foundthemselves exposedtothestate-licensed brutality 378 SEER, 87, 2, APRIL 200g oftheextreme-right IronGuardmovement whichcametopowerinSeptember 1940,and then,shortly after Romania'sattackalongsideNazi Germany on the Soviet Union in June 1941,to deportation. Safranand Wilhelm Filderman, thehead oftheFederation oftheUnionofJewish Communities, intervened ceaselessly withRomania'spro-Nazidictator, Ion Antonescu, to alleviatethesufferings oftheirpeople and werebothinstrumental, amongst others, inpersuading theRomanianleadertohaltthedeportation ofJewsto Transnistria and to renouncehisintention to accede to Germanwishesthat he deportRomania'ssurviving Jewsto thedeath-camps in Poland. Carol Iancu,in thisbiography ofSafran- thefirst in a majorEuropean language - tracesSafran'sconflicts withtheRomanianauthorities from the timeof his inauguration as chiefrabbi,conflicts whichdid not cease with thetragedy of the Shoah, but extendedto theperiodof Communist rule. The creation bytheRomanianCommunist PartyoftheJewishDemocratic Committee (CDE) as an instrument ofitspolicies,and therefusal ofSafran - and Filderman - to serveon it,brought upon themthehostility ofthe regime. Denied accesstohisoffice, and unabletocarry outhisduties, Safran leftthe country in December 1947,just a fewdaysbeforeKing Michael's abdication.Duringthe six remaining decades of his life,Safrandedicated himself, after hiselectionas chiefrabbiofGeneva in 1948,to reconciliation betweenJews and Christians. He was also a prolificcontributor to the Kabbalah,a bodyofmystical teachings offering interpretations oftheHebrew Scriptures. Iancu'sadmiration forhissubject adornsmanyofthepagesofthisfascinatingbook .The emphasisis upon factualnarrative and thecomplexrelationship betweenSafran,Fildermanand othermembersof Romania'sJewish community duringthewar remainstantalizingly beyondthereader'sgrasp, yetthepagesdedicatedto Safran'saddresses on reconciliation (pp. 185-297) givethereadera senseoftherabbi'sprofoundly humanistic message. UCL SSEES DennisDeletant Stern,Ludmila. Western Intellectuals andthe Soviet Union, 1920-4.0:From RedSquare tothe Left Bank.BASEES /RoutledgeSerieson Russianand East European Studies, 31.Routledge, Londonand NewYork,2007.xii+ 269 pp. Notes.Bibliography. Index.£75.00. Ludmila Stern (not to be confusedwithLiudmilaShtern,the authorof monographs on IosifBrodskiiand SergeiDovlatov)has produceda very readableand clearly written accountofsomeoftheWestern (mainly, butnot exclusively, French)intellectuals who actively supported the 'Great Experiment 'conducted bytheSovietleaderson their subjects. As thetitlesuggests, insomecasesthissupport predated thecomingtopowerand appeasement of Hitler, andso itcannotalways be regarded as an evenslightly reluctant choice ofthelesserevil.In 1920,forinstance, themilitant pacifist HenriBarbusse wroteoftheleadersofSovietRussia:'Not onlyare theyright in their orthodoxy ,theyare also right to imposetheirauthoritarian means.The men in Moscowwereright, ifindeedtheydid so, to maintain byforce, forthepast ...