La justice dans la Roumanie d’après-guerre

Abstract

Justice in Post-War RomaniaThe process of pursuing justice for the victims of the Shoah in post-war Romania took place during a period when the communist party controlled the justice system and was able to use it in order to eliminate political adversaries. During the first five years special laws were adopted and special Courts created to conduct the trials of Romanian war criminals. Most of the trials took place during the first two years, 1945 and 1946, when so-called People’s Courts sentenced those found guilty for war crimes. Many of the military, and some of the civilian, defendants who were convicted of direct or indirect involvement in the killing of Jews received prison sentences or were sentenced to death. However, apart from the pro-German former head of state I. Antonescu and his ministers, all death sentences were subsequently commuted to life terms.During this time, Romania endeavoured to demonstrate to the ongoing Peace Conference in Paris, its willingness to punish war criminals, thereby hoping to improve its image which had suffered as a result of the years spent allied with Germany. However, once the Peace Treaty was signed in February 1947, Romania considerably reduced investigations against war criminals. After 1950 previously issued sentences were shortened and some cases were re-tried without any reference being made to the committed war crimes as being crimes against Jews. From the late 1950s the communist regime created the image of Romania having been anti-fascist during WW II and denied the existence of a domestic Holocaust.