The History of the Holocaust in Romania, Jean Ancel. Edited by Leon Volovici and Miriam Caloianu (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press; and Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2012), xiii + 699 pp., hardcover $50.00

Abstract

The name Jean Ancel is synonymous with the study of the Holocaust in Romania. A Romanian-born Israeli independent historian and research associate of Yad Vashem's International Institute for Holocaust Research, Ancel dedicated his professional life to the dimension and details of the Holocaust in Romania and territory Romania occupied during World War II, requiring, as Yoav Gelber's introduction notes, “an immense psychological investment.” Those of us fortunate enough to have known Ancel were awed by his encyclopedic knowledge; readers of this volume will admire his ability to weave myriad details into a striking tapestry. Romania's Holocaust was sui generis: it was carried out by a sovereign German ally, and the deaths resulted primarily not from systematic murder, but from deportation and incarceration under inhuman conditions. Antonescu acted on his own—if in a context established by Nazi domination over Europe. In summer 1942, for instance, Antonescu decided against German requests to deport the remaining Jews of Romania—from the Banat, Southern Transylvania, Wallachia, and Moldavia—to German death camps.