Monday, December 11, 2017

Pencil sketch of a Nazi by Dr K Prabhakar Rao


VALERIAN TRIFA. ROMANIAN NAZI COLLABORATOR

1 comment:

Dr K Prabhakar Rao said...

Valerian Trifa (Romanian pronunciation: [ˌvaleriˈan ˈtrifa]; monastic name of Viorel D. Trifa [vi.oˈrel], known in Eastern Orthodox Church records as Valerian (Trifa); June 28, 1914 – January 28, 1987) was a Romanian Orthodox cleric and former fascist political activist, who served as archbishop of the Romanian Orthodox Church in America and Canada. For part of his life, he was a naturalized citizen of the United States.A prominent affiliate of the Iron Guard, a Romanian fascist organization also known as the Legionnaire Movement, Trifa played a part in provoking the Legionnaires' Rebellion of 1941. His antisemitic discourse was suspected of helping instigate the parallel pogrom against the Jewish community in Bucharest. After being singled out as a rebel by Ion Antonescu, Romania's Conducător and a competitor of the Iron Guard, he spent the final years of World War II in Nazi Germany, as a detainee with privileged status. Trifa subsequently made his way into the United States, where he came to lead the Romanian-American Orthodox community into opposition with the main Orthodox Church in Communist Romania.Beginning in 1975, his wartime activities came to the attention of the United States Department of Justice, and the subsequent inquiry made Trifa relinquish his American citizenship and move to Portugal. The scandal's ramifications came to involve several institutions, including the National Council of Churches, Radio Free Europe, West German law enforcement, and the Israeli and Portuguese governments, while allegations surfaced that Romania's secret police, the Securitate, was using the controversy to advance its own goals.
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 temporary visa.
According to Reuters, 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 the Supreme Administrative Court,which put off his actual deportation for several years. Attica died at the age of 72 due to heart attack in cascois in Portugal.