Nikita Khrushchev ordered the holding of show trials against Jews on trumped-up economic charges in Rumania in 1958, it was revealed here by Mirzia Ofrishan, a former Rumanian minister of foreign trade. According to Ofrishan, who revealed this to Israeli journalist Alexander Coren, many of the Jews charged were sentenced to long terms of imprisonment. They were later paroled and subjected to heavy fines.
Ofrishan represented Rumania in COMECON and made aliya five months ago. Coren has broadcast for the Israeli radio and has written for Al Hamishmar. The former Rumanian minister said his aliya was made possible after personal Interventions on his behalf with authorities in Bucharest by several people, including former French Foreign Minister Couve de Murville.
SOME JEWS WHO WERE ACCUSED
In his statements to Coren, Ofrishan listed some of the Jews accused during the 1958 trials, several of them only by last name. They included: Paul Goldstein (Stefanescu), an official in the ministry of foreign trade; Mrs. Mira Wallich, an employee of “Agroexport”; Rosinger, manager of the “Romaoexport” company; Donath, deputy manager of another company involved in overseas trade; Kostin, Rumanian economic minister in East Germany; and Radou, employed by another export firm.
“The only one who refused to confess to the charges was Rosinger,” Ofrishan said. “He claimed that if there had been crimes, then senior officials of the ministry of foreign trade were just as guilty as the accused.” Ofrishan was one of the political-economic elite in Rumania at the time. He travelled to the People’s Republic of China and North Korea in his official capacity and twice visited Israel as a member of Rumanian trade delegations.
Ofrishan said the then-Interior Minister, Draghitz, personally supervised the trials. The court president, Adrian Dumitriu later became Justice Minister and is presently chairman of the Rumanian Bar Association. Asked why he was not among those tried in 1958, Ofrishan replied that he didn’t know, and that he knew nothing about the affair until years later. Only a few interior and justice ministers knew about it, he added. Rumania at that time was not independent of Moscow as it is today, Ofrishan noted, but very much a satellite.
ROSEN DOUBTS VERACITY OF STATEMENT
(Chief Rabbi Moses Rosen of Rumania, in Britain for a short visit, told the JTA that he was “astonished with Ofrishan’s statement. He never had anything to do with Jewish life in Rumania. Indeed, he went so far as to change his original Jewish name and now I see he is suddenly speaking of Jewish problems after all these years. All of a sudden Ofrishan appeared in my office eighteen months ago asking me to help him emigrate. Until then I never even knew that he was a Jew. I am very doubtful as to the veracity of his story.”)
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
