Archbishop Valerian Trifa, accused by eye-witnesses of instigating the Bucharest pogrom in January 1941, was interviewed for 45 minutes on May 1 by Radio Free Europe, an organization funded by the U.S. Congress which broadcasts to Communist countries in Eastern Europe. As president of the National Union of Christian Rumanian Students, the youth arm of the Rumanian fascist Iran Guard, Trifa is charged with atrocities in 1941 that resulted in the mass murders of between 1200-12,000 Jews.
Now Archbishop of the Rumanian Orthodox Church in the U.S., formerly known as the Rumanian Orthodox Episcopate of America, Trifa faces denaturalization hearings beginning July 30 for his alleged war crimes. Dr. Charles Kremer of New York City, who has been tracing Trifa’s career since 1947, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that he believes the Radio Free Europe interview will create a more favorable image for the former Iran Guard leader.
“How can we allow Radio Free Europe, a government-funded broadcasting organization, to use American money to give a platform to an accused Nazi war criminal?” Kremer asked. He said he believes “that the government does not want to try this case and this is their way of saying it.” Kremer said even more incredible was his discovery that the man who interviewed Trifa, identified in the broadcast as “Brancusi,” is Livia Floda, a Rumanian Jew who has worked for Radio Free Europe for many years.
“I couldn’t believe it. I’ve known this man Floda for 20 years and taken him into my confidence,” Kremer said. “When I asked him how he could grant an interview to a murderer of his own people, he said that he had been ordered to by his boss, Noel Bernard, in Munich and this Bernard, too, is a Jew.”
Kremer said Floda told him that “the program was broadcast only because it was the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Rumanian Church in America.” But, Kremer said, “why use Trifa with all the legitimately ordained Rumanian priests and bishops here, why choose this murderer?”
‘VERY DIFFICULT ASSIGNMENT’
Contacted by the JTA, Floda confirmed that he acted under orders from Bernard to conduct the interview which he said was a “very difficult assignment.” But he denied that Bernard, too, may have been acting under orders. He said Bernard, who is in Munich, makes policy and felt it was imperative that listeners of Radio Free Europe in Rumania be informed of the church’s 50th anniversary.
Floda stressed that the interview was devoted exclusively to the history of the Rumanian Orthodox Episcopate of America since its founding in 1929 and that no other subject was touched on. He said the interview was broadcast only to Rumania.
Floda said that Trifa, as head of the church, was the only logical person to be interviewed. He told the JTA that Radio Free Europe had assigned one of its Washington-based journalists to interview Archbishop Victorin Ursache of the Rumanian Missionary Orthodox Episcopate in Detroit, also marking its 50th anniversary, but the man was “thrown out” of Ursache’s office on grounds that Radio Free Europe spreads “lies.” According to Floda, Ursache’s church is a “splinter” controlled by the Communist authorities in Rumania.
Bill Kratch, director of the New York office of Radio Free Europe, told the JTA that it was a privately instituted non-profit organization funded by Congress through the Board for international Broadcasting (BIB), a federal agency, and by private donations. Asked about allegations that Radio Free Europe was funded by the CIA, Kratch said it may have been a long time ago.
Kremer told the JTA that “It really doesn’t matter what Trifa said” in the interview. “What matters is that our government gave 45 minutes of its broadcast time to this butcher of Jews.”
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.
