Mme. Magda Lupescu, 39-year-old Jewish consort of King Carol of Rumania, paradoxically enough is a supporter of the Rumanian anti-Semitic movement and is hated by friends of the Jews.
Her generous money gifts to Fascist parties have gained for her immunity from the attacks and demonstrations once directed against her by the anti-Semitic parties.
She is known in Rumania now as a “protecting angel” of Fascist groups. When their leaders get into trouble for disturbing public order, they are usually exonerated as a result of hints from “high places”–close to the throne.
As a result of her excellent personal relations with the anti-Semitic groups, the King and Mme. Lupescu have been promised that whatever happens to the Jews, she will never be attacked, physically or verbally.
The anti-Semites, in turn, have now been encouraged to believe that they will be entrusted with the reins of government when Premier Tatarescu’s term expires in 1938, or even sooner should a propitious moment arise.
While the Rumanian Nazis befriend King Carol’s consort, the National Peasants, the principal democratic party of Rumania–who are against anti-Semitism–are strongly opposed to her. Hardly a week elapses but that ex-Premier Julius Maniu, National Peasant leader, attacks her.
That Mme. Lupescu is still assailed by Rumanian Nazis is attributable to the fact that there are some zealots whose anti-Semitism sometimes carries them beyond the dictates of party leaders.
The King’s titian-haired, buxom friend, although of pure Jewish descent, has never considered herself a descendant of Israel. Her father was baptized in the Greek Orthodox religion to get a job as an army pharmacist, and when his daughter was born, she was brought up in the same faith.
When she was nineteen, she married a captain and moved in military circles which had virtually no contact with Jews. Then she met Carol, divorced her husband and accompanied her royal friend to France, where he exiled himself for her sake. In those romantic days in Paris she cooked the Rumanian dishes he likes, darned his stockings and went to the movies with him in the evening.
Thanks to a successful coup, Carol was restored to the throne in 1930. Mme. Lupescu followed him to Bucharest. Since then, until recently, she had been the butt of anti-Semites’ attacks, for while the Rumanian people do not object to their king’s having a woman consort, many resented a Jewess in that position.
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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.
