Valerian Trifa, the Rumanian Orthodox Archbishop in the U.S. who was recently ordered deported for lying about his Nazi past to obtain American citizenship, plans to settle in Switzerland, the Swiss Jewish weekly La Gazette Juive reported yesterday. Trifa, now 68, has lived in the U.S. since 1957. He was stripped of his citizenship in 1980.
A Foreign Office spokesman, queried on the matter, said the Swiss government has not yet received a request for asylum from Trifa. But there have been many inquiries from people and organizations troubled by the prospect that he will come to this country, the spokesman said.
The Rumanian cleric, once a leader of the pro-Nazi Iron Guard in his country, directed a program in Bucharest in January, 1941 in which 120 Jews were killed.
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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.
