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The Nation as Object: Race, Blood, and Biopolitics in Interwar Romania

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2017

Abstract

In this article, Marius Turda discusses Romanian anthropological and serological research during the interwar period. At the time, the physical contours of the nation captured the attention of specialists and lay commentators alike, from skeptical believers in the historical destiny of the nation to those obsessed with national essence. In this context, anthropology and serology provided scientific legitimacy to the assumption that there was a racial nucleus within the Romanian nation that the natural and social environment could not obliterate; it was this racial nucleus that anthropology and serology identified as “Romanian.” This biologization of national belonging indicates that the origins of eugenic programs of biopolitical rejuvenation are to be sought in the attempt to achieve a new national body amid alleged domestic spiritual decline and unfavorable international conditions. Ultimately, the need for the rejuvenation of the ethnic community was based on the “palingenetic myth” of national renewal, comprising both the idea of spiritual metamorphosis and its fulfillment in a new ethnic ontology.

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Articles
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Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 2007

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References

Research for this article was funded by the Marie Curie Fellowship. I would also like to thank Robert Pyrah, Matt Feldman, and the anonymous referees at Slavic Review for their constructive comments and suggestions. I am deeply indebted to Mioara Georgescu and Dr. Sanda Hondor from Biblioteca Documentară de Istoria Medicinii a Institutului de Sănătate Publică, Bucharest; Nicolae Leasevici from Institutul de Antropologie Fr. I. Rainer, Bucharest; and Ioana Patriche and Răzvan Pârâianu for helping me locate articles and books.

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2. The first discussion of biopolitics was attempted in 1911 in the modernist journal The Netu Agein reference to policies of public health, reproduction, and social welfare. This article established a strong connection between these policies and the state, which was seen as the only institution capable of implementing those policies. See Harris, G. W., “Bio- Politics,” The New Age 10, no. 9 (28 December 1911): 197 Google Scholar. Another trend was to insist on the fusion between political science and materialist sociology in order to explain the functioning of the state as a biological organism. One such interpretation was first suggested by Roberts, Morley, Bio-Politics: An Essay in the Physiology, Pathology and Politics of the Social and Somatic Organism (London, 1938)Google Scholar. For an early conceptualization of this direction, see Somit, Albert, “Biopolitics,” British Journal oj“Political Science, 2 no. 2 (1972): 209-38CrossRefGoogle Scholar; for more recent developments, see Carmen, Ira H., “Biopolitics: The Newest Synthesis?Genetica, 99 nos. 2/3 (1997): 173-84CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

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10. Unfortunately, space limitations do not permit me to deal here with Saxon racial research in Transylvania during die interwar period, Austrian racial research in the Banat during the 1930s, or Hungarian serology in northern Transylvania after 1940. Hence racial research in this article is referred to as “Romanian,” as it deals only with Romanian researchers. For the Austrian research in the Banat, see Teschler-Nicola, Maria, “'Volksdeutsche' and Racial Anthropology in Interwar Vienna: The ‘Marienfeld Project,'” in Turda, and Weindling, , eds., “Blood and Homeland,5582 Google Scholar.

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19. In 1842, the Swedish anatomist Anders Retzius (1796-1860) first used the ratio of width to length to distinguish between dolichocephalic and brachycephalic crania, thus establishing a craniological comparative study of racial groups. For a discussion of different anthropological traditions of race, see Retzius, Anders, Coup d'oeil surI'etat actuel de L'ethnologie au point de vue de la forme du crane osseux (Geneva, 1860)Google Scholar.

20. For a description, see Closson, Carlos C., “The Hierarchy of European Races,“ American Journal of Sociology 3, no. 3 (1897): 314-27CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For how ideas of racial classification were used in different institutional contexts, see Barth, Frederik, Gingrich, Andre, Parkin, Robert, and Silverman, Sydel, One Discipline, Four Ways: British, German, French, and American Anthropology (Chicago, 2005)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

21. See the critique provided by Morant, G. M., “A Preliminary Classification of European Races Based on Cranial Measurements,” Biometrika 20, nos. 3-4 (1928): 301-75CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Massin, Benoit, “From Vichow to Fischer: Physical Anthropology and ‘Modern Race Theories’ in Wilhelmine Germany,” in Stockingjr., George W., ed., Volksgeist as Method and Ethic: Essays on Boasian Ethnography and the German Anthropological Tradition (Madison, 1996), 79154 Google Scholar.

22. See Weindling, Paul J., “Central Europe Confronts Racial Hygiene: Friedrich Hertz, Hugo litis and Ignaz Zollschan as Critics of Racial Hygiene,” in Turda, and Weindling, , eds., “Blood and Homeland,” 263-80Google Scholar.

23. For a general discussion of serology and blood groups, see Steffan, Paul, Handbuch der Blutgruppenkunde (Munich, 1931)Google Scholar; Negulescu, P. P., Geneza formelor culturii: Priviri crilice asupra factorilor ei determinant (Bucharest, 1934)Google Scholar; Schiff, Fritz and Boyd, William C., Blood Grouping Technic: A Manual for Clinicians, Serologists, Anthropologists, and Students of Legal and Military Medicine (New York, 1942)Google Scholar; Mourant, Ardiur Ernest, The ABO Blood Groups: Comprehensive Tables and Maps of World Distribution (Oxford, 1958)Google Scholar; Boorman, Kathleen E. and Dodd, Barbara E., An Introduction to Blood Group Serology: Theory, Techniques, Practical Applications, 2d ed. (London, 1961)Google Scholar; Schneider, William H., “Chance and Social Setting in the Application of the Discovery of Blood Groups,” Bulletin oftheHistory of Medicinebl (1983): 545-62Google ScholarPubMed; and Mazumdar, Pauline M. H., “Blood and Soil: The Serology of the Aryan Racial State,” Bulletin oftheHistory ofMedicine 64 (1990): 187219 Google ScholarPubMed.

24. Hirschfeld, L. [Hirszfeld] and Hirschfeld, H., “Serological Differences between the Blood of Different Races,” TheLancet 197, no. 2 (18 October 1919): 675-79Google Scholar. The Romanian presentation of Hirschfeld's research appeared in 1922. See Velluda, C., “Dr. L. Hirschfeld şi Dna Dr. Hirschfeld, Incercări de aplicaţiune a medodelor serologice in problema raselor,” Clujulmedical 3, no. 12 (1922): 367-68Google Scholar.

25. Lattes, Leone, Individuality of the Blood in Biology and in Clinical and Forensic Medicine (1st Italian ed., 1923; London, 1932), 43 Google Scholar.

26. For the role “blood” has played in shaping European imagination since the Middle Ages, see Linke, Uli, Blood and Nation: The European Aesthetics of Race (Philadelphia, 1999)Google Scholar.

27. See, for example, Pittard, Eugène, “Anthropologic de la Roumanie: Nouvelles recherches sur le Skoptzy,” Bulletin de la Société Roumaine des Sciences 22, nos. 4-5 (1913): 298328 Google Scholar; Pittard, , Anthropologic de la Roumanie: Les Peuple Sporadiques de la Dobrudja (Bucharest, 1913)Google Scholar; and Pittard, , Anthropologic de la Roumanie: Documents somalologiques pour L'élude des Tsiganes (Bucharest, 1915)Google Scholar.

28. Pittard, Eugène, “Recherches anthropologiques sur les Roumains de Transylvanie,“ Revue anthropologique 29, nos. 3-4 (1919): 5776 Google Scholar; and Pittard, , together with Donici, Alexandru, Etude sur Vindice céphalique en Roumanie avec un essai de repartition géographique de ce caractère (Bucharest, 1927)Google Scholar. See also Pittard, Eugène, Les Peuples des Balkans: Esquisses anthropologique (Paris, 1916)Google Scholar; and Pittard, , La Roumanie (Paris, 1917)Google Scholar. Pittard exercised a lasting influence on Francisc I. Rainer, the first director of the Institute of Anthropology in România. See Rainer, Francisc, Enquêtes anthropologiques dans trois villages roumains des Carpathes (Bucharest, 1937)Google Scholar.

29. Papilian, Victor, “Studiul indicelui cranian vertical şi transverse-vertical pe craniile de români şi maghiari,” Clujul medical 1, no. 9 (1920): 763-77Google Scholar; Papilian, , “Cercetări antropologice asupraromânilorar deleni,” Clujul medical, 2 no. 11 (1921): 335-39Google Scholar; and Papilian, , “Nouvelles recherches anthropologiques sur la tête des Roumains de Transylvanie,“ Revue anthropologique 33, nos. 9-10 (1923): 337-41Google Scholar. Although Bucur notes that Papilian used “notions of hereditary determinism in evolution to define the parameters of [his] own scientific discipline, anthropology,” she does not provide any evidence to support the claim. See Bucur, , Eugenics and Modernization in Interwar România, 70 Google Scholar.

30. Chelcea, Ion, “Tipuri de cranii româneşti din Ardeal (Cercetare antropologică),“ Academia Română: Memoriile Sec﹜iunii Ştiin﹜ifice 10, no. 3 (1934/35): 341-68Google Scholar.

31. Martin, Rudolf, Lehrbuch der Anthropologie in systematischer Darstellung mil besonderer Berücksichtigung der anthropologischen Methoden (Jena, 1914)Google Scholar.

32. Chelcea, , “Tipuri de cranii,” 360-62Google Scholar.

33. For the classical version of this narrative, see Iorga, Nicolae, Hisloire des Roumains et de leur civilisation (Paris, 1920)Google Scholar.

34. See, for example, Cvijić, Jovan, La Péninsule Balkanique: Géographie humaine (Paris, 1918)Google Scholar; and Promitzer, Christian, “Vermessene Körper: ‘Rassenkundliche’ Grenzziehungen im südöstlichen Europa,” in Kaser, Karl, Gramshammer-Hohl, Dagmar, and Pichler, Robert, eds., Europa und die Grenzen im Kopf (Kiageniurt, 2004), 357-85Google Scholar.

35. Densuşianu, N., Dacia prehislorică (Bucharest, 1913)Google Scholar; Donici, A., “Crania Scythica: Contribution à l'étude anthropologique du crane scythe et essai relatif à l'origine geographique des scythes,” Academia Română: Memoriile Secţiunii Ştiinţifice 10, no. 3 (1934/1935): 289329 Google Scholar; and Lahovary, N., “Istoria şi o nouă metoda de determinare a raselor,” Arhivapenlru ştiinţă şi reformă socială 7, nos. 1-2 (1937): 122-73Google Scholar.

36. Antohi, Sorin, “România and the Balkans: From Geocultural Bovarism to Ethnic Ontology,” Tr@nsit online (Europäische Revue) 21 (2002), available at http://www.iwm.at/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=235&Itemid=411 (last consulted 25 May 2007)Google Scholar.

37. See Pârvan, Vasile, Dacia: An Outline of the Early Civilizations of the Carpatho- Danubian Countries (Cambridge, Eng., 1928)Google Scholar; Blaga, Lucian, “Revolta fondului nostra nelatin,” in Chimet, Iordan, ed., Dreptul la memorie (Cluj, 1993), 3:4143 Google Scholar; and Vulcănescu, Mircea, Dimensiunea românească a existenţei (Bucharest, 1991)Google Scholar.

38. See, for example, the anthropological framework suggested by Viktor Lebzelter, “La Répartition des Types Raciaux Romano-Méditerranéens en Roumanie,” L Anthropologie. 45, nos. 1-2 (1935): 65-69. Despite his critical attitude toward Lebzelterand others, when it came to explaining racial variety and composition, Iordache Făcăoaru had to rely on the racial taxonomies produced by western European anthropologists. He thus accepted six criteria for racial classification: height, the cephalic index, the facial index, the nasal index, and eye and hair color. Based on these criteria, Făcăoaru then identified four principal races: Alpine, Dinaric, Mediterranean, and Nordic; and five secondary races living in România: Dalic, East-European, Oriental, West-Asian, and Indian. The study was first published as “Criteriile pentru diagnozǎ rasială,” Buletin eugenic şi biopolitic 6, nos. 10-11-12 (1935): 341-68; and later as a brochure in the collection edited by the Institute of Hygiene and Social Hygiene in Cluj. See Făcăoaru, I., Criteriile pentru diagnozǎ rasială (Cluj, 1936 Google Scholar).

39. Contrary to what Bucur assumes, Făcăoaru did not study in Berlin and did not receive a PhD in sociology. See Bucur, , Eugenics and Modernization in Interwar România, 37 Google Scholar. Interestingly, later in the book she pardy corrects this by saying that Făcăoaru “had completed his Ph.D. in anthropology at the University of Munich in 1929.” Bucur, , Eugenics and Modernization in Interwar România, 112 Google Scholar. In fact, Făcăoaru received his PhD (cum laude) from the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Munich in 1931. He studied pedagogy wifh Aloys Fisher, anthropology with Theodor Mollison, and racial hygiene with Fritz Lenz. See Studenten-Kartei: Făcăoaru Jordache, O-Np-SS 31, Archiv der Ludwig-Universität München and the Archive of Ministry of Health, Bucharest, Făcăoaru Iordache, Personal File, No. 10.489. I would like to thank Michael Wedekind for drawing my attention to Făcăoaru's student files and to Alexandru Dumitriu in Bucharest for his help in locating Făcăoaru's personal files.

40. Făcăoaru, Iordache, “Socialantropologia ca ştiinţa pragmatistă,” Buletin eugenic şi biopolilic, 9 nos. 9-10 (1938): 358 Google Scholar.

41. A similar perspective was advocated by Râmneanţu, Petru, “Românii dintre Morava şi Timoc şi continuitatea spatiului lor etnic cu al românilor din Banat şi din Timocul bulgar,” Buletin eugenic şi biopolitic 12, nos. 1-4 (1941): 4062 Google Scholar; and Petrovici, E., “Românii dintre Morava ji Timoc,” Transilvania, 72 no. 3 (1941): 201-11Google Scholar. For a discussion of Romanian irredentism in the 1940s, see Haynes, Rebecca Ann, “'A New Greater România?' Romanian Claims to the Serbian Banat,” Central Europe 3, no. 2 (2005): 99120 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

42. See especially the articles Făcăoaru published in Germany during the 1930s, such as Făcăoaru, I., “Die ‘Ganzheitsanthropologie’ und das Studium des Menschen in Rumänien,” Zeitschrift für Rassenkunde, 6 no. 2 (1937): 248-50Google Scholar; and Făcăoaru, , “Beitragzum Studium der wirtschaftlichen und sozialen Bewährung der Rassen,” Zeitschrift für Rassenkunde, 9 no. 1 (1939): 2639 Google Scholar.

43. Făcăoaru, I., Structura rasială a popula﹜iei rurale din România (Bucharest, 1940), 16 (emphasis in the original)Google Scholar.

44. Făcăoaru, I., “Valoarea biorasială a nafiunilor europene şi a provinciilor româneşti (O primă incercarede ierarhizare etnică),” Buletin eugenicşi biopolitic 14, nos. 9-10 (1943): 278310 Google Scholar.

45. Thus, for example, Bulgarians were composed of the following racial components: Mediterranean, 41 percent; Dinaric-Alpine, 24 percent; Alpine, 15 percent; Paleoasiatic-Mongoloid, 12 percent; and Nordic, 8 percent. Germans were composed of Nordic, 50 percent; Alpine, 20 percent; Dinaric, 15 percent; East-European, 6 percent; Oriental, 5 percent; Mediterranean, 2 percent; Lapoid, 1 percent, and Mongoloid, 1 percent. Romanians were composed of Alpine, 29 percent; Mediterranean, 19 percent; Nordic, 14 percent; East-European, 12 percent; Dinaric, 11 percent; Atlantid, 10 percent; Oriental, 3 percent; and Dalic, 2 percent. Hungarians were composed of East-European, 35 percent; Dalic, 20 percent; Caucasian-Mongoloid, 20 percent; Alpine, 15 percent, Nordic, 5 percent, Mongoloid, 4 percent; and Mediterranean, 1 percent. Făcăoaru, “Valoarea biorasială,” 280-81. The lesser known “Dalic” and “Atlantid” races are subdivisions of the Nordic race.

46. Făcăoaru, , “Valoarea biorasială,” 283 Google Scholar.

47. Ibid., 292.

48. Ibid., 306-7.

49. For a literary and philosophical idea of race, see Blaga, Lucian, “Despre rasă ca stil,” Gândirea 14, no. 2 (1935): 6973 Google Scholar. See also Simionescu-Râmniceanu, Marin, Contribuţii la o ideologie politică, specific românească (Bucharest, 1939)Google Scholar.

50. See Făcăoaru, Iordache, “Amestecul rasial şi etnic in România,” Buletin eugenic şi biopolitic, 9 nos. 9-10 (1938): 276-87Google Scholar.

51. See Rădulescu-Motru, Constantin, “Tipul rasial românesc dupa indicele cephalic,“ in Rădulescu-Motru, C., Psihologia poporului român (Bucharest, 1999), 150-66Google Scholar.

52. Stoler, , Carnal Knowledge and Imperial Power, 144 Google Scholar.

53. Manuilă, S. and Popoviciu, G., “Recherches sur les races roumaine et hongroise en Roumanie par l'isohémagglutination,” Comptes rendus des séances de la Société de Biologie disno. 1 (1924): 542-43Google Scholar; and Manuilă, S., “Recherches séro-anthropologiques sur les races en Roumanie par la méthode de l'isohémagglutination,” Comptes rendus des séances de la Société de Biologies, no. 2 (1924): 1071-73Google Scholar.

54. Manuilă, Sabin, “Cercetări biologice cu privire la rasse, prin aplicarea unei metode nouă,” Convorbiri literarebd (1924): 694-98Google Scholar.

55. Ibid., 696.

56. Popovici, Gheorghe, “Diferenţe şi asemănări in structure biologică de rasă a popoarelor României,” Cultural (1924): 224-34Google Scholar.

57. Ibid., 224.

58. Ibid., 224-25.

59. Weszeczky, Oskar, “Untersuchungen über die gruppenweise Hemagglutination beim Menschen,” Biochemische Zeitschrift 107 (1920): 159-71Google Scholar; and Verzár, F. and Weszeczky, O., “Rassenbiologische Untersuchungen mittels Isohämagglutininen,” Biochemische Zeilschrift (1921/1922): 3339 Google Scholar.

60. Popovici, , “Diferenţe şi asemănări,” 226 Google Scholar.

61. Ibid., 227-34.

62. Popoviciu, Georges, “Recherches sérologiques sur les races en Roumanie,” Rexme anthropologique 35, nos. 4 - 5 - 6 (1925): 152-64Google Scholar.

63. In the first volume of Buletin eugenic şi biopolitic edited by Moldovan and published in 1927, the legal physician and lecturer at the Law Academy in Oradea, Mihai Kernbach, published a short commentary on blood groups in which he evaluated the importance of serology for anthropology and surveyed new vistas of research opened up by the discovery of the agglutinating properties of blood. See Kernbach, M., “Grupuri sangvine,” Buletin eugenic şi biopolilic 1, no. 3 (1927): 102-6Google Scholar. Other researchers interested in serological research were Francisc Rainer, Maria Horia Dumitrescu, Alexandra Manuilă, and Maria Veştemeanu. See Rainer, Francisc, “Există corelaţie intre grupele sanguine umane şi celelalţe caractere antropologice?” in Omagiu lui Constantin Kiri﹛escu (Bucharest, 1937), 696701 Google Scholar; Dumitrescu, Maria Horia, “Cercetări asupra grupelor sanguine in România,“ România medicaiă 12, no. 10 (1934): 141-42, 144Google Scholar; and Manuilă, Alexandra and Veştemeanu, Maria, “Constatări cu privire la aplicarea metodei sero-antropologice pe teren,“ Buletin eugenic şi biopolitic 14, nos. 3-4 (1943): 121-25Google Scholar.

64. A good example is the collaboration between Făcăoaru and Râmneanţu occasioned by the Seventeenth International Congrèss of Anthropology held in 1937 in Bucharest. See P. Râmneantu and I. Făcăoaru, “The Blood Groups and the Pigmentation of the Iris in the Population from Transylvania“; P. Ramneantu and I. Făcăoaru, “The Blood Groups and the Facial Index in the Population from Transylvania“; I. Făcăoaru and P. Râmneantu, “Das Verhältnis, zwischen Rassen und Blutgruppen bei der Siebenburgischen Bevölkerung“; Făcăoaru, I. and Râmneanţu, P., “Der Längen-Breitenindex und die Blutgruppen bei der Siebenbürgischen Bevölkerung,” all in XVIIe Congrès International d'Anthropologic el d'Archéologie Préhistorique (Bucharest, 1939), 323-25, 333-37, 337-39, and 339-42Google Scholar.

65. That this was not something exclusively confined to România, but a common feature of racial nationalism in the Balkans is eloquently demonstrated by the case of Yugoslavia. See Yeomans, Rory, “Of ‘Yugoslav Barbarians’ and Croatian Gendemen Scholars: Nationalist Ideology and Racial Anthropology in Interwar Yugoslavia,” in Turda, and Weindling, , eds., “Blood and Homeland,“ 83122 Google Scholar.

66. Râmneanţu, Petru (in collaboration with Petru David), “Cercetări asupra originii etnice a populaţiei din sud-estul Transilvaniei pe baza compoziţiei serologice a sângelui,“ Buletin eugenic şi biopolitic, 6 no. 1 (1935): 3675 Google Scholar. See also Râmneanţu, Pierre, “Origine éthnique des Széklers de Transylvanie,” Revue de Transylvanie 2, no. 1 (1935/1936): 4559 Google Scholar; and Făcăoaru, I., “Compozitia rasială la români, săcui şi unguri,” Buletin eugenicşi biopoliticl, nos. 4-5 (1937): 124-42Google Scholar.

67. Râmneanţu, , “Cercetări asupra originii etnice a populatiei,” 40 Google Scholar.

68. Ibid., 56.

69. Ibid., 64-65.

70. Popoviciu, G. and Birau, I., “Nouvelles contributions a l'étude des isohémagglutinines en Roumanie,” Revueanthropologique 46, nos. 4-6 (1936): 181-83Google Scholar; and Popoviciu, G., “Comparaison entre les groupes sanguins des Roumains et ceux des autres peuples de la Roumanie,” Revue anthropologique, 46 nos. 4-6 (1936): 184-89Google Scholar.

71. Popoviciu, and Birau, , “Nouvelles contributions,” 182-83Google Scholar.

72. Popoviciu, , “Comparaison entre les groupes sanguins,” 181-89Google Scholar. See also Popoviciu, Georgès, “Les races sanguines en Roumanie,” in XVIIe Congrès International d'Anthropologieet d'Archéologie Préhistorique, 309-16Google Scholar.

73. Popovici, George, “Le problème des populations de la Roumanie vu a la lumière des recherches sur les races d'après le sang,” Revue de Transylvanie 4, nos. 1-2 (1938): 1427 Google Scholar.

74. Ibid., 14.

75. Ibid., 15. Râmneanţu proposed a similar argument: “The application of the serological investigations in the populations is one of the most important achievements for anthropology. In this way, based on the variations among fixed limits of die classical blood groups, we are able to determine to which nation belongs every population nucleus. We are convinced that the distribution of the blood groups gives better indication about the extension of an ‘ethnic’ dian the language, the culture, and the customs.” In Péter Ramneantzu, “The Classical Blood Groups and the M, N and M, N Properties in the Nations from Transylvania,” in XVIIe Congrès International d ‘Anthropologic et d ‘Archéologie Préhistorique, 325.

76. Popovici, , “Le problème des populations de la Roumanie,” 24 Google Scholar. See also Rădulescu, , “Anthropologische Beweise,” 12 Google Scholar.

77. According to Maria Bucur, “The relationship between Romanian eugenics and the policies of the Antonescu regime, especially with regard to its treatment of ‘undesirable' minorities—the Jews and Roma—remains unclear.” Bucur, , Eugenics and Modernization in Interwar România, 224 Google Scholar. Scholars dealing with the Holocaust in România, like Radu Ioanid, Jean Ancel, Lya Benjamin, and Dennis Deletant, have documented clear connections, however. See Ioanid, Radu, The Holocaust in România: The Destruction of Jews and Gypsies under the Antonescu Regime, 1940-1944 (Chicago, 2000)Google Scholar; Ancel, Jean, “The German-Romanian Relationship and the Final Solution,” Holocaust and Genocide Studies 19, no. 2 (2005): 252-75CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Benjamin, Lya, “Bazele doctrinare ale antisemitismului antonescian,” in Achim, Viorel and lordachi, Constantin, eds., România şi Transnistria: Problema Holocaustului: Perspective istorice şi comparative (Bucharest, 2004), 237-51Google Scholar; Benjamin, Lya, ed., Evreii din România intre 1940-1944, vol. 1, Legislaţia antievreiasca (Bucharest, 1993)Google Scholar; and Deletant, Dennis, Hitler's Forgotten Ally: Ion Antonescu and His Regime, România 1940-1944 (Basingstoke, Eng., 2006)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Moreover, archival documents indicate the importance bestowed on Ramneantu's work on the racial origins of die Csangos by die religious leaders of the Csango communities in Moldova in dieir attempts to assure General Antonescu of their loyalty to the Romanian state. See, for example, the informative note sent on 1 April 1943 to Serviciul Special de Informatii (SSI), “In jurul problemei originei entice a ceangăilor şi a românilor catolici din Moldova,” Arhivele Statului Bucuresti, Preşedinţia Consiliului de Ministri, f. 63/1942 (I am grateful to Chris Davis for locating this document). The note was occasioned by die publication of Petru M. Pál's article, “Glasul sângelui,” in Originea, a strong endorsement of Râmneanţu's racial theories about the Csangos.

78. Roşu, Nicolae, Diabetica nalionalismului (Bucharest, 1936), 18 Google Scholar.

79. See Meinholf, Arens, “Die Moldauer Ungarn (Tschangos) im Rahmen der rumanisch-ungarisch-deutschen Beziehungen zwischen 1940 and 1944: Eine vornational strukturierte ethnische Gruppe im Spannungsfeld totalitärer Volkstumspolitik,” in Hausleitner, Mariana and Roth, Harald, eds., Der Einfluss von Faschismus und Nationalsozialismus auf Minderheiten in Ostmittel- und Sudosteuropa (Munich, 2006), 265315 Google Scholar.

80. See Burleigh, Michael, Germany Turns Eastwards: A Study ofOstforschungin the Third Reich (Cambridge, Eng., 1988)Google Scholar.

81. This exercise in racial mapping continued after the war, especially in the period between 1945 and 1947 when some of the territories that Romania lost in 1940, like northern Transylvania, were reintegrated into the Romanian state. See Râmneantzu, Peter, The Biological Grounds and the Vitality of the Transilvanian Rumanians (Cluj, 1946)Google Scholar.

82. Făcăoaru, I., Contribute la studiul compozifiei morfologice a românilor din Republica Moldovenească (Bucharest, 1944), 4 Google Scholar. See also Iordache Făcăoaru, “Cercetări antropologice in patru sate din Transnistria” (unpublished paper, 1943) available on microfilm, Holocaust Memorial Museum Institute, f. 2242, op. 1, RG-31.004, reel 4 (I would like to thank Radu Ioanid and Carl Modig for their help in obtaining this manuscript). Făcăoaru and his wife, Tilly, belonged to a group of Romanian research teams assigned by the Romanian Social Institute and Central Institute of Statistics to complete the social, economic, cultural, and racial evaluations of the Romanian population in Transnistria. See Galopenfia, Anton, Românii de la est de Bug, 2 vols. (Bucharest, 2006)Google Scholar.

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84. Râmneanţu, , “Distributia grupelor de sânge,” 152-56Google Scholar.

85. Ibid., 158.

86. Râmneanţu, P., “Grupele de sânge la Ciangâii din Moldova,” Buletin eugenic şi biopolitic 14, nos. 1-2 (1943): 5165 Google Scholar.

87. Ibid., 52.

88. Ibid., 54. This highly nationalistic interpretation of historical sources was also applied to Catholic Romanians in Moldova, whom Râmneanţu declared to be “Catholicized Orthodox Romanians.“

89. Râmneanţu, , “Grupele de sânge la Ciangăii,” 6063 Google Scholar.

90. Râmneanţu, Petru, Die Abstammung der Tschangos (Sibiu, 1944)Google Scholar.

91. Ibid., 7-29.

92. Most prominently in the 1938 manifesto “Programul statului etnocratic” proposed by the poet and Orthodox philosopher Nichifor Crainic. See Crainic, Nichifor, Ortodoxie şi etnocrafie. Cu o anexá: Programul statului etnocratic (Bucharest, 1938), 284 Google Scholar.

93. Râmneanţu, , Die Abstammung der Tschangos, 4348 Google Scholar.

94. Csango priests themselves adopted Râmneanţu's racial narrative (although not his negation of Csango Catholicism). See Iosif P. Pál, Originea catolicilor din Moldova şi franciscanii lor, păstorii lor de veacuri (Roman, 1941). Later this view was integrated into the standard Romanian discourse on the Csangos developed during communism. See Martinaş, Dumitru, The Origins of the Csangos (1985; reprint, Iaşi, 1999)Google Scholar.

95. Râmneanţu, Petru, “Probleme etno-biopolitice ale Transilvaniei,” Transilvania 74, no. 5 (1943): 325-48Google Scholar.

96. In 1934, the Romanian philosopher Petre P. Negulescu provided a comprehensive investigation into biological theories of belonging. Preoccupied with deciphering cultural mechanisms that could influence the formation of national identity, Negulescu also reflected on the relationship between racial serology and national essence. He skeptically concluded that “Not even through the analysis of blood can we—at least not yet—establish the existence of a ‘national specificity.'” See Negulescu, P. P., Geneza formelor culturii: Priviri critice asupra factorilor ei determinanţi (Bucharest, 1934), 375 Google Scholar.

97. See, for example, Foti, Ion, Concepţia eroică a rasei (Bucharest, 1936)Google Scholar; and Randa, Alexandru, Rasism românesc (Bucharest, 1941)Google Scholar.

98. Griffin, Roger, “Tunnel Visions and Mysterious Trees: Modernist Projects of National and Racial Regeneration, 1880-1939,” in Turda, and Weindling, , eds., “Blood and Homeland,“ 417-56Google Scholar; and Antohi, “România and the Balkans: From Geocultural Bovarism to Ethnic Ontology.“

99. Griffin, Roger, “The Palingenetic Political Community: Rethinking the Legitimation of Totalitarian Regimes in Interwar Europe,” Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions 3, no. 3 (2002): 2443 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

100. Manuilă, Sabin, “Comandamentele rassiale şi politica de populaţie,” România nouă 7, no. 17 (26 October 1940): 3 Google Scholar. Many of these ideas were also discussed in Manuilă “Acţiunea eugenica ca factor de politică de populatie,” Buletin eugenic şi biopolitic 12, nos. 1-4 (1941): 1-4.

101. Herseni, Traian, “Mitul sângelui,” Cuvântul 17, no. 41 (23 November 1940): 2 Google Scholar.

102. Herseni, Traian, “Rasa şi destin national,” Cuvântul 18, no. 91 (16 January 1941): 1 Google Scholar.

103. Ibid., 7. The Legionary idea of the healthy and reproductive nation was fully developed during communism. See Kligman, Gail, The Politics of Duplicity: Controlling Reproduction in Ceausescu's România (Berkeley, 1998)Google Scholar. Interestingly, both Făcăoaru and Râmneanţu lived until the late 1970s and thus witnessed Ceauseşcu's policies of natalism and anti-abortion, to which Râmneanţu, at least, thought he could be of assistance. See Bucur, , Eugenics and Modernization in Interwar Romania, 240 Google Scholar; and Bucur, Maria, “Mijcarea eugenista şi rolurile de gen,” in Bucur, Maria and Miroiu, Mihaela, eds., Patriarhat şi emancipare in istoria gândirii politice românesti (Iaşi, 2002), 139-42Google Scholar.

104. Făcăoaru, Iordache, “Normele eugenice in organizaţiile legionare,” Cuvântulll, no. 69 (21 December 1940): 1 Google Scholar.

105. See Arhivele Nafionale ale României, Ministerul Invăţămăntului, f. 854/1940. Bucur is mistaken when she assumes that Făcăoaru “held an important government position, controlling the implementation of public health measures.” See Bucur, , Eugenics and Modernization in Interwar România, 39 Google Scholar. Nor did Făcăoaru become “the ideologue of that regime in matters relating to health, biology, and race purity, using eugenics as the basis for his arguments and programs of action.” Ibid. Interestingly, Făcăoaru even expressed reticence about accepting the position in the Ministry of National Education, arguing that he would be more helpful in “science,” where he could not be replaced, than at the ministry where many could fulfil his duties. Făcăoaru, , “Normele eugenice in organizatiile legionare,“ 1 Google Scholar.

106. Făcăoaru, , “Normele eugenice in organizatiile legionare,” 2 Google Scholar.

107. Râmneafu, Petru, “Măsuri de politică demografică şi politica demografică totalitară,“ Buletin eugenicşi biopolitic, 11 nos. 1-2 (1940): 4445 Google Scholar. See also Stroescu, George, “Selecfia rasială şi politica populaţiei in noul stat legionary,” Buna vestire 4, no. 87 (28 December 1940): 2 Google Scholar.

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110. See Râmneantu, Petru, “Sânge şi glie,” Buletin eugenic şi biopolitic 14, nos. 11-12 (1943): 370-92Google Scholar; and Râmneanţu, Petru, “Inrudirea de sânge,” Buletin eugenic şi biopolitic, 11 nos. 7-8 (1943): 220-37Google Scholar.

111. loan V. Gruia, “Expunere de motive ladecretul lege nr. 2650/1940 privitor la reglementarea situaţiei juridice a evreilor din România,” Monitorul Official 183 (9 August 1940), reproduced in Mârtiriul evreilor din România, 1940-1944: Documente şi marturii (Bucharest, 1991), 14-21. See also Petit, Eugen Dimitrie, Origineaetnicd (Bucharest, 1941)Google Scholar; and Vomica, Gheorghe, “Originea etnică sau de sânge,” Transilvania 72, no. 8 (1941): 589-91Google Scholar.

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