Visarion Puiu, the Former Romanian Orthodox Metropolitan (Archbishop) of Transnistria — A Historical Study on His Life and Activity
Visarion Puiu, the Former Romanian Orthodox Metropolitan (Archbishop) of Transnistria — A Historical Study on His Life and Activity
Author(s): Ion PopaSubject(s): History
Published by: Institutul National pentru Studierea Holocaustului din Romania ELIE WIESEL
Keywords: The Holocaust; communist trials; sentence to death; anti-Semitism; exile; re - patriation; the Romanian Orthodox Church; Transnistria; Bukovina; communist secret services; the Iron Guard
Summary/Abstract: Visarion Puiu, former Metropolitan of Bukovina (1935-1940), former Metropolitan of Transnistria (1942-1943) was condemned to death in absentia by a Romanian communist tribunal on 21 February 1946.2 He is the most important Orthodox high hierarch from Eastern Europe to be condemned to death after the Holocaust. In my quest to find out the reasons for his condemnation, and especially if it had anything to do with the destruction of the Romanian Jewry, I came in contact with a lot of fascinating documents about Visarion Puiu related to both his religious activity in Romania and to his fate, in exile, after 1944. Puiu’s destiny was melodramatic, his personality hard to categorise, his contribution to the destruction of Romanian Jewry very controversial, and his relationship to the communist regime full of spectacular twists.
Journal: Holocaust. Studii şi cercetări
- Issue Year: V/2013
- Issue No: 06
- Page Range: 182-203
- Page Count: 22
- Language: English
- Content File-PDF