Eugen Filotti
Encyclopedia
Eugen Filotti was a Romanian diplomat, journalist and writer. As a diplomat he worked at the League of Nations
in Geneva
and then as minister plenipotentiary in Turkey
, Greece
, Bulgaria
and Hungary
. As minister plenipotentiary to Budapest
he issued transit visas for Jews during the Holocaust. He was secretary general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1944–1945. As writer he published several translations of literary works.
, Romania
. His father, Nicolae Filotti was a military pharmacist
, having the rank of lieutenant
and his mother, Aurelia Filotti (née Felix) was the daughter of doctor Iacob Felix. He was the second child of the family, having a brother Mircea Filotti, his elder by four years. Nicolae Filotti died of tuberculosis
when Eugen Filotti was only 2 years old and his mother had to struggle to raise her two sons with the small resources provided by her husband's pension.
În 1902 - 1906 Eugen Filotti attended the Cuibul cu barză school, on Ştirbei Vodă Street, in Bucharest and thereafter, from 1906 to 1914 Gheorghe Lazăr High School in Bucharest. In 1913, while still in high school, he started working for various newspapers, writing articles about foreign affairs
.
In 1914 he started studying pharmacy at the Bucharest University of Medicine
, attending courses for two years. When Romania entered World War I
in 1916, he was forced to interrupt his studies, being conscripted as lieutenant
and assigned as pharmacist to the army medical staff of the front line. After the retreat of the Romanian troops to Moldavia
, he was transferred to the medical units of the Trotuş valley
front. After the war, he gives up his pharmacy studies and attends the Law School
of Bucharest University, obtaining his degree in 1922. While in university, he continues his journalistic activity, writing articles for several newspapers and magazines.
newspaper, concentrating on foreign relations and writing editorials concerning international events. Besides, from 1924 to 1926 he also publishes, as director
, the second series of the Cuvântul Liber (1924)
. Writers such as Ion Barbu
, Victor Eftimiu
, Camil Petrescu
and Tudor Arghezi
or musicians, such as George Enescu
were among the main contributors. Eugen's brother, film producer and screenwriter Mircea Filotti was in charge of the film chronicle. The magazine was political and cultural weekly, advocating the integration of Romania into the post-war Europe and opposing the populist
ideas promoted by the Viaţa Românească
. In his introductory article, used the term of europeanism
, however in a different meaning than this concept had after 1945. The magazine also strongly supported the avant-garde
in art and literature, which were viewed as a participation of Romanian artist and writers to the cultural unrest of the 1920s.
The magazine was a focal point of a group of young writers, journalists, artists and other intellectuals, who were carried away by the euphoria
following World War I
, and, after Romania had fulfilled its national aspirations, were attempting to define the ways of perfecting their new homeland. This group strongly opposed the leftist radicals, who were looking with interest at the soviet
experiment, and was looking towards the west. However, they thought that new Romania, considered to be a big and strong country, had to play an important role a renewed Europe, which was also trying to find its own new stability. The link to Western Europe
was conceived mainly as an integration of the Romanian cultural and artistic movements into the European ones.
Such ideas were disseminated not only by "Cuvântul Liber", but also by other magazines, such as Contimporanul
, Punct
, Mişcarea Literară
and, later, by Unu
. However, besides publishing their ideas, the group of young enthusiasts to which Eugen Filotti belonged, attempted to organize important cultural events which would help them promote their ideas. The most representative of these event, both due to its importance and to its international attendance was the "First exhibition of modern art" in Bucharest
.
The exhibition was organized in the building of the "Romanian Fine Arts Union" on Strada Corabiei Nr. 6, from November 30 to Debember 30, 1924. The main Romanian artists participating were M.H. Maxy, Marcel Iancu, Victor Brauner
, Constantin Brâncuşi
, Miliţa Petraşcu
and Mattis Teutsch. Important artists from other European countries presented some of their works, among which Teresa Żarnowerówna
, Mieczysław Szczuka (Poland
), Lajos Kassák
(Hungary), Marc Darimont
, Marcel Lempereur-Haut
, Jozef Peeters
(Belgium), Karel Teige
(Czechoslovakia
), Kurt Schwitters
, Hans Arp, Arthur Segal
, Paul Klee
, Hans Richter
, Erich Buchholz
, Ernst Rudolf Vogenauer
(Germany
) and Viking Eggeling
(Suedia).
The exhibition opened on a Sunday, at noon, in a pitch-dark room:
Tudor Vianu
at that time a young professor of aesthetics
, who also attended the opening, recalls in his memoirs:
In his memoirs, Saşa Pană
quotes parts of Eugen Filotti's speech, which emphasized the internal cohesion
and the unity of modern art
and called for an intensification of this art through spiritual and intellectual activities. Eugen Filotti predicted that this type of art would be understood only when the contemporary civilization would learn to look at painting in absolute purity. His speech quoted works of Wassily Kandinsky
, Maurice Vlaminck, Pablo Picasso
and Paul Klee
, as well as those of Constantin Brâncuşi
and other Romanian artists.
In his own articles on the exhibition, Eugen Filotti presented the event in a positive light, and highlighted the vaule of the work exposed by Romanian artists, stressing that they were in no way inferior to the foreign participants. He noted "Constructivism dominates on each wall al the exhibition hall, however without completely obliterating expressionist
visions, cubist
decomposures or coloristic experiments."
The exhibition also turned into a clash between "modernists" and "traditionalists". The group who had organized the exhibition, including Eugen Filotti supported a modernist
, rationalist
, democratic
trend and wanted to promote a spiritual interaction with the rest of the world. On the opposite side, the adherents of different tradition
alist movements, which had also emerged after World War I
, did not refrain to exacerbate nationalistic and mystical expressions in art and culture. While the nationalistic movements had not evolved into the extremism of the 1930s, and the antagonism
was still kept at an intellectual level, modernists perceived them already as a potential danger. The issue was not to oppose the presence of religion in culture, but to fight against the attempts of transforming it into an instrument of nationalism
and antidemocracy. While antisemitism was not yet an issue, as many of the artists and writers supporting the modernist trends were Jewish, this could have contributed to the opposition of the traditionalists. These attitudes outlined the future movements in Romanian politics and culture, and the modernists were already laying the basis of their resistance against totalitarism, regardless whether it came from the political right or left.
Tudor Vianu
expressed the view that "if the program of ethnic culturalism was adopted, Romanian culture would regress to an undignified provincial level". Expanding the same idea, Eugen Filotti wrote: "traditionalism means nothing else than the megalomania
of distress" A short time later, he continued on the same wavelength
:
Eugen Filotti continued his journalistic activity till 1927. However, as time went by, he became increasingly disillusioned by the cultural life in Romania
. The integration of Romanian culture into a more comprehensive European culture, which many of the young intellectuals of his generation had been attempting to promote, did not occur. Instead, currents of various nationalistic tendencies had proliferated and were increasingly active in opposing European integration. Some writers and artist had left for various western countries and many more were seriously considering this alternative. Gradually detaching himself from the Romanian internal cultural life, Eugen Filotti increasingly oriented his journalistic activity towards foreign policy, which had been his main concern in the early years of his career. At the Adevărul
newspaper, he was given the responsibility of writing the editorials on foreign affairs and of coordinating the related activities.
where he worked for over a year, in 1928 Eugen Filotti was transferred to the Romanian Mission to the League of Nations
in Geneva
. From 1928 to 1930 he works, next to other diplomats, among which Savel Rădulescu
, as aid to Nicolae Titulescu
, permanent representative
of Romania to the League of Nations.
In 1929 Eugen Filotti married Elisabeta Taşcă, daughter of professor Gheorghe Taşcă
, at that time rector
of the Academy for High Commercial and Industrial Studies in Bucharest.
In 1930, Eugen Filotti is promoted Director of the Press and of Information in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In the early 1930s Romania
's foreign policy, under the leadership of Nicolae Titulescu
, was pursuing a system of alliances, which would enable the smaller countries of the Balkan
region to oppose any aggression. At that time, the National Socialist Party
had not gained power in Germania
, but, in Titulescu’s political vision, such alliances had to be created in advance, so as to have time to consolidate. Titulescu hoped to create a union of all Balkanic countries. As, due to its territorial claims, Bulgaria
did not adhere to such a proposal, there was still the possibility of developing an alliance of the other Balkan states: Romania, Yugoslavia
, Greece
and Turkey
. Romania was the diplomatic force pressing for an alliance. In his capacity of Director of the Press and Information, Eugen Filotti was in charge of informing the mass media
and to develop a favorable public opinion
in all concerned countries. Finally, after several years of negotiations and various bilateral agreements, the Balkan Pact
was signed on 9 February 1934 in the great aula of the Academy of Athens
by Demetrios Maximos for Greece, Nicolae Titulescu for Romania, Tevfik Rüştü Aras
for Turkey and Bogoljub Jevtić
for Yugoslavia.
În his capacity of director of the press, Eugen Filotti had the responsibility of verifying the activity of foreign press correspondent
s working in Romania. Besides many journalists, adhering to high professional standards
, there were some less honest persons who tried to squeeze in. The case of Julius Köver exemplifies the problems raised by incorrect reporting. Köver claimed to be an economic correspondent of the Austria
n daily Neue Freie Presse
, presenting the required credential
s. In 1933 he also registered at the Direction of the Press in Bucharest as correspondent of the American
United Press International
. Köver also contributed to the newspapers “Pester Lloyd
” şi “Budapesti Hírlap
” published in Hungary
and the German language newspapers Prager Tagblatt
and Die Wirtschaft published in Czechoslovakia
. Julius Köver’s activities started raising suspicions in February 1935, when United Press released the information that Prince Nicholas of Romania
was expected to return to Romania, where the Iron Guard
was preparing a revolt intending to depose King Carol II
and to replace him with Nicholas. Another false news sent by Julius Köver to America claimed that Nicolae Titulescu
, the minister of Foreign Affairs, had signed an agreement in Moscow
, which granted the Soviet army
the right of transit through Romania. Such information had not only the result of casting a negative image of the country but of also weakening Romania’s position within the Balkan Pact. Called by Eugen Filotti to the Direction of the Press for explanations, Julius Köver claimed that the news releases of the United Press Agency had been generated in Vienna
and that he had nothing to do with them. Actually Köver had designed an ingenious system to transmit his fallacies
to various branch offices of the agency, from where they were retransmitted to the United States. He hoped that this stratagem would help him hide his identity from the Romanian authorities and, at the same time, would enable him claim that he used it to elude the censorship
existing in Romania. Eugen Filotti was able to point these malversations and, at last, Julius Köver was expelled from Romania.
Apart from his activities in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, after returning from his missions in Prague
and in Geneva
, Eugen Filotti renewed his contacts with the Romanian cultural elite. This time his activity was mainly related to the Romanian chapter of the International PEN
locally called the “PEN Club”. On April 8, 1933 a new committee
of the Romanian PEN Club was elected, including Victor Eftimiu
(chairman), Ion Sân-Giorgiu
(general secretary
), Eugen Filotti (treasurer
), Ion Marin Sadoveanu
, Lucian Blaga
as well as a member of the Cluj
subsidiary
. At that time, the cultural life in Romania was extremely agitated. The new committee was forced to confront the international tensions related to the Internaţional PEN Congress, planned in Dubrovnik
on May 23, 1933. Adolf Hitler
had been appointed Chancellor of Germany and the independence of the German PEN, who was also represented at the congress, was put in doubt by other member organizations. Germany
was attempting to ensure international recognition of the legitimacy of the new regime, and was trying to obtain resolutions in its favor in various international organizations. Eugen Filotti’s diplomatic experience was an important element in defining the position of the Romanian delegation at the Dubrovnik congress. He was able to convince Victor Eftimiu
to pass a resolution of the committee, expressing its reservations towards Germany.
In the following year, there were other conflicts which surfaced in the Romanian PEN, reflecting the political turmoil in Romania. On February 11, 1934 at the Extraordinary General Assembly of the Romanian PEN, Alexandru Busuioceanu
, who was also Eugen Filotti’s deputy at the Direcţion of the Press and of Informations, brought to the attention of the attendants that "three members of the Romanian PEN, Nae Ionescu
, Dragoş Protopopescu
and Nichifor Crainic
had been arrested, without a warrant
because they had freely expressed their opinions" Busuioceanu, supported by Perpessicius
, demanded that the leadership of the Romanian PEN intervene for their release. The three writers, known for their sympathies for the Iron Guard
, had been arrested as part of the crack down following the assassination of prime minister Ion G. Duca
. Victor Eftimiu
, as president of the PEN indicated that he had requested information regarding how the three members of the PEN Club were treated during their arrest, but was opposed to any other actions of support by the PEN. The differences of opinion between the democratic oriented members and the right wingers sharpened. When new elections for a committee were called in 1934, two lists of candidates were submitted to the General Assembly. The first, presented by Victor Eftimiu
, which also included Eugen Filotti as a candidate was politically independent, while a second list, presented by Ion Petrovici
, included as candidates Ion Pillat
, Tudor Vianu
, Perpessicius
and Lucian Blaga
was leaning towards the political right. Victor Eftimiu’s list received 72% of the votes while the list proposed by Ion Petrovici had only 28%. After this decision Nichifor Crainic
resigned from the Romanian PEN. However the tensions, reflecting the contradictions of Romanian society in the 1930s remained.
. The position was important for the Nicolae Titulescu
’s foreign policy. The Balkan Pact
had been signed just a year before and Titulescu was aware that the framewor was still frail and that further steps were necessary in order to consolidate the alliance so that it could efficiently react in case of an attack on one of its members. Therefore, he tried to appoint diplomats who shared his views as ministers plenipotentiary in the signatory countries.
Titulescu’s dismissal coincided with the departure of two key personalities from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Mihail Arion
and Savel Rădulescu
. The former, who held the position of secretary general of the ministry resigned, in circumstances that are not clear, his resignation bein formally accepted on August 29, 1936. The latter, who had served as undersecretary
of the ministry, was not included in the new team, replaced by Victor Bădulescu
.
On August 28, 1936 King Carol II of Romania
fired Niculae Titulescu and replaced him with Victor Antonescu
. The decision was greeted with disbelief
. Both the Romanian and foreign new commentators expressed the opinion
that Titulescu would soon reenter the Romanian politics. The French newspapers were unaninomous
. The "Le Temps
" of August 31, 1936 indicated that "Mr. Titulescu is not the kind of man to accept such matters with resignation" while “L'Intransigeant
” stated that the Titulescu’s removal from the government din could only be temporary, opinion shared by the “Journal des débats
” and “Le Figaro
”. In the United Kingdom
, on September 1, 1936, “The Times
” wrote that, “in any case, there are no reason
s to assume that Titulescu’s disappearance from the political scene can be anything else than a passing eclipse. Men of this calibre and with his character do not leave the political arena for a long time". On September 2, 1936 “The Daily Telegraph
” concurred that Titulescu would soon be active again in Romanian politics. The ministries of Foreign Affairs of France
, the United Kingdom
and Germany
also expressed the same assumptions.
Many Romanian diplomats indicated their intention
to resign in protest
. Romanian and foreign press
, reported the news and even newspapers which expressed doubts about the attitude of the diplomatic corps
emphasized the intention of the government to purge
high ranking diplomatic personnel
especially the chiefs of mission
known for their attachment to Titulescu. The government’s intention
s were not a secret in Bucharest. Armand Călinescu
, a person who was politically well informed stated that "at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs there will be a significant reshuffle of the diplomatic corps". Despite the evidence, several representatives of the government denied such intentions and the diplomatic representatives abroad were urged to follow suit.
Despite denials, the new foreign minister, Victor Antonescu
proceeded to a massive change in the staff of the Romanian foreign missions, recalling many of the plenipotentiary ministers. These changes, if not initiated, were at least approved by prime minister Gheorghe Tătărescu
. Most of the heads of mission recalled were suspected of supporting the former minister of foreign affairs. The list of recalled ministers included: Nicolae Lahovary
(Albania
), Caius Brediceanu
(Austria
), Dimitrie I. Ghika
(Belgium
), Vasile Stoica
(Bulgaria
), Theodor Emandi
(Czechoslovakia
), Raoul Bossy
(Finland
), Constantin Langa-Răşcanu
(Greece), Vasile Grigorcea
(Hungary
), Grigore Constantinescu (Iran), Ion Aurel Vassiliu (Japan
), Constantin Antoniade
(League of Nations), Dimitrie Drăghicescu
(Mexico
), Constantin Vişoianu
(Poland
), Mihail Boerescu (Switzerland
), Eugen Filotti (Turkey
) and Alexandru Gurănescu
(Yugoslavia). In order to emphasize the punitive character of the measure, their diplomatic passports were withdrawn and all their diplomatic privileges withdrawn the moment the orders for their return to Romania were issued. The reshuffling of the staff coincided with the return to political or diplomatic activities of known opponents of Titulescu, such as Anton Bibescu
and Victor Cădere
. The magnitude of these changes indicated the intention of the new minister to replace most of the senior staff of the ministry. However, the implementation to the desired extent proved impossible to implement and part of the recalled ministers were appointed to other legations or received other positions at the headquarters of the Ministry.
. Although Greece
was a signatory of the Balkan Pact, the now position was in not linked to the strengthening of the alliance, which Eugen Filotti had pursued before. After Titulescu’s departure, the Romanian government was less interested in this alliance, whose role was seen just as a pact of friendship between the four signatories, without implying any consequent measures.Andrei Alexandru Căpuşan - Diplomaţi români de elită Vol. II - Ed. Ars Docendi, Bucureşti 2009, pp.155-161
Romania
had other problems in Greece
related to the Aromanian
minority (called Vlachs by the Greek). The Aromanians, which the government of Bucharest considered to be a Romanian population, were considered second class citizens in Greece and denied the right of having an education in their native language. However, taking into account the rapprochement
policies of the two countries, the Greek government accepted the establishment of schools in which the education was to be in Romanian, on condition that such schools be financed by the Romanian government. The implementation of the agreement was not without difficulties.
Eugen Filotti made important efforts to strengthen the Romanian High School in Thessaloniki
and to extend the network of Romanian primary schools which had been established in the villages of Epirus
, Thessaly
, West
and Central Macedonia
with high concentrations of Aromanian population. The best students of primary schools received scholarships to continue their education at the high school in Thessaloniki
, which followed the curriculum established by the Ministry of National Education of Bucharest
. Eugen Filotti also took care of the quality of education provided, ensuring that good material conditions would encourage well qualified teachers from Romania to compete for positions in the Romanian schools in Greece.
In the fall of 1938, Eugen Filotti was transferred from Athens
to Sofia
. The new assignment was different from his previous ones, as Bulgaria
was not a friendly country. Defeated in the Second Balkan War
, Bulgaria had been forced, by the Peace Treaty of Bucharest to cede Southern Dobruja
(also known as the Cadrilater) to Romania, where the Romanian administration created the counties of Durostor
and Caliacra
. Romanian statistics of 1930, show that the Bulgarian population in the Cadrilater was of 149,409 while the Romanians were 77,728. The Romanian population had increased significantly compared to 1910, when the Romanians in the area were only 6,359. This is due to the policy of colonization of the 1920s, when Romanians from Wallachia
as well as Aromanians
from Greece
and other Balkan countries had been settled in the Cadrilater. If Romania had an important Bulgarian minority, concentrated mainly in Dobruja
, there also was an important Romanian minority in Bulgaria. Many Romanians were living along the Bulgarian bank of the Danube. Besides there were also Aromanians, living mostly in the Bulgarian part of Macedonia
.
The problems of minorities were an important to the bilateral Romano-Bulgarian diplomatic relations and it was inevitable that, in his new position, Eugen Filotti would be confronted with issues related the rights of the Romanian minority in Bulgaria. As he had done in Athens, Eugen Filotti concentrated his efforts on strengthening the Romanian education network in Bulgaria, which included primary schools in the villages with Romanian population along the Danube as well as a Romanian high school in Sofia
. All these schools were financially supported by the Romanian government and followed the curriculum if the Ministry of National Education in Bucharest]. Although Bulgaria had territorial claims regarding not only the Cadrilater, but also the part of Macedonia
which was located in Yugoslavia
, the problem of rectifying the borders of Balkan countries was not yet on the agenda în 1938, when Eugen Filotti arrived in Sofia.
However, towards the end of 1939, the government in Sofia raised territorial claims and demanded that negotiations with Romania be started. The problem of Southern Dobruja differed from the one of other provinces which Romania had gained after World War II
as it had not been decided in the Peace Treaties of Trianon
, Saint-Germain-en- Laye sau Neuilly-sur-Seine. Therefore, such negotiations were not viewed as a revisionism of the peace treaties of 1919. Even in Romania, the issue of Southern Dobruja had been controversial. In 1913, King Carol I
and many other politicians had disagreed with the territorial extension requested by Titu Maiorescu
on a territory which did not have a Romanian population, arguing that this extension was contrary to the aspirations of creating a Romanian national state.
Unlike other situations regarding border disputes, for the Cadrilater problem no international conference was organized. It was mainly negotiated by a succession of diplomatic notes and discussions, in which a compromise acceptable to both parts was reached. As Romanian minister plenipotentiary to Sofia, Eugen Filotti was directly involved in these negotiations.
At the beginning, the positions of the two countries were totally contradictory. Romania wanted to change the ethnic status quo
in the region and to preserve the territorial status-quo, while Bulgaria was aiming to achieve exactly the opposite.
The objectives of the negotiations was not only related to the transfer of sovereignty
over the Cadrilater, but to establish a "final and perpetual" border between the two countries, which also involved an exchange of population. The Romanian diplomacy insisted on solving this problem at the same time. Romanian was facing similar problems in Transilvania, where the existence of an important Hungarian minority was claimed by Hungary
to justify a revision of the borders fixed by the Treaty of Trianon
. Romania was afraid that the existence of a Bulgarian minority in Northern Dobruja could be used by Bulgaria for further territorial concessions. Besides, as most of the Romanian population in the Cadrilater, had been colonized after its annexation
, the Romanian government felt it had a moral obligation to defend the interests of these colonists.
At the beginning of the negotiations, the Romanian diplomats insisted on the mandatory emigration
of all Bulgarians residing in Northern Dobruja (the counties of Constanţa
and Tulcea
) while the Romanians of Southern Dobruja would have the freedom of choosing to emigrate to Romania or to stay. As this was rejected by Bulgaria, later in the negotiations the Romanians suggested that all Bulgarians residing in Romania be obliged to emigrate and a similar emigration would be mandatory for the Romanians of Southern Dobruja, but not for those residing in other parts of Bulgaria. Partially in order not to derail the negotiations and partially giving in to Germany's pressures, Bulgaria agreed to negotiate an exchange of population. The Bulgarians first suggested that emigration should not be a mandatory requirement. When the Romanians insisted on this issue, the Bulgarians rejected the proposal of the emigration of all Bulgarians residing in Romania versus the emigration of all Romanians residing in Southern Dobruja as not being equivalent. Therefore the Bulgarians suggested a combination of mandatory and voluntary emigration. The final agreement, reached by the Treaty of Craiova
stipulated:
Besides, various technical problems related to the population transfer had to be settled. After lengthy discussions the two parties involved agreed that the ownership of buildings located in rural areas which belonged to emigrants would be taken over by the state from which they emigrated. While an agreement on the mandatory emigration could be reached, a contradiction between the interest of the two parties prevented a consensus on the optional emigration. The Bulgarian government wanted to encourage all Bulgarians living in other parts of Romania, outside of Dobrogea, to be resettled in Bulgaria. The Romanian government preferred not to dismantle the compact vlach communities of north-western Bulgaria and therefore did not agree on a mandatory parity of the population moved from one country to the other. Each of the two parties agreed to compensate the immigrants for the losses they incurred. However it was agreed that properties located in urban areas remained the property of the emigrants and also that the emigrants would maintain ownership of all mobile assets (including live-stock). The Treaty of Craiova
created a joint Bulgaro-Romanian commission having the mission of overseeing the exchange of population and of settling individual claims or disputes.
The Romanian part also unsuccessfully attempted to maintain control over the Caliacra-Balcic area along the Black Sea
coast, which the late Queen Mary
of Romania had liked and where here heart was buried. Even as late as August 9, 1940, king Carol II of Romania
was sending instructions to Eugen Filotti, urging him to insist on the matter. However the Bulgarians were intransigent on the matter, demanding the transfer of the entire Cadrilater. Therefore, after the signature of the treaty, Queen Mary's was reinhumed at the Bran Castle
.
Contrary to the assessment of some Bulgarian historians the Romanian position was not weakened by Germany
but rather by the Soviet Union
. After having occupied Bessarabia
in June 1940, the USSR considered Bulgaria a more friendly country than Romania and considered that it would be in its interest to have a common border with Bulgaria. Therefore, the soviet diplomacy was encouraging the Bulgarians not to be satisfied with the Cadrilater, but to demand the transfer of its sovereignty over the entire Dobruja
. Besides creating a common border between the Soviet Union and Bulgaria, this also presented the potential advantage for the Soviet Union of gaining control over the Danube Delta
. As the Delta was not part of the Dobruja, it would not have been occupied by Bulgaria, but the possibility of Romania maintaining sovereignty over a territory to which it could have access only through a reach of the Danube bordered by unfriendly nations, was doubtful. During an audience, king Boris III of Bulgaria
informed Eugen Filotti about the soviet intentions. This induced the Romanians to accelerate the negotiations and to reach an agreement before the Soviet Union would intervene in a more aggressive way.
On September 4, 1940, the Treaty of Craiova
, finalizing over a year long negotiations. In accordance with the provisions of the treaty, the mandatory population exchange was completed in two phases. The main exchange took place in November–December 1940; during this phase 61,500 Bulgarians from Northern Dobruja and 83,928 Romanians from the Cadrilater moved. The second phase, which was implemented in accordance with an additional agreement, necessitated the move of another 3,600 Bulgarians and 4,700 Romanians from other parts of the two countries, outside the Dobruja. Thus, the total number of emigrants was of about 65,000 Bulgarians, who resettled in mostly in the Cadrilater and of about 88,000 Romanians who resettled in Northern Dobruja. However, Eugen Filotti was not concerned any more with these aftermaths of the Treaty of Craiova. After having concluded his lead role in the negotiations with Bulgaria, Eugen Filotti was recalled to Bucharest. He was assigned a new mission which was to be even more challenging.
to cede Northern Transylvania
to Hungary
. Following diplomatic rules, after such important changes, diplomatic envoys in the two countries were usually replaced. Eugen Filotti was appointed the new Romanian minister plenipotentiary to Budapest.
The problems of the Romanian population on the territory of Hungary
, which included Northern Transylvania were totally different from the ones of the Romanian minorities in Greece or Bulgaria, which had been Eugen Filotti's concern in his previous assignments. Immediately after the Vienna Award, the Hungarian authorities had take violent actions against the Romanian population. Even before Eugen Filotti's arrival in Budapest, the Government of Romania had forwarded complaints to Berlin
and to Rome
, following which the Roggieri-Altenburg Commission was created to investigate the accusations brought either by Romania
or by Hungary
and to recommend corrective actions. Starting 1941, two subcommissions were set up, the first one in Braşov
and the second in Cluj
. The subcommissions were however taking action only in the case of complaints which had to present specific cases of oppressive measures. Therefore the Romanian authorities were compelled to obtain not only general statements about such events, but detailed information, as precise as possible, regarding the alleged abuses of the Hungarians, in order to present their case to the commission as well fundamented as possible.
An important task of the Romanian legation in Budapest, as well as of the subordinated consulates in Cluj
and Oradea
was to obtain such information. As the inhabitants of the localities where abuses had taken place were prevented to go to the legation or to one of the consulates and the staff of the diplomatic units did not know where to go to find out what was really going on, this task was extremely difficult. Eugen Filotti was able to set up a system by which the required information could be collected so that he could transmit it to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bucharest who, in turn, would forward the required documentation to the arbitration commission. With the help of Nicolae Colan, bishop of the orthodox diocese of Vad, Feleac and Cluj and of Juliu Hossu, bishop of the Greek Catholic Diocese of Cluj-Gherla
who, during the war, was seated in Oradea, priests from villages in which Romanians constituted a majority were informing their bishops about the situation in their parrishes. The dioceses would then forward the pertinent information to Eugen Filotti, at the legation in Budapest, from where it was sent through diplomatic channels to Bucharest. Another active factor in this set-up was Nicolae Bălan, metropolite of Transylvania
, whom Eugen Filotti met in Sibiu
each time he returned to Romania, in order to coordinate the actions taken on religious and diplomatic channels.
Inevitably, the Hungarian authorities became aware of these activities. If they helped provide information to the Romanians, they also induced repressive actions against the Romanian clergy.
Except being subjected to repressive actions in their villages, there were frequent cases in which Romanians from Northern Transylvania were displaced for forced labour to Hungary, mostly for the maintenance of roads. They were however allowed to write letters to their relatives at home, informing them about where they were working. These informations were relayed to the Romanian legation in Budapest, and, in his capacity of plenipotentiary minister, Eugen Filotti visited these places to gain first hand information on how the Romanians were treated. There were several cases when the Hungarian guards treated Eugen Filotti offensively, disregarding his diplomatic status. Abuses committed on the territory of Hungary were beyond the authority of the Roggeri-Altenburg Commission. Therefore, on these matters Eugen Filotti forwarded protest notes directly to the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Budapest.
The Romanian educational system had been completely dismanteled by the Hungarian authorities in Northern Transylvania. The entire Romanian population was compelled to complete the curriculum in Hungarian language. Romanian school books could neither be printed in Northern Transylvania nor be imported from Romania. Again, the Romanian church was the only organization which, through the clergy, could provide education in Romanian during Sunday religious courses. The Greek-Catholic diocese had its own printing presses in Oradea and could therefore edit a significant number of books in Romanian, covering various religious subjects. Eugen Filotti had frequent contacts with the church authorities in order to assess the needs as well as the ways of supporting these activities from Romania.
Starting 1943, the persecution of Jews in Hungary became harsher and after March 19, 1944, when the German army occupied Hungary and general Sztójaj Döme was installed as head of the new Hungarian government, these persecutions were further intensified. Under the Sztójaj government massive deportations of Jews towards Ausschwitz and other extermination camps took place. The position of the Romanian government was the Jews in occupied Northern Transylvania were Romanian citizens and therefore were entitled to the protection of the Romanian authorities. As head of the Romanian diplomatic mission in Hungary, Eugen Filotti ordered that Romanian passports and other travel documents be issued to Jews of Northern Transylvania. This action was implemented with the help of the Romanian consuls Constantin Ţincu at the Budapest consulate and Mihai Marina at the Oradea consulate. The Oradea consulate also helped by illegally transporting Jews from Northern Transylvania to Romania in the consulate's automobiles. Based on information obtained from Dr. Kupfet Miksa, one of the leaders of the Jewish community in Oradea as well as on his own findings, consul Mihai Marina wrote a report documenting the deportation of Jews to German extermination camps forwarding it to Eugen Filotti. After reviewing it, Eugen Filotti chose to short circuit the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bucharest, and, in order to make sure that it became known to the international community, send it directly to Vespasian Pella, the Romanian minister plenipotentiary in Bern, who presented it to the International Committee of the Red Cross
in Geneva.
In July 1944, Eugen Filotti came to Bucharest, in order to present to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs information regarding Northern Transylvania, necessary to prepare the Romanian claims at a future peace conference. At the same time, Eugen Filotti got actively involved with the diplomats who were preparing the coup which would take Romania out of the alliance with Germany, and make the country switch sides to join the Allies.
switched sided on August 23, 1944 and joined the Allies
, Eugen Filotti was appointed secretary general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, under foreign minister Grigore Niculescu-Buzeşti
in the government headed by general Constantin Sănătescu
. He kept the same position, under foreign minister Constantin Vişoianu
in the following government, headed by general Nicolae Rădescu
.
His first efforts in his new position was to inform all Romanian diplomatic missions abroad about the changes following King Michael's Coup
and to send the corresponding instructions on actions to be taken by these missions. Also, as soon as the military situation in Bucharest was brought under control, he took steps to bring the staff of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to Bucharest and to ensure its return to normal activity. Due to the allied bombing raids, the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs had been evacuated to Băile Herculane
. In September 1944, moving the ministry back to Bucharest implied difficulties, as the German artillery on the Yougoslav bank of the Danube
prevented the use of the main road along this river. At the same time the German and Hungarian army had occupied the city of Arad
and were advancing upstream the Mureş Valley
, making the alternative route very risky.
Finally, according to prevailing diplomatic conventions, an exchange of diplomats which were posted at the diplomatic missions in Berlin
, Budapest
and Bratislava
, capitals of countries still under German control, had to be organized. The negotiations were carried out with the help of the diplomatic missions of neutral countries: Switzerland
and Sweden
. Though an agreement of the involved governments was reached, the exchange of diplomats did not take place, because the Hungarian and Slovak diplomats in Bucharest, refused to return to their countries. As a result, the Romanian diplomats were kept in captivity in Germany until the end of the war.
League of Nations
The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...
in Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
and then as minister plenipotentiary in Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
, Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
, Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
and Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
. As minister plenipotentiary to Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
he issued transit visas for Jews during the Holocaust. He was secretary general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1944–1945. As writer he published several translations of literary works.
Youth
Eugen Filotti was born in BucharestBucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
, Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
. His father, Nicolae Filotti was a military pharmacist
Pharmacist
Pharmacists are allied health professionals who practice in pharmacy, the field of health sciences focusing on safe and effective medication use...
, having the rank of lieutenant
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...
and his mother, Aurelia Filotti (née Felix) was the daughter of doctor Iacob Felix. He was the second child of the family, having a brother Mircea Filotti, his elder by four years. Nicolae Filotti died of tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
when Eugen Filotti was only 2 years old and his mother had to struggle to raise her two sons with the small resources provided by her husband's pension.
În 1902 - 1906 Eugen Filotti attended the Cuibul cu barză school, on Ştirbei Vodă Street, in Bucharest and thereafter, from 1906 to 1914 Gheorghe Lazăr High School in Bucharest. In 1913, while still in high school, he started working for various newspapers, writing articles about foreign affairs
Foreign Affairs
Foreign Affairs is an American magazine and website on international relations and U.S. foreign policy published since 1922 by the Council on Foreign Relations six times annually...
.
In 1914 he started studying pharmacy at the Bucharest University of Medicine
Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy
Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy is a state-run health sciences University in Bucharest, Romania. It is the largest institution of its kind in Romania with over 2.865 employees, 1.654 teachers and over 4.800 students...
, attending courses for two years. When Romania entered World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
in 1916, he was forced to interrupt his studies, being conscripted as lieutenant
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...
and assigned as pharmacist to the army medical staff of the front line. After the retreat of the Romanian troops to Moldavia
Moldavia
Moldavia is a geographic and historical region and former principality in Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester river...
, he was transferred to the medical units of the Trotuş valley
Trotus River
The Trotuş River in eastern Romania emerges from the Ciuc Mountains in the Eastern Carpathians and joins the Siret River after passing through Comăneşti and Oneşti in Bacău County...
front. After the war, he gives up his pharmacy studies and attends the Law School
Law school
A law school is an institution specializing in legal education.- Law degrees :- Canada :...
of Bucharest University, obtaining his degree in 1922. While in university, he continues his journalistic activity, writing articles for several newspapers and magazines.
Activity as journalist
After graduating from Law school, Eugen Filotti joined the editorial staff of the AdevărulAdevarul
Adevărul is a Romanian daily newspaper, based in Bucharest. Founded in 1871 and reestablished in 1888, it was the main left-wing press venue to be published during the Romanian Kingdom's existence, adopting an independent pro-democratic position, advocating land reform and universal suffrage...
newspaper, concentrating on foreign relations and writing editorials concerning international events. Besides, from 1924 to 1926 he also publishes, as director
Executive director
Executive director is a term sometimes applied to the chief executive officer or managing director of an organization, company, or corporation. It is widely used in North American non-profit organizations, though in recent decades many U.S. nonprofits have adopted the title "President/CEO"...
, the second series of the Cuvântul Liber (1924)
Cuvântul Liber (1924)
Cuvântul Liber was a Romanian political and cultural weekly published by Eugen Filotti from 1924 to 1925. Writers such as Ion Barbu, Victor Eftimiu and Tudor Arghezi or musicians, such as George Enescu or film critics such as the publisher's brother Mircea Filotti were among the...
. Writers such as Ion Barbu
Ion Barbu
Ion Barbu was a distinguished Romanian mathematician and poet.He was born in Câmpulung-Muscel, Argeş County, the son of Constantin Barbilian and Smaranda, born Şoiculescu. He attended Ion Brătianu High School in Piteşti and Gheorghe Lazăr High School in Bucharest...
, Victor Eftimiu
Victor Eftimiu
Victor Eftimiu was an Albanian-Romanian poet, playwright, and a contributor to Sburătorul, a Romanian literary magazine. His works have been performed in the State Jewish Theater of Romania....
, Camil Petrescu
Camil Petrescu
Camil Petrescu was a Romanian playwright, novelist, philosopher and poet. He marked the end of the traditional novel era and laid the foundation of the modern novel era.- Life :...
and Tudor Arghezi
Tudor Arghezi
Tudor Arghezi was a Romanian writer, best known for his contribution to poetry and children's literature. Born Ion N. Theodorescu in Bucharest , he explained that his pen name was related to Argesis, the Latin name for the Argeş River.-Early life:Along with Mihai Eminescu, Mateiu Caragiale, and...
or musicians, such as George Enescu
George Enescu
George Enescu was a Romanian composer, violinist, pianist, conductor and teacher.-Biography:Enescu was born in the village of Liveni , Dorohoi County at the time, today Botoşani County. He showed musical talent from early in his childhood. A child prodigy, Enescu created his first musical...
were among the main contributors. Eugen's brother, film producer and screenwriter Mircea Filotti was in charge of the film chronicle. The magazine was political and cultural weekly, advocating the integration of Romania into the post-war Europe and opposing the populist
Poporanism
The word “poporanism” is derived from “popor”, meaning “people” in the Romanian language. The ideology of Romanian Populism and poporanism are interchangeable. Founded by Constantin Stere in the early 1890s, populism is distinguished by its opposition to socialism, promotion of voting rights for...
ideas promoted by the Viaţa Românească
Viata Româneasca
Viaţa Românească, originally Viaţa Romînească , is a monthly literary magazine published in Romania...
. In his introductory article, used the term of europeanism
Europeanism
Although this term is occasionally used to describe support for European integration , it is more commonly used in relation to the idea that Europeans have common norms and values that transcend national or state identity, that have been promoted most actively...
, however in a different meaning than this concept had after 1945. The magazine also strongly supported the avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
in art and literature, which were viewed as a participation of Romanian artist and writers to the cultural unrest of the 1920s.
The magazine was a focal point of a group of young writers, journalists, artists and other intellectuals, who were carried away by the euphoria
Euphoria (emotion)
Euphoria is medically recognized as a mental and emotional condition in which a person experiences intense feelings of well-being, elation, happiness, ecstasy, excitement and joy...
following World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, and, after Romania had fulfilled its national aspirations, were attempting to define the ways of perfecting their new homeland. This group strongly opposed the leftist radicals, who were looking with interest at the soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
experiment, and was looking towards the west. However, they thought that new Romania, considered to be a big and strong country, had to play an important role a renewed Europe, which was also trying to find its own new stability. The link to Western Europe
Western Europe
Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...
was conceived mainly as an integration of the Romanian cultural and artistic movements into the European ones.
Such ideas were disseminated not only by "Cuvântul Liber", but also by other magazines, such as Contimporanul
Contimporanul
Contimporanul was a Romanian avant-garde literary and art magazine, published in Bucharest between June 1922 and 1932...
, Punct
Punct (magazine)
Punct was a Romanian weekly art and literary magazine, published from 1924 to 1925. Founded and directed by Scarlat Callimachi, it was edited by painter Victor Brauner and writer Stephan Roll...
, Mişcarea Literară
Miscarea Literara
Mişcarea Literară was a literary and art weekly published in Romania from 1924 to 1925 by writer Liviu Rebreanu and poet Alexandru Dominic....
and, later, by Unu
Unu
unu was the name of an avant-garde art and literary magazine, published in Romania from April 1928 to September 1935. Edited by writers Saşa Pană and Moldov, it was dedicated to Dada and Surrealism....
. However, besides publishing their ideas, the group of young enthusiasts to which Eugen Filotti belonged, attempted to organize important cultural events which would help them promote their ideas. The most representative of these event, both due to its importance and to its international attendance was the "First exhibition of modern art" in Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
.
The exhibition was organized in the building of the "Romanian Fine Arts Union" on Strada Corabiei Nr. 6, from November 30 to Debember 30, 1924. The main Romanian artists participating were M.H. Maxy, Marcel Iancu, Victor Brauner
Victor Brauner
Victor Brauner was a Romanian Jewish painter of surrealistic images.-Early life:He was born in Piatra Neamţ, the son of a timber manufacturer who subsequently settled in Vienna with his family for a few years. It is there that young Victor attended elementary school...
, Constantin Brâncuşi
Constantin Brancusi
Constantin Brâncuşi was a Romanian-born sculptor who made his career in France. As a child he displayed an aptitude for carving wooden farm tools. Formal studies took him first to Bucharest, then to Munich, then to the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris...
, Miliţa Petraşcu
Milita Petrascu
Miliţa Petraşcu was a Romanian sculptor of great renown....
and Mattis Teutsch. Important artists from other European countries presented some of their works, among which Teresa Żarnowerówna
Teresa Zarnowerówna
Teresa Żarnowerówna was a Polish avant-garde artist, painter, sculptor and scenographer.She co-edited the Polish avant-garde magazines, Blok and Dźwignia. She was a member and co-creator of the Warsaw art group "Blok" which was associated with the magazine of the same name....
, Mieczysław Szczuka (Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
), Lajos Kassák
Lajos Kassák
Lajos Kassák was a Hungarian poet, novelist, painter, essayist, editor, theoretician of the avant-garde and occasional translator, was the father of many modernisms....
(Hungary), Marc Darimont
Marc Darimont
Marc H. Darimont was a Belgian painter. He painted mainly expressionist landscapes and portraits, gradually evolving towards an increased simplicity and abstract compositions...
, Marcel Lempereur-Haut
Marcel Lempereur-Haut
Marcel Lempereur-Haut was a Belgian painter. He took drawing lessons at the Liège Academy of Fine Arts where he obtained a diploma in surveying and, after World War I he worked as a technical draughtsman....
, Jozef Peeters
Jozef Peeters
Jozef Peeters is a Belgian painter, engraver and graphic artist.In 1913, Jozef Peeters attended for a short time the Antwerp Royal Academy of Fine Arts, but was mainly interested by his own experiments. In 1914 he started painting luminist landscapes and portraits...
(Belgium), Karel Teige
Karel Teige
Karel Teige was the major figure of the Czech avant-garde movement Devětsil in the 1920s, a graphic artist, photographer, and typographer...
(Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
), Kurt Schwitters
Kurt Schwitters
Kurt Hermann Eduard Karl Julius Schwitters was a German painter who was born in Hanover, Germany. Schwitters worked in several genres and media, including Dada, Constructivism, Surrealism, poetry, sound, painting, sculpture, graphic design, typography and what came to be known as...
, Hans Arp, Arthur Segal
Arthur Segal
Arthur Segal was a Romanian artist and author.- Early life :Segal was born to Jewish parents in Iaşi, Romania, and studied at the Berlin Academy from 1892...
, Paul Klee
Paul Klee
Paul Klee was born in Münchenbuchsee, Switzerland, and is considered both a German and a Swiss painter. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. He was, as well, a student of orientalism...
, Hans Richter
Hans Richter (artist)
Hans Richter was a painter, graphic artist, avant-gardist, film-experimenter and producer. He was born in Berlin into a well-to-do family and died in Minusio, near Locarno, Switzerland.-Germany:...
, Erich Buchholz
Erich Buchholz
Erich Buchholz was a German artist in painting and printmaking. He was a central figure in the development of non-objective or concrete art in Berlin between 1918 and 1924. He interrupted his artistic activity in 1925, first because of economic hardship and, from 1933, as he was forbidden to paint...
, Ernst Rudolf Vogenauer
Ernst Rudolf Vogenauer
Ernst Rudolf Vogenauer – was a German graphic artist. He started working after World War I designing posters as well as illustrator of various books...
(Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
) and Viking Eggeling
Viking Eggeling
Viking Eggeling was a Swedish artist and filmmaker. His work is of significance in the area of experimental film, and has been described as absolute film and Visual Music....
(Suedia).
The exhibition opened on a Sunday, at noon, in a pitch-dark room:
"There were just two candles burning on a table covered by a black canvas. Suddenly, Eugen Filotti made his appearance next to the table, relaxed and inspired, reciting a text presenting to the public both the new form of art and the exposed paintings"
Tudor Vianu
Tudor Vianu
Tudor Vianu was a Romanian literary critic, art critic, poet, philosopher, academic, and translator. Known for his left-wing and anti-fascist convictions, he had a major role on the reception and development of Modernism in Romanian literature and art...
at that time a young professor of aesthetics
Aesthetics
Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty. It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste...
, who also attended the opening, recalls in his memoirs:
"The dark room, swarming with visitors, where Eugen Filotti was finishing his introductory speech, suddenly vibrated at the loud roll of drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
. The lights went on, focusing on a jazz orchestra located behind the speaker. The orchestra, which also included a black musician started playing, and the visitors started roaming around at the sound of string instruments, trombones and drums."
In his memoirs, Saşa Pană
Sasa Pana
Saşa Pană was a Romanian avant-garde poet, novelist, and short story writer.-Biography:...
quotes parts of Eugen Filotti's speech, which emphasized the internal cohesion
Cohesion
Cohesion may refer to:* Cohesion , the intermolecular attraction between like-molecules* Cohesion , a measure of how well the lines of source code within a module work together...
and the unity of modern art
Modern art
Modern art includes artistic works produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the style and philosophy of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the traditions of the past have been thrown aside in a spirit of...
and called for an intensification of this art through spiritual and intellectual activities. Eugen Filotti predicted that this type of art would be understood only when the contemporary civilization would learn to look at painting in absolute purity. His speech quoted works of Wassily Kandinsky
Wassily Kandinsky
Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky was an influential Russian painter and art theorist. He is credited with painting the first purely-abstract works. Born in Moscow, Kandinsky spent his childhood in Odessa. He enrolled at the University of Moscow, studying law and economics...
, Maurice Vlaminck, Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
and Paul Klee
Paul Klee
Paul Klee was born in Münchenbuchsee, Switzerland, and is considered both a German and a Swiss painter. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. He was, as well, a student of orientalism...
, as well as those of Constantin Brâncuşi
Constantin Brancusi
Constantin Brâncuşi was a Romanian-born sculptor who made his career in France. As a child he displayed an aptitude for carving wooden farm tools. Formal studies took him first to Bucharest, then to Munich, then to the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris...
and other Romanian artists.
In his own articles on the exhibition, Eugen Filotti presented the event in a positive light, and highlighted the vaule of the work exposed by Romanian artists, stressing that they were in no way inferior to the foreign participants. He noted "Constructivism dominates on each wall al the exhibition hall, however without completely obliterating expressionist
Expressionism
Expressionism was a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas...
visions, cubist
Cubism
Cubism was a 20th century avant-garde art movement, pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture...
decomposures or coloristic experiments."
The exhibition also turned into a clash between "modernists" and "traditionalists". The group who had organized the exhibition, including Eugen Filotti supported a modernist
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
, rationalist
Rationalism
In epistemology and in its modern sense, rationalism is "any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification" . In more technical terms, it is a method or a theory "in which the criterion of the truth is not sensory but intellectual and deductive"...
, democratic
Democracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
trend and wanted to promote a spiritual interaction with the rest of the world. On the opposite side, the adherents of different tradition
Tradition
A tradition is a ritual, belief or object passed down within a society, still maintained in the present, with origins in the past. Common examples include holidays or impractical but socially meaningful clothes , but the idea has also been applied to social norms such as greetings...
alist movements, which had also emerged after World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, did not refrain to exacerbate nationalistic and mystical expressions in art and culture. While the nationalistic movements had not evolved into the extremism of the 1930s, and the antagonism
Antagonism
Antagonism is hostility that results in active resistance, opposition, or contentiousness.Additionally, it may refer to:*Antagonism , where the involvement of multiple agents reduces their overall effect...
was still kept at an intellectual level, modernists perceived them already as a potential danger. The issue was not to oppose the presence of religion in culture, but to fight against the attempts of transforming it into an instrument of nationalism
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
and antidemocracy. While antisemitism was not yet an issue, as many of the artists and writers supporting the modernist trends were Jewish, this could have contributed to the opposition of the traditionalists. These attitudes outlined the future movements in Romanian politics and culture, and the modernists were already laying the basis of their resistance against totalitarism, regardless whether it came from the political right or left.
Tudor Vianu
Tudor Vianu
Tudor Vianu was a Romanian literary critic, art critic, poet, philosopher, academic, and translator. Known for his left-wing and anti-fascist convictions, he had a major role on the reception and development of Modernism in Romanian literature and art...
expressed the view that "if the program of ethnic culturalism was adopted, Romanian culture would regress to an undignified provincial level". Expanding the same idea, Eugen Filotti wrote: "traditionalism means nothing else than the megalomania
Megalomania
Megalomania is a psycho-pathological condition characterized by delusional fantasies of power, relevance, or omnipotence. 'Megalomania is characterized by an inflated sense of self-esteem and overestimation by persons of their powers and beliefs'...
of distress" A short time later, he continued on the same wavelength
Wavelength
In physics, the wavelength of a sinusoidal wave is the spatial period of the wave—the distance over which the wave's shape repeats.It is usually determined by considering the distance between consecutive corresponding points of the same phase, such as crests, troughs, or zero crossings, and is a...
:
Under the banner of orthodoxyOrthodoxyThe word orthodox, from Greek orthos + doxa , is generally used to mean the adherence to accepted norms, more specifically to creeds, especially in religion...
and traditionTraditionA tradition is a ritual, belief or object passed down within a society, still maintained in the present, with origins in the past. Common examples include holidays or impractical but socially meaningful clothes , but the idea has also been applied to social norms such as greetings...
some intellectuals promote a static ideal, petrified in the hieraticHieraticHieratic refers to a cursive writing system that was used in the provenance of the pharaohs in Egypt and Nubia that developed alongside the hieroglyphic system, to which it is intimately related...
byzantineByzantineByzantine usually refers to the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages.Byzantine may also refer to:* A citizen of the Byzantine Empire, or native Greek during the Middle Ages...
-muscoviteMoscowMoscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
forms of a primitive cultureCultureCulture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
, having no evolutionEvolutionEvolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
whatsoever and nu future. Our ideal is a dynamic culture, having the desire of growth, renewal and fecundity. The scope of our generation's endeavours should not be clinging to a sterile and, in some respects, imaginary tradition, nor cultivating exclusively the autochtonous character... The type of culture we want to promote is EuropeanCulture of EuropeThe culture of Europe might better be described as a series of overlapping cultures. Whether it is a question of North as opposed to South; West as opposed to East; Orthodoxism as opposed to Protestantism as opposed to Catholicism as opposed to Secularism; many have claimed to identify cultural...
. Our light comes from the West.
The salvation lies in the WesternizationWesternizationWesternization or Westernisation , also occidentalization or occidentalisation , is a process whereby societies come under or adopt Western culture in such matters as industry, technology, law, politics, economics, lifestyle, diet, language, alphabet,...
of this country... If we are talking about national assertion, we see this as being active and productive: the expression of our cultural and spiritual character in specific European forms... As far as we are concerned, there is no antagonismAntagonismAntagonism is hostility that results in active resistance, opposition, or contentiousness.Additionally, it may refer to:*Antagonism , where the involvement of multiple agents reduces their overall effect...
and no incompatibility between europeanismEuropeanismAlthough this term is occasionally used to describe support for European integration , it is more commonly used in relation to the idea that Europeans have common norms and values that transcend national or state identity, that have been promoted most actively...
şi "romanianism". We have only the sacrilegious wish to harmonise romanianism with the heartbeat of contemporary life... We want this life to be liberated from balcanism, from asiatism, from archaism and from the rustic simplicity which limits existence to the path from the village church to the village tavern...
We have a better opinion about our own people than all the traditionalists and that is why want Romania to start making its entrance into Europe. Many nations, located between the Atlantic and our borders, have succeeded in being European without losing the specificity of their ethnic spirit. Why would we be the only ones who need a senseless and useless isolation?"
Eugen Filotti continued his journalistic activity till 1927. However, as time went by, he became increasingly disillusioned by the cultural life in Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
. The integration of Romanian culture into a more comprehensive European culture, which many of the young intellectuals of his generation had been attempting to promote, did not occur. Instead, currents of various nationalistic tendencies had proliferated and were increasingly active in opposing European integration. Some writers and artist had left for various western countries and many more were seriously considering this alternative. Gradually detaching himself from the Romanian internal cultural life, Eugen Filotti increasingly oriented his journalistic activity towards foreign policy, which had been his main concern in the early years of his career. At the Adevărul
Adevarul
Adevărul is a Romanian daily newspaper, based in Bucharest. Founded in 1871 and reestablished in 1888, it was the main left-wing press venue to be published during the Romanian Kingdom's existence, adopting an independent pro-democratic position, advocating land reform and universal suffrage...
newspaper, he was given the responsibility of writing the editorials on foreign affairs and of coordinating the related activities.
Press attaché
In 1927, Eugen Filotti decided to give up journalism and to pursue a diplomatic career. After being appointed press attaché in PraguePrague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
where he worked for over a year, in 1928 Eugen Filotti was transferred to the Romanian Mission to the League of Nations
League of Nations
The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...
in Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
. From 1928 to 1930 he works, next to other diplomats, among which Savel Rădulescu
Savel Radulescu
Savel Rădulescu was a Romanian diplomat. He started his career in 1921 and worked as secretary of Nicolae Titulescu at the League of Nations. For his diplomatic activity he was distinguished with the Order of Malta...
, as aid to Nicolae Titulescu
Nicolae Titulescu
Nicolae Titulescu was a well-known Romanian diplomat, at various times government minister, finance and foreign minister, and for two terms President of the General Assembly of the League of Nations . He was a member of the Freemasonry.-Early years:...
, permanent representative
Permanent Representative
A Permanent Representative is the head of a diplomatic mission to one of various international organisations. The best known of the organisations to which states send Permanent Representatives is the United Nations; of these, the most high-profile ones are those assigned to headquarters in New...
of Romania to the League of Nations.
In 1929 Eugen Filotti married Elisabeta Taşcă, daughter of professor Gheorghe Taşcă
Gheorghe Tasca
Gheorghe Taşcă was a Romanian economist and politician.He was the son of Gheorghe I...
, at that time rector
Rector
The word rector has a number of different meanings; it is widely used to refer to an academic, religious or political administrator...
of the Academy for High Commercial and Industrial Studies in Bucharest.
Director of the Press
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
's foreign policy, under the leadership of Nicolae Titulescu
Nicolae Titulescu
Nicolae Titulescu was a well-known Romanian diplomat, at various times government minister, finance and foreign minister, and for two terms President of the General Assembly of the League of Nations . He was a member of the Freemasonry.-Early years:...
, was pursuing a system of alliances, which would enable the smaller countries of the Balkan
Balkans
The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
region to oppose any aggression. At that time, the National Socialist Party
National Socialist German Workers Party
The National Socialist German Workers' Party , commonly known in English as the Nazi Party, was a political party in Germany between 1920 and 1945. Its predecessor, the German Workers' Party , existed from 1919 to 1920...
had not gained power in Germania
Germania
Germania was the Greek and Roman geographical term for the geographical regions inhabited by mainly by peoples considered to be Germani. It was most often used to refer especially to the east of the Rhine and north of the Danube...
, but, in Titulescu’s political vision, such alliances had to be created in advance, so as to have time to consolidate. Titulescu hoped to create a union of all Balkanic countries. As, due to its territorial claims, Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
did not adhere to such a proposal, there was still the possibility of developing an alliance of the other Balkan states: Romania, Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
, Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
and Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
. Romania was the diplomatic force pressing for an alliance. In his capacity of Director of the Press and Information, Eugen Filotti was in charge of informing the mass media
Mass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
and to develop a favorable public opinion
Public opinion
Public opinion is the aggregate of individual attitudes or beliefs held by the adult population. Public opinion can also be defined as the complex collection of opinions of many different people and the sum of all their views....
in all concerned countries. Finally, after several years of negotiations and various bilateral agreements, the Balkan Pact
Balkan Pact
The Balkan Pact was a treaty signed by Greece, Turkey, Romania and Yugoslavia on February 9, 1934 in Athens, aimed at maintaining the geopolitical status quo in the region following World War I...
was signed on 9 February 1934 in the great aula of the Academy of Athens
Academy of Athens (modern)
The Academy of Athens is Greece's national academy, and the highest research establishment in the country. It was established in 1926, and operates under the supervision of the Ministry of Education...
by Demetrios Maximos for Greece, Nicolae Titulescu for Romania, Tevfik Rüştü Aras
Tevfik Rüstü Aras
Tevfik Rüştü Aras was a Turkish politician, serving as deputy and foreign minister of Turkey during the Atatürk era .-Early years:...
for Turkey and Bogoljub Jevtić
Bogoljub Jevtic
Bogoljub Jevtić was a Serbian diplomat and politician in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.He was plenipotentiary minister of Yugoslavia in Albania, Austria and Hungary...
for Yugoslavia.
În his capacity of director of the press, Eugen Filotti had the responsibility of verifying the activity of foreign press correspondent
Correspondent
A correspondent or on-the-scene reporter is a journalist or commentator, or more general speaking, an agent who contributes reports to a newspaper, or radio or television news, or another type of company, from a remote, often distant, location. A foreign correspondent is stationed in a foreign...
s working in Romania. Besides many journalists, adhering to high professional standards
National Occupational Standards
National Occupational Standards specify UK standards of performance that people are expected to achieve in their work, and the knowledge and skills they need to perform effectively.-Definition:...
, there were some less honest persons who tried to squeeze in. The case of Julius Köver exemplifies the problems raised by incorrect reporting. Köver claimed to be an economic correspondent of the Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n daily Neue Freie Presse
Neue Freie Presse
Neue Freie Presse known locally as "Die Presse" was a Viennese newspaper founded by Adolf Werthner together with the journalists Max Friedländer and Michael Etienne on 1 September 1864...
, presenting the required credential
Credential
A credential is an attestation of qualification, competence, or authority issued to an individual by a third party with a relevant or de facto authority or assumed competence to do so....
s. In 1933 he also registered at the Direction of the Press in Bucharest as correspondent of the American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
United Press International
United Press International
United Press International is a once-major international news agency, whose newswires, photo, news film and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines and radio and television stations for most of the twentieth century...
. Köver also contributed to the newspapers “Pester Lloyd
Pester Lloyd
Pester Lloyd is a German language online daily newspaper from Budapest, Hungary with the focus "on Hungary and Eastern Europe".-History:...
” şi “Budapesti Hírlap
Budapesti Hírlap
The Budapesti Hírlap was a Hungarian daily newspaper, published in Budapest from 1881 to 1938. It had a conservative and nationalistic orientation.-References:* Kútfalvy Oszkár: Újságpaloták. Bp. Akadémiai Kiadó. 1991....
” published in Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
and the German language newspapers Prager Tagblatt
Prager Tagblatt
The Prager Tagblatt was a German language newspaper published in Prague from 1876 to 1939. It was considered to be the most influential liberal-democratic German newspaper in Bohemia. It stopped publication after the German invasion of Czechoslovakia...
and Die Wirtschaft published in Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
. Julius Köver’s activities started raising suspicions in February 1935, when United Press released the information that Prince Nicholas of Romania
Prince Nicholas of Romania
| style="float:right;"|Prince Nicholas of Romania was the second son of King Ferdinand I and Queen Marie of Romania.- Biography :Born in Peleş Castle, Sinaia, Nicholas was the younger brother of Carol, heir apparent, who renounced his rights of succession on 12 December 1925...
was expected to return to Romania, where the Iron Guard
Iron Guard
The Iron Guard is the name most commonly given to a far-right movement and political party in Romania in the period from 1927 into the early part of World War II. The Iron Guard was ultra-nationalist, fascist, anti-communist, and promoted the Orthodox Christian faith...
was preparing a revolt intending to depose King Carol II
Carol II of Romania
Carol II reigned as King of Romania from 8 June 1930 until 6 September 1940. Eldest son of Ferdinand, King of Romania, and his wife, Queen Marie, a daughter of Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, the second eldest son of Queen Victoria...
and to replace him with Nicholas. Another false news sent by Julius Köver to America claimed that Nicolae Titulescu
Nicolae Titulescu
Nicolae Titulescu was a well-known Romanian diplomat, at various times government minister, finance and foreign minister, and for two terms President of the General Assembly of the League of Nations . He was a member of the Freemasonry.-Early years:...
, the minister of Foreign Affairs, had signed an agreement in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, which granted the Soviet army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
the right of transit through Romania. Such information had not only the result of casting a negative image of the country but of also weakening Romania’s position within the Balkan Pact. Called by Eugen Filotti to the Direction of the Press for explanations, Julius Köver claimed that the news releases of the United Press Agency had been generated in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
and that he had nothing to do with them. Actually Köver had designed an ingenious system to transmit his fallacies
Fallacy
In logic and rhetoric, a fallacy is usually an incorrect argumentation in reasoning resulting in a misconception or presumption. By accident or design, fallacies may exploit emotional triggers in the listener or interlocutor , or take advantage of social relationships between people...
to various branch offices of the agency, from where they were retransmitted to the United States. He hoped that this stratagem would help him hide his identity from the Romanian authorities and, at the same time, would enable him claim that he used it to elude the censorship
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
existing in Romania. Eugen Filotti was able to point these malversations and, at last, Julius Köver was expelled from Romania.
Apart from his activities in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, after returning from his missions in Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
and in Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
, Eugen Filotti renewed his contacts with the Romanian cultural elite. This time his activity was mainly related to the Romanian chapter of the International PEN
International PEN
PEN International , the worldwide association of writers, was founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere....
locally called the “PEN Club”. On April 8, 1933 a new committee
Committee
A committee is a type of small deliberative assembly that is usually intended to remain subordinate to another, larger deliberative assembly—which when organized so that action on committee requires a vote by all its entitled members, is called the "Committee of the Whole"...
of the Romanian PEN Club was elected, including Victor Eftimiu
Victor Eftimiu
Victor Eftimiu was an Albanian-Romanian poet, playwright, and a contributor to Sburătorul, a Romanian literary magazine. His works have been performed in the State Jewish Theater of Romania....
(chairman), Ion Sân-Giorgiu
Ion Sân-Giorgiu
Ion Sân-Giorgiu was a Romanian modernist poet, dramatist, essayist, literary and art critic, also known as a journalist, academic, and fascist politician. He was notably the author of works on the Sturm und Drang phenomenon and the influence of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe...
(general secretary
General secretary
-International intergovernmental organizations:-International nongovernmental organizations:-Sports governing bodies:...
), Eugen Filotti (treasurer
Treasurer
A treasurer is the person responsible for running the treasury of an organization. The adjective for a treasurer is normally "tresorial". The adjective "treasurial" normally means pertaining to a treasury, rather than the treasurer.-Government:...
), Ion Marin Sadoveanu
Ion Marin Sadoveanu
Ion Marin Sadoveanu was a Romanian playwright.- Biography :...
, Lucian Blaga
Lucian Blaga
-Biography:Lucian Blaga was a commanding personality of the Romanian culture of the interbellum period. He was a philosopher and writer higly acclaimed for his originality, a university professor and a diplomat. He was born on May 9, 1895 in Lancrăm, near Alba Iulia, Romania, his father being an...
as well as a member of the Cluj
Cluj-Napoca
Cluj-Napoca , commonly known as Cluj, is the fourth most populous city in Romania and the seat of Cluj County in the northwestern part of the country. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest , Budapest and Belgrade...
subsidiary
Subsidiary
A subsidiary company, subsidiary, or daughter company is a company that is completely or partly owned and wholly controlled by another company that owns more than half of the subsidiary's stock. The subsidiary can be a company, corporation, or limited liability company. In some cases it is a...
. At that time, the cultural life in Romania was extremely agitated. The new committee was forced to confront the international tensions related to the Internaţional PEN Congress, planned in Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik is a Croatian city on the Adriatic Sea coast, positioned at the terminal end of the Isthmus of Dubrovnik. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations on the Adriatic, a seaport and the centre of Dubrovnik-Neretva county. Its total population is 42,641...
on May 23, 1933. Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
had been appointed Chancellor of Germany and the independence of the German PEN, who was also represented at the congress, was put in doubt by other member organizations. Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
was attempting to ensure international recognition of the legitimacy of the new regime, and was trying to obtain resolutions in its favor in various international organizations. Eugen Filotti’s diplomatic experience was an important element in defining the position of the Romanian delegation at the Dubrovnik congress. He was able to convince Victor Eftimiu
Victor Eftimiu
Victor Eftimiu was an Albanian-Romanian poet, playwright, and a contributor to Sburătorul, a Romanian literary magazine. His works have been performed in the State Jewish Theater of Romania....
to pass a resolution of the committee, expressing its reservations towards Germany.
In the following year, there were other conflicts which surfaced in the Romanian PEN, reflecting the political turmoil in Romania. On February 11, 1934 at the Extraordinary General Assembly of the Romanian PEN, Alexandru Busuioceanu
Alexandru Busuioceanu
Alexandru Busuioceanu was a Romanian essayist, poet, historian and diplomat.As a historian he wrote studies about Zamolxis, the god of the ancient Dacians...
, who was also Eugen Filotti’s deputy at the Direcţion of the Press and of Informations, brought to the attention of the attendants that "three members of the Romanian PEN, Nae Ionescu
Nae Ionescu
Nae Ionescu was a Romanian philosopher, logician, mathematician, professor, and journalist. Near the end of his career, he became known for his antisemitism and devotion to far right politics, in the years leading up to World War II.-Life:...
, Dragoş Protopopescu
Dragos Protopopescu
Dragoş Protopopescu was a Romanian writer, poet, critic and philosopher. He was professor at the University of Cernăuţi....
and Nichifor Crainic
Nichifor Crainic
Nichifor Crainic was a Romanian writer, editor, philosopher, poet and theologian famed for his traditionalist and antisemitic activities...
had been arrested, without a warrant
Warrant (law)
Most often, the term warrant refers to a specific type of authorization; a writ issued by a competent officer, usually a judge or magistrate, which permits an otherwise illegal act that would violate individual rights and affords the person executing the writ protection from damages if the act is...
because they had freely expressed their opinions" Busuioceanu, supported by Perpessicius
Perpessicius
Perpessicius was a Romanian literary historian and critic, poet, essayist and fiction writer. One of the prominent literary chroniclers of the Romanian interwar, he stood apart in his generation for having thrown his support behind the modernist and avant-garde currents of Romanian literature...
, demanded that the leadership of the Romanian PEN intervene for their release. The three writers, known for their sympathies for the Iron Guard
Iron Guard
The Iron Guard is the name most commonly given to a far-right movement and political party in Romania in the period from 1927 into the early part of World War II. The Iron Guard was ultra-nationalist, fascist, anti-communist, and promoted the Orthodox Christian faith...
, had been arrested as part of the crack down following the assassination of prime minister Ion G. Duca
Ion G. Duca
Ion Gheorghe Duca was prime minister of Romania from November 14 to December 30, 1933, when he was assassinated for his efforts to suppress the fascist Iron Guard movement.-Life and political career:...
. Victor Eftimiu
Victor Eftimiu
Victor Eftimiu was an Albanian-Romanian poet, playwright, and a contributor to Sburătorul, a Romanian literary magazine. His works have been performed in the State Jewish Theater of Romania....
, as president of the PEN indicated that he had requested information regarding how the three members of the PEN Club were treated during their arrest, but was opposed to any other actions of support by the PEN. The differences of opinion between the democratic oriented members and the right wingers sharpened. When new elections for a committee were called in 1934, two lists of candidates were submitted to the General Assembly. The first, presented by Victor Eftimiu
Victor Eftimiu
Victor Eftimiu was an Albanian-Romanian poet, playwright, and a contributor to Sburătorul, a Romanian literary magazine. His works have been performed in the State Jewish Theater of Romania....
, which also included Eugen Filotti as a candidate was politically independent, while a second list, presented by Ion Petrovici
Ion Petrovici
Ion Petrovici , Romanian philosopher, essayist, memorialist, writer, orator, and politician, professor at University of Iaşi, member of the Romanian Academy, former Ministry of National Education, a leading figure in Romanian culture, was one of those scholars, men of art, culture, and science,...
, included as candidates Ion Pillat
Ion Pillat
Ion Pillat grew up in Bucharest. He was a poet, best known for his volume Pe Argeş în sus and Poeme într-un vers...
, Tudor Vianu
Tudor Vianu
Tudor Vianu was a Romanian literary critic, art critic, poet, philosopher, academic, and translator. Known for his left-wing and anti-fascist convictions, he had a major role on the reception and development of Modernism in Romanian literature and art...
, Perpessicius
Perpessicius
Perpessicius was a Romanian literary historian and critic, poet, essayist and fiction writer. One of the prominent literary chroniclers of the Romanian interwar, he stood apart in his generation for having thrown his support behind the modernist and avant-garde currents of Romanian literature...
and Lucian Blaga
Lucian Blaga
-Biography:Lucian Blaga was a commanding personality of the Romanian culture of the interbellum period. He was a philosopher and writer higly acclaimed for his originality, a university professor and a diplomat. He was born on May 9, 1895 in Lancrăm, near Alba Iulia, Romania, his father being an...
was leaning towards the political right. Victor Eftimiu’s list received 72% of the votes while the list proposed by Ion Petrovici had only 28%. After this decision Nichifor Crainic
Nichifor Crainic
Nichifor Crainic was a Romanian writer, editor, philosopher, poet and theologian famed for his traditionalist and antisemitic activities...
resigned from the Romanian PEN. However the tensions, reflecting the contradictions of Romanian society in the 1930s remained.
Minister plenipotentiary to Turkey
În 1935 Eugen Filotti was appointed plenipotentiary minister to AnkaraAnkara
Ankara is the capital of Turkey and the country's second largest city after Istanbul. The city has a mean elevation of , and as of 2010 the metropolitan area in the entire Ankara Province had a population of 4.4 million....
. The position was important for the Nicolae Titulescu
Nicolae Titulescu
Nicolae Titulescu was a well-known Romanian diplomat, at various times government minister, finance and foreign minister, and for two terms President of the General Assembly of the League of Nations . He was a member of the Freemasonry.-Early years:...
’s foreign policy. The Balkan Pact
Balkan Pact
The Balkan Pact was a treaty signed by Greece, Turkey, Romania and Yugoslavia on February 9, 1934 in Athens, aimed at maintaining the geopolitical status quo in the region following World War I...
had been signed just a year before and Titulescu was aware that the framewor was still frail and that further steps were necessary in order to consolidate the alliance so that it could efficiently react in case of an attack on one of its members. Therefore, he tried to appoint diplomats who shared his views as ministers plenipotentiary in the signatory countries.
Titulescu’s dismissal coincided with the departure of two key personalities from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Mihail Arion
Mihail Arion
Mihail Arion was a Romanian diplomat. He started his career at the Romanian legation in Petrograd. After World War I he supported Nicolae Titulescu's policies. In 1934 he was appointed secretary general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was relieved of his duties on August 29, 1936, when...
and Savel Rădulescu
Savel Radulescu
Savel Rădulescu was a Romanian diplomat. He started his career in 1921 and worked as secretary of Nicolae Titulescu at the League of Nations. For his diplomatic activity he was distinguished with the Order of Malta...
. The former, who held the position of secretary general of the ministry resigned, in circumstances that are not clear, his resignation bein formally accepted on August 29, 1936. The latter, who had served as undersecretary
Undersecretary
An under secretary is an executive government official in many countries, frequently a career public servant, who typically acts as a senior administrator or second-in-command to a politically-appointed Cabinet Minister or other government official...
of the ministry, was not included in the new team, replaced by Victor Bădulescu
Victor Badulescu
Victor Bădulescu was a Romanian economist.Born in Găeşti, Bădulescu was undersecretary of the Ministry of Finance of Romania from February 7, 1935 to August 29, 1936, when he was appointed secretary general al the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.In 1945 he was elected corresponding member of the...
.
On August 28, 1936 King Carol II of Romania
Carol II of Romania
Carol II reigned as King of Romania from 8 June 1930 until 6 September 1940. Eldest son of Ferdinand, King of Romania, and his wife, Queen Marie, a daughter of Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, the second eldest son of Queen Victoria...
fired Niculae Titulescu and replaced him with Victor Antonescu
Victor Antonescu
Victor Antonescu was a Minister of Finance between 1935 and 1936 and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Romania from 29 August 1936 until 28 December 1937. In 1946, he was part of the Romanian delegation at the Paris Peace Conference....
. The decision was greeted with disbelief
Disbelief
Disbelief is a metal band from Hesse, Germany. Their music is rooted in death metal, but has melancholic tendencies.- Biography :...
. Both the Romanian and foreign new commentators expressed the opinion
Opinion
In general, an opinion is a subjective belief, and is the result of emotion or interpretation of facts. An opinion may be supported by an argument, although people may draw opposing opinions from the same set of facts. Opinions rarely change without new arguments being presented...
that Titulescu would soon reenter the Romanian politics. The French newspapers were unaninomous
Unanimity
Unanimity is agreement by all people in a given situation. When unanimous, everybody is of the same mind and acting together as one. Though unlike uniformity, it does not constitute absolute agreement. Many groups consider unanimous decisions a sign of agreement, solidarity, and unity...
. The "Le Temps
Le Temps (Paris)
Le Temps was one of Paris's most important daily newspapers from April 25, 1861 to November 30, 1942.Founded in 1861 by Edmund Chojecki and Auguste Nefftzer, Le Temps was under Nefftzer's direction for ten years, when Adrien Hébrard took his place...
" of August 31, 1936 indicated that "Mr. Titulescu is not the kind of man to accept such matters with resignation" while “L'Intransigeant
L'Intransigeant
L'Intransigeant was a French newspaper, founded in July 1880 by Henri Rochefort. Initially representing the left-wing opposition, it developed towards the right during the Boulangism affair and became a major right-wing newspaper by 1920s. The newspaper was vehemently anti-Dreyfusard, reflecting...
” stated that the Titulescu’s removal from the government din could only be temporary, opinion shared by the “Journal des débats
Journal des Débats
The Journal des débats was a French newspaper, published between 1789 and 1944 that changed title several times...
” and “Le Figaro
Le Figaro
Le Figaro is a French daily newspaper founded in 1826 and published in Paris. It is one of three French newspapers of record, with Le Monde and Libération, and is the oldest newspaper in France. It is also the second-largest national newspaper in France after Le Parisien and before Le Monde, but...
”. In the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, on September 1, 1936, “The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
” wrote that, “in any case, there are no reason
Reason
Reason is a term that refers to the capacity human beings have to make sense of things, to establish and verify facts, and to change or justify practices, institutions, and beliefs. It is closely associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, science, language, ...
s to assume that Titulescu’s disappearance from the political scene can be anything else than a passing eclipse. Men of this calibre and with his character do not leave the political arena for a long time". On September 2, 1936 “The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
” concurred that Titulescu would soon be active again in Romanian politics. The ministries of Foreign Affairs of France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
also expressed the same assumptions.
Many Romanian diplomats indicated their intention
Intention
Intention is an agent's specific purpose in performing an action or series of actions, the end or goal that is aimed at. Outcomes that are unanticipated or unforeseen are known as unintended consequences....
to resign in protest
Protest
A protest is an expression of objection, by words or by actions, to particular events, policies or situations. Protests can take many different forms, from individual statements to mass demonstrations...
. Romanian and foreign press
News media
The news media are those elements of the mass media that focus on delivering news to the general public or a target public.These include print media , broadcast news , and more recently the Internet .-Etymology:A medium is a carrier of something...
, reported the news and even newspapers which expressed doubts about the attitude of the diplomatic corps
Diplomatic corps
The diplomatic corps or corps diplomatique is the collective body of foreign diplomats accredited to a particular country or body.The diplomatic corps may, in certain contexts, refer to the collection of accredited heads of mission who represent their countries in another state or country...
emphasized the intention of the government to purge
Purge
In history, religion, and political science, a purge is the removal of people who are considered undesirable by those in power from a government, from another organization, or from society as a whole. Purges can be peaceful or violent; many will end with the imprisonment or exile of those purged,...
high ranking diplomatic personnel
Human resources
Human resources is a term used to describe the individuals who make up the workforce of an organization, although it is also applied in labor economics to, for example, business sectors or even whole nations...
especially the chiefs of mission
Head of Mission
In diplomatic usage, Head of Mission or Chief of Mission from the French "Chef de Mission Diplomatique" is the generic term used to refer to the head of a diplomatic representation, such as an Ambassador, High Commissioner, Nuncio, Chargé d'affaires, Permanent Representative, and sometimes to a...
known for their attachment to Titulescu. The government’s intention
Intention
Intention is an agent's specific purpose in performing an action or series of actions, the end or goal that is aimed at. Outcomes that are unanticipated or unforeseen are known as unintended consequences....
s were not a secret in Bucharest. Armand Călinescu
Armand Calinescu
Armand Călinescu was a Romanian economist and politician, who served as Prime Minister between March 1939 and the time of his death.-Early life:...
, a person who was politically well informed stated that "at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs there will be a significant reshuffle of the diplomatic corps". Despite the evidence, several representatives of the government denied such intentions and the diplomatic representatives abroad were urged to follow suit.
Despite denials, the new foreign minister, Victor Antonescu
Victor Antonescu
Victor Antonescu was a Minister of Finance between 1935 and 1936 and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Romania from 29 August 1936 until 28 December 1937. In 1946, he was part of the Romanian delegation at the Paris Peace Conference....
proceeded to a massive change in the staff of the Romanian foreign missions, recalling many of the plenipotentiary ministers. These changes, if not initiated, were at least approved by prime minister Gheorghe Tătărescu
Gheorghe Tatarescu
Gheorghe I. Tătărescu was a Romanian politician who served twice as Prime Minister of Romania , three times as Minister of Foreign Affairs , and once as Minister of War...
. Most of the heads of mission recalled were suspected of supporting the former minister of foreign affairs. The list of recalled ministers included: Nicolae Lahovary
Nicolae Lahovary
Nicolae Lahovary , 1887-1972, was a Romanian diplomat. He was minister plenipotentiary to Albania and to Switzerland from 1940-1944 before being replaced by Vespasian Pella. In his capacity of envoy to Switzerland he was active in contacts with the representatives of the allies for ensuring an...
(Albania
Albania
Albania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...
), Caius Brediceanu
Caius Brediceanu
Caius Brediceanu was a Romanian politician and diplomat.-Biography:Caius Brediceanu was born in Lugoj, being the second son of Coriolan Brediceanu. He started his studies in, continuing them in the German gymnasium in Sebeş, the German lyceum in Sibiu, and thereafter in Bucharest and Iaşi...
(Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
), Dimitrie I. Ghika
Dimitrie I. Ghika
Dimitrie I. Ghika or Ghica was a Romanian politician and diplomat. He was the son of Ioan Grigore Ghika former minister of National Defence and of Foreign Affairs....
(Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
), Vasile Stoica
Vasile Stoica
Vasile Stoica was a Romanian political writer, diplomat, and close assistant of European statesmen Tomáš Masaryk and Ion I.C. Brătianu.-Early life and education:...
(Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
), Theodor Emandi
Theodor Emandi
Theodor Emandi was a Romanian diplomat. He was son of Gheorghieş Emandi prefect of Brăila and Covurlui counties and of his second wife Catinca Tuduri...
(Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
), Raoul Bossy
Raoul Bossy
Raoul V. Bossy was a Romanian diplomat.Born in 1894 he pursued his university studies at the Sorbonne, in Paris, where he graduated as Licentiate in Law...
(Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
), Constantin Langa-Răşcanu
Constantin Langa-Rascanu
Constantin Langa-Răşcanu was a Romanian diplomat. He was the head of the Romanian delegation at the Vienna meeting with the delegation of the Soviet Union headed by N. N. Krestinsky....
(Greece), Vasile Grigorcea
Vasile Grigorcea
Vasile Grigorcea was a Romanian diplomat. His main assignments were minister plenipotentiary of Romania to Hungary, Poland and the Vatican.His assignment to Hungary was cut short on September 30, 1936 due to the reshuffling of the Romanian diplomatic corps after the dismissal of Nicolae...
(Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
), Grigore Constantinescu (Iran), Ion Aurel Vassiliu (Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
), Constantin Antoniade
Constantin Antoniade
Constantin Antoniade was a Romanian jurist, writer, historian, philosopher and diplomat.As a historian he was a concerned mainly with the Renaissance. He also translated works of John Ruskin and Thomas Carlyle into Romanian....
(League of Nations), Dimitrie Drăghicescu
Dimitrie Draghicescu
Dimitrie Drăghicescu was a Romanian politician, sociologist, diplomat and writer.Dimitrie Drăghicescu was born on May 4, 1875 in the village of Zăvoieni, Vâlcea County, Romania. After finishing grammar school in his native village, he attended Carol I High School in Craiova and thereafter the Law...
(Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
), Constantin Vişoianu
Constantin Visoianu
Constantin Vișoianu was a Romanian jurist, diplomat and politician....
(Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
), Mihail Boerescu (Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
), Eugen Filotti (Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
) and Alexandru Gurănescu
Alexandru Guranescu
Alexandru Gurănescu is a Romanian diplomat. He was minister plenipotentiary in Yugoslavia from 1934 to 1936 and in Austria from December 12, 1936 to its annexation by Germany on April 10, 1938.-References:* Portalul românilor din Austria...
(Yugoslavia). In order to emphasize the punitive character of the measure, their diplomatic passports were withdrawn and all their diplomatic privileges withdrawn the moment the orders for their return to Romania were issued. The reshuffling of the staff coincided with the return to political or diplomatic activities of known opponents of Titulescu, such as Anton Bibescu
Antoine Bibesco
Antoine, Prince Bibesco was a Romanian aristocrat, lawyer, diplomat and writer.- Biography :His father was Prince Alexandre Bibesco, the last surviving son of the Hospodar of Wallachia. His mother was Helene Epourano, daughter of a former Prime Minister of Romania...
and Victor Cădere
Victor Cadere
Victor Cădere was a Romanian jurist, politician and diplomat. Born in Cluj Victor Cădere (1891 – 1980) was a Romanian jurist, politician and diplomat. Born in Cluj Victor Cădere (1891 – 1980) was a Romanian jurist, politician and diplomat. Born in Cluj (at that time in Austria-Hungary he got a...
. The magnitude of these changes indicated the intention of the new minister to replace most of the senior staff of the ministry. However, the implementation to the desired extent proved impossible to implement and part of the recalled ministers were appointed to other legations or received other positions at the headquarters of the Ministry.
Minister plenipotenţiary to Greece
In the fall of 1936 Eugen Filotti was appointed minister plenipotenţiary to AthensAthens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
. Although Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
was a signatory of the Balkan Pact, the now position was in not linked to the strengthening of the alliance, which Eugen Filotti had pursued before. After Titulescu’s departure, the Romanian government was less interested in this alliance, whose role was seen just as a pact of friendship between the four signatories, without implying any consequent measures.Andrei Alexandru Căpuşan - Diplomaţi români de elită Vol. II - Ed. Ars Docendi, Bucureşti 2009, pp.155-161
Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
had other problems in Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
related to the Aromanian
Aromanians
Aromanians are a Latin people native throughout the southern Balkans, especially in northern Greece, Albania, the Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria, and as an emigrant community in Serbia and Romania . An older term is Macedo-Romanians...
minority (called Vlachs by the Greek). The Aromanians, which the government of Bucharest considered to be a Romanian population, were considered second class citizens in Greece and denied the right of having an education in their native language. However, taking into account the rapprochement
Rapprochement
In international relations, a rapprochement, which comes from the French word rapprocher , is a re-establishment of cordial relations, as between two countries...
policies of the two countries, the Greek government accepted the establishment of schools in which the education was to be in Romanian, on condition that such schools be financed by the Romanian government. The implementation of the agreement was not without difficulties.
Eugen Filotti made important efforts to strengthen the Romanian High School in Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki , historically also known as Thessalonica, Salonika or Salonica, is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the region of Central Macedonia as well as the capital of the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace...
and to extend the network of Romanian primary schools which had been established in the villages of Epirus
Epirus (periphery)
Epirus , formally the Epirus Region , is a geographical and administrative region in northwestern Greece. It borders the regions of West Macedonia and Thessaly to the east, West Greece to the south, the Ionian Sea and the Ionian Islands to the west and the country of Albania to the north. The...
, Thessaly
Thessaly
Thessaly is a traditional geographical region and an administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient region of the same name. Before the Greek Dark Ages, Thessaly was known as Aeolia, and appears thus in Homer's Odyssey....
, West
West Macedonia
West Macedonia is one of the thirteen regions of Greece, consisting of the western part of Greek Macedonia. It is divided into the regional units of Florina, Grevena, Kastoria, and Kozani.-Geography:...
and Central Macedonia
Central Macedonia
Central Macedonia is one of the thirteen regions of Greece, consisting of the central part of the region of Macedonia. With a population of over 1.8 million, it is the second most populous in Greece after Attica.- Administration :...
with high concentrations of Aromanian population. The best students of primary schools received scholarships to continue their education at the high school in Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki , historically also known as Thessalonica, Salonika or Salonica, is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the region of Central Macedonia as well as the capital of the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace...
, which followed the curriculum established by the Ministry of National Education of Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
. Eugen Filotti also took care of the quality of education provided, ensuring that good material conditions would encourage well qualified teachers from Romania to compete for positions in the Romanian schools in Greece.
Minister plenipotentiary to Bulgaria
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
to Sofia
Sofia
Sofia is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria and the 12th largest city in the European Union with a population of 1.27 million people. It is located in western Bulgaria, at the foot of Mount Vitosha and approximately at the centre of the Balkan Peninsula.Prehistoric settlements were excavated...
. The new assignment was different from his previous ones, as Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
was not a friendly country. Defeated in the Second Balkan War
Second Balkan War
The Second Balkan War was a conflict which broke out when Bulgaria, dissatisfied with its share of the spoils of the First Balkan War, attacked its former allies, Serbia and Greece, on 29 June 1913. Bulgaria had a prewar agreement about the division of region of Macedonia...
, Bulgaria had been forced, by the Peace Treaty of Bucharest to cede Southern Dobruja
Southern Dobruja
Southern Dobruja is an area of north-eastern Bulgaria comprising the administrative districts named for its two principal cities of Dobrich and Silistra...
(also known as the Cadrilater) to Romania, where the Romanian administration created the counties of Durostor
Durostor County
Durostor was a county of Romania, in Southern Dobruja, with the seat at Silistra .The county consisted of 4 districts : Accadânlar, Curtbunar, Silistra and Turtucaia...
and Caliacra
Caliacra County
Caliacra was a county of Romania in the intewar period, in Southern Dobruja, with the seat at Bazargic .The county consisted of 4 districts : Balcic, Casim, Ezibei , and Stejarul...
. Romanian statistics of 1930, show that the Bulgarian population in the Cadrilater was of 149,409 while the Romanians were 77,728. The Romanian population had increased significantly compared to 1910, when the Romanians in the area were only 6,359. This is due to the policy of colonization of the 1920s, when Romanians from Wallachia
Wallachia
Wallachia or Walachia is a historical and geographical region of Romania. It is situated north of the Danube and south of the Southern Carpathians...
as well as Aromanians
Aromanians
Aromanians are a Latin people native throughout the southern Balkans, especially in northern Greece, Albania, the Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria, and as an emigrant community in Serbia and Romania . An older term is Macedo-Romanians...
from Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
and other Balkan countries had been settled in the Cadrilater. If Romania had an important Bulgarian minority, concentrated mainly in Dobruja
Dobruja
Dobruja is a historical region shared by Bulgaria and Romania, located between the lower Danube river and the Black Sea, including the Danube Delta, Romanian coast and the northernmost part of the Bulgarian coast...
, there also was an important Romanian minority in Bulgaria. Many Romanians were living along the Bulgarian bank of the Danube. Besides there were also Aromanians, living mostly in the Bulgarian part of Macedonia
Macedonia (region)
Macedonia is a geographical and historical region of the Balkan peninsula in southeastern Europe. Its boundaries have changed considerably over time, but nowadays the region is considered to include parts of five Balkan countries: Greece, the Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria, Albania, Serbia, as...
.
The problems of minorities were an important to the bilateral Romano-Bulgarian diplomatic relations and it was inevitable that, in his new position, Eugen Filotti would be confronted with issues related the rights of the Romanian minority in Bulgaria. As he had done in Athens, Eugen Filotti concentrated his efforts on strengthening the Romanian education network in Bulgaria, which included primary schools in the villages with Romanian population along the Danube as well as a Romanian high school in Sofia
Sofia
Sofia is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria and the 12th largest city in the European Union with a population of 1.27 million people. It is located in western Bulgaria, at the foot of Mount Vitosha and approximately at the centre of the Balkan Peninsula.Prehistoric settlements were excavated...
. All these schools were financially supported by the Romanian government and followed the curriculum if the Ministry of National Education in Bucharest]. Although Bulgaria had territorial claims regarding not only the Cadrilater, but also the part of Macedonia
Macedonia (region)
Macedonia is a geographical and historical region of the Balkan peninsula in southeastern Europe. Its boundaries have changed considerably over time, but nowadays the region is considered to include parts of five Balkan countries: Greece, the Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria, Albania, Serbia, as...
which was located in Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
, the problem of rectifying the borders of Balkan countries was not yet on the agenda în 1938, when Eugen Filotti arrived in Sofia.
However, towards the end of 1939, the government in Sofia raised territorial claims and demanded that negotiations with Romania be started. The problem of Southern Dobruja differed from the one of other provinces which Romania had gained after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
as it had not been decided in the Peace Treaties of Trianon
Treaty of Trianon
The Treaty of Trianon was the peace agreement signed in 1920, at the end of World War I, between the Allies of World War I and Hungary . The treaty greatly redefined and reduced Hungary's borders. From its borders before World War I, it lost 72% of its territory, which was reduced from to...
, Saint-Germain-en- Laye sau Neuilly-sur-Seine. Therefore, such negotiations were not viewed as a revisionism of the peace treaties of 1919. Even in Romania, the issue of Southern Dobruja had been controversial. In 1913, King Carol I
Carol I of Romania
Carol I , born Prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen was reigning prince and then King of Romania from 1866 to 1914. He was elected prince of Romania on 20 April 1866 following the overthrow of Alexandru Ioan Cuza by a palace coup...
and many other politicians had disagreed with the territorial extension requested by Titu Maiorescu
Titu Maiorescu
Titu Liviu Maiorescu was a Romanian literary critic and politician, founder of the Junimea Society. As a literary critic, he was instrumental in the development of Romanian culture in the second half of the 19th century....
on a territory which did not have a Romanian population, arguing that this extension was contrary to the aspirations of creating a Romanian national state.
Unlike other situations regarding border disputes, for the Cadrilater problem no international conference was organized. It was mainly negotiated by a succession of diplomatic notes and discussions, in which a compromise acceptable to both parts was reached. As Romanian minister plenipotentiary to Sofia, Eugen Filotti was directly involved in these negotiations.
At the beginning, the positions of the two countries were totally contradictory. Romania wanted to change the ethnic status quo
Status quo
Statu quo, a commonly used form of the original Latin "statu quo" – literally "the state in which" – is a Latin term meaning the current or existing state of affairs. To maintain the status quo is to keep the things the way they presently are...
in the region and to preserve the territorial status-quo, while Bulgaria was aiming to achieve exactly the opposite.
The objectives of the negotiations was not only related to the transfer of sovereignty
Sovereignty
Sovereignty is the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a geographic area, such as a territory. It can be found in a power to rule and make law that rests on a political fact for which no purely legal explanation can be provided...
over the Cadrilater, but to establish a "final and perpetual" border between the two countries, which also involved an exchange of population. The Romanian diplomacy insisted on solving this problem at the same time. Romanian was facing similar problems in Transilvania, where the existence of an important Hungarian minority was claimed by Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
to justify a revision of the borders fixed by the Treaty of Trianon
Treaty of Trianon
The Treaty of Trianon was the peace agreement signed in 1920, at the end of World War I, between the Allies of World War I and Hungary . The treaty greatly redefined and reduced Hungary's borders. From its borders before World War I, it lost 72% of its territory, which was reduced from to...
. Romania was afraid that the existence of a Bulgarian minority in Northern Dobruja could be used by Bulgaria for further territorial concessions. Besides, as most of the Romanian population in the Cadrilater, had been colonized after its annexation
Annexation
Annexation is the de jure incorporation of some territory into another geo-political entity . Usually, it is implied that the territory and population being annexed is the smaller, more peripheral, and weaker of the two merging entities, barring physical size...
, the Romanian government felt it had a moral obligation to defend the interests of these colonists.
At the beginning of the negotiations, the Romanian diplomats insisted on the mandatory emigration
Emigration
Emigration is the act of leaving one's country or region to settle in another. It is the same as immigration but from the perspective of the country of origin. Human movement before the establishment of political boundaries or within one state is termed migration. There are many reasons why people...
of all Bulgarians residing in Northern Dobruja (the counties of Constanţa
Constanta County
Constanța is the name of a county in the Dobruja region of Romania. Its capital city is also named Constanța.-Demographics:In 2002, it had a population of 715,151 and the population density was 101/km². The degree of urbanization is much higher than the Romanian average. In recent years the...
and Tulcea
Tulcea County
Tulcea is a county of Romania, in the historical region Dobruja, with the capital city at Tulcea.-Demographics:In 2002, Tulcea County had a population of 256,492...
) while the Romanians of Southern Dobruja would have the freedom of choosing to emigrate to Romania or to stay. As this was rejected by Bulgaria, later in the negotiations the Romanians suggested that all Bulgarians residing in Romania be obliged to emigrate and a similar emigration would be mandatory for the Romanians of Southern Dobruja, but not for those residing in other parts of Bulgaria. Partially in order not to derail the negotiations and partially giving in to Germany's pressures, Bulgaria agreed to negotiate an exchange of population. The Bulgarians first suggested that emigration should not be a mandatory requirement. When the Romanians insisted on this issue, the Bulgarians rejected the proposal of the emigration of all Bulgarians residing in Romania versus the emigration of all Romanians residing in Southern Dobruja as not being equivalent. Therefore the Bulgarians suggested a combination of mandatory and voluntary emigration. The final agreement, reached by the Treaty of Craiova
Treaty of Craiova
The Treaty of Craiova was signed on 7 September 1940 between the Kingdom of Bulgaria and the Kingdom of Romania. Under the terms of this treaty, Romania returned the southern part of Dobruja to Bulgaria and agreed to participate in organizing a population exchange...
stipulated:
- a mandatory exchange of population for the Bulgarian population of Northern Dobruja (counties of ConstanţaConstanta CountyConstanța is the name of a county in the Dobruja region of Romania. Its capital city is also named Constanța.-Demographics:In 2002, it had a population of 715,151 and the population density was 101/km². The degree of urbanization is much higher than the Romanian average. In recent years the...
and TulceaTulcea CountyTulcea is a county of Romania, in the historical region Dobruja, with the capital city at Tulcea.-Demographics:In 2002, Tulcea County had a population of 256,492...
) and the Romanian population of Southern Dobruja ((the counties of DurostorDurostor CountyDurostor was a county of Romania, in Southern Dobruja, with the seat at Silistra .The county consisted of 4 districts : Accadânlar, Curtbunar, Silistra and Turtucaia...
and CaliacraCaliacra CountyCaliacra was a county of Romania in the intewar period, in Southern Dobruja, with the seat at Bazargic .The county consisted of 4 districts : Balcic, Casim, Ezibei , and Stejarul...
); this phase was to be completed within three months after the exchange of the ratification documents;
- an optional emigration of ethnic Bulgarians residing in other parts of Romania and of ethnic Romanians residing in other parts of Bulgaria, to be completed within one year after the exchange of the ratification documents;
- the right of each government to decree the mandatory emigration of the Romanian or Bulgarian nationals if the number of persons having opted for voluntary emigration was not equivalent.
Besides, various technical problems related to the population transfer had to be settled. After lengthy discussions the two parties involved agreed that the ownership of buildings located in rural areas which belonged to emigrants would be taken over by the state from which they emigrated. While an agreement on the mandatory emigration could be reached, a contradiction between the interest of the two parties prevented a consensus on the optional emigration. The Bulgarian government wanted to encourage all Bulgarians living in other parts of Romania, outside of Dobrogea, to be resettled in Bulgaria. The Romanian government preferred not to dismantle the compact vlach communities of north-western Bulgaria and therefore did not agree on a mandatory parity of the population moved from one country to the other. Each of the two parties agreed to compensate the immigrants for the losses they incurred. However it was agreed that properties located in urban areas remained the property of the emigrants and also that the emigrants would maintain ownership of all mobile assets (including live-stock). The Treaty of Craiova
Treaty of Craiova
The Treaty of Craiova was signed on 7 September 1940 between the Kingdom of Bulgaria and the Kingdom of Romania. Under the terms of this treaty, Romania returned the southern part of Dobruja to Bulgaria and agreed to participate in organizing a population exchange...
created a joint Bulgaro-Romanian commission having the mission of overseeing the exchange of population and of settling individual claims or disputes.
The Romanian part also unsuccessfully attempted to maintain control over the Caliacra-Balcic area along the Black Sea
Black Sea
The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...
coast, which the late Queen Mary
Marie of Edinburgh
Marie of Romania was Queen consort of Romania from 1914 to 1927, as the wife of Ferdinand I of Romania.-Early life:...
of Romania had liked and where here heart was buried. Even as late as August 9, 1940, king Carol II of Romania
Carol II of Romania
Carol II reigned as King of Romania from 8 June 1930 until 6 September 1940. Eldest son of Ferdinand, King of Romania, and his wife, Queen Marie, a daughter of Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, the second eldest son of Queen Victoria...
was sending instructions to Eugen Filotti, urging him to insist on the matter. However the Bulgarians were intransigent on the matter, demanding the transfer of the entire Cadrilater. Therefore, after the signature of the treaty, Queen Mary's was reinhumed at the Bran Castle
Bran Castle
Bran Castle , situated near Bran and in the immediate vicinity of Braşov, is a national monument and landmark in Romania. The fortress is situated on the border between Transylvania and Wallachia, on DN73...
.
Contrary to the assessment of some Bulgarian historians the Romanian position was not weakened by Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
but rather by the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. After having occupied Bessarabia
Bessarabia
Bessarabia is a historical term for the geographic region in Eastern Europe bounded by the Dniester River on the east and the Prut River on the west....
in June 1940, the USSR considered Bulgaria a more friendly country than Romania and considered that it would be in its interest to have a common border with Bulgaria. Therefore, the soviet diplomacy was encouraging the Bulgarians not to be satisfied with the Cadrilater, but to demand the transfer of its sovereignty over the entire Dobruja
Dobruja
Dobruja is a historical region shared by Bulgaria and Romania, located between the lower Danube river and the Black Sea, including the Danube Delta, Romanian coast and the northernmost part of the Bulgarian coast...
. Besides creating a common border between the Soviet Union and Bulgaria, this also presented the potential advantage for the Soviet Union of gaining control over the Danube Delta
Danube Delta
The Danube Delta is the second largest river delta in Europe, after the Volga Delta, and is the best preserved on the continent. The greater part of the Danube Delta lies in Romania , while its northern part, on the left bank of the Chilia arm, is situated in Ukraine . The approximate surface is...
. As the Delta was not part of the Dobruja, it would not have been occupied by Bulgaria, but the possibility of Romania maintaining sovereignty over a territory to which it could have access only through a reach of the Danube bordered by unfriendly nations, was doubtful. During an audience, king Boris III of Bulgaria
Boris III of Bulgaria
Boris III the Unifier, Tsar of Bulgaria , originally Boris Klemens Robert Maria Pius Ludwig Stanislaus Xaver , son of Ferdinand I, came to the throne in 1918 upon the abdication of his father, following the defeat of the Kingdom of Bulgaria during World War I...
informed Eugen Filotti about the soviet intentions. This induced the Romanians to accelerate the negotiations and to reach an agreement before the Soviet Union would intervene in a more aggressive way.
On September 4, 1940, the Treaty of Craiova
Treaty of Craiova
The Treaty of Craiova was signed on 7 September 1940 between the Kingdom of Bulgaria and the Kingdom of Romania. Under the terms of this treaty, Romania returned the southern part of Dobruja to Bulgaria and agreed to participate in organizing a population exchange...
, finalizing over a year long negotiations. In accordance with the provisions of the treaty, the mandatory population exchange was completed in two phases. The main exchange took place in November–December 1940; during this phase 61,500 Bulgarians from Northern Dobruja and 83,928 Romanians from the Cadrilater moved. The second phase, which was implemented in accordance with an additional agreement, necessitated the move of another 3,600 Bulgarians and 4,700 Romanians from other parts of the two countries, outside the Dobruja. Thus, the total number of emigrants was of about 65,000 Bulgarians, who resettled in mostly in the Cadrilater and of about 88,000 Romanians who resettled in Northern Dobruja. However, Eugen Filotti was not concerned any more with these aftermaths of the Treaty of Craiova. After having concluded his lead role in the negotiations with Bulgaria, Eugen Filotti was recalled to Bucharest. He was assigned a new mission which was to be even more challenging.
Minister plenipotentiary to Hungary
On August 30, 1940, a week before the signature of the Treaty of Craiova, Romania had been obliged by the Second Vienna AwardSecond Vienna Award
The Second Vienna Award was the second of two Vienna Awards arbitrated by the Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Rendered on August 30, 1940, it re-assigned the territory of Northern Transylvania from Romania to Hungary.-Prelude and historical background :After the World War I, the multi-ethnic...
to cede Northern Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
to Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
. Following diplomatic rules, after such important changes, diplomatic envoys in the two countries were usually replaced. Eugen Filotti was appointed the new Romanian minister plenipotentiary to Budapest.
The problems of the Romanian population on the territory of Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
, which included Northern Transylvania were totally different from the ones of the Romanian minorities in Greece or Bulgaria, which had been Eugen Filotti's concern in his previous assignments. Immediately after the Vienna Award, the Hungarian authorities had take violent actions against the Romanian population. Even before Eugen Filotti's arrival in Budapest, the Government of Romania had forwarded complaints to Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
and to Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, following which the Roggieri-Altenburg Commission was created to investigate the accusations brought either by Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
or by Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
and to recommend corrective actions. Starting 1941, two subcommissions were set up, the first one in Braşov
Brasov
Brașov is a city in Romania and the capital of Brașov County.According to the last Romanian census, from 2002, there were 284,596 people living within the city of Brașov, making it the 8th most populated city in Romania....
and the second in Cluj
Cluj
Cluj may refer to*Cluj-Napoca, county seat of Cluj County, named Cluj until 1974*Cluj County, Romania*Cluj-Napoca International Airport*U Cluj, a Romanian sports club*U Cluj, a Romanian football club*CFR Cluj, a Romanian football club...
. The subcommissions were however taking action only in the case of complaints which had to present specific cases of oppressive measures. Therefore the Romanian authorities were compelled to obtain not only general statements about such events, but detailed information, as precise as possible, regarding the alleged abuses of the Hungarians, in order to present their case to the commission as well fundamented as possible.
An important task of the Romanian legation in Budapest, as well as of the subordinated consulates in Cluj
Cluj
Cluj may refer to*Cluj-Napoca, county seat of Cluj County, named Cluj until 1974*Cluj County, Romania*Cluj-Napoca International Airport*U Cluj, a Romanian sports club*U Cluj, a Romanian football club*CFR Cluj, a Romanian football club...
and Oradea
Oradea
Oradea is the capital city of Bihor County, in the Crișana region of north-western Romania. The city has a population of 204,477, according to the 2009 estimates. The wider Oradea metropolitan area has a total population of 245,832.-Geography:...
was to obtain such information. As the inhabitants of the localities where abuses had taken place were prevented to go to the legation or to one of the consulates and the staff of the diplomatic units did not know where to go to find out what was really going on, this task was extremely difficult. Eugen Filotti was able to set up a system by which the required information could be collected so that he could transmit it to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bucharest who, in turn, would forward the required documentation to the arbitration commission. With the help of Nicolae Colan, bishop of the orthodox diocese of Vad, Feleac and Cluj and of Juliu Hossu, bishop of the Greek Catholic Diocese of Cluj-Gherla
Greek Catholic Diocese of Cluj-Gherla
The Greek Catholic Diocese of Cluj-Gherla is a diocese of the Byzantine Rite of the Romanian Greek Catholic Church. It is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Făgăraş şi Alba Iulia.-Ordinaries:*Johann Alexi †...
who, during the war, was seated in Oradea, priests from villages in which Romanians constituted a majority were informing their bishops about the situation in their parrishes. The dioceses would then forward the pertinent information to Eugen Filotti, at the legation in Budapest, from where it was sent through diplomatic channels to Bucharest. Another active factor in this set-up was Nicolae Bălan, metropolite of Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
, whom Eugen Filotti met in Sibiu
Sibiu
Sibiu is a city in Transylvania, Romania with a population of 154,548. Located some 282 km north-west of Bucharest, the city straddles the Cibin River, a tributary of the river Olt...
each time he returned to Romania, in order to coordinate the actions taken on religious and diplomatic channels.
Inevitably, the Hungarian authorities became aware of these activities. If they helped provide information to the Romanians, they also induced repressive actions against the Romanian clergy.
Except being subjected to repressive actions in their villages, there were frequent cases in which Romanians from Northern Transylvania were displaced for forced labour to Hungary, mostly for the maintenance of roads. They were however allowed to write letters to their relatives at home, informing them about where they were working. These informations were relayed to the Romanian legation in Budapest, and, in his capacity of plenipotentiary minister, Eugen Filotti visited these places to gain first hand information on how the Romanians were treated. There were several cases when the Hungarian guards treated Eugen Filotti offensively, disregarding his diplomatic status. Abuses committed on the territory of Hungary were beyond the authority of the Roggeri-Altenburg Commission. Therefore, on these matters Eugen Filotti forwarded protest notes directly to the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Budapest.
The Romanian educational system had been completely dismanteled by the Hungarian authorities in Northern Transylvania. The entire Romanian population was compelled to complete the curriculum in Hungarian language. Romanian school books could neither be printed in Northern Transylvania nor be imported from Romania. Again, the Romanian church was the only organization which, through the clergy, could provide education in Romanian during Sunday religious courses. The Greek-Catholic diocese had its own printing presses in Oradea and could therefore edit a significant number of books in Romanian, covering various religious subjects. Eugen Filotti had frequent contacts with the church authorities in order to assess the needs as well as the ways of supporting these activities from Romania.
Starting 1943, the persecution of Jews in Hungary became harsher and after March 19, 1944, when the German army occupied Hungary and general Sztójaj Döme was installed as head of the new Hungarian government, these persecutions were further intensified. Under the Sztójaj government massive deportations of Jews towards Ausschwitz and other extermination camps took place. The position of the Romanian government was the Jews in occupied Northern Transylvania were Romanian citizens and therefore were entitled to the protection of the Romanian authorities. As head of the Romanian diplomatic mission in Hungary, Eugen Filotti ordered that Romanian passports and other travel documents be issued to Jews of Northern Transylvania. This action was implemented with the help of the Romanian consuls Constantin Ţincu at the Budapest consulate and Mihai Marina at the Oradea consulate. The Oradea consulate also helped by illegally transporting Jews from Northern Transylvania to Romania in the consulate's automobiles. Based on information obtained from Dr. Kupfet Miksa, one of the leaders of the Jewish community in Oradea as well as on his own findings, consul Mihai Marina wrote a report documenting the deportation of Jews to German extermination camps forwarding it to Eugen Filotti. After reviewing it, Eugen Filotti chose to short circuit the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bucharest, and, in order to make sure that it became known to the international community, send it directly to Vespasian Pella, the Romanian minister plenipotentiary in Bern, who presented it to the International Committee of the Red Cross
International Committee of the Red Cross
The International Committee of the Red Cross is a private humanitarian institution based in Geneva, Switzerland. States parties to the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocols of 1977 and 2005, have given the ICRC a mandate to protect the victims of international and...
in Geneva.
In July 1944, Eugen Filotti came to Bucharest, in order to present to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs information regarding Northern Transylvania, necessary to prepare the Romanian claims at a future peace conference. At the same time, Eugen Filotti got actively involved with the diplomats who were preparing the coup which would take Romania out of the alliance with Germany, and make the country switch sides to join the Allies.
Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Immediately after RomaniaRomania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
switched sided on August 23, 1944 and joined the Allies
Allies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
, Eugen Filotti was appointed secretary general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, under foreign minister Grigore Niculescu-Buzeşti
Grigore Niculescu-Buzeşti
Grigore Niculescu-Buzeşti was a Romanian politician who served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Romania....
in the government headed by general Constantin Sănătescu
Constantin Sanatescu
Constantin Sănătescu was a Romanian statesman who served as the first Prime Minister of Romania after the August 23, 1944 coup, through which Romania left the Axis Powers and joined the Allies....
. He kept the same position, under foreign minister Constantin Vişoianu
Constantin Visoianu
Constantin Vișoianu was a Romanian jurist, diplomat and politician....
in the following government, headed by general Nicolae Rădescu
Nicolae Radescu
Nicolae Rădescu was a Romanian army officer and political figure. He was the last pre-communist rule Prime Minister of Romania, serving from December 7, 1944 to March 1, 1945....
.
His first efforts in his new position was to inform all Romanian diplomatic missions abroad about the changes following King Michael's Coup
King Michael's Coup
King Michael's Coup refers to the coup d'etat led by King Michael of Romania in 1944 against the pro-Nazi Romanian faction of Ion Antonescu, after the Axis front in Northeastern Romania collapsed under the Soviet offensive.-The coup:...
and to send the corresponding instructions on actions to be taken by these missions. Also, as soon as the military situation in Bucharest was brought under control, he took steps to bring the staff of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to Bucharest and to ensure its return to normal activity. Due to the allied bombing raids, the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs had been evacuated to Băile Herculane
Baile Herculane
Băile Herculane is a town in Romanian Banat, in Caraş-Severin County, situated in the valley of the Cerna River, between the Mehedinţi Mountains to the east and the Cerna Mountains to the west, elevation 168 meters. Its current population is approximately 6,000...
. In September 1944, moving the ministry back to Bucharest implied difficulties, as the German artillery on the Yougoslav bank of the Danube
Danube
The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....
prevented the use of the main road along this river. At the same time the German and Hungarian army had occupied the city of Arad
Arad, Romania
Arad is the capital city of Arad County, in western Romania, in the Crişana region, on the river Mureş.An important industrial center and transportation hub, Arad is also the seat of a Romanian Orthodox archbishop and features two universities, a Romanian Orthodox theological seminary, a training...
and were advancing upstream the Mureş Valley
Mures River
The Mureș is an approximately 761 km long river in Eastern Europe. It originates in the Hășmașu Mare Range in the Eastern Carpathian Mountains, Romania, and joins the Tisza river at Szeged in southeastern Hungary....
, making the alternative route very risky.
Finally, according to prevailing diplomatic conventions, an exchange of diplomats which were posted at the diplomatic missions in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
and Bratislava
Bratislava
Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia and, with a population of about 431,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two independent countries.Bratislava...
, capitals of countries still under German control, had to be organized. The negotiations were carried out with the help of the diplomatic missions of neutral countries: Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
and Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
. Though an agreement of the involved governments was reached, the exchange of diplomats did not take place, because the Hungarian and Slovak diplomats in Bucharest, refused to return to their countries. As a result, the Romanian diplomats were kept in captivity in Germany until the end of the war.