Hohenzollern Elena

Elena, Queen Mother of Romania Princess Elena of Greece and Denmark was born in Athens. She was the daughter of the future King Constantine I of Greece. In 1921 Elena married Romania's crown prince, who later became King Carol II. The couple had a child, Mihai (Michael), and divorced in 1928, before Carol's accession to the throne. On September 6, 1940, King Carol II was forced to resign because of his political failures. General Ion Antonescu took control of the country in an alliance with the Iron Guard. Mihai, Carol II’s 20-year-old son, was crowned, and his mother, Elena, who had been away from Romania, returned to Bucharest as the Queen Mother. Antonescu's opponents – the heads of the historical parties, the Liberal Party and the Peasant Party – maintained contacts with the royal court, as did other political and social organizations. In the summer of 1941, when the Jews of Besserabia, Bukovina and Dorohoi were de[prted to Transnistria, Rabbi Dr. Alexander Safran, the chief rabbi of Romanian Jewry, appealed to the head of the Orthodox Church, the Patriarch Nicodem. Unable to persuade Antonescu, Nicodem went to the Queen Mother, who was very moved upon hearing about the plight of the deported Jews. After turning to various influential people, the Queen Mother and the Patriarch appealed directly to Antonescu. The deportations continued, but due to the intervention of the Queen Mother, the deportation of the philologist Barbu Lazareanu was prevented. At the end of 1941, when news arrived of the desperate state of the Jews expelled to Transnistria, Rabbi Safran again appealed to the Queen Mother for help. She consulted with Monsignor Andrea Cassulo, the Pope’s emissary, and taking his advice, she turned to the acting prime minister, Mihai Antonescu. She persuaded him to allow the Jewish organizations to send medical aid, clothing and food to the Jews in Transnistria, who were living in ghettos and camps. The plight of the Jews was of such concern to the Queen Mother that she sent her aide, after midnight on a stormy night, to inform the chief rabbi that she had obtained approval to send them help. The help sent in 1942 saved the lives of thousands of Jews who had been deported to Transnistria. The Queen Mother continued with her efforts to prevent the deportation of Jews from the Regat (the Old Kingdom). On 30 October 1942, Gustav Richter, of Eichmann's staff, who served as expert for Jewish Affairs in Bucharest, wrote that "The Queen Mother told the King that what was happening to the people in this country was awful, that she can no longer stand this, all the more so that her name and the King's will be connected with the murders of the Jews and so she can expect to remain in history as the mother of "Michael the Terrible". She threatened the king in earnest that unless deportations stop immediately, she would leave the country....". In 1943 and early 1944, the Queen Mother contributed to the decision to allow the return from Transnistria of thousands of deported Jews, including thousands of Jewish orphans. Despite a six-month delay, caused by Adolph Eichmann’s intervention, the orphans were returned thanks to Queen Elena’s determined efforts. On March 11, 1993, Yad Vashem recognized Queen Mother Elena as Righteous Among the Nations.