BUCHAREST, Romania – The U.S. Embassy has criticized Romania's central bank for releasing a coin bearing the image of a former bank governor who it said actively promoted anti-Semitism.
The embassy called the bank's decision to honor former National Bank of Romania Governor Mihail Manoilescu "disappointing." In a statement Friday, it said he was "an active promoter of and contributor to fascist ideology and anti-Semitic sentiment."
Manoilescu was foreign minister in 1940 when Romania was allied with Nazi Germany. A supporter of the fascist Iron Guard, he signed a diktat under which Romania lost large swaths of territory to Hungary.
The bank minted three coins in mid-April to honor three former banks governors. There was no immediate reaction to the criticism.
Manoilescu died in a Communist prison in 1950.
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