Valerian Trifa

Valerian Trifa
Trifa (third from left), with Horia Sima, Traian Brăileanu, and Valeriu Neagoe at a student celebration during the National Legionary State, Bucharest, 10 December 1940.
Born	Viorel Trifa (1914-06-14)June 14, 1914 Câmpeni, Austria-Hungary
Died	January 28, 1987(1987-01-28) (aged 72) Cascais, Portugal
Citizenship	Romania (until 1947?); United States (1957–1980)

Valerian Trifa (Romanian pronunciation: [valeriˈan ˈtrifa]; secular name Viorel Donise Trifa^[1] Romanian pronunciation: [vi.oˈrel ˈtrifa]; June 28, 1914 – January 28, 1987) was a Romanian Orthodox cleric and fascist political activist who served as archbishop of the Romanian Orthodox Episcopate Of America. For part of his life, he was a naturalized citizen of the United States, until he was stripped of his American citizenship for lying about his involvement in the murder of hundreds of Jews during the Holocaust and World War II.

A prominent affiliate of the Iron Guard, a Romanian fascist organization also known as the Legionary Movement, Trifa played a part in provoking the Legionnaires' Rebellion of 1941. His antisemitic discourse was suspected of helping instigate the parallel pogrom against the Jewish community in Bucharest. After being singled out as a rebel by Ion Antonescu, Romania's Conducător and a competitor of the Iron Guard, he spent the final years of World War II in Nazi Germany, as a detainee with privileged status. Trifa subsequently made his way into the United States, where he came to lead the Romanian-American Orthodox community into opposition with the main Orthodox Church in Communist Romania.

Beginning in 1975, his wartime activities came to the attention of the United States Department of Justice, and the subsequent inquiry made Trifa relinquish his American citizenship in 1980. He moved to Portugal in 1982, was ordered to be expelled in 1984, and was still there – fighting his expulsion in the courts – when he died in 1987.

The scandal's ramifications came to involve several institutions, including the National Council of Churches, Radio Free Europe, West German law enforcement, and the Israeli and Portuguese governments, while allegations surfaced that Romania's secret police, the Securitate, was using the controversy to advance its own goals.