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<i>Purifying the Nation: Population Exchange and Ethnic Cleansing in Nazi-Allied Romania</i>

Woodrow Wilson Center Press has published a new book, Purifying the Nation: Population Exchange and Ethnic Cleansing in Nazi-Allied Romania, by Vladimir Solonari. It is copublished with The Johns Hopkins University Press.

Purifying the Nation is a provocative new exploration of the Holocaust in World War II Romania. Challenging nationalist claims, Vladimir Solonari argues that the persecution of Jews and Roma by the Romanian government was not a response to pressure from the country's ally, Nazi Germany, but rather stemmed from the vision of an ethnically pure Romania which was traditional to Romanian nationalism. Through a rigorous, archive-based analysis of the country's interwar political and intellectual climate, as well as policies and practices during Romania's alliance with the Nazis, Solonari sheds valuable new light on the genocidal activities of one of Hitler's European satellites.

"Purifying the Nation is an exceptionally significant contribution to one of the least explored and most tragic chapters of the 20th century." –Vladimir Tismaneanu, University of Maryland, College Park

"This book is genuinely monumental…the most historically sensitive and conceptually savvy account of the Holocaust in Romania yet to be produced." –Charles King, Georgetown University

"This is a major study that will influence how all of us think about the Holocaust in Eastern Europe."
–Norman Naimark, Stanford University

"Purifying the Nation is a book that any scholar would be proud to have written, and I expect it to have a serious impact both in Holocaust studies and in the history of modern East Central Europe."–John-Paul Himka, University of Alberta

Vladimir Solonari is an associate professor of history at the University of Central Florida. He was a public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center in 2001.

To reach Vladimir Solonari for an interview, call 407-823-6617 or send e-mail to:
vsolonar@mail.ucf.edu. Media may also contact Sharon McCarter, Vice President of Outreach and Communications at sharon.mccarter@wilsoncenter.org or 202-691-4016.

Purifying the Nation: Population Exchange and Ethnic Cleansing in Nazi-Allied Romania is distributed by The Johns Hopkins University Press, accessible online at www.press.jhu.edu or by telephone at 1-800-537-5487. The list price is $65 for hardcover.

Woodrow Wilson Center Press publishes books by fellows, resident scholars, and staff written in substantial part at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Titles range from popular accounts of historical topics to fundamental reviews of scholarly fields to authoritative background on important policy issues. For more information about the Press, or to search its backlist of titles, please visit www.wilsoncenter.org/press.

The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars is the living national memorial to President Wilson established by Congress in 1968 and headquartered in Washington, D.C. The Center establishes and maintains a neutral forum for free, open, and informed dialogue. It is a nonpartisan institution, supported by public and private funds and engaged in the study of national and world affairs.