Wilhelm Filderman

Wilhelm Filderman (last name also spelled Fieldermann; 14 November 1882 – 1963) was a lawyer and the leader of the Romanian-Jewish community between 1919 and 1947; in addition, he was a representative of the Jews in the Romanian parliament.

Early life Filderman was born in Bucharest, the capital of Romania, in 1882. He became a Doctor of Law in Paris, France, in 1909. In addition, Filderman did whatever he could to save the lives of the Jews of Bessarabia and Bukovina, though unfortunately, unlike his other efforts, these efforts of Filderman's were largely unsuccessful. In 1943, Filderman publicly stated his opposition to the additional taxation of the Romanian Jews, and was subsequently deported by Antonescu to Transnistria, being released after three months due to the intervention of the Papal nuncio and the Swiss and Swedish ambassadors.

Later life After the Soviet Army conquered Romania in 1944, Filderman led the struggle to reclaim Jewish property and again became the president of the Federation of Communities and of the Union of Romanian Jews and representative of the JDC. Filderman succeeded in preventing Jewish youth from being conscripted into the notoriously anti-Semitic Romanian Army. During this time, Filderman came into conflict with the Jewish Communists due to his refusal to support the Romanian Communist Party or to join the affiliated Jewish Democratic Committee; as a result of the instigation of these Communists, Filderman was arrested in 1945 and only released after a five-day hunger strike. Afterwards, Filderman spent three weeks under house arrest, and in addition, he became increasingly vilified and intimidated by the Communist Romanian authorities and by Romanian-Jewish Communists. In January 1948, Filderman secretly fled from Romania to Paris, France after he was told that he would once again be arrested, this time on charges of being a British spy. Filderman continued to live in Paris until his death in 1963 at the age of 80 or 81. After Filderman's death, his archives were transferred to Yad Vashem due to this desire being expressed in his will.