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205-496: The 1920 Treaty of Paris was an act signed by Romania and the principal Allied Powers of the time (France, United Kingdom, Italy and Japan) whose purpose was the recognition of Romanian sovereignty over Bessarabia . The treaty, however, never came into force because Japan failed to ratify it. On 9 April 1918 (old style 27 March 1918), during the chaos of the Russian Civil War and following Romanian military intervention ,

410-460: A coup d'état . While Hitler did not produce a clear endorsement for clamping down on Sima's party, he made remarks interpreted by their recipient as oblique blessings. On 14 January 1941 during a German-Romanian summit, Hitler informed Antonescu of his plans to invade the Soviet Union later that year and asked Romania to participate. By this time, Hitler had come to the conclusion that while Sima

615-469: A femme fatale who destroyed what he saw as his parents' happy marriage. According to one account, Ion Antonescu was briefly a classmate of Wilhelm Filderman , the future Romanian Jewish community activist whose interventions with Conducător Antonescu helped save a number of his coreligionists. After graduation, in 1904, Antonescu joined the Romanian Army with the rank of Second Lieutenant. He spent

820-576: A personal union of two principalities : ( Moldavia and Wallachia ) called the Unification of Moldavia and Wallachia also known as "The Little Union" under a single prince to an autonomous principality with a Hohenzollern monarchy. The country gained its independence from the Ottoman Empire during the 1877–1878 Russo-Turkish War (known locally as the Romanian War of Independence ), after which it

1025-824: A staff officer in the First Cavalry Division in Dobruja . After 1916, when Romania entered World War I on the Allied side, Ion Antonescu acted as chief of staff for General Constantin Prezan . When enemy troops crossed the mountains from Transylvania into Wallachia , Antonescu was ordered to design a defense plan for Bucharest. The Romanian royal court, army, and administration were subsequently forced to retreat into Moldavia . Antonescu took part in an important decision involving defensive efforts, an unusual promotion which probably stoked his ambitions. In December, as Prezan became

1230-802: A "race war" between the Aryans, represented by the Nordic Germans and Latin Romanians on the Axis side vs. the Slavs and Asians, commanded by the Jews on the Soviet side. Besides anti-Semitism, there was an extremely strong current of anti-Slavic and anti-Asian racism to Antonescu's remarks about the "Asiatic hordes" of the Red Army. The Asians Antonescu referred were the various Asian peoples of

1435-454: A GDP per capita of 20,487 lei at an estimated population of 18.9 million. The 1938 average exchange rate was of 1 leu for US$ 0.00732. Romania's 1938 GDP thus amounted to $ 2.834 billion. Romania's public debt as of 1 April 1938 amounted to 112,267,290,144 lei, of which 78,398,078,964 lei consisted of external debt. Total public debt thus amounted to 29% of Romania's 1938 GDP, while public external debt amounted to just over 20%. Despite

1640-594: A close friend of his widow, Veturia Goga . By that time, revising his earlier stance, Antonescu had also built a close relationship with Codreanu, and was even said to have become his confidant. On Carol's request, he had earlier asked the Guard's leader to consider an alliance with the king, which Codreanu promptly refused in favour of negotiations with Goga, coupled with claims that he was not interested in political battles, an attitude supposedly induced by Antonescu himself. Soon afterward, Călinescu, acting on indications from

1845-488: A comfortable exile, and was surprised that Carol had cleared out almost the entire national treasury. For the next four years, a major concern of Antonescu's government was attempting to have the Swiss banks where Carol had deposited the assets return the money to Romania; this effort did not meet with success. Horia Sima's subsequent cooperation with Antonescu was endorsed by high-ranking Nazi German officials, many of whom feared

2050-723: A commoner. This outraged Antonescu, who developed enduring contempt for the future king. Lieutenant Colonel Ion Antonescu retained his visibility in the public eye during the interwar period. He participated in the political campaign to earn recognition at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 for Romania's gains in Transylvania. His nationalist argument about a future state was published as the essay Românii. Origina, trecutul, sacrificiile și drepturile lor ("The Romanians. Their Origin, Their Past, Their Sacrifices and Their Rights"). The booklet advocated extension of Romanian rule beyond

2255-529: A coup d'état against Antonescu, who was arrested; after the war he was convicted of war crimes, and executed in June 1946. His involvement in the Holocaust was officially reasserted and condemned following the 2003 Wiesel Commission report. Born in the town of Pitești , north-west of the capital Bucharest , Antonescu was the scion of an upper-middle class Romanian Orthodox family with some military tradition. He

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2460-478: A courtier and an important member of the camarilla , first advised Carol to appoint Antonescu as Prime Minister as the solution to the crisis. Pop's reasons for advising Carol to appoint Antonescu as Prime Minister were partly because Antonescu, who was known to be friendly with the Iron Guard and who had been imprisoned under Carol, was believed to have enough of an oppositional background to Carol's regime to appease

2665-427: A day before the procedures were initiated. The prosecution team, led by Vasile Stoican , and the panel of judges, presided over by Alexandru Voitinovici , were infiltrated by PCR supporters. Both consistently failed to admit that Antonescu's foreign policies were overall dictated by Romania's positioning between Germany and the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, and although references to the mass murders formed just 23% of

2870-475: A false claim that her divorce had not been finalized. Defended by Mihai Antonescu, the officer was able to prove his detractors wrong. Codreanu himself was taken into custody and discreetly killed by the Gendarmes acting on Carol's orders (November 1938). Carol's regime slowly dissolved into crisis, a dissolution accelerated after the start of World War II , when the military success of the core Axis Powers and

3075-550: A far right cabinet that was the first executive to impose racial discrimination in its treatment of the Jewish community . Goga's appointment was meant to curb the rise of the more popular and even more radical Codreanu. Initially given the Communications portfolio by his rival, Interior Minister Armand Călinescu , Antonescu repeatedly demanded the office of Defense Minister, which he was eventually granted. His mandate coincided with

3280-459: A few border settlements were exchanged between Romania and Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes . The most notable Romanian acquisition was the town of Jimbolia , while the most notable Yugoslav acquisition was the town of Jaša Tomić . Romania made no further territorial claims; nonetheless the kingdom's expansion aroused enmity from several of its neighbors, including Bulgaria, the Soviet Union, and especially Hungary. Greater Romania now had

3485-559: A former Balkan ally, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia . Germans troops entered the country in stages, in order to defend the local oil industry and help instruct their Romanian counterparts on Blitzkrieg tactics. On 23 November, Antonescu was in Berlin , where his signature sealed Romania's commitment to the main Axis instrument, the Tripartite Pact . Two days later, the country also adhered to

3690-604: A framework for the People's Tribunals and prevented capital punishment during peacetime, while noting that, contrary to the armistice agreement, only one power represented within the Allied Commission had supervised the tribunal. They were both rejected within six days, in compliance with a legal deadline on the completion of trials by the People's Tribunals. King Michael subsequently received pleas for clemency from Antonescu's lawyer and his mother, and reputedly considered asking

3895-617: A legal problem for being based on ex post facto decisions. The first such local trial took place in 1945, resulting in the sentencing of Iosif Iacobici , Nicolae Macici , Constantin Trestioreanu and other military commanders directly involved in planning or carrying out the Odessa massacre . Antonescu was represented by Constantin Paraschivescu-Bălăceanu and Titus Stoica , two public defenders whom he had first consulted with

4100-676: A letter informing him that Bessarabia's political status still ultimately depended on German decisions. In one of his letters to Hitler, Antonescu himself stated his anti-communist ideological motivation: "I confirm that I will pursue operations in the east to the end against that great enemy of civilization, of Europe, and of my country: Russian Bolshevism [...] I will not be swayed by anyone not to extend this military cooperation into new territory." Antonescu's ideological perspective blended national sentiment with generically Christian and particularly Romanian Orthodox traits. British historian Arnold D. Harvey writes that while this ideology seems

4305-552: A letter to Antonescu complaining about the murder of Jews in Odessa, Antonescu wrote back: "Your Jews, who have become Soviet commissars, are driving Soviet soldiers in the Odessa region into a futile bloodbath, through horrendous terror techniques as the Russian prisoners themselves have admitted, simply to cause us heavy losses". Antonescu ended his letter with the claim that Russian Jewish commissars had savagely tortured Romanian POWs and that

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4510-505: A major Soviet city and one of the largest Black Sea ports like Odessa would be a sign of how far Romania had been "regenerated" under Antonescu's leadership. Much to Antonescu's intense fury, the Red Army were able to halt the Romanian offensive on Odessa and 24 September 1941 Antonescu had to reluctantly ask for the help of the Wehrmacht with the drive on Odessa. On 16 October 1941 Odessa fell to

4715-495: A mansion nearby the city, and guarded by SMERSH , a special counter-intelligence body answering directly to Stalin. Shortly after Germany surrendered in May 1945, the group was moved to Lubyanka prison . There, Antonescu was interrogated and reputedly pressured by SMERSH operatives, among them Viktor Abakumov , but transcripts of their conversations were never sent back to Romania by the Soviet authorities. Later research noted that

4920-461: A new visit to Germany and a meeting with Hitler, Antonescu opted to continue fighting alongside the remaining Axis states, a decision which he later claimed was motivated by Hitler's promise to allow Romania possession of Northern Transylvania in the event of an Axis victory. Upon his return, the Conducător oversaw a counteroffensive which stabilized the front on a line between Iași and Chișinău to

5125-561: A part in ensuring the union of Transylvania with Romania . After the war, Antonescu's merits as an operations officer were noticed by, among others, politician Ion G. Duca , who wrote that "his [Antonescu's] intelligence, skill and activity, brought credit on himself and invaluable service to the country." Another event occurring late in the war is also credited with having played a major part in Antonescu's life: in 1918, Crown Prince Carol (the future King Carol II) left his army posting to marry

5330-452: A population of 18,057,028. Romanians made up 71.9% of the population and 28.1% of the population were ethnic minorities . Largest cities as per 1930 census: Notes: 1 - including 12 suburban communities. Two of Romania's seven largest cities in 1930 are currently located outside of Romania as a result of World War II border changes . While the Romanian nobility had a long tradition of sending their sons to Europe's finest schools,

5535-629: A pro-Axis alternative after the 1938 Munich Agreement , when Germany imposed demands on Czechoslovakia with the acquiescence of France and the United Kingdom, leaving locals to fear that, unless reoriented, Romania would follow. Angered by the territorial losses of 1940, General Antonescu sent Carol a general note of protest, and, as a result, was arrested and interned at Bistrița Monastery . While there, he commissioned Mihai Antonescu to establish contacts with Nazi German officials, promising to advance German economic interest, particularly in respect to

5740-641: A real crisis in German-Romanian relations." For part of that interval, the Marshal had withdrawn from public life, owing to an unknown affliction, which is variously rumoured to have been a mental breakdown , a foodborne illness or a symptom of the syphilis he had contracted earlier in life. He is known to have been suffering from digestive problems, treating himself with food prepared by Marlene von Exner, an Austrian -born dietitian who moved into Hitler's service after 1943. Upon his return, Antonescu blamed

5945-481: A reconciliation with her, and Carol soon arranged for Magda Lupescu's return to his side. Her unpopularity was a millstone around Carol's neck for the rest of his reign, particularly because she was widely viewed as his closest advisor and confidante. Maniu and his National Peasant Party shared the same general political aims as the Iron Guard: both fought against the corruption and dictatorial policies of King Carol II and

6150-701: A reputation for questioning his commanders and for appealing over their heads whenever he felt they were wrong. During the repression of the 1907 peasants' revolt , he headed a cavalry unit in Covurlui County . Opinions on his role in the events diverge: while some historians believe Antonescu was a particularly violent participant in quelling the revolt, others equate his participation with that of regular officers or view it as outstandingly tactful. In addition to restricting peasant protests, Antonescu's unit subdued socialist activities in Galați port. His handling of

6355-561: A response to violent clashes between the Iron Guard and the PNC's own fascist militia, the Lăncieri , Antonescu extended the already imposed martial law . The Goga cabinet ended when the tentative rapprochement between Goga and Codreanu prompted Carol to overthrow the democratic system and proclaim his own authoritarian regime ( see 1938 Constitution of Romania , National Renaissance Front ). The deposed Premier died in 1938, while Antonescu remained

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6560-434: A short-lived royal dictatorship, sanctioned 17 days later by a new constitution under which the king named personally not only the prime minister but all the ministers. In April 1938, King Carol had Iron Guard leader Corneliu Zelea Codreanu (aka "The Captain") arrested and imprisoned. On the night of 29–30 November 1938, Codreanu and several other legionnaires were killed while purportedly attempting to escape from prison. It

6765-433: A significant minority population, especially of Hungarians , and faced the difficulty of assimilation. Transylvania had significant Hungarian and German population who were accustomed to being the power structure; with a historically contemptuous attitude towards Romanians, they now feared reprisals. Both groups were effectively excluded from politics as the postwar regime passed an edict stating that all personnel employed by

6970-553: A troubled period, and saw Romania having to choose between its traditional alliance with France, Britain, the crumbling Little Entente and the League of Nations or moving closer to Nazi Germany and its Anti-Comintern Pact . Antonescu's own contribution is disputed by historians, who variously see him as either a supporter of the Anglo-French alliance or, like the PNC itself, more favourable to cooperation with Adolf Hitler 's Germany. At

7175-457: Is generally agreed that there was no such escape attempt, but that they were murdered in retaliation for a series of assassinations by Iron Guard commandos. The royal dictatorship was brief. On 7 March 1939, a new government was formed with Armand Călinescu as prime minister; on 21 September 1939, three weeks after the start of World War II, Călinescu, in turn, was also assassinated by legionnaires avenging Codreanu's murder. In 1939, Germany and

7380-596: The Sfatul Țării , or National Council, to proclaim the union of Bessarabia with Romania . War with the Hungarian Soviet Republic in 1919 resulted in the occupation of Budapest by Romanian troops and the end of Béla Kun 's Bolshevik regime. At the Paris Peace Conference , Romania received the territories of Transylvania , part of Banat and other territories from Hungary , as well as Bessarabia (Eastern Moldavia between Prut and Dniester rivers) and Bukovina. In

7585-524: The Allies , recovering Northern Transylvania . The influence of the neighbouring Soviet Union and the policies followed by Communist -dominated coalition governments ultimately led to the abolition of the monarchy, with Romania becoming a Soviet satellite state as the People's Republic of Romania on the last day of 1947. The 1859 ascendancy of Alexandru Ioan Cuza as prince of both Moldavia and Wallachia under

7790-507: The Caucasus ( see Battle of the Caucasus ). The Romanian force engaged in the war reportedly exceeded German demands. It came to around 500,000 troops and thirty actively involved divisions. As a sign of his satisfaction, Hitler presented his Romanian counterpart with a luxury car. On 7 December 1941, after reflecting on the possibility for Romania, Hungary and Finland to change their stance,

7995-636: The Chief of the General Staff , Antonescu, who was by now a major, was named the head of operations, being involved in the defence of Moldavia. He contributed to the tactics used during the Battle of Mărășești (July–August 1917), when Romanians under General Eremia Grigorescu managed to stop the advance of German forces under the command of Field Marshal August von Mackensen . Being described as "a talented if prickly individual", Antonescu lived in Prezan's proximity for

8200-546: The Dniester —that is, beyond territory that had been part of Romania between the wars—and thrust deeper into Soviet territory, thus waging a war of aggression . On 30 August, Romania occupied a territory it deemed " Transnistria ", formerly a part of the Ukrainian SSR (including the entire Moldavian ASSR and further territories). Like the decision to continue the war beyond Bessarabia, this earned Antonescu much criticism from

8405-683: The Entente side. Romania engaged in a conflict against Bulgaria but as a result Bulgarian forces, after a series of successful battles, regained Dobruja , which had been previously ceded from Bulgaria by the treaty of Bucharest and the Berlin congress . Although the Romanian forces did not fare well militarily, by the end of the war the Austrian and Russian empires were gone; various assemblies proclaimed as representative bodies in Transylvania , Bessarabia and Bukovina decided on union with Romania. In 1919 by

Treaty of Paris (1920) - Misplaced Pages Continue

8610-593: The Galați shipyard using parts manufactured in Austria-Hungary, and the first one launched was Lascăr Catargiu , in 1907. The Romanian monitors displaced almost 700 tons, were armed with three 120 mm naval guns in 3 turrets, two 120 mm naval howitzers, four 47 mm anti-aircraft guns and two 6.5 machine guns. The monitors took part in the Battle of Turtucaia and the First Battle of Cobadin . The Romanian-designed Schneider 150 mm Model 1912 howitzer

8815-773: The Initial Balkan War against the Ottoman Empire , the Kingdom of Romania entered the Second Balkan War in June 1913 against the Tsardom of Bulgaria . 330,000 Romanian troops moved across the Danube and into Bulgaria. One army occupied Southern Dobruja and another moved into northern Bulgaria to threaten Sofia, helping to bring an end to the war. Romania thus acquired the ethnically mixed territory of Southern Dobruja, which it had desired for years. In 1916 Romania entered World War I on

9020-576: The Jewish Communities Federation that, unless engaged in "sabotage," "the Jewish population will not suffer." Antonescu did not reject the application of Legionary policies, but was offended by Sima's advocacy of paramilitarism and the Guard's frequent recourse to street violence. He drew much hostility from his partners by extending some protection to former dignitaries whom the Iron Guard had arrested. One early incident opposed Antonescu to

9225-519: The Kingdom of Greece ( see Balkans Campaign ). In parallel, Romania's relationship with the United Kingdom, at the time the only major adversary of Nazi Germany, erupted into conflict: on 10 February 1941, British Premier Winston Churchill recalled His Majesty's Ambassador Reginald Hoare , and approved the blockade of Romanian ships in British-controlled ports. On 12 June 1941, during another summit with Hitler, Antonescu first learned of

9430-511: The Mareșal tank destroyer , which is credited with being the inspiration for the German Hetzer , a Renault R-35 tank with a T-26 turret and an artillery tractor known as T-1 . Warships built include the submarines NMS  Rechinul and NMS  Marsuinul , a class of 4 minesweepers , 6 Dutch-designed torpedo boats and 2 gunboats. According to the 1930 Romanian Census , Romania had

9635-483: The Mausoleum of Mărășești (1938) were erected. The oil industry was also greatly expanded, making Romania one of the top oil exporters by the late 1930s, which also attracted German and Italian interest . In 1938, Romania produced 6.6 million tons of crude oil, 284,000 tons of crude steel, 133,000 tons of pig iron , 510,000 tons of cement, and 289,000 tons of rolled steel. Romanian military industry during World War I

9840-639: The Nazi Party as Heinrich Himmler , Baldur von Schirach and Joseph Goebbels threw their support behind the Legionaries, whereas Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and the Wehrmacht stood by Antonescu. The latter group was concerned that any internal conflict would threaten Romania's oil industry, vital to the German war effort. The German leadership was by then secretly organizing Operation Barbarossa ,

10045-675: The Old Kingdom , and ultimately refusing to adopt the Final Solution . This was made possible by the fact that Romania, as a junior ally of Nazi Germany, was not occupied by the Wehrmacht and preserved a degree of political autonomy. Aerial attacks on Romania by the Allies in 1944 and heavy casualties on the Eastern Front prompted Antonescu to open peace negotiations with the Allies, which were inconclusive. On 23 August 1944, King Michael I led

10250-618: The Roman Legion , whose pro-Romanian policies had brought them into conflict with other Aromanian factions. Conducător Antonescu thought Hitler willing to revise his stance on Northern Transylvania, and claimed to have obtained the German leader's agreement, using it to justify participation on the Eastern Front after the recovery of Bessarabia. However, transcripts of the Hitler-Antonescu conversations do not validate his interpretation. Another version has it that Hitler sent Antonescu

10455-621: The Soviet Union signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact , which stipulated, among other things, the Soviet "interest" in Bessarabia. After the 1940 territorial losses and growing increasingly unpopular, Carol was compelled to abdicate and name general Ion Antonescu as the new Prime-Minister with full powers in ruling the state by royal decree. At the time of the proclamation of the Kingdom, there were already several industrial facilities in

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10660-539: The Treaty of Saint-Germain and in 1920 by the Treaty of Trianon most of the territories claimed were assigned to Romania. The Romanian Old Kingdom ( Romanian : Vechiul Regat or just Regat ; German: Regat or Altreich ) is a colloquial term referring to the territory covered by the first independent Romanian nation state , which was composed of the Danubian Principalities – Wallachia and Moldavia. It

10865-587: The Treaty of Trianon , Hungary renounced in favor of Romania all the claims of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy over Transylvania. The union of Romania with Bukovina was ratified in 1919 in the Treaty of Saint Germain , and in 1920 some of the Western powers recognized Romanian rule over Bessarabia by the Treaty of Paris . Thus, Romania in 1920 was more than twice the size it had been in 1914. The last territorial change during this period came in 1923, when

11070-403: The local oil industry , in exchange for endorsement. Commenting on Ion Antonescu's ambivalent stance, Hitler's minister to Romania, Wilhelm Fabricius , wrote to his superiors: "I am not convinced that he is a safe man." Romania's elite had been intensely Francophile ever since Romania had won its independence in the 19th century, indeed so Francophile that the defeat of France in June 1940 had

11275-472: The non-aggression pact signed by Germany and the Soviet Union saw Romania isolated and threatened ( see Romania during World War II ). In 1940, two of Romania's regions, Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina , were lost to a Soviet occupation consented to by the king. This came as Romania, exposed by the Fall of France , was seeking to align its policies with those of Germany. Ion Antonescu himself had come to value

11480-779: The war's end in Europe . Placed in the custody of PCR militants, Ion Antonescu spent the interval at a house in Bucharest's Vatra Luminoasă quarter. He was afterward handed to the Soviet occupation forces , who transported him to Moscow , together with his deputy Mihai Antonescu, Governor of Transnistria Gheorghe Alexianu , Defense Minister Constantin Pantazi , Gendarmerie commander Constantin Vasiliu and Bucharest Police chief Mircea Elefterescu . They were subsequently kept in luxurious detention at

11685-490: The "special" nature of Operation Barbarossa, namely, that the war against the Soviet Union was to be an ideological war to "annihilate" the forces of "Judeo-Bolshevism," a "war of extermination" to be fought without any mercy; Hitler even showed Antonescu a copy of the "Guidelines for the Conduct of the Troops in Russia" he had issued to his forces about the "special treatment" to be handed out to Soviet Jews. Antonescu completely accepted Hitler's ideas about Operation Barbarossa as

11890-517: The Allies to reassess the case as part of the actual Nuremberg Trials, taking Romanian war criminals into foreign custody. Subjected to pressures by the new Soviet-backed Petru Groza executive, he issued a decree in favour of execution. Together with his co-defendants Mihai Antonescu, Alexianu and Vasiliu, the former Conducător was executed by a military firing squad on 1 June 1946. Ion Antonescu's supporters circulated false rumours that regular soldiers had refused to fire at their commander, and that

12095-446: The Army to resume control of the streets, unsuccessfully pressured Sima to have the assassins detained, ousted the Iron Guardist prefect of Bucharest Police Ștefan Zăvoianu , and ordered Legionary ministers to swear an oath to the Conducător . His condemnation of the killings was nevertheless limited and discreet, and, the same month, he joined Sima at a burial ceremony for Codreanu's newly discovered remains. The widening gap between

12300-416: The Axis system, their relationship was always tense, and marked by serious diplomatic incidents. The Romanian leader kept contacts with representatives of ethnic Romanian communities directly affected by the Second Vienna Award , including Transylvanian Greek-Catholic clergy. Another aspect of Antonescu's nationalist policies was evidenced after the Balkans Campaign . Antonescu's Romania did not partake in

12505-436: The Balkans, putting a stop to the Maibaum offensive against Yugoslav Partisans . The coup was nevertheless a unilateral move, and, until the signature of an armistice on 12 September, the country was still perceived as an enemy by the Soviets, who continued to take Romanian soldiers as prisoners of war . In parallel, Hitler reactivated the Iron Guardist exile, creating a Sima-led government in exile that did not survive

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12710-412: The Bessarabian border between Romania and post-1940 Soviet territory). A few days after this, a large-scale pogrom was carried out in Iași with Antonescu's agreement; thousands of Jews were killed in the bloody Iași pogrom . Antonescu had followed a generation of younger right-wing Romanian intellectuals led by Corneliu Zelea Codreanu who in the 1920s–30s had rejected the traditional Francophila of

12915-431: The Bessarabian legislature ( Sfatul Țării ) voted in favor of the union of Bessarabia with Romania with 86 votes in favor, three against, and 36 abstentions, an act regarded by the Russians as a Romanian invasion. As with the Treaty of Versailles , the 1920 treaty contained the Covenant of the League of Nations , and, as a result, it was not ratified by the United States . The United States refused initially to sign

13120-409: The British government responded to repeated Soviet requests and declared war on all three countries. Following Japan 's attack on Pearl Harbor and in compliance with its Axis commitment, Romania declared war on the United States within five days. These developments contrasted with Antonescu's own statement of 7 December: "I am an ally of the [German] Reich against [the Soviet Union], I am neutral in

13325-401: The Central Powers in 1916. The Romanian military campaign ended in stalemate when the Central Powers quickly crushed the country's offensive into Transylvania and occupied Wallachia and Dobruja, including Bucharest and the strategically important oil fields, by the end of 1916. In 1917, despite fierce Romanian resistance, especially at the Battle of Mărășești , due to Russia's withdrawal from

13530-448: The German-Romanian forces. The Romanian losses had been so heavy that the area around Odessa was known to the Romanian Army as the Vale of Tears. Antonescu's anti-Semitism was sharpened by the Odessa fighting as he was convinced that the only reason why the Red Army had fought so fiercely around Odessa was that the average Russian soldier had been terrorized by bloodthirsty Jewish commissars into fighting hard. When Wilhelm Filderman wrote

13735-422: The Guard's newspaper Buna Vestire , which accused him of leniency and was subsequently forced to change its editorial board. By then, the Legionary press was routinely claiming that he was obstructing revolution and aiming to take control of the Iron Guard, and that he had been transformed into a tool of Freemasonry ( see Anti-Masonry ). The political conflict coincided with major social challenges, including

13940-465: The Iron Guard was remodelled into the only legally permitted party in Romania. Antonescu continued as Premier and Conducător , and was named as the Guard's honorary commander. Sima became Deputy Premier and leader of the Guard. Antonescu subsequently ordered the Guardists imprisoned by Carol to be set free. On 6 October, he presided over the Iron Guard's mass rally in Bucharest, one in a series of major celebratory and commemorative events organized by

14145-410: The Iron Guard was too weak to rule on its own. Antonescu therefore received the approval of Ambassador Fabricius. Despite early promises, Antonescu abandoned projects for the creation of a national government , and opted instead for a coalition between a military dictatorship lobby and the Iron Guard. He later justified his choice by stating that the Iron Guard "represented the political base of

14350-478: The Jewish women were going to exterminated anyway, Antonescu felt there was nothing wrong about letting his soldiers and gendarmes have "some fun" before shooting them. After becoming the first Romanian to be granted the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross , which he received from Hitler at their 6 August meeting in the Ukrainian city of Berdychiv , Ion Antonescu was promoted to Marshal of Romania by royal decree on 22 August, in recognition for his role in restoring

14555-438: The Jews of Transnistria yet. This veto was largely motivated by bureaucratic politics, namely if Antonescu exterminated all of the Jews of Romania himself, there would be nothing for the SS and the Auswärtiges Amt to do. Killinger informed Antonescu that Germany would reduce its supplies of arms if Antonescu went ahead with his plans to deport the Jews of the Regat into Transnistria and told him he would be better off deporting

14760-523: The Jews to the death camps in Poland that the Germans were already busy building. Since Romania had almost no arms industry of its own and was almost entirely dependent upon weapons from Germany to fight the war, Antonescu had little choice, but to comply with Killinger's request. The Romanian Army's inferior arms, insufficient armour and lack of training had been major concerns for the German commanders since before

14965-484: The Jews, and all of the Soviet leaders were really Jews. Reflecting Antonescu's anti-Slavic feelings, despite the fact that the war was billed as a "crusade" in defence of Orthodoxy against "Judeo-Bolshevism", the war was not presented as a struggle to liberate the Orthodox Russians and Ukrainians from Communism; instead rule by "Judeo-Bolshevism" was portrayed as something brought about the innate moral inferiority of

15170-572: The Kingdom of Romania and its claimed historical regions . However, the terms of these proclamations (and, subsequently, the materialization of the Greater Romania ideal) would only be de facto recognized 2 years later, following the Treaty of Trianon . This is a graphical lifespan timeline of Kings Ion Antonescu Ion Antonescu ( / ˌ æ n t ə ˈ n ɛ s k uː / ; Romanian: [i'on antoˈnesku] ; 14 June [ O.S. 2 June] 1882 – 1 June 1946)

15375-652: The Kingdom of Romania in 1881, and the annexation of Southern Dobruja in 1913. The term came into use after World War I, when the Old Kingdom was opposed to Greater Romania , which included Transylvania, Banat , Bessarabia, and Bukovina. Nowadays, the term is mainly of historical relevance, and is otherwise used as a common term for all regions in Romania included in both the Old Kingdom and present-day borders (namely: Wallachia, Moldavia, and Northern Dobruja). Romania delayed in entering World War I, but ultimately declared war on

15580-592: The Malaxa factory under French licence, eventually 126 being built until March 1941. Czechoslovak licence was acquired in 1938 to produce the ZB vz. 30 machine gun, with 5,000 being built at the Cugir gun factory until the start of Operation Barbarossa in June 1941. Romania also acquired the licence to produce the R-1 tankette, but ultimately only one prototype was built locally. German licence

15785-580: The National Liberal Party. The worldwide Great Depression that started in 1929 and was also present in Romania destabilised the country. The early 1930s were marked by social unrest, high unemployment, and strikes. In several instances, the Romanian government violently repressed strikes and riots, notably the 1929 miners' strike in Valea Jiului and the strike in the Grivița railroad workshops. In

15990-611: The Nazi-led Anti-Comintern Pact . Other than these generic commitments, Romania had no treaty binding it to Germany, and the Romanian-German alliance functioned informally. Speaking in 1946, Antonescu claimed to have followed the pro-German path in continuation of earlier policies, and for fear of a Nazi protectorate in Romania. During the National Legionary State period, earlier antisemitic legislation

16195-695: The PNȚ, and were comparable to the Nuremberg Trials in Allied-occupied Germany . The Romanian legislative framework was drafted by coup participant Pătrășcanu, a PCR member who had been granted leadership of the Justice Ministry . Despite the idea having earned support from several sides of the political spectrum, the procedures were politicized in a sense favourable to the PCR and the Soviet Union, and posed

16400-617: The Peach Trees"). His final written statement was a letter to his wife, urging her to withdraw into a convent , while stating the belief that posterity would reconsider his deeds and accusing Romanians of being "ungrateful". Antonescu's policies were motivated, in large part, by ethnic nationalism . A firm believer in the restoration of Greater Romania as the union of lands inhabited by ethnic Romanians , he never reconciled himself to Hungary's incorporation of Northern Transylvania . Although Hungary and Romania were technically allied through

16605-645: The Prut). The accord over Transnistria's administration, signed in Tighina , also placed areas between the Dniester and the Dnieper under Romanian military occupation, while granting control over all resources to Germany. In September 1941, Antonescu ordered Romanian forces to take Odessa, a prize he badly wanted for reasons of prestige. Russians had traditionally been seen in Romania as brutal aggressors, and for Romanian forces to take

16810-413: The Romanian elites and their adherence to Western notions of universal democratic values and human rights. Antonescu made it clear that his regime rejected the moral principles of the "demo-liberal world" and he saw the war as an ideological struggle between his spiritually pure "national-totalitarian regime" vs. "Jewish morality". Antonescu believed that the liberal humanist-democratic-capitalist values of

17015-500: The Romanian leader acknowledged that Germany was losing the war, and he therefore authorized his Deputy Premier and new Foreign Minister Mihai Antonescu to set up contacts with the Allies. In early 1943, Antonescu authorized his diplomats to contact British and American diplomats in Portugal and Switzerland to see if were possible for Romania to sign an armistice with the Western powers. The Romanian diplomats were informed that no armistice

17220-468: The Romanian losses on German overseer Arthur Hauffe , whom Hitler agreed to replace. In parallel with the military losses, Romania was confronted with large-scale economic problems. Romania's oil was the Reich' s only source of natural oil after the invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 to August 1944 (Germany also had synthetic oil plants operating from 1942 onwards), and as such for economic reasons, Romania

17425-404: The Romanian state in the interwar period , and by extension, to the territory Romania covered at the time. Romania achieved at that time its greatest territorial extent (almost 300,000 km (120,000 sq mi) ). At the 1930 census, there were over 18 million inhabitants in Romania. The resulting "Greater Romania" did not survive World War II. Until 1938, Romania's governments maintained

17630-487: The Slavs) resolutely" together, "with the need for 'colonization' of Transnistria," suggests that he did think this would happen in his own lifetime. Subsequently, the Romanians assigned to Barbarossa were to learn that as a Latin people, the Germans considered them to be their inferiors, albeit not as inferior as the Slavs, Asians and Jews who were viewed as untermenschen ("sub-humans"). Hitler's promise to Antonescu that after

17835-464: The Slavs, who thus needed to be ruled by the Germans and the Romanians. The Romanian force engaged formed a General Antonescu Army Group under the effective command of German general Eugen Ritter von Schobert . Romania's campaign on the Eastern Front began without a formal declaration of war, and was consecrated by Antonescu's statement: "Soldiers, I order you, cross the Prut River " (in reference to

18040-529: The Soviet Union was not going to require Romanian subservience, the factions opposing Antonescu agreed that the moment had come to overthrow him, by carrying out the Royal Coup of 23 August . On that day, the sovereign asked Antonescu to meet him in the Royal Palace , where he presented him with a request to take Romania out of its Axis alliance. The Conducător refused, and was promptly arrested by soldiers of

18245-672: The Soviet Union, such as the Kazakhs , Kalmyks , Mongols , Uzbeks , Buryats , etc. During his summit with Hitler in June 1941, Antonescu told the Führer that he believed it was necessary to "once and for all" eliminate Russia as a power because the Russians were the most powerful Slavic nation and that as a Latin people, the Romanians had an inborn hatred of all Slavs and Jews. Antonescu went on to tell Hitler: "Because of its racial qualities, Romania can continue to play its role as an anti-Slavic buffer for

18450-489: The Soviet representatives Nikolai Novikov and Alexandra Kollontai ). Antonescu was also alarmed by the possibility of war being carried on Romanian territory, as had happened in Italy after Operation Avalanche . The events also prompted hostile negotiations aimed at toppling Antonescu, and involving the two political parties, the young monarch, diplomats and soldiers. A major clash between Michael and Antonescu took place during

18655-520: The Soviets produced a major crisis in German-Romanian relations in the winter of 1943 with many people in the Romanian government for the first time questioning the wisdom of fighting on the side of the Axis. Outside of the elites, by 1943 the continuing heavy losses on the Eastern Front, anger at the contempt which the Wehrmacht treated their Romanian allies and declining living standards within Romania made

18860-610: The Special Representative for Economic Problems. A recurring problem for Antonescu was attempting to obtain payments for all of the oil he shipped to Germany while resisting German demands for increased oil production. The situation was further aggravated in 1942, as USAAF and RAF were able to bomb the oil fields in Prahova County ( see Bombing of Romania in World War II , Operation Tidal Wave ). Official sources from

19065-473: The Treaty on the grounds that Russia was not represented at the treaty conference. The Paris Peace Treaty of 28 October 1920, formally recognized the union of Bessarabia with Romania. The union was recognized by the United Kingdom, France and Italy, but Japan did not ratify it, and the Soviet Union never recognized this Union. Kingdom of Romania The Kingdom of Romania ( Romanian : Regatul României )

19270-538: The West and Communism were both invented by the Jews to destroy Romania. In a lengthy speech just before the war, Antonescu attacked democracy in the most violent terms as it allowed Jews equal rights and thus to undercut the Romanian "national idea". As such, Antonescu stated what was needed was a "new man" who would be "tough", "virile" and willing to fight for an ethnically and religiously "pure" Romania. Despite his quarrel with Sima, much of Antonescu's speech clearly reflected

19475-470: The administrative capital of Transnistria. According to one account, the Romanian administration planned to change Odessa's name to Antonescu . Antonescu's planned that once the war against the Soviet Union was won to invade Hungary to take back Transylvania and Bulgaria to take back the Dobruja with Antonescu being especially keen on the former. Antonescu planned on attacking Hungary to recover Transylvania at

19680-575: The antisemitic Antonescu sympathized with far-right and fascist politics. He was a military attaché to France and later Chief of the General Staff , briefly serving as Defense Minister in the National Christian cabinet of Octavian Goga as well as the subsequent First Cristea cabinet , in which he also served as Air and Marine Minister. During the late 1930s, his political stance brought him into conflict with King Carol II and led to his detainment. Antonescu rose to political prominence during

19885-649: The areas of Moldavia defended by Petre Dumitrescu 's troops. In reaction, Antonescu attempted to stabilize the front on a line between Focșani , Nămoloasa and Brăila , deep inside Romanian territory. On 5 August, he visited Hitler one final time in Kętrzyn . On this occasion, the German leader reportedly explained that his people had betrayed the Nazi cause, and asked him if Romania would go on fighting (to which Antonescu reportedly answered in vague terms). After Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov more than once stated that

20090-494: The attack on the Soviet Union. Antonescu's plan to act against his coalition partners in the event of further disorder hinged on Hitler's approval, a vague signal of which had been given during ceremonies confirming Romania's adherence to the Tripartite Pact. A decisive turn occurred when Hitler invited Antonescu and Sima both over for discussions: whereas Antonescu agreed, Sima stayed behind in Romania, probably plotting

20295-478: The authorities' alarm, Army General and Iron Guard member Gheorghe Cantacuzino-Grănicerul arranged a meeting between Ion Antonescu and the movement's leader, Corneliu Codreanu. Antonescu is reported to have found Codreanu arrogant, but to have welcomed his revolutionizing approach to politics. In late 1937, after the December general election came to an inconclusive result, Carol appointed Goga Prime Minister over

20500-573: The autumn of 1928, became Secretary-General of the Defense Ministry in the Vintilă Brătianu cabinet. He married Maria Niculescu , for long a resident of France, who had been married twice before: first to a Romanian Police officer, with whom she had a son, Gheorghe (died 1944), and then to a Frenchman of Jewish origin. After a period as Deputy Chief of the General Staff, he was appointed its Chief (1933–1934). These assignments coincided with

20705-656: The benefit of Germany." Ancel wrote that Romanian anti-Slavic racism differed from the German variety in that the Romanians had traditionally feared the Slavic peoples whereas the Germans had traditionally held the Slavic peoples in contempt. In Antonescu's mind, the Romanians as a Latin people had attained a level of civilization that the Slavs were nowhere close to, but theoretically the Slavic Russians and Ukrainians might be able to reach under Romanian auspices, although Antonescu's remarks to Hitler that "We must fight this race (i.e.

20910-458: The capital. These movements were organized competitively by the pro- Allied PNȚ, headed by Iuliu Maniu , and the pro-Nazi Iron Guard. The latter group had been revived under the leadership of Horia Sima , and was organizing a coup d'état . In this troubled context, Antonescu simply left his assigned residence. He may have been secretly helped in this by German intercession, but was more directly aided to escape by socialite Alice Sturdza , who

21115-554: The confines of Greater Romania , and recommended, at the risk of war with the emerging Kingdom of Yugoslavia , the annexation of all Banat areas and the Timok Valley . Antonescu was known for his frequent and erratic changes of mood, going from being extremely angry to being calm to angry again to being calm again within minutes, behaviour that often disoriented those who had to work with him. The Israeli historian Jean Ancel wrote that Antonescu's frequent changes of mood were due to

21320-488: The conflict between Great Britain and Germany. I am for America against the Japanese." A crucial change in the war came with the Battle of Stalingrad in June 1942 – February 1943, a major defeat for the Axis. Romania's armies alone lost some 150,000 men (either dead, wounded or captured) and more than half of the country's divisions were wiped out. The loss of two entire Romanian armies who all either killed or captured by

21525-489: The cooperation of Codreanists , members of an Iron Guardist wing which had virulently opposed Sima, and whose leader was Codreanu's father Ion Zelea Codreanu . Antonescu again sought backing from the PNȚ and PNL to form a national cabinet, but his rejection of parliamentarism made the two groups refuse him. Antonescu traveled to Germany and met Hitler on eight more occasions between June 1941 and August 1944. Such close contacts helped cement an enduring relationship between

21730-469: The counties) to be ruled by rezidenți regali (approximate translation: "Royal Residents") - appointed directly by the King. This administrative reform did not last and the counties were re-established after the fall of Carol's regime. 28 November. The union of Bukovina with Romania is declared. 1 December. The union of Transylvania with Romania is declared. This day concludes a series of unifications between

21935-502: The country at the time." Right from the outset, Antonescu clashed with Sima over economic questions, with Antonescu's main concern being to get the economy growing so as to provide taxes for a treasury looted by Carol, while Sima favored populist economic measures that Antonescu insisted there was no money for. The resulting regime, deemed the National Legionary State , was officially proclaimed on 14 September. On that date,

22140-562: The country to the status of a kingdom, and Carol was crowned king on 10 May. The new state, squeezed between the Ottoman , Austro-Hungarian , and Russian Empires, with Slavic populations on its southwestern, southern, and northeastern borders, the Black Sea due east, and Hungarian neighbours on its western and northwestern borders, looked to the West, particularly France, for its cultural, educational, and administrative models. Abstaining from

22345-507: The country: The Assan and Olamazu steam mills , built in 1853 and 1862 respectively, a brick factory built in 1865, and two sugar factories built in 1873, among others. In 1857, the first oil refinery in the world was built at Ploiești . In 1880, after several railways were built, the CFR was founded. After proclamation of the Kingdom, the pre-established industrial facilities began to be highly developed: 6 more, larger, sugar factories were built and

22550-471: The deaths of as many as 400,000 people, most of them Bessarabian , Ukrainian and Romanian Jews , as well as Romanian Romani . The regime's complicity in the Holocaust combined pogroms and mass murders such as the Odessa massacre with ethnic cleansing , and systematic deportations to occupied Transnistria . The system in place was nevertheless characterized by singular inconsistencies, prioritizing plunder over killing, showing leniency toward most Jews in

22755-563: The destruction provoked by the First World War, Romanian industry managed significant growth, as a result of new establishments and development of the older ones. The MALAXA industrial engineering and manufacturing company was established in 1921 by Romanian industrialist Nicolae Malaxa and dealt especially with rolling stock maintenance and manufacturing. It developed rapidly, and by 1930 Romania had managed to cease importing locomotives altogether, all required rolling stock being supplied by

22960-550: The dictator and Sima's party resonated in Berlin. When, in December, Legionary Foreign Minister Mihail R. Sturdza obtained the replacement of Fabricius with Manfred Freiherr von Killinger , perceived as more sympathetic to the Iron Guard, Antonescu promptly took over leadership of the ministry, with the compliant diplomat Constantin Greceanu as his right hand. In Germany, such leaders of

23165-464: The eastern frontiers of Greater Romania . In a report to Berlin, a German diplomat wrote that Marshal Antonescu had syphilis and that "among [Romanian] cavalry officers this disease is as widespread as a common cold is among German officers. The Marshal suffers from severe attacks of it every several months." Antonescu took one of his most debated decisions when, with Bessarabia's conquest almost complete, he committed Romania to Hitler's war effort beyond

23370-460: The economy. Already the Iron Guard had embraced the politics of assassination, and various governments had reacted more or less in kind. On 10 December 1933, Liberal prime minister Ion Duca "dissolved" the Iron Guard, arresting thousands; consequently, 19 days later he was assassinated by Iron Guard legionnaires. Throughout the 1930s, these nationalist parties had a mutually distrustful relationship with King Carol II. Nonetheless, in December 1937,

23575-603: The educated were otherwise a tiny minority. Transylvania had the most educated population in Greater Romania, while Bessarabia fared the worst. While legally all Romanians were required to undergo at least four years of schooling, in practice few actually did and the system was designed to separate those who would go on to higher education from those who would not. While this was partially necessary due to limited resources, it ensured that peasants had almost no chance of becoming educated. High school and college education in Romania

23780-509: The effect of discrediting the entire elite. Antonescu's internment ended in August, during which interval, under Axis pressure, Romania had ceded Southern Dobruja to Bulgaria ( see Treaty of Craiova ) and Northern Transylvania to Hungary ( see Second Vienna Award ). The latter grant caused consternation among large sections of Romania's population, causing Carol's popularity to fall to a record low and provoking large-scale protests in Bucharest,

23985-472: The entire Jewish community of Romania, Filderman included were morally responsible for all of the losses and sufferings of the Romanians around Odessa. In the fall of 1941, Antonescu planned to deport all of the Jews of the Regat , southern Bukovina and southern Transylvania into Transnistria as the prelude to killing them, but this operation was vetoed by Germany, who complained that Antonescu had not finished killing

24190-403: The exception of the southern halves of Bukovina and Transylvania , these territories were ceded to neighboring countries in 1940, under the pressure of Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union . Following the abolishment of the 1923 constitution by King Carol II in 1938, the Kingdom of Romania became an absolute monarchy , only to become a military dictatorship under Ion Antonescu in 1940 after

24395-445: The fall of Odessa was celebrated triumphantly with a parade through Bucharest's Arcul de Triumf , and when many Romanians reportedly believed the war was as good as won. In Odessa itself, the aftermath included a large-scale massacre of the Jewish population, ordered by the Marshal as retaliation for a bombing which killed a number of Romanian officers and soldiers (General Ioan Glogojeanu among them). The city subsequently became

24600-518: The field on 10 November 1918, a day before the war ended in Western Europe. Following the proclamation of the union of Transylvania with the Kingdom of Romania on 1 December 1918 by the representatives of Transylvanian Romanians gathered at Alba Iulia , Transylvania was soon united with the Kingdom, as was Bessarabia earlier in 1918, since the power vacuum in Russia caused by the civil war there allowed

24805-665: The first days of 1943, when the 21-year-old monarch used his New Year's address on national radio to part with the Axis war effort. In March 1944, the Soviet Red Army broke the Southern Bug and Dniester fronts, advancing on Bessarabia. This came just as Field Marshal Henry Maitland Wilson , the British Supreme Allied Commander of the Mediterranean theatre , presented Antonescu with an ultimatum . After

25010-692: The first locally-built warship, the minelayer NMS  Amiral Murgescu . During the war, Romania copied and produced hundreds of Soviet M1938 mortars , as well as designing and producing up to 400 75 mm Reșița Model 1943 anti-tank guns. Infantry weapons designed and produced by Romania during the war include the Orița M1941 sub-machinegun and the Argeș flamethrower . Romania also built 30 Vănătorul de care R-35 , 34 TACAM T-60 , 21 TACAM R-2 tank destroyers and rebuilt 34 captured Soviet Komsomolets armored tractors . A few prototype vehicles were also built, such as

25215-403: The first opportunity and regarded Romanian involvement on the Eastern Front in part as a way of proving to Hitler that Romania was a better German ally than Hungary, and thus deserving of German support when the planned Romanian-Hungarian war began. The Conducător had also created an intra-Axis alliance against Hungary along with Croatia and Slovakia . As the Soviet Union recovered from

25420-422: The following period amalgamate military and civilian losses of all kinds, which produces a total of 554,000 victims of the war. To improve the Romanian army's effectiveness, the Mareșal tank destroyer was developed starting in late 1942. Marshal Antonescu, after whom the vehicle was named, was involved in the project himself. The vehicle later influenced the development of the German Hetzer . In this context,

25625-550: The following two years attending courses at the Special Cavalry Section in Târgoviște . Reportedly, Antonescu was a zealous and goal-setting student, upset by the slow pace of promotions, and compensated for his diminutive stature through toughness. In time, the reputation of being a tough and ruthless commander, together with his reddish hair, earned him the nickname Câinele Roșu ("The Red Dog"). Antonescu also developed

25830-472: The forced abdication of King Carol II, with his successor, King Michael I being a figurehead with no effective political power. The country's name was changed to Legionary Romania . The disastrous World War II campaign on the side of the Axis powers led to King Michael's Coup against Ion Antonescu in 1944, as a result of which the Kingdom of Romania became a constitutional monarchy again and switched sides to

26035-469: The form, if not always the substance, of a liberal constitutional monarchy. The National Liberal Party , dominant in the years immediately after World War I, became increasingly clientelist and nationalist , and in 1927 was supplanted in power by the National Peasants' Party . Between 1930 and 1940 there were over 25 separate governments; on several occasions in the last few years before World War II,

26240-566: The general became Prime Minister, and Carol transferred most of his dictatorial powers to him. The latter's first measure was to curtail potential resistance within the Army by relieving Bucharest Garrison chief Gheorghe Argeșanu of his position and replacing him with Dumitru Coroamă . Shortly afterward, Antonescu heard rumours that two of Carol's loyalist generals, Gheorghe Mihail and Paul Teodorescu , were planning to have him killed. In reaction, he forced Carol to abdicate, while General Coroamă

26445-405: The ground" of Jews when Romanian forces entered Bessarabia and Bukovina. Right from the start, Antonescu proclaimed the war against the Soviet Union to be a "holy war", a "crusade" in the name of Eastern Orthodox faith and the Romanian race against the forces of "Judeo-Bolshevism". The propaganda of the Antonescu regime demonized everything Jewish as Antonescu believed that Communism was invented by

26650-455: The guard, being replaced as Premier with General Constantin Sănătescu , who presided over a national government . The new Romanian authorities declared peace with the Allies and advised the population to greet Soviet troops. On 25 August, as Bucharest was successfully defending itself against German retaliations, Romania declared war on Nazi Germany. The events disrupted German domination in

26855-514: The ideas of Gustave Le Bon , a researcher of crowd psychology who had an influence on Fascism. Bibesco saw Antonescu as a new version of 19th century nationalist Frenchman Georges Boulanger , introducing him as such to Le Bon. In 1923, he made the acquaintance of lawyer Mihai Antonescu , who was to become his close friend, legal representative and political associate. After returning to Romania in 1926, Antonescu resumed his teaching in Sibiu, and, in

27060-399: The indictment and corpus of evidence (ranking below charges of anti-Soviet aggression), the procedures also included Antonescu's admission of and self-exculpating take on war crimes, including the deportations to Transnistria. They also evidence his awareness of the Odessa massacre, accompanied by his claim that few of the deaths were his direct responsibility. One notable event at the trial

27265-448: The influence of the ideas of the Iron Guard that Antonescu had absorbed in the 1930s. Antonescu's anti-Semitism and sexism went so far that he tacitly condoned the rape of Jewish women and girls in Bessarabia and northern Bukovinia by his forces under the grounds that he was going take away all of the property that the Jews had "stolen" from the Romanians, and as far he was concerned, Jewish females were just another piece of property. Since

27470-579: The influx of refugees from areas lost earlier in the year and a large-scale earthquake affecting Bucharest . Disorder peaked in the last days of November 1940, when, after uncovering the circumstances of Codreanu's death, the fascist movement ordered retaliations against political figures previously associated with Carol, carrying out the Jilava Massacre , the assassinations of Nicolae Iorga and Virgil Madgearu , and several other acts of violence. As retaliation for this insubordination, Antonescu ordered

27675-403: The initial shock and slowed down the Axis offensive at the Battle of Moscow (October 1941 – January 1942), Romania was asked by its allies to contribute a larger number of troops. A decisive factor in Antonescu's compliance with the request appears to have been a special visit to Bucharest by Wehrmacht chief of staff Wilhelm Keitel , who introduced the Conducător to Hitler's plan for attacking

27880-427: The king appointed National Christian Party leader, the poet Octavian Goga , as prime minister of Romania's first Fascist government . Around this time, Carol met with Adolf Hitler , who expressed his wish to see a Romanian government headed by the pro-Nazi Iron Guard. Instead, on 10 February 1938 King Carol II used the occasion of a public insult by Goga toward Lupescu as a reason to dismiss the government and institute

28085-424: The king free rein to dissolve parliament and call elections at will; as a result, Romania experienced over 25 governments in a single decade. Increasingly, these governments were dominated by a number of anti-Semitic , ultra-nationalist, and mostly at least quasi-fascist parties. The National Liberal Party steadily became more nationalistic than liberal, but nonetheless lost its dominance over Romanian politics. It

28290-752: The latter's first and second trials. During the latter, which resulted in Codreanu's conviction for treason , Antonescu vouched for his friend's honesty while shaking his hand in front of the jury. Upon the conclusion of the trial, the king ordered his former minister interned at Predeal , before assigning him to command the Third Army in the remote eastern region of Bessarabia (and later removing him after Antonescu expressed sympathy for Guardists imprisoned in Chișinău ). Attempting to discredit his rival, Carol also ordered Antonescu's wife to be tried for bigamy , based on

28495-643: The local industry. Industrial facilities acquired along with the new provinces, such as the Reșița works , also contributed to the rapid development of Romanian heavy industry. Other important establishments were the Copșa Mică works , producing non-ferrous metals and the Romanian Optical Enterprise . Construction also developed, as great monuments like the Caraiman Cross (1928), Arcul de Triumf (1936), and

28700-457: The main issues discussed were the German-Romanian alliance, the war on the Soviet Union, the economic toll on both countries, and Romania's participation in the Holocaust (defined specifically as crimes against "peaceful Soviet citizens"). At some point during this period, Antonescu attempted suicide in his quarters. He was returned to Bucharest in spring 1946 and held in Jilava Prison . He

28905-543: The matter in their own hands. The land reform passed in 1921 accomplished little however. Large landowners still controlled up to 30% of Romania's land, including the forests peasants depended on for fuel. The redistributed plots were invariably too small to feed their owners and most peasants could not overcome their tradition of growing grain over cash crops. Nothing was done to remedy basic problems such as rural overpopulation and technological backwardness. Draft animals were rare, to say nothing of machinery, actual productivity

29110-432: The mid-1930s, the Romanian economy recovered and the industry grew significantly, although about 80% of Romanians were still employed in agriculture. French economic and political influence was predominant in the early 1920s but then Germany became more dominant, especially in the 1930s. As the 1930s progressed, Romania's already shaky democracy slowly deteriorated toward fascist dictatorship. The constitution of 1923 gave

29315-432: The military action, but laid a claim to the territories in eastern Vojvodina ( western Banat ) and the Timok Valley , home to a sizeable Romanian community . Reportedly, Germany's initial designs of granting Vojvodina to Hungary enhanced the tensions between Antonescu and Miklós Horthy to the point where war between the two countries became a possibility. Such incidents made Germany indefinitely prolong its occupation of

29520-401: The monarch, arrested Codreanu and prosecuted him in two successive trials. Antonescu, whose mandate of Defense Minister had been prolonged under the premiership of Miron Cristea , resigned in protest of Codreanu's arrest. Antonescu's mandate ended on 30 March 1938. He also served as Air and Marine Minister between 2 February and his resignation on 30 March. He was a celebrity defense witness at

29725-444: The movement during the late months of 1940. However, he tolerated the PNȚ and PNL's informal existence, allowing them to preserve much of their political support. There followed a short-lived and always uneasy partnership between Antonescu and Sima. In late September, the new regime denounced all pacts, accords and diplomatic agreements signed under Carol, bringing the country into Germany's orbit while subverting its relationship with

29930-493: The movement. After two days of widespread violence, during which Guardists killed some 120 Bucharest Jews, Antonescu sent in the Army, under the command of General Constantin Sănătescu . German officials acting on Hitler's orders, including the new Ambassador Manfred Freiherr von Killinger , helped Antonescu eliminate the Iron Guardists, but several of their lower-level colleagues actively aided Sima's subordinates. Goebbels

30135-647: The mysterious assassination of Major Döring, a German agent in Bucharest, which was used by the Iron Guard as a pretext to accuse the Conducător of having a secret anti-German agenda, and made Antonescu oust the Legionary Interior Minister , Constantin Petrovicescu , while closing down all of the Legionary-controlled "Romanianization" offices. Various other clashes prompted him to demand the resignation of all Police commanders who sympathized with

30340-580: The nominal suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire united an identifiably Romanian nation under a single ruler. On 24 January ( O.S. ) / 5 February 1862, the two principalities were formally united to form the Principality of Romania , with Bucharest as its capital. On 11 ( O.S. ) / 23 February 1866 a so-called " monstrous coalition ", composed of Conservatives and radical Liberals, forced Cuza to abdicate. The German prince Charles of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen

30545-558: The north and the lower Dniester to the east. This normalized his relations with Nazi German officials, whose alarm over the possible loss of an ally had resulted in the Margarethe II plan, an adapted version of the Nazi takeover in Hungary . However, Antonescu's non-compliance with the terms of Wilson's ultimatum also had drastic effects on Romania's ability to exit the war. By then, Antonescu

30750-429: The only enemy of the Central Powers on the Eastern Front . In these conditions, the Romanian government made its own peace treaty with the Central Powers . Romania broke the treaty later in the year, on the grounds that King Ferdinand I had not signed it. During the interval, Antonescu, who viewed the separate peace as "the most rational solution," was assigned command over a cavalry regiment. The renewed offensive played

30955-431: The only foreign language Antonescu knew was French, in which he was completely fluent. During their meetings, Antonescu spoke French, which was then translated into German by Hitler's interpreter Paul Schmidt and vice versa, since Schmidt did not speak Romanian either. The German military presence increased significantly in early 1941, when, using Romania as a base, Hitler invaded the rebellious Kingdom of Yugoslavia and

31160-460: The patience to listen to Antonescu's lengthy disquisitions on the glorious history of Romania and the perfidy of the Hungarians—a curious reversal for a man who was more accustomed to regaling visitors with tirades of his own." In later statements, Hitler offered praise to Antonescu's "breadth of vision" and "real personality." A remarkable aspect of the Hitler-Antonescu friendship was neither could speak other's language. Hitler only knew German, while

31365-406: The people were ethnic Romanian. Soon after the takeover, the area was assigned to a civil administration apparatus headed by Gheorghe Alexianu and became the site for the main component of the Holocaust in Romania : a mass deportation of the Bessarabian and Ukrainian Jews , followed later by transports of Romani Romanians and Jews from Moldavia proper (that is, the portions of Moldavia west of

31570-444: The political class and the monarch. His projects for weapon modernization were questioned by Defense Minister Paul Angelescu , leading Antonescu to present his resignation. According to another account, he completed an official report on the embezzlement of Army funds which indirectly implicated Carol and his camarilla ( see Škoda Affair ). The king consequently ordered him out of office, provoking indignation among sections of

31775-628: The political crisis of 1940, and established the National Legionary State , an uneasy partnership with Horia Sima of the Iron Guard . After entering Romania into an alliance with Nazi Germany , he eliminated the Guard during the Legionary Rebellion of 1941. In addition to being Prime Minister, he served as his own Foreign Minister and Defense Minister. Soon after Romania joined the Axis in Operation Barbarossa , recovering Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina , Antonescu also became Marshal of Romania . An atypical figure among Holocaust perpetrators, Antonescu enforced policies independently responsible for

31980-444: The political mainstream. On Carol's orders, Antonescu was placed under surveillance by the Siguranța Statului intelligence service, and closely monitored by the Interior Ministry Undersecretary Armand Călinescu . The officer's political credentials were on the rise, as he was able to establish and maintain contacts with people on all sides of the political spectrum, while support for Carol plummeted. Among these were contacts with

32185-480: The proposal, Antonescu being ordered to approach political party leaders Maniu of the PNȚ and Dinu Brătianu of the PNL. They all called for Carol's abdication as a preliminary measure, while Sima, another leader sought after for negotiations, could not be found in time to express his opinion. Antonescu partly complied with the request but also asked Carol to bestow upon him the reserve powers for Romanian heads of state. Carol yielded and, on 5 September 1940,

32390-486: The public and partly because Pop knew that Antonescu, for all his Legionary sympathies, was a member of the elite and believed he would never turn against it. When Carol proved reluctant to make Antonescu Prime Minister, Pop visited the German legation to meet with Fabricius on the night of 4 September 1940 to ask that the German minister phone Carol to tell him that the Reich wanted Antonescu as Prime Minister, and Fabricius promptly did just that. Carol and Antonescu accepted

32595-411: The railway network was expanded more. Another, more modern brick factory was built in 1891. Despite all of these industrial achievements, the overwhelming majority of Romania's economy remained agricultural. In 1919, a staggering 72% of Romanians were engaged in agriculture. The Romanian peasantry was among the poorest in the region, a situation aggravated by one of Europe's highest birth rates. Farming

32800-431: The region. The Romanian authorities issued projects for an independent Macedonia with autonomy for its Aromanian communities, while an official memorandum on the Timok Valley, approved by Antonescu, made mention of "Romanian" areas "from Timok [...] to Salonika ". The Conducător also maintained contacts with Aromanian fascists in Axis-occupied Greece , awarding refuge to Alcibiades Diamandi and Nicola Matussi of

33005-417: The remainder of the war and influenced his decisions. Such was the influence of Antonescu on General Prezan that General Alexandru Averescu used the formula "Prezan (Antonescu)" in his memoirs to denote Prezan's plans and actions. That autumn, Romania's main ally, the Russian Provisional Government , left the conflict. Its successor, Bolshevik Russia , made peace with the Central Powers , leaving Romania

33210-426: The result being the most effective field howitzer in Europe at that time. Romania even managed to design and build from scratch its own model of mortar, the 250 mm Negrei Model 1916. Other Romanian technological assets include the building of Vlaicu III , the world's first aircraft made of metal. The Romanian Navy possessed the largest warships on the Danube. They were a class of 4 river monitors, built locally at

33415-464: The rivalry between the fascist Iron Guard and other political groupings approached the level of a civil war. Upon the death of King Ferdinand in 1927, his son, Prince Carol , was prevented from succeeding him because of previous marital scandals that had resulted in his renunciation of rights to the throne. After living three years in exile, with his brother Nicolae serving as regent and his young son Michael as king, Carol changed his mind and with

33620-521: The rule of Carol's underage son Michael I and his regents, and with Carol's seizure of power in 1930. During this period Antonescu first grew interested in the Iron Guard , an antisemitic and fascist-related movement headed by Corneliu Zelea Codreanu . In his capacity as Deputy Chief of Staff, he ordered the Army's intelligence unit to compile a report on the faction, and made a series of critical notes on Codreanu's various statements. As Chief of Staff, Antonescu reportedly had his first confrontation with

33825-409: The semi-clandestine PNL and PNȚ. Insofar as the war against the Soviet Union was a war to recover Bessarabia and northern Bukovina – both regions that been a part of Romania until June 1940 and that had Romanian majorities – the conflict had been very popular with the Romanian public opinion. But the idea of conquering Transnistria was not as that region had never been part of Romania, and a minority of

34030-411: The situation earned him praise from King Carol I , who sent Crown Prince (future monarch) Ferdinand to congratulate him in front of the whole garrison. The following year, Antonescu was promoted to Lieutenant, and, between 1911 and 1913, he attended the Advanced War School , receiving the rank of Captain upon graduation. In 1913, during the Second Balkan War against Bulgaria , Antonescu served as

34235-401: The squad was mostly composed of Jewish policemen. Another apologetic claim insists that he himself ordered the squad to shoot, but footage of the event has proven it false. However, he did refuse a blindfold and raised his hat in salute once the order was given. The execution site, some distance away from the locality of Jilava and the prison fort, was known as Valea Piersicilor ("Valley of

34440-435: The start of the operation. One of the earliest major obstacles Antonescu encountered on the Eastern Front was the resistance of Odessa , a Soviet port on the Black Sea . Refusing any German assistance, he ordered the Romanian Army to maintain a two-month siege on heavily fortified and well-defended positions. The ill-equipped 4th Army suffered losses of some 100,000 men. Antonescu's popularity again rose in October, when

34645-655: The state had to speak Romanian. The new state was also a highly centralized one, so it was unlikely that the Hungarian or German minorities would exercise political influence without personal connections in the government in Bucharest. Despite these policies, the Romanian government permitted both Germans and Hungarians the freedom to have separate schools, publications and judicial hearings in their respective languages. These rights were not extended to other minorities, Jews in particular. The Romanian expression România Mare (literal translation "Great Romania", but more commonly rendered in English: "Greater Romania") generally refers to

34850-418: The support of the ruling National Peasants' Party he returned and proclaimed himself king. Iuliu Maniu , leader of the National Peasants' Party, engineered Carol's return on the basis of a promise that he would forsake his mistress Magda Lupescu , and Lupescu herself had agreed to the arrangement. However, it became clear upon Carol's first re-encounter with his former wife, Elena , that he had no interest in

35055-445: The syphilis he contracted as a young man, a condition he suffered from for the rest of his life. He became attache in Paris in 1922. He negotiated a credit worth 100 million French francs to purchase French weaponry. He worked together with Romanian diplomat Nicolae Titulescu ; the two became personal friends. He was also in contact with the Romanian-born conservative aristocrat and writer Marthe Bibesco , who introduced Antonescu to

35260-417: The time, Antonescu viewed Romania's alliance with the Entente as insurance against Hungarian and Soviet revanchism , but, as an anti-communist , he was suspicious of the Franco-Soviet rapprochement . Particularly concerned about Hungarian demands in Transylvania, he ordered the General Staff to prepare for a western attack. However, his major contribution in office was in relation to an internal crisis: as

35465-434: The two dictators, and Hitler reportedly came to see Antonescu as the only trustworthy person in Romania, and the only foreigner to consult on military matters. The American historian Gerhard Weinberg wrote that Hitler after first meeting Antonescu "...was greatly impressed by him; no other leader Hitler met other than Mussolini ever received such consistently favourable comments from the German dictator. Hitler even mustered

35670-405: The two main democratic groups, the National Liberal and the National Peasants' , parties known respectively as PNL and PNȚ. He was also engaged in discussions with the rising far right , antisemitic and fascist movements; although in competition with each other, both the National Christian Party (PNC) of Octavian Goga and the Iron Guard sought to attract Antonescu to their side. In 1936, to

35875-410: The war following the October Revolution , Romania, being almost completely surrounded by the Central Powers, was forced to also drop from the war, signing the Armistice of Focșani and next year, in May 1918, the Treaty of Bucharest . But after the successful offensive on the Thessaloniki front which put Bulgaria out of the war, Romania's government quickly reasserted control and put an army back into

36080-474: The war unpopular with the Romanian people, and consequently the Conducător himself. The American historian Gerhard Weinberg wrote that: "The string of broken German promises of equipment and support, the disregard of warnings about Soviet offensive preparations, the unfriendly treatment of retreating Romanian units by German officers and soldiers and the general German tendency to blame their own miscalculations and disasters on their allies all combined to produce

36285-463: The war, Romania acquired from France the licence to produce hundreds of Brandt Mle 27/31 and Brandt Mle 1935 mortars, with hundreds more produced during the war, and also the licence to produce 140 French 47 mm Schneider anti-tank guns at the Concordia factory, with 118 produced between 26 May 1939 and 1 August 1940 and hundreds more produced during the war; these guns were to be towed by Malaxa Tip UE armored carriers, built since late 1939 at

36490-547: The war, the Germanic and Latin races would rule the world in a partnership turned out to be meaningless. In June of that year, Romania joined the attack on the Soviet Union, led by Germany in coalition with Hungary, Finland , the State of Slovakia , the Kingdom of Italy , and the Independent State of Croatia . Antonescu had been made aware of the plan by German envoys, and supported it enthusiastically even before Hitler extended Romania an offer to participate. On 18 June 1941, Antonescu gave orders to his generals about "cleansing

36695-399: Was a constitutional monarchy that existed from 25 March [ O.S. 13 March] 1881 with the crowning of prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen as King Carol I (thus beginning the Romanian royal family ), until 1947 with the abdication of King Michael I and the Romanian parliament's proclamation of the Romanian People's Republic . From 1859 to 1877, Romania evolved from

36900-418: Was a Romanian military officer and marshal who presided over two successive wartime dictatorships as Prime Minister and Conducător during most of World War II. Having been responsible for facilitating the Holocaust in Romania , he was tried for war crimes and executed in 1946. A Romanian Army career officer who made his name during the 1907 peasants' revolt and the World War I Romanian campaign ,

37105-457: Was a testimony by PNȚ leader Iuliu Maniu . Reacting against the aggressive tone of other accusers, Maniu went on record saying: "We [Maniu and Antonescu] were political adversaries, not cannibals ." Upon leaving the bench, Maniu walked toward Antonescu and shook his hand. Ion Antonescu was found guilty of the charges. This verdict was followed by two sets of appeals , which claimed that the restored and amended 1923 Constitution did not offer

37310-406: Was achieved when, under the auspices of the Treaty of Paris (1856) , the ad hoc Divans of both countries – which were under Imperial Ottoman suzerainty at the time – voted for Alexander Ioan Cuza as their prince, thus achieving a de facto unification. The region itself is defined by the result of that political act, followed by the inclusion of Northern Dobruja in 1878, the proclamation of

37515-410: Was acquired in 1938 to produce 360 37 mm Rheinmetall anti-aircraft guns , but only 102 were produced until May 1941. British licence was acquired to produce 100 Vickers Model 1931 75 mm anti-aircraft guns at the Reșița works , with the first battery of 6 guns entering service on 1 August 1939, and 100 more guns were built during the war for a total production of 200. On 14 June, Romania launched

37720-439: Was acting on Maniu's request. Antonescu subsequently met with Maniu in Ploiești , where they discussed how best to manage the political situation. While these negotiations were carried out, the monarch himself was being advised by his entourage to recover legitimacy by governing in tandem with the increasingly popular Antonescu, while creating a new political majority from the existing forces. On 2 September 1940, Valer Pop,

37925-538: Was always treated as a major ally by Hitler. While Germany monopolized Romania's exports, it defaulted on most of its payments. Like all countries whose exports to Germany, particularly in oil, exceeded imports from that country, Romania's economy suffered from Nazi control of the exchange rate ( see Economy of Nazi Germany ). On the German side, those directly involved in harnessing Romania's economic output for German goals were economic planners Hermann Göring and Walther Funk , together with Hermann Neubacher ,

38130-413: Was appointed as Prince of Romania, in a move to assure German backing to unity and future independence. He immediately adopted the Romanian spelling of his name, Carol , and his cognatic descendants would rule Romania until the overthrow of the monarchy in 1947. For more than a decade after the formal union of the two principalities, Romania was still nominally a vassal of the Ottoman Empire. However, this

38335-499: Was conceiving of a separate peace with the Western Allies, while maintaining contacts with the Soviets. In parallel, the mainstream opposition movement came to establish contacts with the Romanian Communist Party (PCR), which, although minor numerically, gained importance for being the only political group to be favored by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin . On the PCR side, the discussions involved Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu and later Emil Bodnăraș . Another participating group at this stage

38540-404: Was considered one of the most modern field guns on the Western Front. The Romanian armament industry was expanded greatly during the Interwar period and World War II. New factories were constructed, such as the Industria Aeronautică Română and Societatea Pentru Exploatări Tehnice aircraft factories, which produced hundreds of indigenous aircraft, such as IAR 37 , IAR 80 , and SET 7 . Before

38745-421: Was divided into 33 counties. After World War I, as a result of the 1925 administrative unification law, the territory was divided into 71 counties, 489 districts ( plăși ) and 8,879 communes . In 1938, King Carol II promulgated a new Constitution , and subsequently he had the administrative division of the Romanian territory changed. Ten ținuturi (approximate translation: "lands") were created (by merging

38950-517: Was eclipsed by parties like the (relatively moderate) National Peasants' Party and its more radical Romanian Front offshoot, the National-Christian Defense League (LANC) and the Iron Guard . In 1935, LANC merged with the National Agrarian Party to form the National Christian Party (NCP). The quasi-mystical fascist Iron Guard was an earlier LANC offshoot that, even more than these other parties, exploited nationalist feelings, fear of communism, and resentment of alleged foreign and Jewish domination of

39155-543: Was ensuring the safe departure into self-exile of Carol and his mistress Elena Lupescu , granting protection to the royal train when it was attacked by armed members of the Iron Guard. The regime of King Carol had been notorious for being the most corrupt regime in Europe during the 1930s, and when Carol fled Romania, he took with him the better part of the Romanian treasury, leaving the new government with enormous financial problems. Antonescu had expected, perhaps naïvely, that Carol would take with him enough money to provide for

39360-493: Was especially close to his mother, Lița Baranga, who survived his death. His father, an army officer, wanted Ion to follow in his footsteps and thus sent him to attend the Infantry and Cavalry School in Craiova . During his childhood, his father divorced his mother to marry a woman who was a Jewish convert to Orthodoxy. The breakup of his parents' marriage was a traumatic event for the young Antonescu, and he made no secret of his dislike of his stepmother, whom he always depicted as

39565-462: Was especially upset by the decision to support Antonescu, believing it to have been advantageous to "the Freemasons." After the purge of the Iron Guard, Hitler kept his options open by granting political asylum to Sima—whom Antonescu's courts sentenced to death —and to other Legionaries in similar situations. The Guardists were detained in special conditions at Buchenwald and Dachau concentration camps . In parallel, Antonescu publicly obtained

39770-469: Was forced to cede the southern part of Bessarabia in exchange for Northern Dobruja . The kingdom's territory during the reign of King Carol I, between 13 ( O.S. ) / 25 March 1881 and 27 September ( O.S. ) / 10 October 1914 is sometimes referred to as the Romanian Old Kingdom , to distinguish it from " Greater Romania ", which included the provinces that became part of the state after World War I ( Bessarabia , Banat , Bukovina , and Transylvania ). With

39975-411: Was ideologically closer to him, Antonescu was the more competent leader capable of ensuring stability in Romania while being committed to aligning his country with the Axis. The Antonescu-Sima dispute erupted into violence in January 1941, when the Iron Guard instigated a series of attacks on public institutions and a pogrom , incidents collectively known as the " Legionary Rebellion ." This came after

40180-431: Was increasingly a legal fiction. Romania had its own flag and anthem, and from 1867 had its own currency as well. Following the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 , Romania was recognized as an independent state by the Treaty of Berlin, 1878 and acquired Dobruja , although it was forced to surrender southern Bessarabia ( Budjak ) to Russia. On 15 March 1881, as an assertion of full sovereignty, the Romanian parliament raised

40385-512: Was mainly focused on converting various fortification guns into field and anti-aircraft artillery. Up to 334 German 53 mm Fahrpanzer guns, 93 French 57 mm Hotchkiss guns, 66 Krupp 150 mm guns and dozens more 210 mm guns were mounted on Romanian-built carriages and transformed into mobile field artillery, with 45 Krupp 75 mm guns and 132 Hotchkiss 57 mm guns being transformed into anti-aircraft artillery. The Romanians also upgraded 120 German Krupp 105 mm howitzers,

40590-419: Was modeled after the French system. Students undertook a rigid curriculum based around the liberal arts. Romania suffered from the same problem as the rest of Eastern Europe, which was that most students, coming from aristocratic backgrounds, preferred to study subjects such as theology, philosophy, literature and the fine arts over science, business, and engineering. After Independence, the Romanian Old Kingdom

40795-424: Was possible until an armistice was signed with the Soviet Union, a condition Antonescu rejected. In parallel, he allowed the PNȚ and the PNL to engage in parallel talks with the Allies at various locations in neutral countries. The discussions were strained by the Western Allies ' call for an unconditional surrender , over which the Romanian envoys bargained with Allied diplomats in Sweden and Egypt (among them

41000-441: Was primitive and machinery and chemical fertilizers almost unheard of. The Regat (prewar Romania) was traditionally a land of large estates worked by peasants who either had little or no land of their own. The situation in Transylvania and Bessarabia was marginally better. After peasant calls for land reform snowballed into an avalanche, King Ferdinand had to oblige, especially once the Russian Revolution had encouraged peasants to take

41205-447: Was refusing to carry out the royal order of shooting down Iron Guardist protesters. Michael ascended the throne for the second time, while Antonescu's dictatorial powers were confirmed and extended. On 6 September, the day Michael formally assumed the throne, he issued a royal decree declaring Antonescu Conducător (leader) of the state. The same decree relegated the monarch to a ceremonial role. Among Antonescu's subsequent measures

41410-443: Was subsequently interrogated by prosecutor Avram Bunaciu , to whom he complained about the conditions of his detainment, contrasting them with those in Moscow, while explaining that he was a vegetarian and demanding a special diet. In May 1946, Ion Antonescu was prosecuted at the first in a series of People's Tribunals , on charges of war crimes , crimes against the peace and treason . The tribunals had first been proposed by

41615-413: Was the old Romanian Social Democratic Party . Large-scale Allied bombings of Bucharest took place in spring 1944, while the Soviet Red Army approached Romanian borders. The Battle for Romania began in late summer: while German commanders Johannes Frießner and Otto Wöhler of the Army Group South Ukraine attempted to hold Bukovina , Soviet Steppe Front leader Rodion Malinovsky stormed into

41820-433: Was upheld and strengthened, while the " Romanianization " of Jewish-owned enterprises became standard official practice. Immediately after coming into office, Antonescu himself expanded the anti-Jewish and Nuremberg law -inspired legislation passed by his predecessors Goga and Ion Gigurtu , while tens of new anti-Jewish regulations were passed in 1941–1942. This was done despite his formal pledge to Wilhelm Filderman and

42025-452: Was worse than before. Romanian agriculture struggled in the international market, and with the onset of the Great Depression , collapsed completely. Romania's 1913 GDP at the 1990 exchange rate amounted to $ 11.7 billion. However, the 1990 dollar was 9.27 times weaker than the 1938 dollar. Thus, Romania's 1913 GDP at the 1938 exchange rate amounted to $ 1.262 billion. The 1938 Romanian GDP amounted to 387.204 billion lei, with

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