on Antonescu
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| Ion Victor Antonescu | |
 Ion Antonescu, minutes before his execution | |
| | |
|---|---|
| In office September 4, 1940 – August 23, 1944 | |
| Preceded by | Ion Gigurtu |
| Succeeded by | Constantin Sănătescu |
| Conducător of Romania | |
| In office September 6, 1940 – August 23, 1944 | |
| Preceded by | Carol II (as king of Romania) |
| Succeeded by | none |
| | |
| Born | June 15, 1882 Piteşti, Romania |
| Died | June 1, 1946 (aged 63) Jilava, Romania |
| Nationality | Romanian |
| Political party | none, formally allied with the Iron Guard |
| Spouse | Raşela Mendel (div.) Maria Antonescu |
| Profession | soldier |
| Religion | Romanian Orthodox |
| Military service | |
| Rank | Field Marshal |
Ion Victor Antonescu (June 15, 1882, Piteşti – June 1, 1946, near Jilava) was the prime minister and conducător (Leader) of Romania during World War II from September 4, 1940 to August 23, 1944.
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Early life and military career
Antonescu was born into an upper-middle class family with some military tradition. His father, an army officer, wanted Ion to follow his footsteps, and as such, he sent him to attend the Infantry and Cavalry School in Craiova. After graduation, in 1904, he joined the Romanian Army with the rank of second lieutenant. He spent the following two years attending courses at the Ṣcoala Superioară de Cavaleri in Târgovişte.[1]
During the repression of the 1907 peasants' revolt, he was the head of a cavalry unit in Covurlui, his tact in handling the situation earning him the praise of King Carol I, who sent Crown Prince Ferdinand to congratulate him in front of the whole garrison. The following year, he was promoted to lieutenant.[1] Between 1911 and 1913, he attended the Ṣcoala Superioară de Război, after its graduation earning the rank of captain.[1]
In 1913, during the Second Balkan War against Bulgaria, Antonescu served as a staff officer in the First Cavalry Division.[1] The Bulgarian army was already deployed against Serbia and Greece, so Romania's entering the war led to Bulgaria suing for peace. Following the 1913 war (which brought the Cadrilater into Romania), Antonescu received Romania's highest military decoration: The Order of Michael the Brave (Romanian: Ordinul Mihai Viteazul).[citation needed]
During Romania's involvement in World War I (1916-1918), Antonescu acted as chief of staff for General Constantin Prezan.[1] In August 1916, Romanian armies crossed the Carpathian Mountains, attempting to take Transylvania (then a territory of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but mainly inhabited by Romanians), but their offensive was later stopped by the Austro-Hungarian armies, with German help. The disaster at Turtucaia (August 24) showed that the Romanian army was not ready for the war. With German and Bulgarian troops pushing through Dobruja and with demoralised Allied Russian troops retreating and deserting en masse in the wake of Brusilov Offensive[citation needed] (their orders were to defend the Danube line), the Romanian Army was forced to retreat from Transylvania and defend the Carpathian borders.
Upon enemy troops crossing the mountains into the Old Kingdom, Antonescu was ordered to design a defense plan for the Romanian capital of Bucharest.[1] The battle for the capital was lost, due to the capture by enemy troops of an officer carrying the battle plan. The Romanian royal court, army and administration were forced to retreat into Moldavia.
In December, as Prezan became the Chief of the General Staff, Antonescu, who was by now a major, was named the head of operations, being involved in the defense of Moldavia. He contributed to the tactics used during the Battle of Mărăşeşti (July-August 1917).[1]
The Romanian Army, instructed by the French Mission, and led by General Alexandru Averescu managed to stop the advance of the German Army headed by Field Marshal Mackensen. He was both observer and coordinator for the Battle of Mărăşti-Oituz.
However, in late 1917 the Russian revolution took place. Soviet Russia soon made peace with Germany, leaving Romania the only enemy of the Central Powers on the Eastern Front. In these conditions, the Romanian government signed, and the parliament ratified the Treaty of Bucharest, 1918 with Germany and her allies.
In 1918, however, Romania broke the treaty, on the grounds that the King, Ferdinand I of Romania, did not sign the treaty. Re-entering the war with a re-organized army, Romania was able to support the decisions of the National Romanian Council which ultimately result in the Union of Transylvania with Romania. Upon reaching the river Tisa, King Ferdinand took his own decoration and gave it to lieutenant-colonel Antonescu saying: "Antonescu, no one in this country knows better than the King how much they owe you."[citation needed]
After the war, Antonescu's merits as an operations officer were noticed by among others, Ion Duca, who wrote that "his intelligence, skill and activity, brought credit on himself and invaluable service to the country".[2] The reputation of being a tough and ruthless commander, together with his red hair made him gain the nickname Câinele Roşu (The Red Dog).[3]
In March 1920, Antonescu was one of the three people to be nominated by the Romanian Government to be a military attaché of Romania in France, but the military attaché in Romania, General Victor Pétin's report about him was negative enough (referring to Antonescu as "chauvinistic" and "xenophobic") to make the French side choose a certain Colonel Ṣuţu instead.[2]
Nevertheless, in 1922, Ṣuţu had to leave Paris and the Romanian government nominated Antonescu again, the French government felt obliged to accept his nomination, despite Pétin's negative report about him:
A well-tried intelligence, brutal, duplicitous, very vain, a ferocious will to succeed – these are, together with an extreme xenophobia, the striking characteristics of this strange figure.
—Victor Pétin, military attaché of France in Romania, July 1922
From 1923, he was also the Romanian attaché in London and Brussels. In Paris, Antonescu negotiated a credit worth 100 million francs in order to buy French weaponry. In London, he worked together with Nicolae Titulescu and became a personal friend of his.[4]
After returning to Romania, he was the commander of the "Şcoala Superioară de Război" (Higher School of War) between 1927 and 1930, Chief of the General Staff between 1933 and 1934, and Defense Minister between 1937 and 1938.
Political power
Rise to power
General Antonescu was appointed Prime Minister by King Carol II on September 4, 1940, after Romania was forced to surrender Bessarabia and northern Bukovina to the USSR (June 28, 1940) and the northern half of Transylvania to Hungary (August 30, 1940), and three days before the Cadrilater was transferred to Bulgaria (September 7, 1940). On September 5, following Antonescu's demand, King Carol suspended the Constitution of 1938, dissolved Parliament, and gave Antonescu full powers. That evening, he forced King Carol to abdicate and leave the country, which he did on September 6. Carol's son, Crown Prince Michael (Mihai), was proclaimed the new King, although his powers were essentially ceremonial duties such as supreme Head of the Army. Antonescu named himself Conducător (Leader) and assumed dictatorial powers.
After the traditional, democratic, parties of Romania refused to send competent members into the Government, Antonescu approached the Nationalist Iron Guard party and offered them seats in the Government (September 15, 1940). Antonescu desired to bring the Iron Guard under his direct control, because their paramilitary activities were undermining the authority of the state. The ensuing period was known as the 'National Legionary State' (Statul naţional-legionar). Eventually, after their demands for extended powers were repeatedly turned down by Antonescu, the Iron Guard rebelled (January 21, 1941). Antonescu quickly crushed the rebellion (with the consent of Germany, whose economic and military interests demanded stability in Romania), outlawed the Iron Guard and had their top leaders imprisoned or expelled from the country.
Alliance with Germany
Antonescu formed an alliance with Nazi Germany, thereby ensuring stability and strategic material, such as the extensive Romanian oil reserves, could be used by the Axis Powers. Further, Antonescu was delighted with the prospect of war against the USSR, because of his hatred of Bolshevism, and hoped this would guarantee the reconquest of Bessarabia and northern Bukovina. Also, by participating in the war on the Eastern front, Antonescu hoped to persuade Hitler to give back the northern half of Transylvania to Romania after the hostilities were over. He was informed by Hitler himself about Operation Barbarossa ten days before its launch.
Romanian troops joined the German Wehrmacht in their attack against the Soviet Union (June 22, 1941) and reoccupied the lost territories of Bessarabia and northern Bukovina. For retaking these territories, he was later made Mareşal. The province of Transnistria also came under Romanian administration. Soon after the capture of the city of Odessa, the Romanian headquarters were blown up, supposedly by communists hiding amongst the civilian population.[citation needed] Antonescu ordered retaliation, which culminated in the Odessa Massacre.
After the recapture of Bessarabia and northern Bukovina, Antonescu took the Romanian army deeper into Soviet territory, determined to follow the German troops until the complete destruction of the Soviet army. As he stated during his trial:
When a country is in a war, the army of this country must go to the end of the earth to win the war. It's one of the basic principles of war, that has been applied from the time of the Romans to this very day. Search into the history of wars, any nation, any century, and you will see that no one stops with the army at the borders, but goes farther, aiming to destroy the enemy army. So did Scipio Africanus who took his army to the destruction of Carthage, so did Napoleon, who went to the center of Russia, so did Alexander of Russia, who went all the way to Paris.
This decision was met with disapproval both by Romanian politicians (of the traditional parties) and by the Allied powers. Although Antonescu devoted most of his time to military affairs he failed to prepare the Romanian army for the protracted campaign. To satisfy Hitler, Antonescu sent to the front entire divisions with limited weaponry; Germans armed them only prior to combat. After German and Romanian armies suffered huge losses in the Battle of Stalingrad and the Soviets started to regain their territory, Antonescu's popularity declined sharply.
Fall
In 1943, representatives of Antonescu (members of the traditional parties) twice approached representatives of the United States and Great Britain (in Cairo and Istanbul) asking for separate peace, but the Allies demanded that Antonescu make peace with the Soviets first.[citation needed] Antonescu refused unconditional surrender to the Soviets, but continued negotiating with them through his representatives in Stockholm. In August 1944, when the Soviets had already entered Romanian territory, Antonescu received an armistice proposal from Alexandra Kollontai (Stalin's agent in Stockholm).[5] This armistice proposed that German armies had 15 days to leave the country, the Soviets would only pass through the north of the country (the south and the capital were to remain Soviet-free), and offered recognition of Romanian claims to Hungarian-occupied Northern Transylvania. Considering the overwhelming superiority of the Soviet forces, this seemingly generous offer was interpreted as either allowing the Soviet troops to maintain its push against the German army or as a bluff.
On August 22, 1944 Soviet armies attacked the Iaşi-Chişinău-Cetatea Albă line, determined to occupy the Romanian capital before any armistice could be signed. Antonescu had prepared 9 elite divisions at the Focşani-Nămoloasa-Galaţi line which he hoped could hold out against the Soviets for several weeks until the treaty's approval by both parties. The telegram from Stockholm arrived on August 22, but was intercepted by opposition leader Iuliu Maniu,[citation needed] who was plotting together with King Michael, other opposition members from the historical parties, and even the Romanian Communist Party, to overthrow Antonescu's regime.
On August 23, 1944, Michael invited Antonescu to his Royal Palace. After Antonescu had explained the situation on the warfront, the king asked him if he would sign unconditional surrender to the Russians. Antonescu told the young king about the armistice he was about to sign, although he had no proof (such as the telegram). He also stated that "signing unconditional surrender to the Russians is like jumping out of a plane without a parachute". The King dismissed Antonescu and his cabinet. At the same time, soldiers rushed in and arrested Ion Antonescu and his Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mihai Antonescu, then locked them up in the Palace safe. Later, they were taken by a group of communists, led by Emil Bodnăraş, who took them to a safe house, before handing them over to the Soviets.
At the same time, King Mihai declared a ceasefire on the Romanian side. In absence of an armistice, the Soviet continued to consider Romanians as enemies. The Soviets broke the frontline and took prisoner 114,000 Romanian soldiers. The Germans did not recognize the authority of the new Sănătescu Government and attacked the capital. The Romanian army however managed to hold on to it. A few days later, the Soviets entered Bucharest. The armistice was signed only on September 12, 1944.
Death and legacy
Condemnation and death
After returning from the Soviet Union on April 9, 1946, Antonescu was interrogated the following month by the Bucharest People's Tribunal and found guilty of betraying the Romanian people for the benefits of Nazi Germany, the economic and political subjugation of Romania to Germany, cooperation with the Iron Guard, the murder of his political opponents, the mass murder of civilians and crimes against peace, and for participation in the German invasion of the USSR. He was sentenced to death and executed by firing squad on June 1 at Jilava prison. He asked to be shot by a military firing squad, but instead he was executed by prison guards.
Antonescu and the Holocaust
Antonescu and his government were directly responsible for the killing of between 280,000 and 380,000 Jews and over 10,000 Roma in Romania and the Soviet territories it occupied. Romania's share in the Holocaust, i.e. its contribution as an independent, not occupied country, is thus the second biggest after that of Nazi Germany.[6] Despite ample evidence, for a long time these genocidal crimes and Antonescu's responsibility were denied not only by revisionist historians, but also at an official level. However, in 2004 the Romanian government under Ion Iliescu officially acknowledged the Romanian and Antonescu's responsibility, as outlined in a report produced by an expert commission appointed by Iliescu and led by Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel. A Holocaust Memorial Day was installed.
Immediately after coming into office, Antonescu expanded the anti-Jewish laws passed by Octavian Goga and Ion Gigurtu. During 1941 and 1942, 80 anti-Jewish regulations were passed. Starting at the end of October, 1940, the Iron Guard began a massive anti-Semitic campaign, torturing and beating Jews and looting their shops, culminating in the failed coup and a pogrom in Bucharest in which 120 Jews were massacred. Aided by German troops, Antonescu suppressed the rebellion, and thus, indirectly, the violence against the Jews. In the course of 1941 Antonescu's own violence against the Jewish population was to take a more systematic course, reaching its peak when Romania entered the "holy war" against the Soviet Union, a war that he considered, like Hitler, to have a metaphysical and apocalyptic character; the Jews were considered the demonic driving force behind the greatest enemy Romania ever faced - Bolshevism. This connection between the Jews, Bolshevism and the attack on the Soviet Union is apparent in declarations he made in summer 1941:
The Satan is the Jew. It is a battle of life and death. Either we win and the world will be purified, either they win (the Jews) and we will become their slaves" (to the Council of the Ministers). "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.'[7]
This ideology explains the subsequent atrocities ordered by Antonescu, of which the Iaşi pogrom was the first. Here, over 10,000 Jews were killed in July 1941. In the same year, following the advancing Romanian Army and reports of alleged attacks by Jewish "Resistance groups", Antonescu ordered the deportation to Transnistria of Jews from Bessarabia and Bukovina (between 80,000 and 150,000) who were considered, falsely, "Communist agents" by the Romanian administration. These deportations took place by means of so-called "trains of death", which were specifically designed to let as few survivors as possible reach their destinations - labor camps set up in Transnistria where many more Jews were to die under appalling circumstances. Further killings perpetrated by Antonescu's soldiers targeted the Jewish population that the Romanian army managed to round up during the occupation of Transnistria. Over 100,000 of these were killed in massacres perpetrated in Odessa, Bogdanovka and Akmecetka in 1941 and 1942. Some of this killing operations were seconded by SS units of the Einsatzgruppe D.
Despite German pressure, in 1943 Antonescu halted deportations to Transnistria and cancelled plans to deport the entire Jewish population from the remaining parts of the country to the death camps in German occupied Poland. This is not evidence that he recanted his anti-Semitism, but only that he began to realise that the war is lost and that he needed to find means to reconcile with the Allies. At the same time he levied heavy taxes and forced labor on the remaining Jewish communities. In fact, Antonescu never gave up his ultra-nationalist policy of ethnic cleansing. As he himself put it, his aim was a:
policy of purification of the Romanian race, and I will not give way before any obstacle in achieving this historical goal of our nation. If we do not take advantage of the situation which presents itself today ... we shall miss the last chance that history offers to us. And I do not wish to miss it, because if I do so further generations will blame me.[8]
With the turn of the war, he only changed the method of implementation, offering the Allies the emigration of the Romanian Jews in return for currency.
This policy of ethnic cleansing also explains why about 25,000 Roma (approximately 11,500 nomadic and 13,000 non-nomadic Romas) were deported to Transnistria where an estimated 11,000 perished. These deportations were presented as a "solution" to maintain safety in the country while most of the men were at the frontline.
Antonescu's stepmother, Frida Cuperman, was Jewish, as was his first wife, Raşela Mendel, whom he married as a military attaché in London in the 1930s.
2007 Court decision and 2008 nullification
On December 5, 2006, the Bucharest Court of Appeals overturned Antonescu's conviction for certain crimes against peace, on the grounds that the objective conditions of 1940 justified a preventive war against the Soviet Union, so that article 3 of the 1933 Convention defining aggression does not apply to his case. [9] This decision was however overturned by the Romanian supreme court in May 2008.[10]
Ion Antonescu
AKA 'Conducator' (Leader), AKA 'Red Dog'.
Country: Romania.
Kill tally: About 300,000 Romanian Jews and up to 500,000 Romanian soldiers.
Background: Romania achieves full independence from the Ottoman Empire on 3 March 1878. In March 1881 the Romanian parliament proclaims the country a kingdom. Led by King Carol I, Romania's first constitutional monarch, the new nation is deeply nationalistic and determined to maintain its freedom. However, the ethnically Romanian regions of Transylvania to the west, and Bukovina and Bessarabia to the north and east remain outside the state, with Transylvania staying under the sway of Hungry and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Meanwhile, Romania's Jewish population begins to expand rapidly during the 19th Century, mainly as a result of immigration. By 1899 the population has grown to 269,000. By 1939 it is estimated at 760,000, making Romania's Jewish community the third largest in Eastern Europe, after the Soviet Union and Poland.
Many Romanians see the newcomers as an economic threat. Jews face persecution and most are prevented from taking Romanian citizenship. More background.
Mini biography: Born in Pitesti, about 110 km northwest of Bucharest, on 15 June 1882, into an average family. Though an avowed antisemite, Antonescu will become engaged to two separate Jewish women and marry a third. His father will also divorce his mother to marry a Jewish woman.
Antonescu receives his education in French military schools and pursues a career in the army. By 1907 he has risen to the rank of lieutenant.
1907 - Antonescu participates in the suppression of a peasant revolt in and around the city of Galati, about 180 km northeast of Bucharest, gaining the attention of his superiors for his initiative and ruthlessness.
1911 - He graduates from the military academy.
1913 - Antonescu participates in the Second Balkan War against Bulgaria, winning Romania's highest military decoration.
1914 - The First World War begins early in August, with the Central Powers (Germany and Austria-Hungary) pitted against the Triple Entente (Britain, France and Russia). Romania stays out of the conflict, waiting to see which side may prevail.
King Carol I dies and is succeeded by his nephew, Ferdinand. Ferdinand's wife, Queen Marie, the British-born princess of Edinburgh, is the real power behind the throne. It is Marie who negotiates the conditions for Romania's participation in the war. The price will be Romanian sovereignty over Transylvania, The Banat and Bukovina (all in Hungary) and Bessarabia (in Russia).
1916 - The Triple Entente agrees in full Queen Marie's terms. On 27 August Romania declares war on Austria-Hungary. The war initially goes poorly for Romania, with Central Power forces counterattacking, occupying Bucharest, and forcing Romania to cede territory and pay reparations. However, the situation reverses when the Triple Entente gains the upper hand over the Central Powers.
During the war Antonescu serves as operational chief-of-staff to army commander Prezan. Towards the end of the conflict he is made chief-of-operations on the army general staff.
1918 - The war ends on 11 November with the signing of a general armistice. The Central Powers have been defeated. The Allies now begin to carve up the spoils.
Romania is more than doubled in size when its claim to Transylvania, The Banat, Bukovina, and Bessarabia is formally recognised by the Allies. The country's first free elections are held in 1919.
However, the acquisition of the new territory is not without cost. The integration of foreign nationalities and institutions leads to an increase in Romanian nationalism, discrimination against Hungarians and other minorities, and a rise in antisemitism.
1922 - In October King Ferdinand becomes the monarch of Greater Romania. The following year a new constitution is introduced establishing a highly centralised state and giving the king the power to appoint the prime minister. The constitution also grants citizenship to Romanian Jews.
Antonescu is meanwhile appointed as military attaché in Paris. From 1923 to 1926 he serves in the same capacity in London, where he meets and marries a French-Jewish woman, who bears him his only child. The couple later divorce and their child dies at an early age.
1924 - The Romanian Communist Party is banned because of its ties with the Soviet Union but continues to operate underground.
1929 - Despite experiencing rapid growth following the First World War, Romania's agriculture-dependent economy is thrown into crisis when the New York Stock Exchange crash of October sees world grain prices collapse.
1930s - The "agricultural crisis" helps feed the growth of the virulently antisemitic and anticommunist 'Iron Guard', the paramilitary wing of the 'Legion of the Archangel Michael', an ultra-nationalistic Romanian fascist group founded on 24 June 1927 by Corneliu Zelea Codreanu.
The Guard advocates war against Jews and communists, violently confronting its opponents on the streets and clandestinely organising and committing political assassinations. Its members are known as 'Legionnaires', after Codreanu's original group.
Supported and funded by Nazi Germany, the Iron Guard will become the largest fascist movement in the Balkans, with its growing influence contributing significantly to the political instability that plagues Romania throughout the decade.
Codreanu is elected to parliament in July 1931. The following year five Legionnaires are voted into parliament. In 1935 there are 4,200 Legionary sub-branches, called "nests", within Romania. By January 1937 the number has grown to 12,000. By the end of that year there are 34,000.
However, the Legionnaires and their Iron Guard do not go unopposed. Among those engaged in the fight against the fascists is the young Nicolae Ceausescu, a member of the communist youth movement who is destined to become a future dictator of Romania.
France, Romania's international patron, also applies pressure, and the Iron Guard is supposedly dissolved at the end of 1933. In reality it continues, building ties with the Nazi Party in Germany and, under the name 'Totul Pentru Tara' (All For The Country), winning 16% of the vote in elections held in 1937 and, with 66 seats, becoming the third largest party in the parliament.
1930 - Following Ferdinand's death Prince Carol II is proclaimed king.
1934 - Antonescu is made a general and appointed as chief of the Romanian general staff.
1937 - King Carol II hands government to a far-right coalition that bars Jews from the civil and army service and forbids them from buying property and practicing certain professions. Antonescu is appointed as minister of defence.
1938 - With the political turmoil mounting, Carol suspends the constitution on 12 February and assumes dictatorial powers. Rigid censorship and tight police surveillance are imposed, along with discriminatory measures aimed at minority races.
On 19 April the police arrest and imprison Codreanu and other Iron Guard leaders and crack down on the Guard's rank and file. On 29 November Codreanu and 13 Iron Guards are shot dead by the police, allegedly while they are attempting to escape custody. However, it is widely believed that the killings have been staged on the order of King Carol II.
1939 - On 23 August Soviet leader Joseph Stalin signs a nonaggression pact with Germany's Nazi dictator, Adolf Hitler, carving up Eastern Europe into German and Soviet spheres of influence, with the USSR claiming Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland, part of the Balkans, including Romania, and half of Poland.
German troops invade Poland on 1 September. Britain and France declare war on Germany two days later. The Second World War has begun.
Romania's prime minister proclaims the country's neutrality on 6 September but is assassinated by the Iron Guard on 21 September. King Carol II tries to maintain neutrality for several months more, but is finally compelled to strike a deal with Hitler.
Romania is subsequently forced to give Bessarabia and northern Bukovina to the Soviet Union, cede the north of Transylvania to Hungary, and return Southern Dobruja to Bulgaria.
This loss of about one-third of the country's area and population causes a backlash against King Carol. Faced with the beginning of rebellion led by the Iron Guard, he suspends the constitution and appoints Antonescu as prime minister.
1940 - Antonescu is appointed prime minister on 5 September. The following day Antonescu, supported by the Iron Guard and renegade military officers and backed by Germany, demands that King Carol II abdicate in favour of his son Prince Michael and leave the country.
Together with Horia Sima, chief of the Iron Guard, Antonescu establishes the National Legionary Government. Antonescu is named 'Conducator' (Leader) and Sima appointed as deputy prime minister.
German forces enter Romania on 7 October. Antonescu brings Romania into the war on the side of the Axis Powers (Germany, Italy and Japan) on 23 November. He meets with Hitler, allows Nazi forces to occupy the country, and introduces stricter antisemitic laws and restrictions on Jewish, Greek, and Armenian businessmen.
Antonescu will meet again with Hitler in January and May 1941. Under Antonescu's leadership Romania will become one of Germany's staunchest allies, providing the Nazis with food, fuel and more combat troops than all of Germany's other allies combined.
Meanwhile, with Antonescu's blessing, the Iron Guard unleashes a reign of terror, murdering prominent associates of the deposed King Carol in revenge for Codreanu's death, and massacring Jews. However, when the Iron Guard's activities start to become too disruptive, German and Romanian soldiers begin to round up and disarm its members.
1941 - On 21 January the Iron Guard rebels and stages an attempted coup against Antonescu, killing 127 Jews during a three-day rampage. After several weeks German and Romanian crush the uprising and force the Guard to disband. Antonescu then assumes dictatorial powers, adopting the title 'Marshal' in October and becoming chief of state as well as president of the council of ministers.
Further anti-Jewish measures are now introduced, including the establishment of a National Romanianisation Centre with the goal of removing Jews from Romanian life.
Germany invades the Soviet Union on 22 June. Supported by almost one million Romanian troops, the Germans advance swiftly east towards Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg), Stalingrad (now Volgograd) and Moscow, where they are halted on 6 December by a Russian counteroffensive.
Antonescu later tells investigators in the Soviet Union: "Since Hitler's offer to initiate a joint campaign against the USSR corresponded to my own aggressive intentions, I announced my agreement to participate in the attack on the Soviet Union and pledged myself to prepare the necessary number of Romanian troops and, at the same time, to increase deliveries of the oil and food required by the German armies."
The invasion is initially favourable for Romania, with Hitler honouring an agreement to return sovereignty over Bessarabia and northern Bukovina as well as allowing the country to annex Soviet lands immediately east of the Dniester River, including Odessa.
However, Jews in both 'Old Romania' and the occupied territories suffer increased discrimination and violence as they come to be viewed as potential allies and spies of the Soviet Union.
On 19 June Antonescu orders the expulsion of 40,000 Jews from villages and towns in 'Old Romania' to detention camps and urban ghettos.
On 25 June German and Romanian troops kill at least 900 Jews at Iasi, the country's second city and the capital of the northern province of Moldavia. Hundreds more die as they are transported from the city. Some estimates put the total number killed during the pogrom as high as 10,000.
On 8 July Antonescu tells his army to be "merciless". "Sugary and incorporeal humanism is inappropriate in this situation," Antonescu states. "I think that the Jews should be forced to leave Bessarabia and Bukovina. And Ukrainian people must leave the country also. ... I am not disturbed if the world should consider us barbarians. You can use machine-guns if it is necessary. And I tell you that the law does not exist. ... So, let us give up all the formalities and use this complete freedom. I assume all the responsibility and claim that the law does not exist."
About 310,000 Jews are subsequently purged from Bukovina and Bessarabia. Of these about 160,000 are killed outright by German and Romanian army units assisted by Ukrainian and Romanian civilians. On 15 September Antonescu orders the expulsion of the 150,000 survivors to concentration camps and urban ghettos in the 'Transnistria' region of the Ukraine, a Nazi killing ground where more than 800,000 European Jews die. Of the 150,000 Romanian Jews sent to Transnistria only about 50,000 will survive. From December 1943 they will be allowed to return to their homelands.
On 22 October, following an explosion at the Romanian headquarters in Odessa, Antonescu orders that for every Romanian or German officer killed, 200 persons are to be executed. For every Romanian or German enlisted man killed, 100 will die. The order will cost 25,000 Odessa Jews their lives when the city is burnt on 23 October in retaliation for an attack by partisans on the army's headquarters in the town.
All told, about 420,000 members of Romania's pre-war Jewish community of 760,000 die during the war. About 260,000 are killed in Bessarabia, Bukovina, and in the camps in Transnistria. In northern Transylvania about 120,000 of the region's 150,000 Jews are killed or deported by Hungary's Nazi government to concentration camps.
However, most Jews in Old Romania will survive the war, principally because Antonescu refuses to allow mass deportations of 300,000 of them to Nazi concentration camps, fearing that the economy would collapse as a result. It is also believed that Antonescu's policy towards the Jews changes once he realises that Germany will loose the war.
Meanwhile, the United States enters the war when the Japanese airforce bombs the US naval base at Pearl Harbour in Hawaii on 7 December.
1943 - The war turns against Germany in the winter of 1942-43 when the Sixth Army is defeated at Stalingrad. Over 500,000 German-led troops are killed during the battle, including the majority of the Romanian soldiers accompanying the Germans.
By the end of 1943, the Soviets have broken through the German siege of Leningrad and recaptured much of the Ukrainian Republic. They now begin to move west towards Romania and Germany.
1944 - The Red Army crosses into Romania on 20 August. On 23 August King Michael, aided by a number of army officers and armed Communist-led civilians, and supported by the National Democratic Bloc, orders the arrest of Antonescu and seizes control of the government.
The king quickly restores the 1923 constitution, orders a cease-fire with the Allied forces, and declares war on Germany. The Red Army occupies Bucharest on 31 August 1944. On 12 September Romania and the Soviet Union sign an armistice.
Romania agrees to pay reparations of US$300 million, repeal anti-Jewish laws, ban fascist groups, and cede Bessarabia and northern Bukovina to the Soviet Union. However, the country regains sovereignty over northern Transylvania.
Romanian troops now side with the Soviet forces in the advance against Germany and its allies, and about 120,000 of them will die fighting for the liberation of Czechoslovakia and Hungary.
Antonescu is taken to the Soviet Union for interrogation before being returned to Romania to stand trial as a war criminal.
1945 - The war ends on 7 May when Germany surrenders unconditionally. Romania's military causalities total at least 230,000 troops killed and 180,000 missing or captured. About 130,000 soldiers have been deported to the Soviet Union, where many have perished in prison camps.
In total, about 985,000 Romanians have died during the war.
1946 - In May Antonescu is prosecuted for war crimes. He is condemned to death on 17 May and executed by firing squad on 1 June at the Fort Jilava Prison in a suburb of Bucharest.
A leftist government wins what is considered to be a rigged general election held on 19 November. Romania falls behind the Soviet Union's 'Iron Curtain'. With Soviet backing, the Romanian Communist Party takes control of the government. King Michael is forced to abdicate.
Postscript
1948 - On 13 April the government proclaims the Romanian People's Republic and adopts a Stalinist constitution. Romania will remain under communist rule until December 1989, when Nicolae Ceausescu is overthrown in a violent revolution.
1997 - In March six right-wing members of the Romania's now democratic government petition the country's prosecutor-general to initiate legal proceedings for the rehabilitation of Antonescu. The government is also asked to erect an official commemorative statue of Antonescu. After a national and international controversy the proceedings are halted.
1998 - On 29 November it is reported that a contemporary incarnation of the Iron Guard plans to officially register as a political party under the new name 'National Union for Christian Rebirth'. The same day, a crowd of Guardists gather in a forest near Bucharest to mark the 60th anniversary of the killing of Iron Guard founder, Corneliu Codreanu.
1999 - In January the Romanian government makes the study of the 'Holocaust' mandatory in schools and universities. Romanian teachers will undergo special training in Israel to teach the courses.
2002 - In March the government makes the public denial of the Holocaust a punishable offence and bans the construction of monuments to people guilty of crimes against humanity. Some existing statues and monuments honouring Antonescu are demolished, fascist and xenophobic organisations and symbols are outlawed, and a memorial to Holocaust victims is constructed with government support.
2003 - After decades of denial about the role of Romania in the Holocaust, the country's government issues a statement on 17 June saying that the Antonescu regime "was guilty of grave war crimes, pogroms, and mass deportations of Romanian Jews to territories occupied or controlled by the Romanian Army" from 1940 to 1944.
The Antonescu regime also employed "methods of discrimination and extermination which were part of the Holocaust," the statement says.
In October the government announces that it has set up a commission of inquiry into the period.
"We want to be able to offer ... to all teachers, students, to all Romanians as well as historians and international public opinion documents, studies and other materials needed for knowing and understanding the Holocaust in Romania," President Ion Iliescu says.
The commission is to be headed by the Romanian-born Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel.
Only about 14,000 Jews now live in Romania.
2004 - On 11 October Romania marks its first 'Holocaust Day'. Addressing parliamentarians and Jewish leaders, Romanian President Ion Iliescu admits that antisemitism was a state-sponsored ideology before and during the Second World War.
"We must not forget or minimise the darkest chapter of Romania's recent history, when Jews were the victims of the Holocaust," he says.
Comment: There are enough contradictions in Antonescu's character to warrant further investigation. He was deeply antisemitic, believing there was "a conspiracy of world Jewry against Romania" and that Jews were evil incarnate, but was engaged to two Jewish women and married a third.
He sent tens of thousands of Jews and other minorities off to die in the death camps of Transnistria, but when he realised that the game was up for Hitler's Third Reich allowed the survivors to return and stopped the deportation of Romania's remaining Jewish population.
He believed that he had been chosen by "higher powers" to usher in a golden age in Romania's history but ended up creating the conditions that would allow a takeover by the communists who he hated and who would bring the country to its knees.
He could be subject to violent mood swings, reputedly needed constant medical supervision, and earned the nickname 'Red Dog' because of his red hair, displays of arrogance, and willingness to spill other people's blood.
Born: 15-Jun-1882
Birthplace: Pitesti, Romania
Died: 1-Jun-1946
Location of death: Jilava, Romania
Cause of death: Execution [1]
Gender: Male
Religion: Christian
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Head of State
Nationality: Romania
Executive summary: Pro-Nazi dictator of Romania
ictures of Hitler - Hitler and Marshal Ion Antonescu
Romanian dictator, Marshal Ion Antonescu (left), converses with Adolf Hitler during an official visit to Germany, as Nazi officials look on.,
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