Ion Antonescu
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.
Early life and military career
Antonescu was born into a bourgeois family with some military tradition. He attended military schools in Craiova and Iaşi, and graduated the Cavalry School as top of class in 1904, then, in 1911, the military academy.
As lieutenant, Antonescu took part in the repression of the 1907 peasants' revolt in and around the city of Galaţi. His ruthlessness gained him the name Câinele roşu (the red dog). In 1913, he participated in the Second Balkan War against Bulgaria; the Bulgarian army was already deployed against Serbs and Greeks so Romania's entering the war led to Bulgaria sueing for peace. Following the 1913 war (which brought the Cadrilater to Romania), Antonescu received Romania's highest military decoration. During Romania's involvement in World War I (1916-1918), Antonescu acted as chief-of-staff for Marshal Constantin Prezan. In August 1916, Romanian armies crossed the Carpathian Mountains, willing to take Transylvania (a teritory under Austro-Hungarian control, mainly inhabited by Romanians), but their offensive was later stopped by the Austro-Hungarian armies, with German help. The disaster at Turtucaia (24th of August) showed that the Romanian army was not ready for the war. With German and Bulgarian troops pushing through Dobruja and with Allied Russian troops retreating (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. The battle for the capital was lost, due to the capture of an officer carying the battle plan by enemy troops. The Romanian royal court, army and administration were forced to retreat into Moldavia. Antonescu participated to the defense of Moldavia of 1917, when 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 played the role of observer and coordonator for the battle of Marasti-Oituz. However, in late 1917 the Russian revolution took place. Russia soon made peace with Germany, leaving Romania the only enemy of the Central Powers on the Eastern front. In these conditions, Romania had to make peace with Germany and her allies. In 1918, Romania broke the peace treaty and declared war to the Central Powers just a day before Germany surrendered. The war for Romania however continued until 1919. Taking advantage of the chaos in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Romania took back all Transylvania. Upon reaching the river Tisa, the 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."
Between 1922 and 1926 he was a military attaché of Romania in France and Great Britain. After returning to Romania he was the commander of the "Şcoala Superioară de Război" (Upper School of War) between 1927 and 1930, Chief of the General Staff between 1933 and 1934 and Defence Minister between 1937 and 1938.
Political power
General Antonescu was appointed Prime minister by King Carol II on September 6 1940, after Romania was forced to surrender Bessarabia and northern Bukovina to the USSR (June 28, 1940), the northern half of Transylvania to Hungary (August 30, 1940), and the Cadrilater to Bulgaria (September 5, 1940). Only two days after his appointment, he forced King Carol to abdicate. Carol's son, Mihai, became the new King. Antonescu named himself Conducător (Leader) and assumed dictatorial powers, relegating the King to a merely decorative role.
After the traditional, democratic parties of Romania refused to send competent members into the Government, Antonescu approached the Fascist anti-Semitic 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.
With France's defeat and Great Britain's isolation, Antonescu had no other choice than an alliance with Nazi Germany, in exchange for Bessarabia and northern Bukovina. Germans needed his cooperation mainly because Romania's oil reserves. Antonescu could follow Swedish path of pro-German neutrality and avoid direct military cooperation with Germany while providing Hitler with strategic material, in Romanian case oil. Instead, Antonescu was delighted with the perspective of the war against the USSR, because of his hate of bolsevism, and, of course, because war against the USSR meant Romania would have gained back Bessarabia and northern Bukovina. Also, by participating to the war on the Eastern front, Antonescu wanted 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. "Of course I'll be there from the start. When it it's a question of actions against Slav, you can always count on Romania," he replied, demonstrating his hate for the comunist Russians.
Romanian troops joined the German Wehrmacht in their attack against the Soviet Union ( 22 June 1941) and reoccupied lost territories of Bessarabia and northern Bukovina. For retaking these teritories, he was later made Maresal. 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 comunist agents hiding amongst the civilian population. Antonescu ordered retaliations, and thus the Odessa Massacre took place. Even after the recapturing of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina, Antonescu took the Romanian army deeper into Soviet territory, determined to follow the German troops until the complete anihilation 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 (traditional parties) and by the Allied powers. Although Antonescy devoted most of his time to military affairs he failed to prepare Romanian army for the war, to give it proper training and weaponry, to improve quality of the officer corps. He couldn't do in one year what the political class had ignored in 20 (in the interbelic period, Romania had the smallest % army budget in Europe). To satisfy Hitler, Antonescu sent to the front entire divisions without weaponry, Germans armed them only prior the combat. After German and Romanian armies suffered huge losses in the Battle of Stalingrad and the Russians started their offensive which would only end in Berlin, Antonescu's popularity declined sharply.
In 1943 Antonescu's representatives ( members of the traditional parties) twice approached Americans and British (Cairo and Istambul) asking for separate peace but the Allies demanded Antonescu to make peace with the Russians first. Antonescu refused unconditional surrender to the Russians, but continued negociating with them through his representatives at Stocholm. In August 1944, when the Russians had already entered Romanian teritory, Antonescu finally got an armistice proposal from madame Kolontay (Stalin's agent in Stocholm). This armistice stated that German armies had 15 days to leave the country, the Russians could only pass through the north on the country (the south and the capital were to remain Russian-free), and Romania had the right over NV hungarian-occupied Transylvania. On the 22 of August 1944 Soviet armies attacked the Iasi-Chişinău-Cetatea Albă line, determined to occupy the Romanian capital before the armistice could be signed. Antonescu was ready for this and had prepared 9 elite divisions as well as the Focsani-Namoloasa-Galati line which could hold out against the Soviets for several months until the treaty's aproval by both parts. The telegram from Stocholm arrived on the 22, but was intercepted by oposition leader Iuliu Maniu, who was plotting togheter with the King, other oposition members from the historical parties, and even the Romanian comunist party (who was formed at that time of soviet agents) to overthrow Antonescu's regime. On August 23, 1944, King Mihai, invited Antonescu at 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 retired into a backroom, where his comunist advisors urged him to arrest the Maresal. The King returned and dismissed Antonescu and his cabinet. At the same time, soldiers rushed in and arrested Ion Antonescu and his minister, Mihai Antonescu, then locked them up in the Palace safe. Later, they were taken by comunist agents, who handed them over to the Soviets. At the same time, King Mihai declared a ceasefire from the Romanian part. The Soviet army however had no intent to stop the fighting. The Russians, broke the frontline and took over 600 000 Romanian soldiers prisoners who wouldn't fight them. The Germans didn't recognize the authority of the new Sanatescu Government and attacked the capital. The Romanian army however managed to hold on to it. A few days later, the Soviets came and occupied Bucharest (the term "liberated" was used by that time's propaganda). The treaty of peace, in fact, unconditional surrender, was signed only with the Soviets, on the 12 of September 1944.
Trial and death
After returning from the Soviet Union,in May 1946 Antonescu was put on trial in the Bucharest People's Tribunal, by the Communist dominated government, and found guilty of betraying Romanian people for benefits of Germany, economic and political subjugation of Romania to Germany, cooperation with Iron Guard, murder of his political opponents, mass murder of civilians and crimes against peace, for participation in the German invasion of the USSR. He was sentenced to death, and executed on June 1, 1946, in Jilava Prison.
Antonescu and the Holocaust
Antonescu's government is held responsable for killing of between 280,000 and 380,000 Jews and roughly 10,000 Rromas (gipsy people, roma people) in Romania and the territories it occupied. In the past there was debate about Antonescu's personal role in Romanian participation in the Holocaust. A report produced by a special commission led by Nobel Laureaute Elie Wiesel and officially accepted by the Romanian government in 2004 states that Antonescu bore direct responsibility.
Immediately after coming into office, Antonescu expanded the anti-Jewish laws passed by Gigurtu, though Antonescu's stepmother, Frida Cuperman, was Jewish, as was his first wife, Rasela Mendel, whom he married as a military attaché in London in the 1930s. During 1941 and 1942, 80 anti-Jewish regulations were passed, all sharply anti-Semitic. 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 killed. Antonescu stopped the violence and chaos done by the Iron Guard by brutally suppressing the rebellion. By the time Romania entered the war, however, atrocities against the Jews had become common, most notably in the Iaşi pogrom, where over 10,000 Jews were killed in July 1941.
In 1941, following the advancing Romanian Army and the attacks by Jewish "Resistance groups" (jews had also sympatized with the the occuping Soviet Army in 1940, shoothing and sometimes killing retreating Romanian soldiers in Bassarabian towns with a large jewish population like Edinet or Ismail) Antonescu ordered the deportation to Transnistria, of all Jews of Bessarabia and Bukovina (between 80,000 and 150,000) who weren't Romanian citizens or who were considered "Communist agents" by the Romanian adminstration. Few managed to survive trains and the concentration (labor) camps set up in Transnistria.
Further killings perpetrated by Antonescu's soldiers targeted the Jewish population that the Romanian army managed to round up when occupying Transnistria. Over one hundred thousand of these were in massacres staged in such places as Odessa (see the Odessa Massacre), Bogdanovka and Akmecetka in 1941 and 1942.
However Antonescu, did not apply the "final solution" on Romanian teritory, like other German-alllied states did, nor did he send Romanian jews to German extermination camps. Romania even sheltered jews from other countries, like Poland and Czechoslovakia, refusing to turn them over to the Germans.
Antonescu did halt deportations in Trasnistria despite German pressure in 1943, as he began to seek peace with the Allies, though at the same time he levied heavy taxes and forced labor on the remaining Jewish communities. Also, sometimes with the encouragement of Antonescu's regime, thirteen boats left Romania for the British Mandate of Palestine during the war, carrying 13,000 Jews, though two of these ships sunk, and the effort was discontinued after German pressure was applied. These jews, having landed on Palestinian soil, later built a statue of Ion Antonescu in the city of Haifa, as a sign of their gratitude.
About 25,000 Rromas (gipsy or roma people) were also deported to Transnistria and it is estimated that at least 11,000 of them perished. Only the gypsies that had been found guilty of crimes were deported, as a solution to maintain safety in the country while most of the men were gone on the frontline.
See also: Romania during World War II#Romania and the Holocaust
References
- Antony Beevor, "Stalingrad" (New York, 1999)
- Jean Ancel, Transnistria, 1941-1942, The Romanian mass Murder Campaigns, 2003, Tel Aviv. Vol. I, (English) pp. 860; Vol. II, (Romanian) pp. 1044; Vol. III, (Romanian) pp. 1048
- Radu Ioanid, The Holocaust in Romania: The Destruction of Jews and Gypsies Under the Antonescu Regime, 1940-1944, Ivan R. Dee Publisher, December 1999
- Florin Constantiniu, "An onest history of the Romanian people", Bucharest, 2002
- Josif Constantin Dragan, "Antonescu", Venice, 1990