The execution of lon Antonescu, Conducător of Romania (1940-1944), 1 June 1946

The execution of lon Antonescu,

Conducător of Romania (1940-1944), 1 June 1946

For those who don't know who he is, a summary

lon Victor Antonescu was born into a middle-class family. He attended military schools in Craiova and laşi, Romania, and graduated the Cavalry School as top of class in 1904.

In 1907, he took part in the peasants' revolt in the city of Galați. In 1911, he graduated from the military academy and was commissioned as an officer. In 1913, he was decorated during the Second Balkan War. Then, in WW1, he was Marshal Constantin Prezan's chief of staff and was vital in Romania's successful defence against German troops.

After WW1, he was a military attaché in Paris and London. Returning to Romania in 1926, he very quickly gained more and more authority, being appointed by King Carol Il to be the Defence Minister in 1937, then Prime Minister in Sep 1940. In an act out of his ambition, only two days after he became Prime Minister, he forced King Carol II off of the throne; Carol's son Mihai succeeded as king, but was largely a puppet of Antonescu's, who was named the Conducător of the nation.

Surrounded by two foreign powers, Germany and Russia, Antonescu knew he had to make friends with one of the two in order to protect Romania. He chose Germany, hoping that by allying with the aggressively expanding nation would help him regain the territories lost to the Russians. Germany welcomed this friendship, knowing the Romania could supply her with oil that she badly needed to Wage war. While forming alliances abroad, internally, he formed a bond with the Iron Guard party, an organization that was actually undermining his own authority, in order to solidify his position. It turned out, however, that Antonescu could not control the Iron Guard party, and an unsuccessful rebellion broke out in Jan 1941.

In Jun 1941, when Adolf Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa against Russia, Antonescu sent troops to help as well. Together with the Germans, Romanian troops regained territories lost to Russia in 1940 and went deeper into Russian territory to capture the city of Odessa where a terrible massacre took place. For the Romanian assistance of the campaign, Antonescu was awarded the Knight's Cross by Hitler.

However, the Romanians met fierce resistance from Russian forces near Stalingrad, and lost the momentum of the offensive. After the initiative was lost, his popularity suffered.

On 12 Apr 1944, Russian troops neared the Romanian border and demanded surrender. Antonescu refused because he did not wish to

become a traitor to his German allies. On 23 Aug 1944, King Mihai placed Antonescu under arrest and switched sides by joining the Allies and declaring war on Germany.

After the war, Antonescu was tried by the Russian-sponsored Bucharest People's Tribunal. He was found guilty for supporting the German invasion of Russia. He was executed on 1 Jun 1946, leaving a legacy of being the head of the Romanian government that killed between 280,000 to 380,000 Jews and 11,000 Roma people. Many post-war studies linked him directly to the anti-Semitic atrocities.

A bit odd given that Germany forced Romania to ceed enormous territories to Hungary (mostly transylvania) So by allying with germany to regain bukovina, he had already lost more areas than he would win if he regained bukovina by being alied with germany.. Continue reading

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