Ion Antonescu

Ion Antonescu (June 15 1882, Pite?ti – June 1 1946, near Jilava) was the prime minister and conduc?tor (Leader) of Romania during World War II from September 4, 1940 to August 23, 1944.

Antonescu and the Holocaust

Antonescu's government killed at least 280,000 to 380,000 Jews in Romania and the territories it occupied. report released by the Romanian government in 2004 stated that "Irrefutable and abundant documentary evidence shows Ion Antonescu's personal responsibility for the deportation and the physical destruction of the Jews and Roma under Romanian jurisdiction."http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20041111-023944-6848r.htm

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In the past there was debate about Antonescu's personal role in Romanian participation in the Holocaust, the recent report, accepted by the Romanian government, makes it clear that Antonescu bore direct responsibility:

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In general, Ion Antonescu was dominated by his loathing of Jews and Judaism. He revealed this hatred at a session of the Council of Ministers on April 15, 1941: ?I give the mob complete license to massacre . I will withdraw to my fortress, and after the slaughter, I will restore order.? This was a rather accurate prediction of what was to take place in Iasi shortly thereafter. In numerous instances Antonescu personally instigated specific antisemitic steps adopted by the Romanian fascist state....Antonescu was a war criminal in the purest definition of the phrase. His leadership involved the Romanian government in crimes against humanity unrivaled in Romania?s sometimes glorious, sometimes cruel history(PDF in English/PDF in Romanian)

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Immediately after coming into office, Antonescu expanded the anti-Jewish laws 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 attempted to stop the violence on a few occasions, apparently concerned about damage to the economy. By the time Romania entered the war, however, atrocities against the Jews had become common, most notably in the Ia?i pogrom, where over 10,000 Jews were killed in July 1941.

Related Topics:
Pogrom - Ia?i pogrom

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In 1941, following the advancing Romanian Army and alleged attacks by Jewish "Resistance groups", Antonescu ordered the deportation to Transnistria, of all Jews of Bessarabia and Bukovina (between 80,000 and 150,000), who were considered "Communist agents" by the official propaganda. "Deportation" however was a euphemism, as part of the process was to kill as many Jews as possible before deporting the rest in the trains of death" to the East. Of those who escaped the initial ethnic cleansing in Bukovina and Bessarabia, only very few managed to survive trains and the concentration camps set up in Transnistria.

Related Topics:
1941 - Transnistria - Ethnic cleansing - Bukovina - Bessarabia

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Further killings perpetrated by Antonescu's death squads (documents prove his direct orders and involvement) 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, Akmecetka in 1941 and 1942.

Related Topics:
Odessa - Odessa Massacre - Bogdanovka - Akmecetka

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Antonescu did halt deportations 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.

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About 25,000 Roma people were also deported to Transnistria and it is estimated that about 11,000 of them perished.

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See also: Romania during World War II#Romania and the Holocaust

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