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.
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.
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..
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