The Dark Reality of Romania’s Holocaust

Unveiling Ion Antonescu’s Sinister Legacy

Romania has traditionally been a country with both a large Jewish population and virulent anti-Semitism. During its experience in WWII, Romania evolved from a vulnerable, independent country surrounded on all sides by belligerent parties to a strong Nazi supporter. Throughout the war, over 270,000 Jews were killed in the Romanian Holocaust, but even more puzzling are the 300,000 Jews still alive when the war ended. While countries such as Poland and France lost upwards of 90% of their Jewish population, the more virulently anti-Semitic country of Romania lost only 50%, a very low statistic in the context of the Holocaust.

The Romanian Prime Minister during this time, Ion Antonescu, is today held in high regard by many nationalistic Romanians as the man who saved 300,000 Jews. However, his policy of ransoming off the Jews to outside countries such as Israel is an evil akin to slavery, and although he may have saved hundreds of thousands of lives, he did it for profit rather than goodwill. It is ironic that one of the most ardent persecutors of the Jews also saved so many.

In the end, Romania’s Holocaust differed from the rest of Europe in that it was ruled by mobs rather than police or military officials, and its victims were much more likely to meet their end in the streets as opposed to the institutional eradication used by Germany. If it had not been for a sinister plot of ransoming off Jews, the final statistics of Jewish deaths in Romania would have rivaled that of Poland or Germany. Ion Antonescu’s role in the Holocaust is that of an instigator of atrocities against the Jews, and the contemporary movements to name him the “Savior of the Jews” must be stopped.

Romania began WWII as a neutral state, taking no part in the negotiations and initial fighting between 1938 and 1940. During this time, the allies such as Britain and France were pushed back and forced to put all resources into the defense of their homeland, and thus were in no position to ensure the neutrality of Romania through military force. At the same time, the Soviet Union invaded the Romanian territory of Bessarabia, Hungary took half of Transylvania in the Second Vienna Award, and Bulgaria seized the Kadrilater under the Treaty of Craiova. This devastating loss of land forced Romania to turn to Germany for help, as the western allies were in no position to assist Romania at the time. In a secret agreement, the Nazis promised Romania the return of their original territories, in addition to Russian lands if they helped defeat the Red Army.

On 22 June 1941, Romania provided over 150,000 troops to help Germany invade Russia, and succeeded in seizing the city of Odessa. They held this territory until they were eventually pushed back after heavy losses at the Battle of Stalingrad and as German power faltered. Romania’s main contribution to the war effort was oil, wheat, and industrial products they supplied to the Axis powers, as well as their military’s role on the Eastern Front. However, as the war was coming to an end, the Romanian government attempted to back off from their strong alliance with the Axis and strengthen ties with the Allies to no avail.

Before WWII, there were somewhere between 800,000 and a million Jews living in Romania, making it one of the largest populations of Judaism in the world. Today, there remain less than 15,000, due mainly to Romania’s policies during WWII and the resulting emigration. The high emigration of Jews began in the period between 1941 to 1942, when eighty regulations were passed targeting Jews, drastically curtailing their ability to survive by enforcing strict economic sanctions. The Iron Guard, an ultra-nationalist, anti-Semitic, and Fascist organization, began to severely oppress the Jewish population in a campaign similar to the German Kristallnacht. They beat and tortured thousands of Jews, looted their shops, and even executed Jews in the streets. Despite eventually being crushed for an attempted coup in 1941 by the national army and the new Prime Minister, Ion Antonescu, the Iron Guard established the precedent for continued repression that would continue for the duration of the Holocaust.

Antonescu would be no better for the Jews, as he held strong ties to the German Nazi party. He quickly mobilized his army against the “Jewish Resistance group” and labeled all Jewish people as members of this group to deport approximately 100,000 Jews to Transnistria for alleged communist connections. Most of them died on the way from starvation and dehydration (the carts were kept closed for days at a time), and a majority of the others quickly died in forced labor camps. Throughout, Antonescu allowed and even ordered the massacre of Jews in the streets by Romanian soldiers and anti-Semitic groups, which eventually took the lives of more than 270,000 Jews. His close ties to the Nazi party put increased pressure on him to deport Jews to German concentration and death camps such as Belzec, although Antonescu took care of the “Jewish Problem” in his own land and only small numbers of Romanian Jews met their fate in German-occupied territory.

However, he was arrested, put on trial, and executed not for his crimes against humanity, but by the Soviets for “Crimes Against the Peace.” His legacy during the Holocaust is vague to most of the world because he was never tried for war crimes, and his name was not officially tied to the likes of Hitler, Goebbels, or Mengele.

There are two major models of how a country helped the Germans during WWII: as a victim, collaborator, or resister. In countries such as Poland and the western Soviet Union, Germany invaded and seized the Jewish population by force. The countries played no real role in helping the Germans, and in both these cases, Jewish citizens fought and gave their lives in the defense of their country and livelihood. Both suffered enormous losses in their Jewish population, and because of their resistance, the Germans were very brutal in the repression and seizure of the Jews.

On the other hand, there were countries like Vichy France, Italy, and Hungary whose governments succumbed to pressure from the Nazis and turned over large numbers of their Jewish population. For instance, Vichy France proclaimed that if they appeased the Nazis, the occupation would be much easier, but in reality, they deported over 100,000 Jews out of 800,000 and killed many more. In rare cases such as Denmark (and to an extent Bulgaria), the countries saved their Jewish population by sending them to Norway or hiding them in safe houses. In all cases, the countries had varying degrees of anti-Semitism, but often the main proponent in the deportation of the Jews to Germany was political pressure.

The Jewish population in either the victim or collaboration cases above endured similar fates. Granted, there were very violent and prevalent killings of Jews in the streets, as well as mob violence, but the vast majority of deaths occurred in very cold, informal ways. The Jews were rounded up, forced to live in a ghetto for months at a time in which some would die of starvation or dehydration. They would then be put into locked train carts, in which escape was almost impossible and more deaths would occur. Those that survived were unloaded, where a majority of the remaining would die in gas chambers, executions, or from further starvation in camps. Though the deaths were no more dignified, it was very cold and calculating in the way in which they died. Records were kept as in any institution, victims simply walked down an aisle and met their death because of the Zyklon-B rat poison that was in the air, all the while never seeing the eyes of their executioner. Although with many exceptions, the majority of deaths were not rage-filled mob executions, but structured mass killings to provide efficiency and impact.

Romania differs from most other countries in the way that it embraced the Holocaust. In other countries, the Germans forced slave-like laborers to do the dirty work of executing the Jews in their structured environment, with the exception of some of the more radical anti-Semitic groups that hunted down Jews on their own accord. The Vichy French, for example, were not necessarily anti-Semitic, but easily sent Jews off to German territory for eradication. Romania was anti-Semitic, but its strong ties to the Nazi party fostered a culture of virulent eradication of Jews. They sent off very few Jews to camps such as Belzec or Auschwitz, and instead executed most in their own territory.

Soldiers would search out the Jews, and the citizens often took a liking to executing them in mob street violence. Romanian citizens themselves took a personal interest and enthusiasm in the eradication, so much so that there were times that Nazi officials stepped in to halt the bloodshed because they feared instability in their ally. A report that Einsatzgruppe D sent to the Nazi leadership highlighted the drastic difference between the German and Romanian Holocaust.

The Romanians take action against the Jews without any preconceived plan. There would be nothing to criticize about the many executions of Jews had their technical preparation and their manner of execution not been inadequate. The Romanians leave the bodies of those who are executed where they fall, without burying them. The Einsatzkommando has enjoined the Romanian police to be more orderly from that standpoint.

The question that arises is why, out of all the countries that held anti-Semitic values, did Romania and its citizens fully embrace the eradication of the Jews. The answer, however vague, may lie in the role that the Iron Guard played in quickly raising the awareness and acceptance of anti-Semitism among the citizens themselves. Despite being crushed as a revolutionary group in 1941, it set the precedent that Antonescu sustained in his persecution of the Jews.

The Iron Guard began in 1927 by Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, who left politics to begin an ultra-nationalist group that relied on the peasants, students, and intellectuals for support. As a skillful propagandist, he held the eyes and ears of a majority of the population and was able to revive the Romanian spirit and life that had waned in the face of economic problems. Even as the leadership switched hands, the party held its grip on the ideas and philosophies of its members and were able to interweave virulent anti-Semitism into daily life. In the book The Silent Holocaust, I.C. Butnaru describes the influence that the Iron Guard held on the people throughout the 1930s.

There were more than seventeen publications with a legionary slant, to which an increasing number of prestigious and talented journalists and writers contributed. They brought the legionary theories into the homes of the Romanians. With patience and subtlety, they continuously penetrated the consciousness of people of all ages, but the young in particular.

As the Iron Guard took the first steps in persecuting the Jews, its hundreds of thousands of members and supporters saw this as an acceptable practice and joined in. They created a cultural shift in which the population assumed that it was acceptable to actively take part in the persecution of the Jews. They printed thousands of articles and publications in which they portrayed the Jews as Soviet agents and communists, obviously a tender subject in their proximity and future war with their neighbor. As a non-Jewish survivor writes about the tension and propaganda used against the Jews:

I spoke to many people—peasants, villagers, soldiers, and officers I met at train stations and on trains. I was horrified by the pervasive hatred toward Jews, whom everybody considers traitors, commandos, Communists, vipers—an uncontrollable hatred spreading like a sickness is in their blood. Any slanderous remark about Jews, whether printed in a newspaper or uttered by someone, no matter how nonsensical, is immediately believed.

Statistically, the Iron Guard killed only a small proportion of the Jews in the Romanian Holocaust. However, the killings were incredibly violent and Jews from all over the country were badly beaten. While Kristallnacht lasted for a short period of time, Romania was in a state of enthusiastic mob rule for months in which Jewish businesses and possessions were sacked and looted throughout 1940 and 1941. There were not mass executions of thousands of Jews at one time, but instead thousands of individual cases in which mobs would energetically chase after Jews, forcing them to go to the bank to withdraw all their money and then beat them with rocks and fists.

There were more violent stories as well, such as the mob tying Jews down to the ground and systematically breaking their bones until they died, dismembering the bodies afterwards. Many were killed by groups wielding pitchforks, axes, and shovels, and the mobs often put weapons in the hands of their victims to attempt to show that they were belligerent communist agents. The violence of these crimes is difficult if not impossible to pinpoint to one person, but the Iron Guard played the largest role in building up violent anti-Semitic sentiment. The citizens, down to the youngest propaganda-filled child, took part in these massacres and allowed anti-Semitism to explode unchecked.

The Iron Guard was crushed in 1941, but the new, unchallenged leader Ion Antonescu would provide no solace for the Jewish population. In Romania today, there is still a debate as to his role in the Holocaust. While scholars and Romanian Jews know the truth and can provide facts and documents as to his true nature, large nationalist factions in Romania have erected statues in his name, painted murals throughout the country, and held several moments of silence in his honor. After all, at the end of the Holocaust there were 300,000 Jews still alive, and it could be reasoned that even despite his intentions, he should still be admired for saving so many Jews. The documents and recollections of his former colleagues show Antonescu as a cold-hearted dictator who not only persecuted Jews, but took a personal interest in the planning and institutionalization of their eradication.

In the most powerful example of Antonescu’s willingness to push the boundaries in the persecution, the Iasi Pogrom Massacre of June 29-30, 1941, foreshadowed the coming Romanian Holocaust. In March 1941, Hitler made a speech to his commanders and allies in which he called the upcoming war with the Soviet Union the next battleground in the elimination of the Jews. Antonescu not only listened but took his words to heart and began preparations for the liquidation of the Jews at the Iasi pogrom. Under the supervision of Romanian soldiers and special police battalions, local civilians were invited and encouraged to help in the process with posters that read “ROMANIANS! FOR EVERY JIDAN (Jew) THAT YOU KILL YOU LIQUIDATE A COMMUNIST. THE MOMENT OF REVENGE HAS COME.” A large response ensured the liquidation would be thorough, with civilians assembling with makeshift weapons and tools.

The entire process began as rumors spread that Russian paratroopers were dropping in the area with help from Jewish conspirators, and immediate action was to be taken. The liquidation was swift and the violence was unmatched, even by most German standards. Thousands were shot, as others were rounded up by both the mob and the soldiers. Many took pleasure in having children disemboweled in front of their parents, before the parents themselves were tortured and executed. The mobs and police took as much money and loot as possible from their victims, and as Radu Ioanid writes, “Often the civilians, emboldened by the company of soldiers, gendarmes, and policemen, proved the most violent pogromists.”

The violence only continued to escalate, as Jews were seized and executed in more gruesome ways. Mobs would impale victims, throw entrails on those already being tortured, and dismember their bodies. The gruesomeness was astounding, but to a majority of the mob, the propaganda ingrained into their culture allowed for the atrocities to continue.

Though there were several cases of people trying to help the Jews, the known ramifications of this were severe. In one example, an engineer named Naum attempted to protect a Jew from the mobs, but when the mob found out they cornered, shot, and bayoneted him, as the officer in the area yelled, “Die, you dog, with the Jew you’re protecting.”

The overall purpose of the liquidation was to transport the Jews to Transnistria, a Romanian equivalent of a German ghetto. However, much of the Jewish population was killed due to the anarchy in the mob, and even the cleanup and conclusion of the liquidation was not without tragedy. Bodies were thrown into the Bahlui River or buried in mass graves. However, many Jews were taken and buried alive, to the amusement of the mob and the soldiers. Those who were put onto trains alive fared no better, as approximately 2,500 Jews were forced into thirty-three windowless freight carts. Even the ventilation slats were covered, making breathing difficult, and many in the train were already mortally wounded. The guards purposely ensured that the train was unnecessarily delayed, traveling only twenty-five miles in the first twenty-four hours. In addition, rifle-bearing soldiers guarded the carts to ensure that nobody received water, food, or even fresh air. One eyewitness, Israel Schleier, reported that out of the approximately 120 people in his cart, only eleven survived. The conditions of the Romanian Jews were comparable, if not worse than their German counterparts, and the full participation of the public in the Holocaust was unique throughout Europe.

Though this is perhaps the most dramatic story of how the Romanian Holocaust began, the subsequent liquidation efforts in other areas followed a similar pattern. The upper leadership made general plans and logistical efforts to ensure that the main objective was completed, but allowed the enthusiasm of the Romanian citizens to complete the rest of the process and most of the more gruesome work. However, Antonescu’s role in the Holocaust cannot be overstated. He was the man who ordered and even enjoyed making sure the Jews were eradicated from Romania, and not the great savior of the Jewish race that contemporary nationalist groups in Romania make him out to be.

From the beginning, Antonescu made his policy of Romanization and nationalism known. In a speech to the Ministerial Council, he proclaimed, “For the Romanian society, I am committed to going all the way and remove these people from the economic life of our nation. We got into this situation mainly because of the Jews, because they found the tools to destroy us.” This is typical of most anti-Semitic statements prevalent in Europe at the time, and although Antonescu did not call for a definite “Final Solution” as did Hitler, he made his point through actions and orders. In a recorded meeting with Gheorghe Alexianu, the Governor of Transnistria, Antonescu asked in all seriousness, “I ordered 200 Jews shot for each Romanian soldier killed and 100 Jews shot for each wounded. Did you do it?” He later told the Supply Council:

As for the Jews, I have taken steps to remove them for the good and completely from these regions…Unless we use the opportunity given us nationally and internationally to cleanse the Romanian nation, we shall miss the last chance history provides. Because the borders do not make the strength of a nation, but the homogeneity and purity of its race. This has been my paramount goal.

It is obvious that Antonescu was not the Jewish savior of the Romanians. In a comment that sums up his overall dislike of the Jews, he told his lieutenants, “Put them in the catacombs, put them in the Black Sea. I don’t want to hear anything. It does not matter if 100 or 1,000 die, for all I care, they can all die.” Obviously, his dislike of the Jews was evident, but he backed his words of hatred through actions. For instance, he made his stance clear with the order that “All Iasi Jewish communists and those whose homes red flags or arms have been found should be executed this very night.” He signed similar orders involving the execution of 500 Jews, as well as the execution of hundreds of others in Transnistria. In addition, he personally oversaw the deportation of the Jews and approved the recommendations made to him by his commanders. To cover up any possible retaliation should allies intervene, he made counter orders that he did not expect to be followed and did not publish, such as demanding an immediate stop to the Jewish persecution and promising punishment for anyone involved in an attack on a Jew (Antonescu never charged anyone for crimes against Jews). Those attempting to cast Antonescu in a favorable light use these counter-orders to show his compassion, but it is obvious as to the purpose of them when none of the latter orders were followed.

In the midst of all this violence, forced deportation, and death, it is difficult to understand how and why 300,000 Jews (approximately half) were still alive at the war's end. One might use this statistic to show that Antonescu worked hard to save the lives of the Jews, but in reality, it involved a sinister plan that ensured Antonescu would grow rich while at the same time still ridding Romania of the Jews. Economically, the execution of thousands of Jews only netted the country their simple possessions, which made some impacts but not enough to change the situation of the government.

Through careful negotiation, Antonescu found that Jews were much more valuable alive than dead, especially if an outside source was willing to pay money to save them. Antonescu negotiated with Jewish leaders in Palestine to sell 70,000 Jews for 200,000-500,000 lei (approx. US $500-1000), and allow them to emigrate to Palestine. As time went on and the economic feasibility of the offer was questioned, the price eventually lowered to 20,000 lei (approx. US $50). Though obviously this was akin to slavery, Jewish leaders knew that it was Romania’s Jewish population's only means of survival.

In addition, Romania was taking care of their desire to remove the Jewish population for a hefty profit while appeasing the Germans (who wanted full extermination of the Jews). However, Britain stopped the plan partway through because they refused to allow such numbers of Jews to emigrate to their territory. In the meantime, approximately 300,000 Jews were kept alive by Antonescu and waited in the hope that their freedom would be bought by outside benefactors. Even the United States attempted to offer asylum to the Jews in exchange for incentives, but the war ended before any deals involving the sales of the Jews could take place.

Though the full extent of the “Ransom of the Jews” never materialized, the possibility of obtaining monetary riches in exchange for (in Antonescu’s opinion) disposable resources allowed three hundred thousand Jews to stay alive because of the hope that someone would pay for their freedom. However, their survival would not have happened if the mobs had their way in the streets, and Antonescu did not protect the Jews out of goodwill, but rather monetary gain.

Romania’s Holocaust history is steeped in controversy, and to this day there are disputes as to the true nature of the Antonescu regime. Perhaps his execution by the Russians did not allow the full truth to come out, because his name was not mentioned in the Nuremberg trials with the likes of Goebbels or Mengele. Another possibility is that Romanian nationalists are still unwilling to accept the fact that Romanian citizens themselves took an enthusiastic interest in the brutal execution of its Jews.

Whatever the case, Romania’s Holocaust differed from the rest of Europe in the way that the entire population was involved in the process, as opposed to the bureaucratic administration of the German “Final Solution.” The brutality of Romania’s Holocaust was unmatched, and the only reason 300,000 Jews survived was due to a sinister plan to sell the lives of Jews for profit. Ion Antonescu’s true nature as a cold, calculating anti-Semite is backed by hundreds of documents, and openly contradicts the view of the Romanian nationalists who still believe Antonescu is the man who saved the Jews.