|
|
|
|
| Birth Name(s) : Ion Antonescu |
Date of Birth: N/A |
| Status:
Single
|
Partner:
|
| Profession:
N/A |
| << Add Ion Antonescu To Your Favorites |
|
Full Ion Antonescu Biography
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.
During Romania's involvement in World War I (1916-1918), Antonescu acted as chief-of-staff for General Constantin Prezan. In August 1916, Romanian armies crossed the Carpathian Mountains, attempting to take Transylvania (then a territory of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but mainly inhabited by Romanians), but their offensive was later stopped by the Austro-Hungarian armies, with German help. The disaster at Turtucaia (August 24) 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.
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" (Higher School of War) between 1927 and 1930, Chief of the General Staff between 1933 and 1934, and Defense Minister between 1937 and 1938.
General Antonescu was appointed Prime Minister by King Carol II on September 4, 1940, after Romania was forced to surrender Bessarabia and northern Bukovina to the USSR (June 28, 1940) and the northern half of Transylvania to Hungary (August 30, 1940), and three days before the Cadrilater was transferred to Bulgaria (September 7, 1940). On September 5, following Antonescu's demand, King Carol suspended the Constitution of 1938, dissolved Parliament, and gave Antonescu full powers. That evening, he forced King Carol to abdicate and leave the country, which he did on September 6. Carol's son, Crown Prince Michael (Mihai), was proclaimed the new King, although his powers were essentially ceremonial duties such as supreme Head of the Army. Antonescu named himself Conducător (Leader) and assumed dictatorial powers.
Romanian troops joined the German Wehrmacht in their attack against the Soviet Union (June 22, 1941) and reoccupied the lost territories of Bessarabia and northern Bukovina. For retaking these territories, he was later made Mareşal. 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 communists hiding amongst the civilian population. Antonescu ordered retaliation, which culminated in the Odessa Massacre.
In 1943, representatives of Antonescu (members of the traditional parties) twice approached representatives of the United States and Great Britain (in Cairo and Istanbul) asking for separate peace, but the Allies demanded that Antonescu make peace with the Soviets first. Antonescu refused unconditional surrender to the Soviets, but continued negotiating with them through his representatives in Stockholm. In August 1944, when the Soviets had already entered Romanian territory, Antonescu received an armistice proposal from Alexandra Kollontai (Stalin's agent in Stockholm). This armistice proposed that German armies had 15 days to leave the country, the Soviets would only pass through the north of the country (the south and the capital were to remain Soviet-free), and offered recognition of Romanian claims to Hungarian-occupied Northern Transylvania. Considering the overwhelming superiority of the Soviet forces, this seemingly generous offer was interpreted as either allowing the Soviet troops to maintain its push against the German army or as a bluff.
On December 5, 2006, the Bucharest Court of Appeals overturned Antonescu's conviction for certain crimes against peace, on the grounds that the objective conditions of 1940 justified a preventive war against the Soviet Union, so that article 3 of the 1933 Convention defining aggression does not apply to his case. The court declared void parts of the People's Tribunal's sentencing from May 17, 1946 of Antonescu and others. As a result, Antonescu and 20 other people were found not guilty of "crimes against peace against the peoples of the Soviet Russia" (1946 text) and for certain "war crimes imputed as a result of military collaboration between Romania and Germany", by ruling that the constitutive elements of these crimes were not met. The court upheld the findings in 1946 in reference to the participation in the Holocaust.
The court backed its rulling on the nullity of the Secret Protocol of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, stating that " by establishing the spheres of influence, it was at the base of the grave territorial aggressions suffered by Romania in 1940. It has breached through this the imperative norms of international law at that date in reference to the territorial integrity of states, respectively article 10 of the Pact of the League of Nations " The court also based its ruling on the precedent of the "legitimate aggression" found by the Tokyo Tribunal, which ruled that the Netherlands' declaration of war to Japan in 1941 was legitimate due to the fact that, at the Imperial Conference in November 1941, Japan had announced that it would annex the Dutch territories in the Pacific Ocean. |
|
|
| Add Ion Antonescu Biography (SuperUSERS) + |
| Add Ion Antonescu Review/Comment
|
HQ Ion Antonescu Pictures (1) | Random Ion Antonescu Picture
|
| << Back to the Ion Antonescu Homepage |
|
