Iron Guard death squads
Encyclopedia
Death squad
A death squad is an armed military, police, insurgent, or terrorist squad that conducts extrajudicial killings, assassinations, and forced disappearances of persons as part of a war, insurgency or terror campaign...
s emerged from Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
's Iron Guard
Iron Guard
The Iron Guard is the name most commonly given to a far-right movement and political party in Romania in the period from 1927 into the early part of World War II. The Iron Guard was ultra-nationalist, fascist, anti-communist, and promoted the Orthodox Christian faith...
: the Nicadori, the Decemviri, and the Răzbunători. Motivated by a combination of fascist political ideology and religious-nationalist mysticism, they carried out several high-level political assassinations in the inter-war period.
Theoretical background
Death was a central part of the Iron Guard's ideology. Its members, known as Legionnaires, were officially asked "to embrace death" if needed; in practice, they were supposed to be ready to both give and embrace death—in other words, to be willing to assassinate their political enemies at the risk of their own life. This "Legionnaire's death" was widely celebrated. For instance, the second verse of the hymn used by the Guard's youth wing is:Moartea, numai moartea legionară Ne este cea mai scumpă nuntă dintre nunţi, Pentru sfânta cruce, pentru ţară Înfrângem codrii şi supunem munţi; Nu-i temniţă sa ne-nspăimânte, Nici chin, nici viforul duşman; De cădem cu toţi, izbiţi în frunte, Ni-i dragă moartea pentru Căpitan! |
Death, only a Legionnaire's death Is our dearest wedding of weddings, For the Holy Cross, for the country We defeat forests and conquer mountains; No prison can frighten us, Nor any torture, or enemy storm; If we all fall, hit in the forehead, Death for the Captain is dear to us! |
The Guard aligned itself with the Romanian Orthodox Church
Romanian Orthodox Church
The Romanian Orthodox Church is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox church. It is in full communion with other Eastern Orthodox churches, and is ranked seventh in order of precedence. The Primate of the church has the title of Patriarch...
, which prohibits murder. However, it had ways of justifying the notion of "giving death" (a notion its founder, Corneliu Codreanu, never fully explained, as he was given to laconic pronouncements).
Codreanu noted that, given the opposition the Guard faced from the state, other political parties, and the media, the Legionnaires had made "the decision to embrace death. The 'death squad' is the expression of this determination, shared by all Legionnaires in the country. It means that these youths are willing to accept death. They are willing to move forward, through death". He suggested that in pursuing their goal, "a new Romania and the long awaited revival of this Romanian nation, the aim of all our efforts, struggle, and sacrifice", the Legionnaires were ready to sacrifice themselves, to become martyrs for their country.
It was during the Legionnaire-dominated Students' Congress of April 3-5, 1936, held at Târgu Mureş, that the death squads were officially established. However, writing in The Nest Leader's Manual, which appeared in May 1933, Codreanu taught: "A Legionnaire loves death, for his blood shall cement the future Legionary Romania". In 1927, at the Guard's very creation, its members swore to be "strong by severing all ties connecting us with mundane things..., by serving the cause of the Romanian nation and the cause of the Cross". By claiming to renounce material wealth and invoking the Cross
Christian cross
The Christian cross, seen as a representation of the instrument of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, is the best-known religious symbol of Christianity...
, the Legionnaires were channeling Christ
Christ
Christ is the English term for the Greek meaning "the anointed one". It is a translation of the Hebrew , usually transliterated into English as Messiah or Mashiach...
: they believed they would die for the nation as he had died to redeem mankind. Vasile Marin
Vasile Marin
Vasile Marin was a Romanian politician, public servant and lawyer. A member of the National Peasants' Party until 1932, Vasile Marin become a prominent member of the Iron Guard.- Biography :...
, who made important contributions to Legionnaire doctrine, amplified on this notion when he praised the Nicadori in 1934: "Three young students have committed an act in the service of a great cause. You all know what that act was. Their sacrifice was inspired by a great idea. It was done in the name of a great idea. They performed this act, and now they are paying the price".
For the Legionnaires, the murder of a political enemy or a traitorous comrade meant sacrificing oneself for a greater cause: the Christian religion, one of mercy, was thus transformed into an ideology of murder. They drew inspiration from Codreanu himself, who had planned a large number of political assassinations with Ion Moţa
Ion Mota
Ion I. Moţa [or Motza] was the Romanian fascist deputy leader of the Iron Guard killed in battle during the Spanish Civil War.-Biography:...
, and who had killed a policeman in Iaşi
Iasi
Iași is the second most populous city and a municipality in Romania. Located in the historical Moldavia region, Iași has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Romanian social, cultural, academic and artistic life...
in autumn 1924. At his trial for that deed he proclaimed, "it was my faith and my love of this country that guided me in this struggle, in everything I did. We pledge to fight until the end". He was acquitted, as was Moţa (who shot Vernichescu, the man who revealed the assassination conspiracy, seven times, albeit not fatally); both were acclaimed as heroes.
As assassinations rendered their perpetrators heroes, they became a sought-after activity for Legionnaires, and Codreanu further enticed them: "The day after the victory of the Legionnaires we shall convene an EXTRAORDINARY TRIBUNAL called upon to judge, for high treason: ... all those who, in defiance of the laws of this country, persecuted, imprisoned, or otherwise caused harm to the Legionnaires and to their families ... no one shall escape judgment". Codreanu's former deputy Mihai Stelescu
Mihai Stelescu
-With the Iron Guard:Born in Galaţi, he joined, while still in high school, the Legion of the Archangel Michael , an ultra-nationalist, Fascist, and anti-Semitic political movement led by Corneliu Zelea Codreanu....
, after leaving the Legion, publicly accused Codreanu of sacrificing young men for the advancement of his own career, and of devising a type of murder based on "manipulation of the masses", using others as assassins and leaving them to face justice.
Furthermore, Legionnaires were animated by the idea that the nation included both the dead and the living, with its heroes providing assistance to the latter when invoked. This element of their ideology involved an authentic mystique of the idea of dying for one's nation, as those killed in the course of their duties automatically became heroes who could continue to support their living comrades' undertakings. This enthusiasm for death motivated Moţa, who went to Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
to die for Romania so that (as he believed) his country would be redeemed in God's eyes, as well as in the death-exalting literature produced by that segment of the intellectual élite which had proved receptive to Legionary ideas: Mircea Eliade
Mircea Eliade
Mircea Eliade was a Romanian historian of religion, fiction writer, philosopher, and professor at the University of Chicago. He was a leading interpreter of religious experience, who established paradigms in religious studies that persist to this day...
, Radu Gyr
Radu Gyr
Radu Gyr was a Romanian poet, essayist, playwright and journalist....
, Constantin Noica
Constantin Noica
Constantin Noica was a Romanian philosopher, essayist and poet. His preoccupations were throughout all philosophy, from epistemology, philosophy of culture, axiology and philosophic anthropology to ontology and logics, from the history of philosophy to systematic philosophy, from ancient to...
, and others.
The Legionnaire's death was amply practiced. Many gave their lives certain that the movement and the national cause would be strengthened; they never hesitated to kill in the name of the same idea. Aside from the three cases discussed below, Iron Guard members were responsible for the Jilava Massacre
Jilava Massacre
The Jilava Massacre took place during the night beginning on November 26, 1940, at Jilava penitentiary, near Bucharest, Romania. 64 political detainees were killed by the Iron Guard , with further high-profile assassinations in the immediate aftermath...
at the eponymous prison on the night of November 26-27, 1940, when 64 political prisoners, 46 officers and guards, and a number of military detainees were killed; the murder of Nicolae Iorga
Nicolae Iorga
Nicolae Iorga was a Romanian historian, politician, literary critic, memoirist, poet and playwright. Co-founder of the Democratic Nationalist Party , he served as a member of Parliament, President of the Deputies' Assembly and Senate, cabinet minister and briefly as Prime Minister...
and Virgil Madgearu
Virgil Madgearu
Virgil Traian N. Madgearu was a Romanian economist, sociologist, and left-wing politician, prominent member and main theorist of the Peasants' Party and of its successor, the National Peasants' Party...
that same night; other killings during the National Legionary State
National Legionary State
The National Legionary State was the Romanian government from September 6, 1940 to January 23, 1941. It was a single-party regime dictatorship dominated by the overtly fascist Iron Guard in uneasy conjunction with the head of government and Conducător Ion Antonescu, the leader of the Romanian...
; and the deaths of hundreds of officers, civilians, and Bucharest Jews during the Legionnaires' Rebellion and Bucharest Pogrom
Legionnaires' Rebellion and Bucharest Pogrom
The Legionnaires' rebellion and the Bucharest pogrom occurred in Bucharest, Romania, between 21 and 23 January 1941.As the privileges of the Iron Guard were being cut off by Conducător Ion Antonescu, members of the Iron Guard, also known as the Legionnaires, revolted...
.
Nicadori
The Nicadori assassinated Prime MinisterPrime Minister of Romania
The Prime Minister of Romania is the head of the Government of Romania. Initially, the office was styled President of the Council of Ministers , when the term "Government" included more than the Cabinet, and the Cabinet was called The Council of Ministers...
Ion G. Duca
Ion G. Duca
Ion Gheorghe Duca was prime minister of Romania from November 14 to December 30, 1933, when he was assassinated for his efforts to suppress the fascist Iron Guard movement.-Life and political career:...
at Sinaia train station
Sinaia train station
The Sinaia train station serves the Sinaia mountain resort in Romania. The first station was built in 1913 by the Demeter Cartner Company, and it was reserved exclusively for the Royal Family and its guests at Peleş Castle, generally foreign leaders. On the station platform, there is a memorial...
at 10 pm on December 30, 1933. This was the first major political assassination in Romania since Barbu Catargiu
Barbu Catargiu
Barbu Catargiu was a conservative Romanian journalist and politician. He was the first Prime Minister of Romania in 1862 until he was assassinated on 20 June that year...
was shot in 1862. The Nicadori killed Duca because he had arrested thousands of Legionnaires during the 1933 election campaign, also leaving 18 dead; and because he had allowed for increased Jewish immigration while blocking that of Aromanians
Aromanians
Aromanians are a Latin people native throughout the southern Balkans, especially in northern Greece, Albania, the Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria, and as an emigrant community in Serbia and Romania . An older term is Macedo-Romanians...
to Dobrudja. Their name was derived from the first letters of the group members' names:
- Nicolae Constantinescu, who fired the four fatal shots, was a student at the Commerce Academy in Bucharest.
- Ion Caranica, an Aromanian, was born in 1903 in VeriaVeriaVeria is a city built at the foot of Vermion Mountains in Greece. It is a commercial center of Macedonia, the capital of the prefecture of Imathia, the province of Imathia and the seat of a bishop of the Greek Orthodox Church...
. He studied commerce in ThessalonikiThessalonikiThessaloniki , historically also known as Thessalonica, Salonika or Salonica, is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the region of Central Macedonia as well as the capital of the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace...
and then Bucharest. He joined the Iron Guard in 1930, and fought for Aromanian rights. - Doru Belimace, also an Aromanian, was born in 1910 in Malovište, near BitolaBitolaBitola is a city in the southwestern part of the Republic of Macedonia. The city is an administrative, cultural, industrial, commercial, and educational centre. It is located in the southern part of the Pelagonia valley, surrounded by the Baba and Nidže mountains, 14 km north of the...
. His family settled in Bucharest after World War IWorld War IWorld War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. He graduated from the University of BucharestUniversity of BucharestThe University of Bucharest , in Romania, is a university founded in 1864 by decree of Prince Alexander John Cuza to convert the former Saint Sava Academy into the current University of Bucharest.-Presentation:...
's Faculty of Letters; he attended its Faculty of Law at the same time but did not finish.
Arrested right away, the trio was sentenced to hard labour for life. While in prison, Caranica wrote a book on Aromanian issues, and Belimace, among other works, wrote Revoluţia fascistă ("The Fascist Revolution"). They were killed, along with the Decemviri and Codreanu, on November 30, 1938, while being transported to Jilava
Jilava
Jilava is a commune in Ilfov county, Romania, near Bucharest. It is composed of a single village, Jilava.The name derives from a Romanian word of Slavic origin meaning "humid place". Jilava was the location of a fort built by King Carol I of Romania, as part of the capital's defense system...
prison.
Decemviri
The Decemviri, so called because they numbered ten men, like their Ancient RomanAncient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
equivalents, the Decemviri
Decemviri
Decemviri is a Latin term meaning "Ten Men" which designates any such commission in the Roman Republic...
, shot Mihai Stelescu
Mihai Stelescu
-With the Iron Guard:Born in Galaţi, he joined, while still in high school, the Legion of the Archangel Michael , an ultra-nationalist, Fascist, and anti-Semitic political movement led by Corneliu Zelea Codreanu....
in his hospital bed between 38 and about 200 times on July 16, 1936. After shooting him, they cut him into pieces with axes and danced around the body of the victim. Four of those involved in Stelescu's execution were theology students. Stelescu had left the Iron Guard, forming the rival Crusade of Romanianism
Crusade of Romanianism
The Crusade of Romanianism was a Romanian fascist movement that was active during the 1930s.Formed in 1935 as the White Eagles the Crusade was made up of the supporters of Mihai Stelescu who had left the Iron Guard in acrimonious circumstances the previous year...
, and launching a series of public attacks against Codreanu. Codreanu could not abide this betrayal, although both he and the assassins (rather implausibly) denied he knew about the plan or had consented to it.
Ion Caratănase led the squad; its other members were Iosif Bozântan, Ştefan Curcă, Ion Pele, Grigore Ion State, Ion Atanasiu, Gavrilă Bogdan, Radu Vlad, Ştefan Georgescu and Ion Trandafir. Arrested immediately, the men were sentenced to hard labour for life. They were killed, along with the Nicadori and Codreanu, on November 30, 1938, while being transported to Jilava prison.
Răzbunători
Răzbunătorii – "the Avengers" – assassinated Prime Minister Armand CălinescuArmand Calinescu
Armand Călinescu was a Romanian economist and politician, who served as Prime Minister between March 1939 and the time of his death.-Early life:...
on September 21, 1939. Călinescu had been Minister of the Interior at the time of Codreanu's death, and thus had some connection with it. A few months after Codreanu was killed, King Carol
Carol II of Romania
Carol II reigned as King of Romania from 8 June 1930 until 6 September 1940. Eldest son of Ferdinand, King of Romania, and his wife, Queen Marie, a daughter of Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, the second eldest son of Queen Victoria...
's police uncovered a plot to exact revenge on Călinescu. Carol retaliated by ordering members of the Iron Guard rounded up and put to death without trial. The exact number executed was never known; estimates were as high as six thousand.
In response, nine young Legionnaires ambushed Călinescu while he was on his way to work. They were:
- Miti Dumitrescu (Codreanu's trial lawyer)
- Ion Ionescu (student)
- Ovidiu Isaia (photographer)
- Ion Moldoveanu (student)
- Gheorghe Paraschivescu (student)
- Cezar Popescu (student)
- Marin Stănciulescu (mechanic)
- Traian Popescu (student)
- Ion Vasiliu (draftsman).
They fired over twenty bullets into his body, also killing his driver and wounding his bodyguard. The assailants were caught shortly before midnight on the day of the attack. On King Carol's orders, they were taken to the spot where they had killed the premier. Huge floodlights from army trucks illuminated the area so that the assembled crowd could watch as the nine men were shot in the head with their own guns. The
bodies were left under the lights for days. Above them was a large banner reading: De acum înainte, aceasta va fi soarta trădătorilor de ţară ("From now on, this shall be the fate of those who betray the country"). Soldiers and police were given a free hand to deal with any and all suspected members of the Iron Guard, and thousands of young men were shot, hanged from telegraph poles, or tortured to death. A few hundred escaped to Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
.