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Iron Guard

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The Iron Guard (Romanian: Garda de Fier) was a Romanian pro-Nazi[1] militant group founded by Romanian ultranationalist[2][3] Corneliu Zelea Codreanu (1899 – 1938) in 1930 during the Great Depression and rise of fascism in Europe.[2][3]

Founding

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When Codreanu was at university in 1922, he was one of the founders of the Association of Christian Students, allied with the League of National Christian Defense (Romanian: Liga Apărării Național Creștine, LANC) between 1923 and 1927. In 1927, he broke with the LANC to form the Legion of the Archangel Michael,[4] the military wing of which became the Iron Guard.[2][3]

The Iron Guard was noted for its violent antisemitism and mystical Christian nationalism.[1][4][5][6] This earned them support from radical nationalist peasants, intellectuals[3][6] and the Romanian Orthodox Church (Romanian: Biserica Ortodoxă Română).[7] Student mobilization contributed to Iron Guard's rise.[6][8]

Flag of the Iron Guard of Romania.
A 1940 Romanian stamp with the face of the Iron Guard founder Corneliu Zelea Codreanu.

Rise

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In 1937, the Iron Guard became the third-largest party in Romania's parliament by winning 15.81% of votes and 66 out of 387 seats.[9] It also became the third-largest far-right movement in Europe, with 200,000 members within Romania.[2][3] Due to the Iron Guard's violent extremism, it faced crackdown in 1938[10] and 1941 respectively, the first time under King Carol II (where Iron Guard's founder was executed) and the second time under the Nazi-backed Ion Antonescu.[11]

Antonescu was an Iron Guard member himself, appointed by King Carol II as the Prime Minister on 5 September 1940.[2][3] He recruited some Iron Guard members into his cabinet and ran the short-lived totalitarian National Legionary State (Romanian: Statul Național-Legionar, SNL) from 14 September 1940 to 14 February 1941.[12][13] After the SNL ended, Antonescu continued ruling Romania as a tyrant[12][13] and killed as many as 400,000 Jews[14] until 23 August 1944, when he was overthrown in a coup led by King Michael I.[15]

Romanian Prime Minister Ion Antonescu and Iron Guard leader Horia Sima saluting the Iron Guard founder Corneliu Zelea Codreanu (overhead portrait) in October 1940.
Iron Guard members marching with Nazi salutes in downtown Bucharest, the Romanian capital, c. 1940.

Antisemitism

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The Grand Spanish Temple, an Orthodox Jewish synagogue, was burned down by the Iron Guard in the Bucharest pogrom and Legionnaires' rebellion.

As mentioned, the Iron Guard was violently antisemitic.[1][16] They believed the Jews to be Freemasons who controlled everything.[17]

They instigated numerous antisemitic riots, one of which was the Bucharest pogrom on 21–23 January 1941, which killed 125+ Jews.[18]

Downfall

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Photo of Iron Guard's leader Horia Sima.

Horia Sima, the Iron Guard leader, did not get along with the Nazi-backed Prime Minister Ion Antonescu. Antonescu was wary of the Iron Guard's influence as a paramilitary.[11][12] He persuaded Sima to make him the Iron Guard's leader.

However, Sima refused and demanded all major offices to be held by Iron Guard members instead. This angered Antonescu.[19]

During the Bucharest pogrom, the Iron Guard launched a concurrent rebellion against Antonescu. Antonescu unleashed a crackdown, outlawed the Iron Guard and threw 9,000 Iron Guard members into jail.[11][12] Some of them, including Iron Guard's leader Horia Sima, fled to Nazi Germany and received protection from Hitler.[3][19] Many jailed members were later released by Antonescu to participate in the Iași pogrom and the broader Holocaust in the Romanian-occupied zone.[20]

Jewish dead bodies in public on 29 June 1941 during the Iași pogrom.
Jewish dead bodies dumped from a train along the route from Iași to either Călărași or Podul IIoaei.

Horia Sima in exile

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Horia Sima fled Romania with the help of the Nazi SS. Sima and his allies were resettled in Berkenbrück, Germany. In 1942, he escaped to Italy, but was sent back to Nazi custody by Italy's dictator Benito Mussolini.[21] The Nazis found Sima troublesome. They placed him and his allies in the Buchenwald concentration camp.[21] Sima was later moved to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, where he remained until August 1944, when Romania defected to the Allies. The Nazis tried to make him found a pro-Nazi Romanian government-in-exile, but the Nazis were soon defeated by the Allies.[21]

After WWII, Sima fled to Spain – under Franscisco Franco's anti-communist dictatorship. Many Iron Guard ex-members cut ties with Sima as they blamed him for their movement's failure,[22] though he continued leading successor groups throughout the Cold War.[23]

Death

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Sima lived in Spain until he died in 1993.[24]

Ideology

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The beliefs of the Iron Guard are classifiable as follows.[4][12]

Political

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Economic

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Cultural

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References

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  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2
    • "RUMANIA: Again, Chaos". Time Magazine. February 3, 1941. Retrieved November 5, 2024.
    • Yavetz, Zvi (1991). "An Eyewitness Note: Reflections on the Rumanian Iron Guard". Journal of Contemporary History. 26 (3). Sage Publications, Ltd.: 597–610. JSTOR 260662. Retrieved November 5, 2024.
    • Meale, Jordan (2016). "The Romanian Iron Guard: Fascist Sacralized Politics or Fascist Politicized Religion?". Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe. 36 (5). George Fox University. Retrieved November 5, 2024.
    • "St. Michael's Cross". Anti-Defamation League (ADL）. May 25, 2022. Retrieved December 7, 2024.
    • "Prosecutor's Office Launches Investigation Following Legionary Propaganda By Diana Șoșoacă". Romania Journal. October 7, 2024. Retrieved December 7, 2024.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Iordachi, Constantin (September 2, 2020). "Fascism and Terrorism: The Iron Guard in Interwar Romania". The Oxford Handbook of the History of Terrorism. Oxford University Press. pp. 384–402. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199858569.013.40. ISBN 9780199858569. Retrieved November 4, 2024.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2
  5. ↑ "Community in Romania". World Jewish Congress. 2023. Retrieved November 2, 2024.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Laqueur, Walter (July 30, 2009). "Towards the Holocaust". The Changing Face of Antisemitism: From Ancient Times to the Present Day. Oxford University Press, USA. ISBN 9780195341218. Retrieved November 3, 2024.
  7. ↑
  8. ↑
  9. ↑
  10. ↑ "23 Apr 1938 - Iron Guard Suppressed - Trove". National Library of Australia. April 23, 1938. Retrieved November 5, 2024.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1
  14. ↑ "Murder of the Jews of Romania". Yad Vashem. Retrieved October 22, 2024. Romania [...] had a Jewish population of about 757,000 before World War II. [...] In total, 380,000 – 400,000 Jews [...] were murdered in Romanian-controlled areas under the dictatorship of Antonescu.
  15. ↑
  16. ↑ "Working Definition Of Antisemitism". World Jewish Congress. Retrieved October 22, 2024.
    IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism :
  17. ↑
  18. ↑
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 Payne, Stanley G. (June 27, 1996). A History of Fascism, 1914-1945 (1 ed.). Routledge. ISBN 9781857285956. Retrieved November 5, 2024.
  20. ↑ "Jews From Iaşi (Jassy) Who Survived the Transports". JewishGen. September 15, 2005. Retrieved November 2, 2024.
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 21.2 Tiu, Ilarion (2010). The Legionary Movement After Corneliu Codreanu: From the Dictatorship of King Carol II to the Communist Regime (February 1938-August 1944). Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780880336598. Retrieved November 5, 2024.
  22. ↑ Bujea, Eleanor (2009). Romanians in Canada. Lulu.com. ISBN 978-1-929200-14-6. Retrieved November 5, 2024.
  23. ↑ Cragg, Bronwyn (April 23, 2024). "Letters from Exile: Canadian Media, the Romanian Diaspora, and the Legionary Movement". Journal of Romanian Studies. 6 (1). Liverpool University Press: 47–70. doi:10.3828/jrns.2024.4. Retrieved November 5, 2024.
  24. ↑ Ionescu, Șerban N. (1994). Who was who in twentieth century Romania. East European Monographs. ISBN 0880332921. OCLC 685552068. Retrieved November 5, 2024.
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