Legionnaires' Rebellion and Bucharest Pogrom - Background

Background

Following World War I, Romania gained many new territories, turning it into "Greater Romania". However, the approval of Union with these territories came with the condition of granting rights to ethnic minorities. The new territories, especially Bessarabia and Bukovina, included large numbers of Jewish people, whose presence stood out because their clothing, customs, and language were different from those common in Romania. Intellectuals, a wide array of political parties and the clergy led an anti-Semitic campaign; many of these eventually came to cast their political lot in alliance with Nazi Germany.

The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (August 1939) gave the Soviet Union a green light to take back Bessarabia in June 1940 (see June 1940 Soviet Ultimatum, and Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina), and in August 1940 Germany and Italy's mediation of Romania's disputes with Hungary about Transylvania (resulting in the Second Vienna Award), and with Bulgaria about Dobruja (resulting in the Treaty of Craiova), caused large areas of Romania to be transferred back to Hungarian and Bulgarian control.

During the Romanian Army's withdrawal from Bessarabia, some of the local residents demonstrated their joy. Attacks on the soldiers by locals are also documented. Various reports speak of attacks on the retreating soldiers by Jews, though their veracity is disputed, and some have been proven to be fabrications. Additionally, although the reports defined all of them as "Jews", among the celebrators and attackers were Ukrainians, Russians, pro-Communists, newly-released criminals, and ethnic Romanians. These reports, regardless of veracity, did much to incite many Romanians against Jews, strengthening existing anti-Semitic sentiment.

The Romanian people were traumatized and frustrated by giving up these areas without a war, and the regime's position weakened significantly. The government scapegoated the Jews, with the press' support:

Confronted with an extremely serious crisis and doubting their regime could survive, Romanian government officials turned the Jews into a political “lighting rod,” channeling popular discontent toward the minority. Notable in this report is the reaction of the Romanian press, whose rage was directed more toward Jews than the Soviets, the real aggressors. Given that the Romanian press was censored in 1940, the government must have played a role in this bias. A typical form of anticipatory scapegoating was to let Jewish leaders know that the Romanian authorities might launch acts of repression against the Jews."

The anti-semitic legislation that began with the "Jew Codex" in Romania, and the establishment of the National Legionary State government, which set in motion the laws of Romanianization, which deprived Jewish people of their property and distributed among supporters of the new regime, created an atmosphere in which anti-semitism was seen as legitimate, and even invited.

Politically, control was in the hands of the Conducător Ion Antonescu, and of an anti-semitic fascist government, assembled by Horia Sima. The latter headed the paramilitary Legionnaire movement, the Iron Guard (earlier the Legion of the Archangel Michael; throughout this article, only the name "Legionnaires" is used). There was a great deal of tension between the leaders due to thieving by the Iron Guard from the Jewish population. Antonescu believed the robbery was done in a fashion detrimental to the Romanian economy, and the stolen property did not benefit the government, only the Legionnaires and their associates. Besides the Jewish issue, the Legionnaires, achieving power after many years of persecution by the former regime of King Carol II (which even killed their former leader, Corneliu Zelea Codreanu), were vengeful toward anyone associated with the regime.