Legionnaires' Rebellion and Bucharest Pogrom - Preparations For The Rebellion

Preparations For The Rebellion

The disagreement between Antonescu and the Iron Guard about the robbery of the Jews was not about the robbery itself, but about the method, and the final destination of the stolen property. Antonescu held that the robbery should be done by way of expropriation, gradually, through an orderly process of passing anti-semitic laws.

... the Legionnaires wanted everything, and they wanted it immediately; Antonescu, while sharing the same goal, intended to achieve it gradually, using different methods. The leader stated this clearly in an address to Legion-appointed ministers: "Do you really think that we can replace all Yids immediately? Government challenges are addressed one by one, like in a game of chess."

The Legionnaires were keen on robbing as much as possible, as quickly as possible, utilising methods based not in law, but in terror, murder and torture. The Legionnaires had an additional quarrel, with the German minority in Romania.

According to the laws of Romanianization, the Jews were forced to sell many of their businesses, a fact used by the Romanians to purchase those businesses for close to nothing. The German minority introduced a level of competition, by offering the Jews a better price than the one offered by the Legionnaires (on average, about a fifth of the real worth). The local Germans had capital received as a loan from Germany, Romanian money paid to the Germans for keeping military units in their territory (to protect them from the Soviets). Antonescu demanded that the Legionnaires cease their terror tactics, and the Legionnaires began plotting to usurp Antonescu and take over sole control of the country.

Initially, the Legionnaires began "defaming" Antonescu, mentioning his family relation to Jews (his stepmother and his ex-wife, whom he had married when was on a diplomatic mission to France, were Jews). They also accused him of being linked to Freemasonry. According to Nazi propaganda, the Freemasons were enemies of humanity, second only to Jews in wickedness.

In the twenty days preceding the rebellion, the level of anti-Semitic propaganda greatly increased, using all the tools at the Legionnaires' disposal. The propaganda emphasized the need for solving the "Jewish problem". Horia Sima and his comrades sought the sympathy of the Nazi regime in Germany, and built upon the ideological similarities between their movement and the Nazi movement, and had quite a few supporters within the Nazi establishment.

General Antonescu, who had the support of Romania's military, met with Adolf Hitler on 14 January 1941, in Germany. During this meeting, Antonescu promised Hitler the cooperation of Romania in a future German conflict with the Soviet Union, and gained Hitler's silent agreement to eliminating Antonescu's opponents in the Legionnaire Movement. Between 17 and 19 January the Legionnaire movement conducted a series of "lectures" throughout Romania, designed to demonstrate the National Socialist nature of their movement and to show their loyalty to Hitler.

Antonescu took measures to curb the actions of the Legionnaires, and on 19 January issued an order canceling the position of Romanization Commissars: well-paying jobs, held by Legionnaires. Additionally, Antonescu fired the persons responsible for terror acts committed by Legionnaires, from Minister of the Interior Constantin Petrovicescu, to the commanders of the Security Police and the Bucharest Police. He appointed loyal military men in their place. The military also took control of strategic installations, such as telephone exchanges, police stations and hospitals. The district officers, Legionnaires, were called to the capital for an important economic consultation, and were arrested in the middle of the meeting.