Jilava Massacre
Encyclopedia
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
(Legion), with further high-profile assassinations in the immediate aftermath. Coming about halfway through the fascist
National Legionary State
, it led to the first open clash between the Guard and conducător
Ion Antonescu
, who would oust the former from power
in January 1941.
, repressive measures against the Iron Guard gathered pace in the late 1930s; a cycle of violence on both sides left many dead, including Prime Minister Armand Călinescu
and Corneliu Zelea Codreanu
, the Guard's founder and leader. After Carol abdicated in September 1940 and the Guard ascended to power, its members thirsted for revenge, seeking to eliminate those who had participated in the various legal and illegal actions taken by the king's regime. The more restrained Antonescu sought punishment through legal means. Within his first month in power, he approved an official probe into all those who could not account for becoming wealthy very fast in the last years of Carol's rule, and established a special court to investigate crimes committed by the previous regime's principal figures, or in their name, against the Guard.
The court ordered the arrest of those to be investigated, had them imprisoned at Jilava, and entrusted them to the custody of special Legionary formations, described by Alexandru Creţianu as "nothing less than an improvised version of the SS strong-arm squads".
The investigation underway, the court, wishing to obtain testimony from the detainees in order to prepare for their trials, ordered several of them to be transferred to another jail, where their depositions would be taken. However, Ştefan Zăvoianu, the Bucharest Prefect of Police in charge of the Legionary squads guarding the prisoners, believed Antonescu had changed his mind about executing those responsible for Codreanu's death and refused to comply with the order. This alerted the military authorities, who decided to replace the squads with regular military guards and move the prisoners themselves. Zăvoianu was informed of this decision on November 26, and that night the squads shot dead every one of their charges: politicians, senior military officers, and policemen accused of complicity in Codreanu's arrest and execution.
. Its members were aged between 18 and 25. Gheorghe Creţu, who killed 14 inmates, testified at his trial that Grozea gave the order to shoot at around 11:45 pm, whereupon each executioner was sent to a particular cell, ordered the prisoners to stand and shot them. The executioners then gathered before the guards; together they went and paid homage before Codreanu's remains.
Among those assassinated were former Prime Minister Gheorghe Argeşanu
(who had presided over the reprisals following Armand Călinescu's assassination), former Justice Minister Victor Iamandi
, former Bucharest police prefect and interior minister Gabriel Marinescu, several high-ranking officers of the Gendarmerie, including its head inspector General Ioan Bengliu
, Colonel Zeciu (who had organised the killing of Codreanu and thirteen other Legionnaires), Majors Aristide Macoveanu and Iosif Dinulescu (who had prepared and carried out the killing), Staff Sergeant Sârbu (who had actually tightened the wire around Codreanu's neck, strangling him), Mihail Vârfureanu (a former Legionnaire who turned informant and was responsible for female Guardist Nicoleta Nicolescu's assassination), former Chief of Secret Police Mihail Moruzov
, and his deputy. The last two were not responsible for excesses against the Iron Guard, but in the past they paid many of its members, including Codreanu's successor as leader, Horia Sima
, for services rendered as informants. Zăvoianu knew that the Legion would like to be rid of such inconvenient witnesses before any trials or investigations could take place.
Sima replied that such a deed would not be repeated, to which Antonescu drew his attention to the fact that Nicolae Iorga
's safety was threatened by Legionaries and he should take steps to ensure no harm was done.
Sima agreed, but by the end of the day was informed that Iorga, the venerable historian and former prime minister, had been murdered. Several Guard members had attacked him and Virgil Madgearu
, secretary general of the National Peasants' Party
, in their homes, kidnapped and shot them, and abandoned their bodies in a roadside ditch. Also on November 27, Zăvoianu and his men rounded up more leading figures of the Carlist regime, including former prime ministers Constantin Argetoianu
and Gheorghe Tătărescu
(saved by the quick intervention of Lt. Col. Alexandru Rioşanu), former prime minister Ion Gigurtu
(saved by Sima) and former ministers Mihail Ghelmegeanu and Nicolae Marinescu; they were brought to the Police Prefecture with the intention of executing them, but spirited away to safety in the heavily fortified building of the Interior Ministry.
Codreanu, whose body was discovered on November 25, was solemnly reburied on November 30, along with the Decemviri and Nicadori
. The Guard would claim that the assassins acted solely out of fury and a desire for revenge (the remains of their hero were being unearthed a short distance away as the massacre proceeded), and while the discovery doubtless stirred them to action, the procurement of arms and prison plans involved detailed planning that took time and premeditation. In July 1941, Zăvoianu, along with the former Legionary police officers Gheorghe Creţu, Octavian Marcu, Constantin Savu and loan Tănăsescu, and the Legionary Dumitru Anghel, were condemned to death and shot for perpetrating the massacre. That month, Dumitru Grozea and thirteen of his accomplices, mainly former police officers and Iorga's assassins, were condemned to death in absentia.
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...
penitentiary, near Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
, 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...
. 64 political detainees were killed by the 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...
(Legion), with further high-profile assassinations in the immediate aftermath. Coming about halfway through the fascist
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
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...
, it led to the first open clash between the Guard and conducător
Conducator
Conducător was the title used officially in two instances by Romanian politicians, and earlier by Carol II.-History:...
Ion Antonescu
Ion Antonescu
Ion Victor Antonescu was a Romanian soldier, authoritarian politician and convicted war criminal. The Prime Minister and Conducător during most of World War II, he presided over two successive wartime dictatorships...
, who would oust the former from power
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...
in January 1941.
Background
Under King Carol IICarol 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...
, repressive measures against the Iron Guard gathered pace in the late 1930s; a cycle of violence on both sides left many dead, including Prime Minister Armand Călinescu
Armand 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:...
and Corneliu Zelea Codreanu
Corneliu Zelea Codreanu
Corneliu Zelea Codreanu was a Romanian politician of the far right, the founder and charismatic leader of the Iron Guard or The Legion of the Archangel Michael , an ultra-nationalist and violently antisemitic organization active throughout most of the interwar period...
, the Guard's founder and leader. After Carol abdicated in September 1940 and the Guard ascended to power, its members thirsted for revenge, seeking to eliminate those who had participated in the various legal and illegal actions taken by the king's regime. The more restrained Antonescu sought punishment through legal means. Within his first month in power, he approved an official probe into all those who could not account for becoming wealthy very fast in the last years of Carol's rule, and established a special court to investigate crimes committed by the previous regime's principal figures, or in their name, against the Guard.
The court ordered the arrest of those to be investigated, had them imprisoned at Jilava, and entrusted them to the custody of special Legionary formations, described by Alexandru Creţianu as "nothing less than an improvised version of the SS strong-arm squads".
The investigation underway, the court, wishing to obtain testimony from the detainees in order to prepare for their trials, ordered several of them to be transferred to another jail, where their depositions would be taken. However, Ştefan Zăvoianu, the Bucharest Prefect of Police in charge of the Legionary squads guarding the prisoners, believed Antonescu had changed his mind about executing those responsible for Codreanu's death and refused to comply with the order. This alerted the military authorities, who decided to replace the squads with regular military guards and move the prisoners themselves. Zăvoianu was informed of this decision on November 26, and that night the squads shot dead every one of their charges: politicians, senior military officers, and policemen accused of complicity in Codreanu's arrest and execution.
Victims
The execution team was commanded by Dumitru Grozea, head of the Legionary Workers' CorpsCorpul Muncitoresc Legionar
Corpul Muncitoresc Legionar or Corpul Muncitorilor Legionari was a fascist association of workers in Romania, created inside the Iron Guard and having a rigid hierarchical structure...
. Its members were aged between 18 and 25. Gheorghe Creţu, who killed 14 inmates, testified at his trial that Grozea gave the order to shoot at around 11:45 pm, whereupon each executioner was sent to a particular cell, ordered the prisoners to stand and shot them. The executioners then gathered before the guards; together they went and paid homage before Codreanu's remains.
Among those assassinated were former Prime Minister Gheorghe Argeşanu
Gheorghe Argesanu
Gheorghe Argeşanu was a Romanian cavalry general and politician who served as a Prime Minister of Romania for about a week in 1939 .-Biography:...
(who had presided over the reprisals following Armand Călinescu's assassination), former Justice Minister Victor Iamandi
Victor Iamandi
Victor Iamandi was a Romanian politician and activist. He served as the Romanian Minister of Justice. He was killed by the Iron Guard during the Jilava Massacre due to the measures he took against the Guard during his ministerial service.-External links:*...
, former Bucharest police prefect and interior minister Gabriel Marinescu, several high-ranking officers of the Gendarmerie, including its head inspector General Ioan Bengliu
Ioan Bengliu
Ioan Bengliu was a Romanian Lieutenant-General. From 1938 to 1940, he was Inspector-General of the Romanian Gendarmerie. In 1940, he was retired, then arrested by the Antonescu-Sima government, imprisoned at the Jilava prison and subsequently killed in the 1940 Jilava massacre prison.-References:...
, Colonel Zeciu (who had organised the killing of Codreanu and thirteen other Legionnaires), Majors Aristide Macoveanu and Iosif Dinulescu (who had prepared and carried out the killing), Staff Sergeant Sârbu (who had actually tightened the wire around Codreanu's neck, strangling him), Mihail Vârfureanu (a former Legionnaire who turned informant and was responsible for female Guardist Nicoleta Nicolescu's assassination), former Chief of Secret Police Mihail Moruzov
Mihail Moruzov
Mihail Moruzov was the founder and first head of Romania's modern domestic espionage agency, the Secret Intelligence Service , forerunner of today's SRI.-Early life:...
, and his deputy. The last two were not responsible for excesses against the Iron Guard, but in the past they paid many of its members, including Codreanu's successor as leader, Horia Sima
Horia Sima
Horia Sima was a Romanian fascist politician. After 1938, he was the second and last leader of the fascist and antisemitic para-military movement known as the Iron Guard.-In Romania:...
, for services rendered as informants. Zăvoianu knew that the Legion would like to be rid of such inconvenient witnesses before any trials or investigations could take place.
Aftermath
As a result of the massacre, the simmering power struggle between Sima and Antonescu reached crisis proportions. Informed of what had taken place on November 27, the latter immediately called a special meeting of the Council of Ministers, demanding that the government and the Legion issue a joint public statement disassociating themselves from and condemning the recent events. When asked why they did not attempt to prevent bloodshed, the Legionary ministers denied having any foreknowledge and tried to act as surprised as anyone else. Still, they all attempted to justify the murders, claiming it was the general impression among Legionaries that the court had no intention of punishing any of the accused, whom they assumed would eventually go free. Antonescu, unswayed, declared that- "the handful of reprobates who have committed this crime will be punished in an exemplary manner. I will not allow that the country and the future of the nation be compromised by the action of a band of terrorists... I was reserving the punishment of those held at Jilava for the justice system of the country. But the street decreed otherwise, proceeding to implement justice itself".
Sima replied that such a deed would not be repeated, to which Antonescu drew his attention to the fact that 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...
's safety was threatened by Legionaries and he should take steps to ensure no harm was done.
Sima agreed, but by the end of the day was informed that Iorga, the venerable historian and former prime minister, had been murdered. Several Guard members had attacked him 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...
, secretary general of the National Peasants' Party
National Peasants' Party
The National Peasants' Party was a Romanian political party, formed in 1926 through the fusion of the Romanian National Party from Transylvania and the Peasants' Party . It was in power between 1928 and 1933, with brief interruptions...
, in their homes, kidnapped and shot them, and abandoned their bodies in a roadside ditch. Also on November 27, Zăvoianu and his men rounded up more leading figures of the Carlist regime, including former prime ministers Constantin Argetoianu
Constantin Argetoianu
Constantin Argetoianu was a Romanian politician, one of the best-known personalities of interwar Greater Romania, who served as the Prime Minister between September 28 and November 23, 1939. His memoirs, Memorii. Pentru cei de mâine. Amintiri din vremea celor de ieri Constantin Argetoianu...
and Gheorghe Tătărescu
Gheorghe Tatarescu
Gheorghe I. Tătărescu was a Romanian politician who served twice as Prime Minister of Romania , three times as Minister of Foreign Affairs , and once as Minister of War...
(saved by the quick intervention of Lt. Col. Alexandru Rioşanu), former prime minister Ion Gigurtu
Ion Gigurtu
Ion Gigurtu was a Romanian politician, Land Forces officer, engineer and industrialist who served a brief term as Prime Minister from July 4 to September 4, 1940, under the personal regime of King Carol II. A specialist in mining and veteran of both the Second Balkan War and World War I, he made a...
(saved by Sima) and former ministers Mihail Ghelmegeanu and Nicolae Marinescu; they were brought to the Police Prefecture with the intention of executing them, but spirited away to safety in the heavily fortified building of the Interior Ministry.
Codreanu, whose body was discovered on November 25, was solemnly reburied on November 30, along with the Decemviri and Nicadori
Iron Guard death squads
During the 1930s, three notable death squads emerged from Romania's Iron Guard: 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...
. The Guard would claim that the assassins acted solely out of fury and a desire for revenge (the remains of their hero were being unearthed a short distance away as the massacre proceeded), and while the discovery doubtless stirred them to action, the procurement of arms and prison plans involved detailed planning that took time and premeditation. In July 1941, Zăvoianu, along with the former Legionary police officers Gheorghe Creţu, Octavian Marcu, Constantin Savu and loan Tănăsescu, and the Legionary Dumitru Anghel, were condemned to death and shot for perpetrating the massacre. That month, Dumitru Grozea and thirteen of his accomplices, mainly former police officers and Iorga's assassins, were condemned to death in absentia.
See also
- Un comisar acuză, a film by Sergiu NicolaescuSergiu NicolaescuSergiu Florin Nicolaescu is a Romanian film director, actor and politician. He is best known for his historical films, such as Mihai Viteazul , Dacii , Razboiul Independenţei , as well as for his series of...
based on the Jilava Massacre