Antonescu and the Jews in Yad Vashem Studies, Volume XXIII

Antonescu and the Jews

Based on documents from Romanian, German, and Russian archives, Ancel traces Ion Antonescu’s policy toward the Jews during his military dictatorship (1940–1944) and his responsibility for the mass deportations and massacres of Jews in Bessarabia, Bukovina, and Odessa. His nationalistic and antisemitic ideology is analyzed, as well as his attitude during the Bucharest pogrom (January 1941), perpetrated by fascist Legionnaires, and the Iasi pogrom (June 1941). The circumstances of Antonescu’s acceptance and then refusal of the Nazi plan to totally annihilate Romanian Jewry is also discussed. Antonescu’s regime was responsible for the death of at least 350,000 Jews, including 100,000 Ukrainian Jews.