Mihai Antonescu

Mihai Antonescu

Mihai Antonescu (1907-June 13 1946, near Jilava) was Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Romania during World War II.

Early career

Antonescu made his living as an attorney before becoming Prime Minister Ion Antonescu's (whom he was not related to) Minister of Propaganda in 1940. Antonescu was initially not an extremist or supporter of the Fascist Iron Guard, whose leaders held prominent positions in Ion Antonescu's government.

However, as minister, he drifted increasingly more to the right and established contacts with the German Nazi Party. Antonescu subsequently became one of Ion Antonescu's most trusted advisors, especially when the Iron Guard's leader, Horia Sima (who was also deputy prime minister), became increasingly uncooperative. He was effective in censoring governmental critics and enforcing blatant Anti-Semitism in the media. When the Iron Guard was suppressed and removed from power, in January of 1941, Mihai Antonescu was promoted to Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, making him the second most powerful man in the country.

Prominence

Throughout 1941, especially after the Invasion of the Soviet Union, Ion Antonescu primarily focused on Romania's military affairs, leaving Mihai Antonescu in almost full control of the country's domestic matters. Although initially uncomfortable with Romania's close alliance with Germany, Antonescu strengthened the nation's ties with Adolf Hitler's regime after a string of early Axis victories against the Soviets. Antonescu primarily attempted to gain Germany's favor by persecuting Romania's Jews. Essentially running the interior ministry, he drafted a series of laws that resulted in thousands of Romania's Jews being forced out of their jobs and positions, while at the same time they were denied access to countless other careers. More such laws resulted in the country's Jews having their property seized.

Throughout 1941, Antonescu would approve the pogrom against the Jews of Iaşi, stop the emigration of Jews from Romania, and remove the Romanian government's protection of Romanian Jews outside the country, thus leaving them in German-occupied areas at the mercy of the Nazis. He also approved the slaughter of Jews in Bessarabia and Bukovina, and the deportation of the survivors to concentration camps in Transnistria.

Late in the war and execution

As 1942 came to a close, Antonescu became alarmed at the deterioration of the Axis war effort and started looking for ways to withdraw Romania from the war. He attempted to persuade Hitler to make peace with the Western Allies and focus the full power of the Axis forces on the Soviet Union. When the Soviets won the Battle of Stalingrad on February 2 1943, Antonescu came to the conclusion that the war was lost for the Axis, proceeding to destroy files and documents that revealed his active persecution of Romania's Jews. With Ion Antonescu's approval, he came to advocate the withdrawal from conflict of all minor allies of the Nazis - Romania, Hungary, Italy, and Finland.

Antonescu believed Benito Mussolini was powerful enough to stand up to Hitler, and that Italy could successfully negotiate an armistice with the Western Allies. Under Antonescu's plan, the four states and other European nations would turn against Hitler and join the Allies against Germany. In his capacity as foreign minister, Antonescu strengthened Romania's ties with Italy and paid a visit to Mussolini in June of 1943, at which time he discovered that Mussolini agreed with certain aspects of his plan but was less than enthusiastic in regard to actually implementing it. Antonescu subsequently increased his efforts to improve Romania's relations with the United States and Great Britain. As such, he stopped the deportations of Romania's Jews, allowed Jewish emigration to non-Axis nations, and repatriated those who had survived Transnistria.

On August 23, 1944, as Soviet forces drew closer and closer to Romania, King Mihai dismissed the government of Ion Antonescu, declared the nation's surrender, and had Mihai Antonescu arrested. He was subsequently handed over to the new authorities, tried by a Communist Party-influenced Bucharest People's Tribunal, and found guily of war crimes. He was executed by a firing squad, together with Ion Antonescu.