Maria Antonescu (née Niculescu; 3 November 1892 – 18 October 1964), also known as Maria General Antonescu, Maria Mareșal Antonescu, or Rica Antonescu, was a Romanian socialite and philanthropist and the wife of World War II authoritarian prime minister and Conducător Ion Antonescu. A long-time resident of France, she was twice married before her wedding to Antonescu, and became especially known for her leadership of charitable organization grouped in the Social Works Patronage Council organization, having Veturia Goga for her main collaborator. The Council profited significantly from antisemitic policies targeting Romanian Jews, and especially from the deportation of Bessarabian Jews into Transnistria, taking over several hundred million lei resulting from arbitrary confiscations and extortion.
Arrested soon after the August 1944 coup which overthrew her husband, Maria Antonescu was briefly a prisoner of war in the Soviet Union, and, after a period of uncertainty, tried and sentenced by the new communist regime on charges of economic crimes (embezzlement). Imprisoned for five years and afterward included in the Bărăgan deportations, she spent the final years of her life under internal exile at Bordușani.
Biography
Early life Born in Calafat, Maria was the daughter of Romanian Army officer Teodor Niculescu, who had fought in the Romanian War of Independence,Rădulescu, p. 337 and his wife Angela (or Anghelina).Marcel-Dumitru Ciucă, "Mărturii sub anchetă" (with editorial note)", in Magazin Istoric, March 1998 Angela's sister had married Titică Orăscu, a member of the boyar aristocracy. According to researcher and journalist Lavinia Betea, Teodor Niculescu may have squandered the family fortune, which, she argues, may explain why Maria did not have a dowry. Lavinia Betea, "Maria, dezmierdată Rica" , in Jurnalul Național, 15 May 2006 She married Gheorghe Cimbru, a Police officer, with whom she had a son, also known as Gheorghe.Deletant, p. 290; Rădulescu, p. 337 Cristian Grosu, "Și dictatorii iubesc, nu-i așa?" , in Jurnalul Național, 2 February 2004 The child was physically disabled by poliomyelitis. Cimbru died before 1919, after which date Maria Niculescu is known to have moved to Paris. In July 1919, she married a second time, to businessman Guillaume Auguste Joseph Pierre Fueller, a French Jew.Deletant, p. 290
Having divorced from Fueller in 1926 and married Antonescu, Romania's former military attaché in France, she soon after moved to Bucharest, where her new husband served as Secretary General of the Defense Ministry. The two reportedly met and fell in love before her divorce was final. Sources diverge on the marriage date, which is either indicated as 29 August 1927, or an unspecified day in 1928.Deletant, p. 39 Their life as a couple was reportedly marked by Antonescu's rigidity and distaste for the public life. However, as Antonescu reached prominence and earned important political assignments, Maria too became the focus of public attention. Ioan Scurtu, "«Cucoanele» mareșalului Antonescu" , in Historia, August 2013 Reputedly, when she eventually did become politically important, the upper class viewed her as rather a parvenue.
In 1938, when the relationship between Ion Antonescu and King Carol II degenerated into open conflict, the monarch engineered Ion Antonescu's trial for bigamy, based on charges that she and Fueller had never actually divorced. Assisted by his lawyer Mihai Antonescu, the future Conducător disproved the claim, and the perception that he was being persecuted by an authoritarian ruler reportedly earned him the public's respect.Deletant, p. 45 By then, although the officer spoke out against Carol II's extramarital affair with the commoner Elena Lupescu, his own marriage to a divorcée was being treated with contempt by some commentators of the time.
Early war years In late 1940, as a result of a major social crisis, the National Legionary State was set up in Romania, and Carol relinquished the throne in favor of the junior king Michael I. Antonescu took over with dictatorial powers, as Conducător, and struck a partnership in government with the fascist Iron Guard. At around this time, Maria became good friends with Veturia Goga, widow of antisemitic Premier Octavian Goga. Their friendship slowly turned into a political lobby, which also involved Veturia (or Sanda) Manuilă, wife of the sociologist Sabin Manuilă, Veturia Barbul, wife of diplomat Gheorghe Barbul, writer Georgeta Cancicov (wife of bureaucrat Mircea Cancicov) and, for a while, Elvira Sima, married to Iron Guard commander Horia Sima. The political wives' circle was in some ways Maria Antonescu's "court", rivaling that of Queen Mother Helen, just as Antonescu's had come to rival the kingly court; for this and other reasons, Queen Helen became especially distrustful of Maria Antonescu's political initiatives. Reportedly, the queen complained to her foreign contacts that the Antonescus were "inconsiderate". Mihai Dim. Sturdza, "Rușii, masonii, Mareșalul și alte răspîntii ale istoriografiei", Nr. 675, May 2013
Nevertheless, at the very start of 1941, Maria Antonescu joined the board of Regina Elisabeta Society, a welfare organization chaired by Queen Helen."Mesaje regale și comunicate ale Casei M. S. Regelui", in Monitorul Oficial, Nr. 66/1941 (online copy available through Wikimedia Commons) She also took over a new state-run charity, Sprijinul ("The Support"), which reputedly made her a contender in the conflict opposing her husband to the Guard, before the Legionary Rebellion of early 1941 brought the Guard's downfall. According to Spanish historian Francisco Veiga, her humanitarian effort was endorsed by the more conservative pro-Antonescu factions in reaction to Guardist projects such as Ajutorul Legionar.Francisco Veiga, Istoria Gărzii de Fier, 1919–1941: Mistica ultranaționalismului, Humanitas, Bucharest, 1993, p. 305. Sprijinul ensured participation from Veturia Goga. They were also joined by the wife of World War I hero, General Constantin Prezan, and by Sanda Manuilă. Jean Ancel, "Anatomia unei repetate falsificări", in Revista 22, Nr. 864, October 2006 Ilie Rad, , in Jurnalul Național, 11 February 2009
As a mark of emancipation after the 1941 Rebellion, Elvira Sima was formally purged, and accused (falsely) of having embezzled charity funds. From his exile in Nazi Germany, Horia Sima accused the "three Veturias" of having masterminded his and his wife's downfall, through their contacts with Maria Antonescu. The latter was promoted to head of the Social Works Patronage Council, merging all the recognized charities. It had been established by decree on 20 November 1940,R.I.S., p. 76 but received its charter only on 12 June 1942. It specified that the council was "a State institution with its own juridical person and patrimony", whose members ex officio included government ministers and the Patriarch of All Romania; others were designated by Conducător decrees. As reported by Revista de Igienă Socială (the Romanian eugenicists' review), "its vast program" included "coordinating public and private benefit institutions in the realm of welfare, guiding and controlling private charities, and lastly taking the initiative in setting up new social welfare establishments." The council was especially interested in "protecting the working class", spending a reported 100 million lei on school cafeterias, and some 1 million lei on free or subsidized soup kitchens.
The council's establishment coincided with Romania's participation in Operation Barbarossa, which signified the recovery of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina, and the occupation of Transnistria. Awarded its own badge (the Blue Cross), the Council then became a direct competitor to Queen Helen's earlier work in welfare and relief, as well as a would-be replacement for the Romanian Red Cross. Viorel Domenico, "Un război în trei secvențe" , in Lumea Militară, Nr. 4/2005 Its activities were promptly covered and advertised by the regime's official propaganda. Beyond simply directing the work of private welfare institutions, the council was suspected of wanting to subvert them and take over their investment.R.I.S., p. 77 It openly confiscated the patrimony of older welfare organizations, such as Umanitatea, owner of the girls' colony in Slănic. Paul D. Popescu, "Femei prahovene de azi, de ieri și mai de demult – Victoria Radovici (II)", in Ziarul Prahova, 24 January 2012
During the early months of 1941, the Iron Guard having been successfully repressed, Maria Antonescu and Veturia Goga coaxed support for the regime from the old establishment parties (although nominally outlawed since Carol II's rule, these were cautiously tolerated by Antonescu). Official newspapers publicized their visit to Topoloveni, a former fief of the National Peasants' Party (PNȚ), where they met with PNȚ leader Ion Mihalache. The event was organized by Admiral Dan Zaharia, who was simultaneously a PNȚ cadre and a friend of her husband's.Radu Petrescu, "Portret: Amiralul Dan Zaharia (1878–1943)", in Raduț Bîlbîie, Mihaela Teodor (eds.), Elita culturală și presa (Congresul Național de istorie a presei, ediția a VI-a), Editura Militară, Bucharest, 2013, pp. 147–148. Although she refrained from overt political statements, Maria Antonescu gave praise to Mihalache as a community and civil society leader. Valeriu Râpeanu, "Generalul Ion Antonescu – cu sprijinul Mariei General Antonescu – încearca să-și asocieze partidele istorice" , in Curierul Național, 23 November 2002 The pro-Allied PNȚ leader, Iuliu Maniu, saw in this an attempt by Antonescu to co-opt Mihalache as a minister. His immediate response was to dissuade Mihalache from "compromising himself" with such affiliations. For her part, Maria Antonescu alternated such displays of traditionalism with the public endorsement for fascist causes. In July 1941, she was an official guest at the Anti-Masonry Exhibit in Bucharest.Răzvan Vintilescu, "Masoneria română, între binecuvîntarea și afurisenia Bisericii", in Cotidianul, 24 September 2007
Antisemitic plunder and spoils of war
With the continuation of war on the Eastern Front, the Social Works Patronage Council took it upon itself to look after the needs of first-line soldiers and their families, as well as to protect a special category of vulnerable individuals: the IOVR (invalids, orphans, widows). By December 1941, it had raised and spent some 25 million lei for the needs of men under arms and 138 million for the wounded; 9.7 million for families of active duty soldiers, and 17 million for invalids, widows or orphans.
Romania's participation in the war came with the generalization of antisemitic measures and the massive deportations of the Jews to occupied Transnistria, a process initiated by her husband, and marked by events in which she herself was implicated (see Holocaust in Romania). In October 1941, Wilhelm Filderman, head of the Jewish Communities' Federation, sent her and her husband letters of protest, stressing that the deportations were tantamount to death—messages which went unanswered.Final Report, p. 210 In November, after the ghetto in Chișinău was sacked and its population deported to Transnistria, the authorities set aside confiscated property for the Patronage Council, for the Red Cross, for Romanian hospitals and the Romanian Army.Ioanid, p. 188