Following the end of the Second World War, Romania was one of the 4 countries to be officially acknowledged as an "ally of Hitlerite Germany" by the 1947 Paris Peace Treaties (along with Bulgaria, Finland and Hungary).Claus Kreß, Robert Lawless, Oxford University Press, Nov 30, 2020, Necessity and Proportionality in International Peace and Security Law, p. 450 The treaty of peace with Romania obliged the country to apprehend and bring to trial those accused of "war crimes and crimes against peace and humanity".United States, Department of State, 1968, Treaties and Other International Agreements of the United States of America, 1776-1949: Multilateral, 1946-1949, p. 405

Only 4 Romanian war criminals were executed (Ion Antonescu, Mihai Antonescu, Constantin Z. Vasiliu and Gheorghe Alexianu) and hundreds more were sentenced to prison or forced labor.Baumel Judith Tydor Laqueur Walter, Walter Laqueur, Judith Tydor Baumel-Schwartz, Yale University Press, Jan 1, 2001, The Holocaust Encyclopedia, p. 580 Only slightly more than 200 Romanians were sentenced by the initial postwar trials, carried out by the "People's Tribunals". Although the two courts - based in Cluj and Bucharest - sentenced 668 people, the vast majority of these were foreigners. The Cluj tribunal sentenced only 26 Romanians, the remainder being Hungarians (370), Germans (83) and Jews (2). The Bucharest tribunal sentenced only 187 people. There were more trials concerning war crimes and "crimes against peace" after the "People's Tribunals" were disbanded, however.Roni Stauber, Routledge, Sep 13, 2010, Collaboration with the Nazis: Public Discourse After the Holocaust, pp. 246-247International Commission on the Holocaust in Romania, Tuvia Friling, Polirom, 2005, Final Report, Volume 1, p. 314 Romania was the only country in Eastern Europe to initiate only a small number of court proceedings against accused war criminals and collaborators. This declaration of practically singular responsibility allowed many of those guilty of war crimes and collaboration to escape justice in postwar Romania. In Czechoslovakia and Hungary, for comparison, tens of thousands were convicted and hundreds were executed.Stefano Bottoni, Indiana University Press, Oct 19, 2017, Long Awaited West: Eastern Europe since 1944, pp. 22-23 In Bulgaria, death sentences alone amounted to 2,618, of which 1,576 were carried out.Benjamin Frommer, Cambridge University Press, 2005, National Cleansing: Retribution Against Nazi Collaborators in Postwar Czechoslovakia, p. 91

The postwar regime "went easy" on the mass of genocidal antisemites, sentencing them to relatively minor punishments. Early amnesties were often granted. For example, on 1 June 1945, Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu successfully had 29 death sentences commuted by the King. Although hundreds of high-ranking officials and officers were condemned to life or lengthy prison sentences, all who did not die in prison were released between 1958 and 1962.Radu Ioanid, Ivan R. Dee, Feb 18, 2008, The Holocaust in Romania: The Destruction of Jews and Gypsies Under the Antonescu Regime, 1940-1944, p. 287

Background Under Ion Antonescu's leadership, Romania joined the Tripartite Pact on 23 November 1940 as a sovereign state, took part in Operation Barbarossa as an equal partner of Germany, and was never occupied by the Wehrmacht. Hitler respected Antonescu, who led the third largest Axis force in Europe: 585,000 Romanian troops served on the Eastern Front during June-October 1941. Although not completely a voluntary partner, Romania was a partner and not a vassal, and the country remained under the control of a native ruler. After the Armistice of Cassibile in September 1943, Romania became the second Axis power in Europe.David Stahel, Cambridge University Press, 2018, Joining Hitler's Crusade, pp. 77-78

Hungarian-American historian John Lukacs praised the August 1944 coup, writing: "In August 1944, the Rumanians executed the most successful coup d'etat during World War II. With an entire German Army in their midst, they turned around within twenty-four hours and proclaimed their alliance with the Soviet Union, Britain and the United States. (Again the comparison with Italy is instructive: compared to this acrobatic feat, the descendants of Machiavelli were mere bunglers.)".John Lukacs, University of Missouri Press, 1994, Destinations Past: Traveling Through History with John Lukacs, p. 117

The Holocaust

Romania ranks first among Holocaust perpetrator countries other than Nazi Germany.Manus I. Midlarsky, Cambridge University Press, Mar 17, 2011, Origins of Political Extremism: Mass Violence in the Twentieth Century and Beyond, p. 297 The Romanian Holocaust was outside the control of the Nazis. Its beginning did not require Nazi intervention, Romania being the only ally of the Third Reich that carried out its genocidal campaign without the intervention of Heinrich Himmler's SS.Henry Eaton, Wayne State University Press, May 2013, The Origins and Onset of the Romanian Holocaust The "wholesale slaughter of Jews" in Romanian-occupied Soviet territories was "a genocide operationally separate from the Nazi Final Solution". It was by far the greatest extermination of Jews by non-German forces.Stanley G. Payne, University of Wisconsin Pres, Jan 1, 1996, A History of Fascism, 1914–1945, p. 396 Romania also rejected Nazi designs on its Jews, ultimately declining to deport Romanian Jews to the Belzec concentration camp. Nevertheless, between 280,000 and 380,000 Jews died in Romanian-controlled territories.Ion Popa, Indiana University Press, Sep 11, 2017, The Romanian Orthodox Church and the Holocaust, p. 30 Romania even took the lead in the Holocaust for the first weeks of Operation Barbarossa. This was acknowledged by Adolf Hitler on 19 August 1941: "As far as the Jewish Question is concerned, it can now be stated with certainty that a man like Antonescu is pursuing much more radical policies in this area than we have so far.". The regime of Ion Antonescu had been killing Jewish women and children, clearing entire Jewish communities, while Nazi Germany was still massacring only Jewish men.Maksim Goldenshteyn, University of Oklahoma Press, Jan 20, 2022, So They Remember: A Jewish Family’s Story of Surviving the Holocaust in Soviet Ukraine, p. 8 Romania was the only country other than Germany itself that "implemented all the steps of the destruction process, from definitions to killings".David Sorkin, Princeton University Press, 14 sept. 2021, Jewish Emancipation: A History Across Five Centuries, p. 302Peter Stenberg, University of Toronto Press, 1991, Journey to Oblivion: The End of the East European Yiddish and German Worlds in the Mirror of Literature, p. 135

The trials

"People's Tribunals"

The initiative to prosecute former Romanian dignitaries came from Vladislav Vinogradov, head of the Allied Commission in Romania. On 10 October 1944, Vinogradov submitted a list of 47 suspected war criminals to be apprehended. Further lists came on 18 and 20 October, and they included pre-Antonescu officials, such as prime minister Ion Gigurtu. Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu, the Communist Minister of Justice, adopted laws on the prosecution of war criminals in January 1945. The subsequent "People's Tribunals", which specifically targeted alleged war criminals, only sentenced 668 people (many of them in absentia) before their dissolution in June 1946.Liesbeth van de Grift, Lexington Books, 2012, Securing the Communist State: The Reconstruction of Coercive Institutions in the Soviet Zone of Germany and Romania, 1944-1948, pp. 111-112

The "People's Tribunals" were set up in Romania by King Michael I's decree on 21 April 1945. They were based on the Nuremberg model and had the same four categories of indictments: conspiracy to take over the country's legal government, crimes against peace, crimes of war and crimes against humanity. Some trials were still in process when the "People's Tribunals" were disbanded on 28 June 1946, so their sentences were pronounced at a later date. Most of the 668 who were sentenced by the "People's Tribunals" were Hungarian occupiers of Northern Transylvania and their collaborators rather than Romanians under Marshal Antonescu's regime. They were judged by the Cluj-based tribunal. The other tribunal, based in Bucharest, sentenced only 187 people. The two tribunals pronounced a total of 48 death sentences, but only 4 were actually carried out.Roni Stauber, Routledge, Sep 13, 2010, Collaboration with the Nazis: Public Discourse After the Holocaust, pp. 246-247 Out of the 481 who were sentenced by the Cluj People's Tribunal, only 26 were Romanians. The remainder were Hungarians (370), Germans (83) and Jews (2).International Commission on the Holocaust in Romania, Tuvia Friling, Polirom, 2005, Final Report, Volume 1, p. 314

After the "People's Tribunals" were liquidated in 1946, trials associated with "crimes against peace" and other war-related charges continued in the following years. Law No. 291 of 1947, on the basis of which these trials were conducted, ruled out executions. It stipulated sentences ranging from 15 years to life imprisonment.Roni Stauber, Routledge, Sep 13, 2010, Collaboration with the Nazis: Public Discourse After the Holocaust, p. 247

The Iași trial Of the 57 people who were tried in the Iași trial 12 were military personnel, 22 were gendarmes and 21 were civilians. Added to these were the prefect of Iași County and the mayor of Iași. A total of 165 witnesses, mostly survivors of the Iași pogrom, testified at the trial. Proceedings began in 1947, with 223 people initially arrested. The indictment was based on 4 major categories of arguments: rumors of Jewish cooperation with the enemy, communiques published by the authorities, army documents and orders of the local authorities forcing the Jews to hand over certain personal belongings (headlights, binoculars and cameras). The indictment stated that the victims numbered more than 10,000. This contrasted with the official line of the Antonescu government, which counted only 500 "Judeo-communists". Ultimately, 21 were sentenced to hard labor for life and 100 million lei in damages, 1 was sentenced to life sentence in harsh conditions and 100 million lei in damages, 7 were sentenced to 25 years hard labor, 11 were sentenced to 20 years of hard labor and 100 million lei in damages, 1 was sentenced to 20 years harsh sentence and 100 million lei in damages, 6 were sentenced to 15 years hard labor and 100 million lei in damages and 1 was sentenced to 5 years of forced labor. A few of the accused were acquitted.International Commission on the Holocaust in Romania, Tuvia Friling, Polirom, 2005, Final Report, Volume 1, pp. 328-329

The "collective responsibility" trial of Antonescu government members There were 8 members of Ion Antonescu's government who were investigated in 1946, but they were acquitted by the "People's Tribunals". However, they were later tried based on the principle of "collective responsibility" and sentenced for "crimes against peace" in early 1949.International Commission on the Holocaust in Romania, Tuvia Friling, Polirom, 2005, Final Report, Volume 1, p. 318Henry F. Carey, Lexington Books, 2004, Romania Since 1989: Politics, Economics, and Society, p. 75

Other trials In 1953, Colonels Radu Dinulescu and Gheorghe Petrescu were sentenced for crimes against humanity and war crimes. These included involvement in the Iași pogrom, deportation of Jews to Transnistria and inhumane treatment of civilians. Dinulescu was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor and 10 years of civic degradation and Petrescu to 10 years of hard labor and the same period of civic degradation. Their assets were also confiscated.Alexandru Florian, Indiana University Press, Jan 24, 2018, Holocaust Public Memory in Postcommunist Romania, pp. 77 and 102

Legacy