Romanian resistance movement during World War II
Romanian resistance movement during World War II (1940-1945) / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the resistance movement in Romania during the Second World War (1940–1945). For the anti-communist resistance from the late 1940s to the mid-1950s, with isolated individual fighters remaining at large until the early 1960s, see Romanian anti-communist resistance movement.
Main article: Romania in World War II
The Romanian resistance movement during World War II was manifested in several ways.
- In Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina, which King Carol II, under pressure from the German ambassador in Romania, Wilhelm Fabricius [de],[citation needed] was forced to cede to the Soviet Union in June 1940, in furtherance of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, and in Northern Transylvania, which was ceded to Hungary in August 1940 as a result of the Second Vienna Award, resistance groups formed in the summer of 1940, as the repression by the new masters of these territories was initiated.[n 1]
- Following the coup in September 1940 that established the "National Legionary State" led by the Iron Guard and Marshal Ion Antonescu (self-proclaimed "Philippe Pétain of Romania"),[citation needed] when the Wehrmacht was "invited" to occupy what was left of Romania in October 1940; as requisitions multiplied, new partisan groups were formed.[citation needed]
- After Operation Barbarossa was launched in June 1941, two Divisions made up of Romanian prisoners were formed in 1943 in the Soviet Union ("Tudor Vladimirescu" and "Horea, Cloșca și Crișan"), who fought on the side of the Allies, initially under the flag of the Comintern, and later under the Romanian Communist Party.
- Following the defeat at Stalingrad in early 1943, King Michael I and Romanian politicians sought to escape the German sphere of influence, leading to the August 23, 1944 coup d'état that overthrew Antonescu and to Romania switching sides to the Allies.
- After the establishment of the repression against the Jews by the Antonescu regime, humanitarian organizations, among which the Romanian Red Cross played the main role, created aid channels (essentially food and medical supplies) for the persecuted people (especially those deported to the Transnistria Governorate) in order to ensure passage through Bulgaria (a member of the Axis but which did not participate in fighting against the Allies) and Turkey (a neutral state) to Palestine (to be able to obtain British visas, granted with difficulty and in very small numbers).[citation needed][clarification needed]