Iron Guard death squads
For instance, the second verse of the hymn used by the Guard's youth wing is: Moartea, numai moartea legionară Ne este cea mai scumpă nuntă dintre nunţi, Pentru sfânta cruce, pentru ţară Înfrângem codrii şi supunem munţi; Nu-i temniţă să ne-nspăimânte, Nici chin, nici viforul duşman; De cădem cu toţi, izbiţi în frunte, Ni-i dragă moartea pentru Căpitan!
[1] Codreanu noted that, given the opposition the Guard faced from the state, other political parties, and the media, the Legionnaires had made "the decision to embrace death.
However, writing in The Nest Leader's Manual, which appeared in May 1933, Codreanu taught: "A Legionnaire loves death, for his blood shall cement the future Legionary Romania".
Vasile Marin, who made important contributions to Legionnaire doctrine, amplified on this notion when he praised the Nicadori in 1934: "Three young students have committed an act in the service of a great cause.
They drew inspiration from Codreanu himself, who had planned a large number of political assassinations with Ion Moța, and who had killed a policeman in Iași in autumn 1924.
He was acquitted, as was Moţa (who shot Vernichescu, the man who revealed the assassination conspiracy, seven times, albeit not fatally); both were acclaimed as heroes.
This element of their ideology involved an authentic mystique of the idea of dying for one's nation, as those killed in the course of their duties automatically became heroes who could continue to support their living comrades' undertakings.
This enthusiasm for death motivated Moţa, who went to Spain to die for Romania so that (as he believed) his country would be redeemed in God's eyes, as well as in the death-exalting literature produced by that segment of the intellectual élite which had proved receptive to Legionnaire ideas: Mircea Eliade, Radu Gyr, Constantin Noica, and others.
Aside from the three cases discussed below, Iron Guard members were responsible for the Jilava Massacre at the eponymous prison on the night of November 26–27, 1940, when 64 political prisoners, 46 officers and guards, and a number of military detainees were killed; the murder of Nicolae Iorga and Virgil Madgearu that same night; other killings during the National Legionary State; and the deaths of hundreds of officers, civilians, and Bucharest Jews during the Legionnaires' Rebellion and Bucharest Pogrom.
The Nicadori killed Duca because he had arrested thousands of Legionnaires during the 1933 election campaign, also leaving 18 dead; and because he had allowed for increased Jewish immigration while blocking that of Aromanians to Dobrudja.
Stelescu had left the Iron Guard, forming the rival Crusade of Romanianism, and launching a series of public attacks against Codreanu.
Huge floodlights from army trucks illuminated the area so that the assembled crowd could watch as the nine men were shot in the head with their own guns.
Soldiers and police were given a free hand to deal with any and all suspected members of the Iron Guard, and thousands of young men were shot, hanged from telegraph poles, or tortured to death.
