During the rebellion and subsequent pogrom, the Iron Guard killed 125 Jews, and 30 soldiers died in the confrontation with the rebels.

However, the international recognition of the formal union with these territories came with the condition of granting civil rights to ethnic minorities in those regions.

The new territories, especially Bessarabia and Bukovina, included large numbers of Jews, whose presence stood out because of their distinctive clothing, customs, and language.

Additionally, although the reports defined all of the celebrators and attackers as "Jews", some were Ukrainians, Russians, pro-Communists, newly released criminals, and ethnic Romanians.

Notable in this report is the reaction of the Romanian press, whose rage was directed more toward Jews than the Soviets, the real aggressors.

A typical form of anticipatory scapegoating was to let Jewish leaders know that the Romanian authorities might launch acts of repression against the Jews.

[4][5] Politically, control was in the hands of the Conducător Ion Antonescu, heading the antisemitic fascist coalition government, together with Horia Sima.

Antonescu thought the robbery was done in a fashion detrimental to the Romanian economy, and the stolen property did not benefit the government, only the Legionnaires and their associates.

The Legionnaires, on the other hand, wanted to rob as much as possible, as quickly as possible, utilizing methods based not in law but in terror, murder and torture.

The leader stated this clearly in an address to Legion-appointed ministers: "Do you really think that we can replace all Yids immediately?

[5] In the 20 days preceding the rebellion, the level of antisemitic propaganda greatly increased, using all the tools at the Legionnaires' disposal.

The district officers of the Legionnaires were called to the capital for an important economic consultation, but found themselves arrested in the middle of the meeting.

For two days the Romanian military defended itself and tried to besiege the Legionnaires' strongholds, but did not initiate attacks and gave them a free hand.

During the days of the rebellion, the Legionnaires' newspapers (the only ones active during this time) engaged in vicious propaganda against the Jews.

[4][5] Besides extorting the Jews for their hidden property, sadistic youth (including teenagers) took part in the torture, for their own pleasure.

Legionnaire women took part in the pogrom; all survivors noted their involvement in the torture, and some of the worst acts of abuse were at their hands.

They were tortured, their bellies cut and their entrails hung around their necks in a parody of shehita, kosher slaughter of cattle.

[5][13] When Antonescu appointed a military prosecutor to investigate the events at the slaughterhouse, he reported that he recognized three of his acquaintances among the "professionally tortured" bodies (lawyer Millo Beiler and the Rauch brothers).

"[4]The American minister to Romania, Franklin Mott Gunther, toured the meat-packing plant where the Jews were slaughtered and placards reading "Kosher meat" hung from the corpses, and reported back to Washington: "Sixty Jewish corpses were discovered on the hooks used for carcasses.

[1] Gunther wrote he was especially shocked that one of the Jewish victims hanging on the meat hooks was a 5-year-old girl, writing that the cruelty displayed was unbelievable.

To accomplish their mission they used a fuel tanker, sprayed the walls of Kahal Grande (the main Sephardic synagogue) and lit it up.

In the various synagogues the Legionnaires robbed the worshipers, abused them, took all their valuables and tore up the holy scriptures and ancient documents.

The large Choral Temple, the city's main Orthodox synagogue was saved from burning completely, because the Legionnaires did not bring enough fuel.

[4][5] In Turda, Buhuși and Ploiești, hundreds of legionnaires marched down the streets while singing Legionary songs, but they eventually dispersed quietly.

In Piatra Neamț, 600 Legionnaires gathered to support Sima, but they were peacefully dispersed by the intervention of local police.

In Târgu Frumos, the mayor deployed groups of teenage legionnaires by train to Iași on 20 January.

[15] During the days of the rebellion, Antonescu avoided direct confrontation with the Legionnaires but brought military units, including 100 tanks, into Bucharest from other cities.

German troops were sent marching through the streets of Bucharest, ending in front of the Prime Minister's building, where they cheered Antonescu.

However, the movement continued even without them, although it was set back for a while, as the atrocities of the Bucharest pogrom gradually became known to the Romanian public.

One leader of the pogrom, Valerian Trifa, became a cleric and emigrated to the US, where he became a citizen and rose to the position of Archbishop of the Romanian Orthodox Church in America and Canada, but he was stripped of his citizenship in 1982 and left the US rather than be deported.