Romanian resistance movement during World War II

This movement included both armed and unarmed actions by various resistance groups determined to overthrow the dictatorship of Ion Antonescu, which was allied with Nazi Germany, and to expel the Wehrmacht troops from the Kingdom of Romania.

Created in 1943, the two divisions ("Tudor Vladimirescu" and "Horea, Cloșca și Crișan") would eventually fight on the side of the Allies, initially under Soviet command, and later integrated into the Romanian Army.

Following the Axis defeat at the Battle of Stalingrad, a number of high-ranking officers loyal to King Michael I, who resented his reduction to figurehead status by Antonescu, joined the resistance.

This coalition played a pivotal role in the overthrow of Antonescu by King Michael on August 23, subsequently supporting the Romanian Army in the liberation of the country from German occupation.

As for the Romanian prisoners captured by the Soviets, the choice between captivity in Siberia and enlistment in the "Tudor Vladimirescu" or "Horea, Cloșca și Crișan" Divisions led many of them to choose the second option, even if they had no clear political beliefs.

[6] As Antonescu's Romania engaged in the Holocaust, 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.

[7][8][9] "Aliya" also rented trains that, passing through Bulgaria (which was in the Axis, but did not participate in the fighting with the Allies), transported tens of thousands of Romanian Jews to Turkey (a neutral country).

[10] The Red Cross sent food and medicine to deportees in Transnistria and persuaded officers not to carry out orders, allowing families like Wilhelm Filderman's or Norman Manea's to survive.

[11][12] He was secretly protected by King Michael I and the commander of the Bucharest garrison, General Constantin Sănătescu, who provided him with communication resources and connected him with the clandestine inter-allied mission Operation Autonomous of the SOE.

Exasperated by the "passive betrayal" of the Romanian dictator, who "has assured the Führer of his loyalty, but tolerates anti-German actions", Joseph Goebbels noted, on February 19, 1941, in his diary: "Antonescu maintains his government with the support of Freemasonry and Germany's enemies.

[15] The two divisions, Tudor Vladimirescu and Horea, Cloșca și Crișan, were joined by the Romanian army, since on August 23, 1944, the dictator Ion Antonescu was deposed and arrested by King Michael I.

From August 24, 1944 to May 9, 1945, Romania was an allied country, which allowed it to participate at the Paris Peace Conference of 1947 to recover Northern Transylvania, which had been assigned to Hungary in 1940 as a result of the Second Vienna Award.