Marshal Antonescu of Rumania, Final
NOTE: I failed to mention in the previous article that the Rumanian language is a Latin-based language, which are often called "Romance languages;" meaning, "languages derived from the language of Rome." These languages are part of the Indo European family of languages, and this means Rumanian is related to English, although further down the family tree. Besides its Latin base, Rumanian has borrowed a fair percentage of words from Slavic and also from German, as German settlers inhabited part of Rumania, especially Transylvania (Siebenbürgen in German), and part of Rumania was under German administration through the Habsburg family.
"Ion Antonescu" Part Two/Final
Antonescu was born in a town somewhat to the northwest of Bucharest, the capitol of Rumania. He attended military school and then entered the military in the cavalry, earning commendations from the monarchy for his role in squelching socialists. So early on, Antonescu showed himself as a man of the political right. During World War One, Rumania fought on the Allied side, but the war was pretty much a disastrous affair for the Rumanians, although Antonescu served his nation well and was promoted. After the war, Antonescu set down his views in writing on the unification of Rumanians and about Rumanian expansionism.* He was appointed chief of staff of the army in the early 1930s. Disputes with King Carol II brought a (forced?) resignation by Antonescu, but it also brought him more prominence throughout the nation. He began close contacts with the fascist and right wing organizations that were growing in Rumania, organizations which tended toward anti-Jewish sentiments.
Antonescu was appointed Defense Minister and the failure of Rumania's two main allies, Britain and France, to stand up to Adolf Hitler's territorial acquisitions brought Antonescu and the political right to question the actual value of these allies against the Soviet Union, which they saw as more of a threat to Rumania. They began to look to Hitler as much more of a reliable ally to oppose the Soviets. The German-Soviet Pact of 1939 put Rumania into a serious situation, as Germany and the Soviet Union essentially became allies. One of the secret provisions of the pact gave the Soviets leeway to move into the former territories of the Russian Empire, Bessarabia and Bukovina. This led Hungary to propose and enter into negotiations with Rumania over Transylvania, but the negotiations got nowhere and Germany and Italy were asked to arbitrate, which resulted in Hungary acquiring the northern portion of Transylvania. King Carol, growing more unpopular by the day and threatened by protests, appointed Antonescu as Prime Minister, but with additional powers taken from the King, who finally abdicated in favor of his son, Michael, who was left more or less as a figurehead. Antonescu joined with the Iron Guard (Rumanian: "Garda de fier"), a fascist, pro-Rumanian Orthodox, anti-Jewish political party to rule the country, but just months later, an Iron Guard uprising against Jews and government officials was crushed when Antonescu, with support from Hitler, used the army to restore order.
Antonescu's fervent anti-communism and his developing closeness to Hitler led Rumania into war against the Soviet Union in June 1941.** In August 1944 Antonescu was arrested on the orders of the king. He was taken into custody by the Soviets who sent him to Moscow, but then returned him to Rumania for trial in 1946. He was found guilty and executed by firing squad that year.***
* The Kingdom of Rumania prior to the end of World War One did not include substantial portions of ethnic Rumanians, who lived in parts of Hungary (Transylvania), the emerging state of Yugoslavia (an area known as the Banat), and the former Russian Empire (Bessarabia and Bukovina), which was developing into the Soviet Union at that time. At the end of the war, with the defeat of Austria-Hungary and the turmoil in the Soviet Union, the territories of Transylvania, Bessarabia, and Bukovina joined Rumania, and these changes were then confirmed by various postwar treaties, although Hungary and the Soviet Union did not forget, and these lands became a matter of tensions between Rumania and these two neighbors.
** There is a brief summary of the war in "Part One" of this article: http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2012/04/marshal-antonescu-of-rumania.html
*** One of the charges against Antonescu was his complicity in the murder of hundreds of thousands of Rumanian and Soviet Jews. Under Antonescu, Rumania adopted many anti-Jewish measures similar to those of the Nazis , including requiring Jews to wear a yellow Star of David patch.
WORD HISTORY:
Loose/-less-"Loose" and the suffix "-less," as in "homeless," are closely related to "lose, loss, and the "lorn" of "forlorn." They go back to Indo European "leu/lu," which had the notion of "undo, loosen, separate." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "lausaz," which meant "loose, free of." This gave Old Norse, a North Germanic language,^ "lauss," with the same basic meanings. This was then borrowed into English, circa 1200, as "lous(e)/los," and this later became "loose." The verb form "loosen" developed in the second half of the 1300s and later became "lousen," before the modern version. The same Old Germanic word "lausaz" gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "leas," which meant "false, lying," from the notion of "free of validity or truth." This word is now obsolete, but it spawned the suffix "-less," from the original meaning "free of," which gave it the meaning "lacking, not having, without." The suffix form is NOT related to the word "less" which means "fewer." The other Germanic languages have close relatives to the above English words: German has "los" (loose, free, released) and the suffix "-los" ("heimatlos"="homeless," for example); Dutch has "los" (loose), "loos" (false, invalid, empty [from notion "lacking"]) and suffix "-loos;" West Frisian has the suffix "-leas;" Danish has "løs" (loose) and suffix "-løs;" Swedish has "lös" (loose); Icelandic has "laus" (loose); Norwegian has løs/laus (loose), depending upon dialect, and suffix"-løs;" Swedish has lös (loose) and suffix "-lös."
^ Germanic is divided into West Germanic, which includes English, German, Dutch, Frisian, Yiddish, and Afrikaans; North Germanic, which includes Icelandic, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian and Faroese; and the now "deceased" (bow your heads) East Germanic, which had Gothic, Vandalic and Burgundian.
"Ion Antonescu" Part Two/Final
Antonescu was born in a town somewhat to the northwest of Bucharest, the capitol of Rumania. He attended military school and then entered the military in the cavalry, earning commendations from the monarchy for his role in squelching socialists. So early on, Antonescu showed himself as a man of the political right. During World War One, Rumania fought on the Allied side, but the war was pretty much a disastrous affair for the Rumanians, although Antonescu served his nation well and was promoted. After the war, Antonescu set down his views in writing on the unification of Rumanians and about Rumanian expansionism.* He was appointed chief of staff of the army in the early 1930s. Disputes with King Carol II brought a (forced?) resignation by Antonescu, but it also brought him more prominence throughout the nation. He began close contacts with the fascist and right wing organizations that were growing in Rumania, organizations which tended toward anti-Jewish sentiments.
Antonescu was appointed Defense Minister and the failure of Rumania's two main allies, Britain and France, to stand up to Adolf Hitler's territorial acquisitions brought Antonescu and the political right to question the actual value of these allies against the Soviet Union, which they saw as more of a threat to Rumania. They began to look to Hitler as much more of a reliable ally to oppose the Soviets. The German-Soviet Pact of 1939 put Rumania into a serious situation, as Germany and the Soviet Union essentially became allies. One of the secret provisions of the pact gave the Soviets leeway to move into the former territories of the Russian Empire, Bessarabia and Bukovina. This led Hungary to propose and enter into negotiations with Rumania over Transylvania, but the negotiations got nowhere and Germany and Italy were asked to arbitrate, which resulted in Hungary acquiring the northern portion of Transylvania. King Carol, growing more unpopular by the day and threatened by protests, appointed Antonescu as Prime Minister, but with additional powers taken from the King, who finally abdicated in favor of his son, Michael, who was left more or less as a figurehead. Antonescu joined with the Iron Guard (Rumanian: "Garda de fier"), a fascist, pro-Rumanian Orthodox, anti-Jewish political party to rule the country, but just months later, an Iron Guard uprising against Jews and government officials was crushed when Antonescu, with support from Hitler, used the army to restore order.
Antonescu's fervent anti-communism and his developing closeness to Hitler led Rumania into war against the Soviet Union in June 1941.** In August 1944 Antonescu was arrested on the orders of the king. He was taken into custody by the Soviets who sent him to Moscow, but then returned him to Rumania for trial in 1946. He was found guilty and executed by firing squad that year.***
* The Kingdom of Rumania prior to the end of World War One did not include substantial portions of ethnic Rumanians, who lived in parts of Hungary (Transylvania), the emerging state of Yugoslavia (an area known as the Banat), and the former Russian Empire (Bessarabia and Bukovina), which was developing into the Soviet Union at that time. At the end of the war, with the defeat of Austria-Hungary and the turmoil in the Soviet Union, the territories of Transylvania, Bessarabia, and Bukovina joined Rumania, and these changes were then confirmed by various postwar treaties, although Hungary and the Soviet Union did not forget, and these lands became a matter of tensions between Rumania and these two neighbors.
** There is a brief summary of the war in "Part One" of this article: http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2012/04/marshal-antonescu-of-rumania.html
*** One of the charges against Antonescu was his complicity in the murder of hundreds of thousands of Rumanian and Soviet Jews. Under Antonescu, Rumania adopted many anti-Jewish measures similar to those of the Nazis , including requiring Jews to wear a yellow Star of David patch.
WORD HISTORY:
Loose/-less-"Loose" and the suffix "-less," as in "homeless," are closely related to "lose, loss, and the "lorn" of "forlorn." They go back to Indo European "leu/lu," which had the notion of "undo, loosen, separate." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "lausaz," which meant "loose, free of." This gave Old Norse, a North Germanic language,^ "lauss," with the same basic meanings. This was then borrowed into English, circa 1200, as "lous(e)/los," and this later became "loose." The verb form "loosen" developed in the second half of the 1300s and later became "lousen," before the modern version. The same Old Germanic word "lausaz" gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "leas," which meant "false, lying," from the notion of "free of validity or truth." This word is now obsolete, but it spawned the suffix "-less," from the original meaning "free of," which gave it the meaning "lacking, not having, without." The suffix form is NOT related to the word "less" which means "fewer." The other Germanic languages have close relatives to the above English words: German has "los" (loose, free, released) and the suffix "-los" ("heimatlos"="homeless," for example); Dutch has "los" (loose), "loos" (false, invalid, empty [from notion "lacking"]) and suffix "-loos;" West Frisian has the suffix "-leas;" Danish has "løs" (loose) and suffix "-løs;" Swedish has "lös" (loose); Icelandic has "laus" (loose); Norwegian has løs/laus (loose), depending upon dialect, and suffix"-løs;" Swedish has lös (loose) and suffix "-lös."
^ Germanic is divided into West Germanic, which includes English, German, Dutch, Frisian, Yiddish, and Afrikaans; North Germanic, which includes Icelandic, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian and Faroese; and the now "deceased" (bow your heads) East Germanic, which had Gothic, Vandalic and Burgundian.
Labels: English, etymology, European Jews, Fascism, Germanic languages, Hitler, Ion Antonescu, Rumania, Rumanian language, Soviet Union, World War Two
posted by Randy at 8:08 PM
2 Comments:
I have heard of Antonescu but don't know much about him. Glad you did this little bio, plus the info on Romania.
Johnnie beat me here this time. Don't know much about Antonescu, but glad you did this to give me sme basics on him. Like the word history, or histories in this case.
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