"Is It 'Rumania' or 'Romania?' " Part 5/Fascism and War

The aftershocks of the Bolshevik takeover of Russia, and the disillusionment over the World War and its territorial settlements, brought heightened tensions in many countries, including Rumania, between strong socialist and pro-communist elements versus right wing and rising fascist movements. The Rumanian monarchy and the nation's upper classes began to turn to the extreme political right. Hitler's eventual territorial acquisitions and his anti-Soviet pronouncements led Rumania's political right to look more and more to Germany for protection against the Soviet Union and communism. The failure of  Rumania's traditional allies, Britain and France, to stop Hitler, only led the country's  rightist elements to see these nations as too weak to help Rumania against Stalin and the Soviets.

Ion Antonescu, a military man, became defense minister, and he also began a close relationship with right wing and fascist elements. The German-Soviet Pact of August 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, the Rumanian provinces of Bessarabia and Bukovina. This led Hungary to propose, and to enter into, negotiations with Rumania over the disputed area of 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 II, growing more unpopular by the day and threatened by protests, especially from rightist groups, 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, with Antonescu as dictator. 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.

Germany supplied military advisers to help modernize the Rumanian military, and the presence of actual German military units in Rumania continued to increase. Rumania had substantial oil and refining facilities, extremely important to oil-dependent Germany's increasingly motorized and mechanized military forces. When Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, Rumanian forces joined in the attack, as Rumania sought to recover the lost territories of Bessarabia and Bukovina, and to even gain additional lands in Transnistria.* In mid November 1942 the Soviets launched a massive offensive directed at Rumanian military forces located deep within Russia. The Rumanians were bolstered to some degree by German troops on either side of the German Sixth Army in the Soviet city of Stalingrad. The Soviet forces broke through the Rumanian lines and proceeded to encircle German and Rumanian forces in Stalingrad and vicinity. The result was a devastating defeat for the Germans and the Rumanians and the surrender of these troops brought a pronounced increase to the prospects of an Axis defeat in the war. With Allied bombings of the Rumanian oil fields at Ploesti, of Bucharest (the capital), and the with the approach of Soviet forces, Rumanians, led by King Michael, overthrew Antonescu in August 1944. Rumania then changed sides in the war. Antonescu was arrested and then after the war he was put on trial, found guilty of various charges, including his complicity in the murder of hundreds of thousands of Rumanian and Soviet Jews. He was executed by firing squad.

More in the next part ...

* Transnistria was a poorly defined region roughly between the Dniester River and the Southern Bug River. The term literally means "across or beyond the Dniester," but the area's boundaries were vague, depending upon who was doing the defining. The region exists today, but is not recognized by all nations as a separate country. Of course, it has a defined border today. During World War Two the Germans and Rumanians defeated the Soviet forces there and it was under Rumanian control, with administration directed from the city of Odessa. In this case, "the area" was defined by the Rumanians. Of course the Soviets reconquered "the area" later in the war.

The following were consulted for this article on Rumania: "Kingdoms of Europe" by Gene Gurney, published by Crown Publishers, Inc. NY 1982

"Romania/An Illustrated History" by Nicolae Klepper, published by Hippocrene Books, NY 2002

WORD HISTORY:
Car-This noun goes back to Indo European "kers," which had the notion of "run, move swiftly." This gave its Old Celtic offspring "karros," which meant "chariot, wagon, wheeled vehicle." This gave Gaulish (a Celtic language) "karros," with the same general meaning. This was then borrowed into Latin as "carrus," seemingly with the main original meaning being "chariot," but later also "wagon, cart." This gave Old Northern French "carre," with the same meaning, and this was carried to England by the Normans where it was borrowed by English in the early 1300s. Later it came to be most often used in railway terminology, but by the late 1800s it was applied to the early models of vehicles powered by the internal combustion engine.