Romania in World War II
Romania in World War II began with King Carol II proclaiming neutrality, then ended with the country having sent more troops to fight the Soviet Union than all of Germany's other allies combined. In the summer of 1940, the USSR occupied Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina, and within weeks Hungary and Bulgaria carved off Northern Transylvania and Southern Dobruja. A nation that had spent the years after World War I building a "Greater Romania" watched that creation dismantled without firing a shot. How did a relatively democratic constitutional monarchy with a pro-Western outlook end up fielding the third-largest Axis army in Europe? Why did it then turn its guns on Germany in August 1944? And how did a country that committed genocide against the Jews still see half of its Jewish population survive the war? The answers run through oil fields, prison massacres, and a coup led by a king once dismissed as a figurehead.
On the 13th of April 1939, France and the United Kingdom pledged to guarantee the independence of the Kingdom of Romania. Those guarantees became meaningless once the Third French Republic surrendered and British forces retreated from continental Europe. Romania had refused to let the Red Army cross its frontiers, so a parallel Soviet guarantee never materialized.
On the 23rd of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. A secret annex recognized Soviet "interest" in Bessarabia, which the Russian Empire had ruled from 1812 to 1918, and signaled an explicit lack of German interest in the area. Romania turned to Berlin for protection unaware that Berlin had already given the Soviets a green light.
In July 1940, after a Soviet ultimatum, Romania surrendered Bessarabia and northern Bukovina. The Soviets also annexed the city of Hertsa, which the ultimatum had never mentioned. Two-thirds of Bessarabia merged with a sliver of Soviet land to form the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic.
On the 30th of August 1940, under the Second Vienna Award, Germany and Italy handed Hungary the region called Northern Transylvania. On the 7th of September, under the Treaty of Craiova, Southern Dobruja went to Bulgaria. Most of these territories held Romanian-speaking majorities, and losing so much land without a fight shattered the underpinnings of King Carol's power.
On the 4th of September 1940, in the immediate wake of the loss of Northern Transylvania, General Ion Antonescu and the Iron Guard united to form the National Legionary State. They forced Carol II to abdicate in favor of his 19-year-old son Michael. Carol and his mistress Magda Lupescu went into exile.
Horia Sima led the Iron Guard, a particularly virulent antisemite who had become the movement's nominal leader after the death of Corneliu Codreanu. Under the deal, the Iron Guard became the sole legal party. Antonescu took the role of honorary leader while Sima became deputy premier.
On the 8th of October 1940, German troops began crossing into Romania, soon numbering over 500,000. Romania joined the Axis powers on the 23rd of November 1940. Four days later, on the 27th of November, the Iron Guard executed 64 former dignitaries and officials at Jilava prison while they awaited trial. That same day, the historian and former prime minister Nicolae Iorga and the economist Virgil Madgearu were assassinated.
The partnership did not last. On the 20th of January 1941, the Iron Guard attempted a coup paired with a bloody pogrom against the Jews of Bucharest. Within four days Antonescu suppressed it. Sima and many legionnaires fled to Germany, and Antonescu abolished the Legionary State, declaring Romania a "National and Social State."
On the 22nd of June 1941, German armies with massive Romanian support attacked the Soviet Union. Romania welcomed the war because it offered a chance to retake the lands the Soviets had seized a year earlier. Hitler rewarded that loyalty by returning Bessarabia and northern Bukovina, and by letting Romania administer Soviet land between the Dniester and the Bug, including Odessa and Nikolaev.
Romanian jingoes in Odessa even distributed a geography claiming the Dacians had once inhabited most of southern Russia. After recovering Bessarabia and Bukovina in Operation München, Romanian units fought toward Odessa, Sevastopol, Stalingrad, and the Caucasus. The Romanian Army counted 686,258 men under arms in the summer of 1941, rising to 1,224,691 by the summer of 1944.
A U.S. Federal Research Division study attributed Romania's outsized commitment to a "morbid competition with Hungary to curry Hitler's favor" in hope of regaining northern Transylvania. In August 1941 Hitler persuaded Antonescu to take control of Transnistria, the territory between the Dniester and the Southern Bug, governed through a civil administration called the Transnistria Governorate.
Petre Dumitrescu, one of Romania's most important generals, commanded the Third Army at Stalingrad. In November 1942 the German Sixth Army was briefly placed at his disposal during an attempt to relieve the Third Army after the Soviet Operation Uranus. The winter of 1942-43 brought disaster at Stalingrad.
An international commission report released by the Romanian government in 2004 found that between 280,000 and 380,000 Jews were murdered or died on Romanian soil, across the war zones of Bessarabia, Bukovina, and the Transnistria Governorate. Of the 25,000 Roma deported to concentration camps in Transnistria, 11,000 died.
During the Iasi pogrom of June 1941, over 13,000 Jews were massacred or killed slowly in trains traveling back and forth across the countryside. Half of the estimated 270,000 to 320,000 Jews living in Bessarabia, Bukovina, and Dorohoi County were murdered or died between June 1941 and the spring of 1944.
Romanian soldiers and gendarmes worked alongside the German Einsatzkommandos and local Ukrainian militia. From the 18th of October 1941 until mid-March 1942, Romanian forces in Odessa killed up to 25,000 Jews and deported more than 35,000.
Half of the Jews living within the pre-Barbarossa borders survived the war, though they faced forced labor, financial penalties, and discriminatory laws, with all Jewish property nationalized. The 2004 report concluded that of all of Nazi Germany's allies, Romania bears responsibility for the deaths of more Jews than any country other than Germany itself. It stated plainly that Romania committed genocide against the Jews, and that the survival of some did not alter that reality.
Throughout the Antonescu years, Romania supplied Nazi Germany with oil, grain, and industrial products. Train stations such as Gara de Nord in Bucharest served as transit points for troops heading to the Eastern Front. By 1943 this made Romania a target for Allied bombers.
Operation Tidal Wave struck the oil fields of Ploiesti on the 1st of August 1943. Bucharest endured intense bombardment on the 4th and the 15th of April 1944. The Luftwaffe itself would later bomb the city on the 24th and the 25th of August, after Romania switched sides.
Most of the oil, grain, and equipment shipped to Germany went without monetary compensation, because Nazi Germany refused to pay. Inflation skyrocketed, and discontent spread even among Romanians who had once enthusiastically backed the Germans. By 1944 the economy was in tatters.
Beginning in December 1943, the Soviet Dnieper-Carpathian Offensive pushed Axis forces back to the Dniester by April 1944. General Mihai Racovita helped defend northern Romania during the Battles of Targu Frumos, which David Glantz considered an initial Soviet attempt to invade. The Jassy-Kishinev Offensive, launched on the 20th of August 1944, broke the German-Romanian front, capturing Iasi on the 21st and Chisinau on the 24th.
On the 23rd of August 1944, with the Red Army penetrating German defenses, King Michael I led a successful coup against the Axis. He had support from opposition politicians, most of the army, and Communist-led civilians. Initially treated as little more than a figurehead, Michael deposed the Antonescu dictatorship.
The King offered a non-confrontational retreat to the German ambassador Manfred von Killinger, but the Germans deemed the coup "reversible" and tried to reverse it by force. On the 24th of August, German troops attempted to seize Bucharest and were repelled by the city's defenses. Romanian units attacked the German garrisons at the Ploiesti oilfields, and the army captured over 50,000 German prisoners, later handed to the Soviets.
In a radio broadcast on the night of the 23rd of August, Michael declared a cease-fire, proclaimed loyalty to the Allies, and declared war on Germany. Stalin immediately recognized the king and the restored monarchy. Yet the coup did not avert occupation, and about 130,000 Romanian soldiers were captured and transported to the Soviet Union, where many perished in prison camps.
The armistice was signed on the 12th of September 1944 on terms dictated by the Soviet Union. During the Moscow Conference in October 1944, Winston Churchill proposed dividing Eastern Europe into spheres of influence, and the Soviet Union was offered a 90% share in Romania.
Border clashes between Hungarian and Romanian troops erupted almost immediately after Romania declared war on Germany. In early September 1944, Soviet and Romanian forces entered Transylvania and captured Brasov and Sibiu, advancing toward the Mures River with Cluj as their main objective.
The Second Hungarian Army and the Eighth German Army met the Allied forces on the 5th of September 1944 in the Battle of Turda, which lasted until the 8th of October with heavy casualties on both sides. When the Hungarian Army penetrated Arad County in its last independent offensive of the war, ad-hoc Romanian cadet battalions stopped the advance at the Battle of Pauli, and the Hungarians evacuated Arad on the 21st of September.
The Battle of Carei marked the final recovery of Northern Transylvania. On the evening of the 24th of October 1944, the Romanian 6th Army Corps attacked toward Carei with four divisions, while the 2nd Infantry Division struck toward Satu Mare in a pincer movement. Both cities were freed on the 25th of October, and a 1959 decree made that day Romanian Armed Forces Day.
The Romanian Army fought on through Hungary, Yugoslavia, Austria, and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, taking part in the Prague Offensive in May 1945. Of some 538,000 Romanian soldiers who fought against the Axis in 1944-45, some 167,000 were killed, wounded, or went missing. Under the 1947 Treaty of Paris, the Allies labeled Romania an "ally of Hitlerite Germany," required $300 million in reparations to the Soviet Union, yet recognized that Northern Transylvania was once again an integral part of Romania.
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Common questions
When did Romania join the Axis powers in World War II?
Romania officially joined the Axis powers on the 23rd of November 1940. This followed the September 1940 formation of the National Legionary State under Ion Antonescu in partnership with the Iron Guard.
Why did Romania lose territory in 1940 during World War II?
In the summer of 1940 the USSR occupied Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina after an ultimatum. Under the Second Vienna Award, Hungary received Northern Transylvania, and under the Treaty of Craiova, Bulgaria received Southern Dobruja. Germany and Italy arbitrated these losses.
How many troops did Romania send to fight the Soviet Union in World War II?
Romania had 686,258 men under arms in the summer of 1941, rising to 1,224,691 by the summer of 1944. The number of Romanian troops sent against the Soviet Union exceeded that of all of Germany's other allies combined.
What role did Romania play in the Holocaust during World War II?
Romanian troops were responsible for the persecution and massacre of Jews in Romanian-controlled territories, and a 2004 government commission found between 280,000 and 380,000 Jews murdered or died on Romanian soil. The report concluded that Romania committed genocide against the Jews and bears responsibility for more Jewish deaths than any Nazi ally other than Germany itself.
Who led the 1944 Romanian coup that switched sides in World War II?
King Michael I led the coup on the 23rd of August 1944, deposing the Antonescu dictatorship. He proclaimed loyalty to the Allies and declared war on Germany, with support from opposition politicians, most of the army, and Communist-led civilians.
What did Romania receive after switching to the Allies in World War II?
Despite switching sides, Greater Romania was not restored except for Northern Transylvania, which was recognized as an integral part of Romania. Under the 1947 Treaty of Paris, Romania was still labeled an "ally of Hitlerite Germany" and had to pay $300 million in reparations to the Soviet Union.
All sources
21 references cited across the entry
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- 6bookThe legionary movement after Corneliu Codreanu : from the dictatorship of King Carol II to the communist regime (February 1938 – August 1944)Țiu, Ilarion. — East European Monographs — 2010
- 7bookRomania : a country studyRonald D. Bachman et al. — Washington, D.C. : The Division : For sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S. G.P.O. — 1991
- 8bookThird axis, Fourth Ally: Romanian Armed Forces In the European War 1941–1945Mark Axworthy et al. — Arms & Armour Press — 1995
- 9journalThe battle of Jassy–KishinevScott R. McMichael — United States Army Combined Arms Center — 1985
- 10webExecutive Summary: Historical Findings and RecommendationsInternational Commission on the Holocaust in Romania — Yad Vashem (The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority) — November 11, 2004
- 19webZiua Armatei – Bătălia de la Carei – Ultima palmă de pământ românesc eliberată în ArdealTudor Curtifan — 25 October 2019