Romania in the Second World War (1939–1945)
The secret protocol of the Ribbentrop–Molotov pact of 23 August 1939 recognized the Soviet Union’s interest in Bessarabia. In the summer of 1940, after the fall of France, Romania was left without protection. On 26–28 June 1940, by an ultimatum, the USSR demanded Bessarabia, northern Bukovina and the Herța region, which Romania was forced to cede. By the Vienna Dictate of 30 August 1940, imposed by Germany and Italy, Romania lost Northern Transylvania (43,492 km²) to Hungary, and by the Treaty of Craiova (7 September) it ceded Southern Dobruja to Bulgaria.
These losses, about a third of the country’s territory, provoked a deep political crisis. King Carol II abdicated on 6 September 1940 in favour of his son Michael. Power was taken by General Ion Antonescu, styled “Conducător of the State”, who at first allied himself with the Iron Guard in a “National Legionary State”. The Legionary rebellion of January 1941 was crushed with the help of the army, and Antonescu established a military dictatorship. Romania joined the Tripartite Pact, and German troops entered the country.
On 22 June 1941 Romania entered the war against the Soviet Union, alongside Germany, to recover Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina. The Romanian army liberated the provinces, then continued the war beyond the Dniester, capturing Odessa (October 1941) and occupying Transnistria. In 1942–1943 Romania sent large forces towards Stalingrad and the Caucasus, where in November 1942 it suffered heavy losses, including the decimation of two armies. During the same period the Antonescu regime committed grave crimes against the Jewish and Roma populations: the Iași pogrom (June 1941), the Odessa massacre and the deportations to Transnistria.
The International Commission on the Holocaust in Romania, headed by Elie Wiesel, concluded in 2004 that between 280,000 and 380,000 Jews were killed in territories under the control of the Romanian authorities, and that about 11,000 Roma died in Transnistria. Acknowledging these facts is part of taking responsibility for history. At the same time, there were also cases of rescue, and the Jews of the Old Kingdom were not deported to the Nazi camps. From 1943, in the context of German defeats, a search began for a way out of the war, through contacts with the Western Allies.
In the summer of 1944 the front approached Romania. On 20 August the Soviets launched the Iași–Chișinău offensive. On 23 August 1944 King Michael I, supported by the democratic parties and part of the army, arrested Antonescu and proclaimed an armistice with the Allies and the turning of arms against Germany. Romania then fought in Transylvania, Hungary and Czechoslovakia, until 9 May 1945, with nearly 540,000 soldiers. Historians estimate that the act of 23 August shortened the war by about six months. The peace treaty of 1947 returned Northern Transylvania to Romania.