Ion Gigurtu

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Ion Gigurtu
Prime Minister of Romania
In office
4 July 1940 – 5 September 1940
MonarchCarol II
Preceded byGheorghe Tătărescu
Succeeded byIon Antonescu
Personal details
Born24 June 1886
National Agrarian Party (1932-1935)
National Christian Party (1935-1938)
National Renaissance Front (1938-1940)
Party of the Nation (1940)
ProfessionOfficer, industrialist
Military service
AllegianceKingdom of Romania
Branch/serviceRomanian Land Forces
Battles/warsSecond Balkan War
World War I
World War II

Ion Gigurtu (Romanian pronunciation:

Public Works and Communications Minister and Foreign Minister under Premier Gheorghe Tătărescu, before the territorial losses incurred by Romania in front of the Soviet Union
propelled him as Tătărescu's replacement.

Gigurtu's executive was primarily noted for realizing the inability of

Communist regime as part of a show trial
, he eventually died in prison.

Biography

Early life

Born in

Romanian campaign of World War I, first as a lieutenant and then as a captain.[3] He was a founding member of the Romanian Society of Industry and Commerce (SERIC) in October 1919, and was head of the Mica Society from its founding in the spring of 1921 until October 1944. He was also president of the Nitrogen Society and of the Discount Bank (Banca de Scont).[1]

Joining

Chamber of Deputies from 1926 to 1927. In mid-1927, he was part of the Romanian delegation to the Geneva Naval Conference. In April 1932, he followed Octavian Goga into the National Agrarian faction, a splinter group of the PP. In July 1937, the Industry and Commerce Ministry nominated him as a specialist on the Superior Economic Council.[1] Aside from this party and the PP, he helped finance the mainstream National Peasants' Party and National Liberal Party, as well as the fascist National Christians and the Iron Guard.[4] During Goga's brief leadership of a National Christian cabinet (December 1937–February 1938), he was Minister of Industry and Commerce. The 1930s also saw him involved in journalistic activity on economic, domestic and foreign policy issues; he was founder and owner of the magazine Libertatea (January 1933–December 1940).[3]

Gigurtu, as a "pro-

Nazi industrialist", was a friend of Hermann Göring.[5]

Rise to power

Gigurtu (left) with Joachim von Ribbentrop in Salzburg, July 1940

Following his imposition of a royal dictatorship, Carol II reconfirmed Gigurtu as a member of the Superior Economic Council in April 1938. He then made him

Romanian petroleum to Germany in exchange for military equipment.[7]

The king turned to Gigurtu to be his next prime minister—he was by then a wealthy industrialist who, aside from being a committed

Culture Ministry, when Carol rejected his demand for an all-Guardist cabinet.[11] The longest-held such office was the specially-created Ministry for the Inventory of Public Wealth, presided upon by Vasile Noveanu until September 3.[12]

Policies, loss of Northern Transylvania and downfall

After his appointment, Gigurtu announced he would work to integrate Romania into the Axis sphere, taking a series of steps in that direction: withdrawal from the

left-wing politicians; and suspension of an already rubber-stamp legislative assembly.[9] One of the most far-reaching of these consequences targeted the Jewish Romanian community, and expanded on previous antisemitic legislation passed by the Goga executive. He thus upheld a decree-law revising the citizenship status of Jews, around a claim that many of them had illegally settled in Romania after 1919 (about a third of the total, or 225,222 individuals, had been stripped of their citizenship).[13] Gigurtu also officially imposed racial antisemitism, adopting laws which defined as Jewish any third-generation descendant of a Jew (as opposed to Romanians "by blood"), and declaring that the definition of a Jew no longer depended on affiliation to Judaism (and was not altered by conversion to Christianity).[14] The law also instituted racial segregation, banning Jews from public service, removing them from all walks of life, and preventing marriages between Jews and Christians.[15] Male Jews were no longer allowed to perform service in the army, but instead were required to perform community work for the state (muncă de interes obștesc).[16] This was in effect the application of criteria borrowed from Nazism and the German Nuremberg Laws.[17] This antisemitic legislation, comprising two decrees, was enacted on 9 August 1940, available for all of the Romanian territories.[18] In spite of these measures, he was unable to change Adolf Hitler's attitude toward Carol, whom the former considered to be hampering German interests in Romania.[3]

From late June to mid-July, the king exchanged several letters with Hitler who, using an ultimatum-like tone, demanded that Carol make territorial concessions to Hungary and

Nazi Minister of Foreign Affairs.[19] In the face of pressure and threats from the Axis, separate negotiations took place with Hungary and Bulgaria in August; the former necessitated intervention by Germany and Fascist Italy and resulted in the loss of Northern Transylvania in the Second Vienna Award, while the latter led to the cession of Southern Dobruja and a population exchange in early September after the signing of the Treaty of Craiova.[20]

Following numerous protests against what was popularly labelled the "Vienna Diktat", Gigurtu's cabinet resigned on September 4, replaced within a few days by the monarch's rival Ion Antonescu.[21] The Iron Guard, which had been plotting a coup d'état against Carol after September 3, negotiated a partnership with Antonescu, setting up the fascist-inspired National Legionary State (which was to crumble during Sima's 1941 rebellion).[22] Reportedly, Gigurtu's decision to resign had been taken after the infuriated king told him to execute fifteen arrested Guardists, therefore aiding the rapprochement between Carol's opponents.[23]

Final years, arrests and death

Gigurtu stayed in Romania for the remainder of

Communist regime.[24]

Finally, on the night of May 5–6, 1950, Gigurtu was arrested, together with other former dignitaries of the monarchical period, and sent to Sighet Prison. In the summer of 1956, most surviving political detainees were freed, except for former prime ministers, justice ministers, and interior ministers, who were accused of "intense activity against the working class". Gigurtu had been held without trial at Sighet for nearly six years, but was finally judged in a public show trial and sentenced to fifteen years' imprisonment. His appeal was rejected, and three years later, gravely ill and in serious pain, he died in the penitentiary at Râmnicu Sărat.[24] Gigurtu was rehabilitated by the Romanian Supreme Court in 1999.[25][26][27]

Essays

  • Dezvoltarea industriei în România ("The Development of Industry in Romania", 1916)
  • Posibilitățile de refacere și dezvoltare a industriei în România ("Prospects for the Reconstruction and Development of Industry in Romania", 1918)
  • Industria mecanică metalurgică. Studiu economico-statistic ("The Mechanical Metalworking Industry. An Economic and Statistical Study")
  • Politica minieră a Statului cu privire la exploatațiile metalifere ("The State's Mining Policy in Respect to Metalworking Sites", 1931)

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d Neagoe, p.325
  2. ^ (in Romanian) Bălcescu, Barbu Archived 2011-09-03 at the Wayback Machine at the site of the Alexandru and Aristia Aman Dolj County Library
  3. ^ a b c d e f Neagoe, p.326
  4. ^ Nicolescu, p.162
  5. ISBN 9781461694908
  6. ^ Neagoe, p.326; Nicolescu, p.162
  7. ISBN 0-8047-0870-3
  8. ^ Deletant, p.23; Neagoe, p.326; Nicolescu, p.162-163
  9. ^ a b c Nicolescu, p.163
  10. ^ Deletant, p.51, 56, 293; Nicolescu, p.163; Ornea, p.325
  11. ^ Deletant, p.51, 293
  12. ^ Ornea, p.325, 330
  13. ^ Nicolescu, p.163; Ornea, p.392
  14. ^ Ornea, p.392
  15. ^ Deletant, p.103; Ornea, p.392-393
  16. ^ Deletant, p.103
  17. ^ Deletant, p.103; Ornea, p.392
  18. ^ Jonathan C. Friedman, Taylor & Francis, 2010, The Routledge History of the Holocaust, p. 279
  19. ^ Deletant, p.23
  20. ^ Nicolescu, p.163-164
  21. ^ Deletant, p.48sqq; Nicolescu, p.164; Ornea, p.325-328
  22. ^ Deletant, p.48sqq; Ornea, p.325sqq
  23. ^ Deletant, p.48
  24. ^ a b Neagoe, p.327
  25. ^ Martin Jung, Frank & Timme GmbH, 2016, In Freiheit: Die Auseinandersetzung mit Zeitgeschichte in Rumänien (1989 bis 2009), p. 245
  26. ^ Wolfgang Benz, Brigitte Mihok, Metropol Verlag, 2009, Holocaust an der Peripherie: Judenpolitik und Judenmord in Rumänien und Transnistrien 1940-1944, pp. 204 and 207
  27. ^ Eduard Nižňanský, Univerzita Komenského v Bratislave. Filozofická fakulta, Stimul, 2007, Z dejín Holokaustu a jeho popierania, p. 164

References

External links
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