The Iron Guard were responsible for some of the worst acts against humanity committed during WW2 and their religious zealot fuelled genocide was too much even for the Nazi’s who requested that they restrain themselves.
A famous story from Croatia; a group of Iron Guard got drunk on plum brandy, they cut their hands and drank each other’s blood before praying and blessing themselves. They drove to a local Jewish village at midnight, gathered all of the inhabitants and forced them to travel to a nearby abattoir. The Iron Guard’s men turned the machines on, forced the people to strip at gun point and then forced all men, women and children to walk through the butchering machines alive. When the limbless, mutilated corpse rolled out the end of the production line they hung the torsos on meat hooks snd stamped them “fit for human consumption”. They took a young girl, butchered her alive and then hung her upside down to represent a crucifixion to drain her blood.
Source: Robert Kaplan, Balkan Ghosts: A Journey Through History.
Well, Antonescu wasn’t much better.
Denmark > Sweden
Corneliu Zelea Codreanu (founder of the Iron Guard) is a pretty fascinating figure. I would definitely recommend his autobiography “For My Legionaries” as a historic document about that era (warning: to say it is extremely antisemitic is an understatement).
Many prominent Romanians like Mircea Eliade were members of his Legion of St. Michael the Archangel, which is what originally led me read about him.
He was assassinated in 1938, so he missed out on all the genocide and war crimes.
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The Iron Guard were responsible for some of the worst acts against humanity committed during WW2 and their religious zealot fuelled genocide was too much even for the Nazi’s who requested that they restrain themselves.
A famous story from Croatia; a group of Iron Guard got drunk on plum brandy, they cut their hands and drank each other’s blood before praying and blessing themselves. They drove to a local Jewish village at midnight, gathered all of the inhabitants and forced them to travel to a nearby abattoir. The Iron Guard’s men turned the machines on, forced the people to strip at gun point and then forced all men, women and children to walk through the butchering machines alive. When the limbless, mutilated corpse rolled out the end of the production line they hung the torsos on meat hooks snd stamped them “fit for human consumption”. They took a young girl, butchered her alive and then hung her upside down to represent a crucifixion to drain her blood.
Source: Robert Kaplan, Balkan Ghosts: A Journey Through History.
Well, Antonescu wasn’t much better.
Denmark > Sweden
Corneliu Zelea Codreanu (founder of the Iron Guard) is a pretty fascinating figure. I would definitely recommend his autobiography “For My Legionaries” as a historic document about that era (warning: to say it is extremely antisemitic is an understatement).
Many prominent Romanians like Mircea Eliade were members of his Legion of St. Michael the Archangel, which is what originally led me read about him.
He was assassinated in 1938, so he missed out on all the genocide and war crimes.