The bodies of 9 members of the pro-Nazi Iron Guard are openly displayed after their summary executions. The men were responsible for killing Prime Minister Armand Călinescu. The poster in the back reads “From now on, this shall be the fate of those who betray the country”, Romania, 1939 [960 x 720].

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1. The assassination was in retaliation for [Prime Minister Armand Călinescu](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armand_C%C4%83linescu) and [King Carol II](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_II_of_Romania) ruthlessly suppressing the [Iron Guard](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Guard). The Romanian government, while always right-wing, was initially neutral with pro-Allied leanings (Călinescu had allowed Polish refugees to flee to Romania), and had cracked down on the movement. In 1938, the leader of the Iron Guard, [Corneliu Codreanu](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corneliu_Zelea_Codreanu), was summarily executed. Also killed were two [Iron Guard death squads](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Guard_death_squads). One death squad was responsible for assassinating [Prime Minister Ion Duca](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion_G._Duca), who’d ordered the police to use violence against the Iron Guard (resulting in the Romania security forces killing at least 18 Legionnaires). The other was responsible for killing a [former Legionnaire](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mihai_Stelescu) who left to form [his own right-wing organization](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crusade_of_Romanianism). The latter death squad had shot their victim 38 to 200 times, cut his body into pieces with axes, and then danced around the body.

   >On 30 November, it was announced that Codreanu, the Nicadori and the Decemviri had been shot after trying to flee custody the previous night. The actual details were revealed much later: the fourteen persons had been transported from their prison and executed (strangled or garroted and shot) by the Gendarmerie around Tâncăbești (near Bucharest), and their bodies had been buried in the courtyard of the Jilava prison. Their bodies were dissolved in acid, and placed under seven tons of concrete.

   The reprisals after the assassination of Călinescu became far more brutal:

   >An even more severe repression of the Iron Guard followed under the provisional leadership of [Gheorghe Argeșanu](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gheorghe_Arge%C8%99anu). It was inaugurated by the immediate execution of the assassins and the public display of their bodies at the murder site for days on end. A placard was set up on the spot, reading De acum înainte, aceasta va fi soarta trădătorilor de țară (“From now on, this shall be the fate of those who betray the country”), and students from several Bucharest secondary schools were required to visit the site (based on the belief that would dissuade them from affiliating with the Guard).
   >
   >Mass executions of known Iron Guard activists were ordered in various places in the country (some were hanged on telegraph poles, while a group of Legionnaires was shot in front of Ion G. Duca’s statue in Ploiești). In all, over 300 members of the Iron Guard were massacred.

   Unfortunately, none of this prevented the final outcome. The reprisals, while extremely vicious, were not enough to counter a movement with nearly 300,000 members. As the Germans gained ground and the Iron Guard gained more influence, Carol II wavered and began appeasing them and Germany. In 1940, [Ion Antonescu](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion_Antonescu) led a pro-Nazi coup against the King. Carol II was forced to resign and fled to Portugal, solidifying Romania’s status as an Axis power. Ironically, the King had come very close to having Antonescu killed shortly before the coup happened.

   >Carol had on 9 July 1940 imprisoned General Ion Antonescu after the latter had criticized the king, charging it was the corruption of the royal government that was responsible for the military backwardness of Romania, and hence the loss of Bessarabia. Both Fabricius and Hermann Neubacher, the man in charge of the Four Year Plan’s operations in the Balkans intervened with Carol, saying that Antonescu’s “accidental death” or being “shot while trying to escape” would “make a very bad impression on the German headquarters” as Antonescu was known to be a leading advocate of an alliance with Germany. On 11 July 1940, Carol had Antonescu freed, but kept under house arrest at the Bistrița monastery.