The politician who invited the Germans to Romania: Who is Ion Antonescu?

It was overthrown in a coup in 1944. He was sentenced to death as a war criminal by the Romanian people's courts and executed in 1946.

(1882-1946) Romanian general and statesman. He supported Germany during his dictatorship from 1940-1944. He was born in Piteşti and died near Jilava. After World War I, he served as a military attaché in Paris and London. He became chief of staff in 1934. He took office in the government as defense minister in 1937. He retained his ministry during the monarch-fascist rule of King Carol II in 1938; but a few weeks later he was dismissed on the grounds that he was a supporter of the country's active fascist party, the Iron Guard, which was in conflict with Carol II. II Carol was forced to withdraw in 1940, dissatisfied with the ceding of Bessarabia and Bukovina regions to the Soviet Union, and Southern Dobruja to Bulgaria.

Ion Antonescu (14 June 1882 – 1 June 1946) was a Romanian military officer and marshal who presided over two successive wartime dictatorships as Prime Minister and Conducător during most of World War II. He was shot by firing squad for war crimes in 1946.

Antonescu, who became prime minister two days before Carol II's abdication, formed a coalition government with the soldiers and Iron Guard who supported him after the king's abdication and immediately invited German troops to Romania. When the actions and murders of the Iron Guards reached extreme proportions, he broke the coalition and removed the Iron Guards from the government in 1941.

The Romanian government remained a loyal ally of Germany against the Soviet Union until 1944. But due to heavy losses on the Soviet front, Antonescu lost some popular support in the first years of his rule. It was overthrown in a coup in 1944. He was sentenced to death as a war criminal by the Romanian people's courts and executed in 1946.

-----------------------------------------

The execution of Marshall Ion Antonescu

https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1068169