20 April 1917: Mihai Viteazul Order 3rd class

10 September 1940 – 8 November 1941: 2nd Corps

9 November 1941 – 12 February 1945: 1 st Army

24 January 1942: promoted to the rank of lt. general

Nicolae Macici was born on 7 November 1886 in Craiova. He joined the military in 1905, being admitted in the Infantry Officer School, which he graduated in 1907 with the rank of 2nd lieutenant. In 1910 he became 1st lieutenant. Between 1913-15 he went to the Military Academy and was promoted captain. During WWI he distinguished himself commanding a machine-gun company from the 41st Infantry Regiment in the battles in the Merisor Pass and at Vulcan in September 1916. He received the Mihai Viteazul Order 3rd class for these actions. In 1917 he was again promoted and in 1920 he was already a lieutenant colonel and then a colonel in 1927. He became brigadier general in 1936 and major general in 1939.

In June 1941, maj. general Nicolae Macici was at the head of the 2nd Corps (9th and 10th Infantry Divisions), which was deployed in northern Dobruja at the beginning of Operation Barbarossa. This unit enjoyed a special status of independence by not being subordinated toan army command. It fought several engagements with the Soviet forces, which were trying to infiltrate in the Danube Delta and repulsed them. After Army Group “Antonescu” began its offensive and dislocated the enemy defense in southern Bessarabia, his troops forced the Danube and took part in the pursuit to the Dniester River. After Odessa fell to the 4th Army, the 2nd Corps took over the city’s garrison. Following the explosion at the Romanian headquarters building, marshal Antonescu ordered reprisals. General Macici reported back on 25 October the execution of 13,000 Jews and Communists, 400 of them being hung on the streets.

After this bloody episode, in November 1941 he was named commander of the only Romanian army, which remained at home: the 1st. He was promoted to the rank of lt. general in January 1942. For over two years and a half the situation was quiet in the sector of the 1st Army. In that period he helped the Jewish communities in Orastie, Sibiu and other towns, as he did previously in Dobruja during the winter of 1940/41. These things came up during the trial when he was accused of anti-Semitism.

After 23 August 1944, general Macici was in a rather difficult situation. His troops, mainly second line quality or recruits, found themselves suddenly in the first line on the anti-Axis front in the Banat. Although it faced several determined attacks, the 1st Army managed to hold the mountain passes until Romanian and Soviet reinforcements arrived.

On 22 September 1944 he started the offensive and took Beius, Salonta and Oradea. The 1st Army then passed into modern-day Hungary and forced the Tisza River, replacing Soviet troops in the Mindszent, Csongrad and Szolnok bridgeheads, having to face powerful German and Hungarian counterattacks. The 4th Infantry Division was surrounded and lost almost entirely during the battle near Szolnok, mostly due to the lack of AT weapons. General Macici had to evacuate the rest of the bridgeheads. In one month of operations, the 1st Army had suffered 8,720 casualties. Then, the 7th Corps was engaged in Operation Budapest, subordinated to the 7th Guard Army, while the 4th Corps fought in the Miskolc area and in the Bükk Mountains, as part of the Soviet 27th Army. Practically general Macici was left without an army. The 4th Corps returned under his command in December 1944 and the 7th Corps in January 1945. He started the offensive in Slovakia in the Javorina Mountains, but he did not get to finish it, because he was fired on 12 February 1945 and then arrested.

He and 37 others were put on trial for war crimes between 14 and 22 May 1945. The „People’s Court” sentenced him to death, but it was later commuted to life in prison. He was jailed at Jilava, Dumbraveni and Aiud, where he passed away on 15 June 1950.