Romania's Western campaign in a Belgian museum

I visited the museum in the fortress of Huy, in Belgium, which is dedicated to WW2, with special emphasis on the Holocaust and the countries that fought against Germany.

The part about Romania looks like a Romanian museum from the Ceausescu era. It has pics and quotes of Ceausescu and the texts speak about the workers led by the heroic Romanian communist party, etc. All the typical stuff.





I asked somebody to try to convince the Romanian embassy in Bruxelles to provide funds for a redesign of the section about Romania. In case they agree, i told them that we can help by finding pics and writing short texts that would offer a correct and balanced view of Romania's campaign against Germany.

The famous anti-war meeting from 1st of May 1939... Organised by the Romanian Communist party, in general and comrades Nicolae & Elena Ceausescu ex Petrescu in special. The guys from the today dead Museum of Romanian Communist Party History attached the heads of the 2 dictators in that large populated shot...

This post has been edited by chisi on October 14, 2007 04:58 pm

Those two guys, in centre and to the right, with raised straight arm - kind of reminding me of the fascist salute - make me wonder if this was really an 'anti-war' demonstration.

Gen. Dénes

This post has been edited by Dénes on October 14, 2007 07:02 pm

They are, most sure, members of the Legion. And the communists forgot about it.
About the story with the anti-fascist demonstration ("The great anti-fascist demonstration of 1 may 1039"), we learned about it in high school, at the history class.

Thee pictures montage from the right: one of them (the first from up) represent Ceausescu in the political prisoner camp of Targu Jiu.

This post has been edited by chisi on October 14, 2007 07:19 pm

About the salute, it's possible, but I'm not sure. I've seen the same salute in pictures unrelated with the Iron Guard. For instance, take a look at the picture below. It was taken around 1936, in Braila, at a ceremony of repatriation of Romanian soldiers who died in WWI.

Take a look at the WWI veterans saluting on the right side of the picture. Also, next to them is a group of school children, saluting in the same manner.
I don't think they were Iron Guard members, so this particular type of salute may have been employed on a larger basis, before it became associated with the Iron Guard.

It would be interesting to research whether this type of salute was introduced in Romania by the Iron Guard, or whether it was already in wider use and was simply adopted by them at a certain point in time.

Are you sure about the date? I am asking this, because the headgear worn by the pallbearers looks to me like a late war model (but I might be mistaken).

Gen. Dénes

Denes, that's a good question. No, I'm not 100% sure, but the picture comes from a family album containing only pictures from this event.

What I do know is that around 1936, Gen. Avramescu (then a senior officer of the 10th Inf. Division in Braila) organized and led a repatriation ceremony of Romanian soldiers from the Braila area who died in WWI. A memorial was also built with this occasion, and the ceremony was attended by the king.

So I pieced together these two pieces of information, and assumed that these pictures may have been taken on that occasion. Hence the 1936 date.

But I may be wrong. On the picture album is written "Vinatori de Munte", so maybe these are from a WWII ceremony.

In any case, entire train loads containing literally hundreds of coffins were brought to Braila during this event.

I'm posting a couple of more pictures, maybe you or someone else can confirm the date or suggest a different date based on the uniforms.

Regardless, what do you think of the salute given by the group of children and the elderly veterans? I always wondered about it when looking at these pictures - they couldn't have been Iron Guard members. I'd like to know your thoughts. Thanks.

It is a difference between these 2 ways to salute.
The "legionaires" from the picture officially dated 1 may 1939 salute a little different *their palm and fingers are vertically ti the earth, and the old veterans salute with whloe hand at 45 degrees.

About the school kids from the picture (and possibly some of "veterans"), it is possibly that they could be members of Scouts or Straja Tarii. These organisations have some kind of salute.

Here is a photo of today's meeting of the followers of the Iron Guards, giving the straight arm salute:

http://www.adevarul.ro/zoom_image.php?img=...311-clipboard42
[Source: Adevarul]

Gen. Dénes