Romanians in the XIth Army?

I would very much appreciate if someone could give me some historical background to this diary note:
(translated)

"11th Army under the direction of field marshall von Mannstein,

... Construction/Building(?) Battalion 1008, also called Punishment-Battalion

they called us Ascension - commando."

Why were the Romanians suddenly in the German Army?
Which Romanian group was joined to the 11th Army?
How were they treated?
I didn´t find anything about the Battalion 1008, does anybody know, what it was?
What were the aims or duties of that commando?
Did the Romanian officers and NCOs remain in their position or were they degraded?
What was an Ascencion-commando? Were they punished or did they punish?


Regards

Hi jivana,

Can you tell us whose diary are you talking about?

During the joint German-Romanian operations, it was usual that Romanian units were subordinated to higher German echelons, and vice-versa (German units under Romanian command).

Can you specifiy the timeframe?

See this topic about independent infantry battalions:
http://www.worldwar2.ro/forum/index.php?showtopic=210

Hi Dragos,

thank you very much for the very informative answers. And I want to congratulate you as Admin for this excellent site! It is not only informative but also very well structurated and professional!

I´ve been looking for this Battalion since some weeks ago and your post is the fist answer that brings me further in my investigations.

It is a private family diary and refers to individual and family life during 25 yrs., it is not a war diary, but it has marginal notes about war time (ww2) and about personal experiences in the youth of the author.

What are "echelons"? How were the Romanians treated by the Germans? Could it be that they were degraded because a "working battalion" is less??

I´ll have to look it up. I think no time is specified.

Thank you for the hint. It ist very informative. How many people were there in a battalion?

Where could I look for "Ascencion commando"? Can you give me a hint?

Regards

On the 'net.

Isn't the unit you're refering to connected to the Jewish Holocaust?

Gen. Dénes