FACTS AND DOCUMENTS:

THE NUREMBERG TRIBUNAL VINDICATES
THE IRON GUARD

 

Mihai Fotin Enescu

 

1. Setting up a diplomatic platform for a discussion with the victorious powers began ahead of time, as early as 1944. At that time there was no doubt about the outcome of the war. The President of the National Government and the Foreign Minister gave me carte blanche.

2. To that end, it was necessary that the German government acknowledge a Representative Mission of the [exiled] National Romanian Government. That is what we obtained in March 1945, with the title of the Mission for General Consulate for the entire German Reich.

3. In mid-April 1945, in my capacity of a representative of the Romanian National Government, bearing the title of General Consul for the entire German Reich, and accompanied by the Consular Diplomatic Mission, consisting of Maria Bucur, Secretary, and Dinu Paul, Junior Attaché, we joined the State Secretariat of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Diplomatic Corps in Bad-Gastein.

4. We wrote a letter asking Vasile Iasinschi, who was on his way to Romania accompanied by Corneliu Georgescu, to come to us in Bad-Gastein. lasinschi came and, after we presented the facts to him, he accepted to remain in Bad-Gastein.

5. Also at Bad-Gastein there happened to arrive General Platon Chirnoagă, accompanied by Commander Eugen Băilă. They also adhered to our plan of discussion with the victorious forces.

6. I introduced Vasile Iasinschi at the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in his capacity of provisional President of the Romanian National Government and provisional Foreign Minister, since those who held those titles were absent; then General Chirnoagă as Minister of War and Commander Băilă as Chief of Staff of the Minister of War.

7. When the American army approached Bad-Gastein, the German Foreign Minister gave a broadcast communique indicating to the American political and military authorities the members of the Diplomatic Corps, which included the Mission of the National Government where salient personalities were the provisional President lasinschi, General Chirnoagă as a War Minister, and Commander Băilă as a Chief of Staff.

8. On the very day of May 6, when the preparations for the capitulation of Germany were announced for the first time, in a radio broadcast, I began to write a presentation of the Iron Guard's stand, which included, as it was seen, the Jewish problem.

9. After Germany surrendered, the Consular Diplomatic Mission of the National Romanian Government was imprisoned in a hotel in Bad-Gastein, together with the entire Diplomatic Corps. However, Iasinschi, General Chirnoagă, Commander Băilă, who were joined by Professor Ion Sângeorgiu and Vladimir Cristi, were not disturbed or examined by anyone.

10. Skipping some details, on September 25, 1945, part of the members of the Diplomatic Corps of Eastern European countries were imprisoned in the American concentration camp for "war criminals" Marcus W. Orr (named so after the first American soldier who died upon landing in Europe), at Glasenbach-Salzburg. The members of the Mission of the Romanian National Government were set free.

11. On October 25, 1945, I was arrested, together with Maria Bucur, in a dramatically staged action, by a group consisting of special agents of the Austrian State Police, who had come from Vienna, and of some others who wore the uniforms of Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia, and were under the command of the Chief of the CIC of Bad-Gastein. When I asked why I was being arrested, they told me that the State Representative of Washington had given that order, to satisfy a request made by the Romanian government supported by the other governments of Eastern Europe. We were imprisoned, I and Maria Bucur, in the concentration camp for "war criminals" at Glasenbach.

12. When they arrested me they took away from me all my papers, including the memorandum about the Iron Guard. That memorandum was sent to the American authorities of Austria, which were then stationed at Salzburg (waiting to be transferred to Vienna), and hence it was sent on to the Instructing Commission of the International Tribunal of Nuremberg that was to decide the fate of those tried as possible "war criminals." I learned later that my memorandum had made some impression.

13. Almost four months later, in mid-February 1946, an American officer came to Glasenbach from Nuremberg bringing 400 forms belonging to the Instructing Commission of the International Tribunal of Nuremberg. Among those 400 forms, there were some for us those who belonged to the Mission of the National Government, for Iasinschi, General Chirnoagă, and Commander Băilă. The purpose of those Nuremberg forms was to establish the identity of those who could not be accused of any wrong-doing and who did not belong to any organization that was considered collectively guilty of "war crimes", of "crimes against humanity", or of "collaborationism", either.

15. On April 15 1947 we were set free, those who belonged to the Consular Diplomatic Mission, and Commander Băilă; and a month later, in May, the other two were set free, namely Vasile Iasinschi and General Chirnoagă.

16. At the same time when we were exonerated of any guilt, the Instructing Commission of the International Tribunal of Nuremberg also exculpated the organizations we represented: the Legionary Movement, the National Romanian Government, and the Romanian army. Those entities are not guilty of either "war crimes," or "genocide"; and they are not "fascist", or "nazi", or "collaborationist" either. It is well known that the work of instruction to a tribunal is secret and its acts and decisions are not made public. However, the acts of accusation and the sentences against other organizations of the International Tribunal of Nuremberg were published. Thus, alongside of the Fascist Party and the Nazi Party, alongside of the SA and of the SS, almost all nationalist movements of Europe were found guilty of "war crimes and crimes against humanity", of "fascism", "national socialism", and "collaborationism", including that of Leon Degrelle, the Croatian ustasha, the Hungarian Cross and Arrows, the Slovak Hlinka-Garda, and so on. It was only the Legionary Movement and the Bulgarian Strajniks (modelled after the Legionary Movement) of Professor Cantargiev that were exonerated from that type of sentencing.

As for the Jewish problem, the well-known Zionist Loewhenthal has made the same assertion that I made in my memorandum about the Iron Guard, at Eichmann's trial in 1961: "The anti-Semitism of the Iron Guard was not a racial attitude, as it was with the nazis, but it was from envy (!) of the economic status of the Jewish population of Romania."

Mihai Fotin Enescu

                    

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INAPOI LA PAGINA ROMÂNIEI NATIONALISTE