Language:
English
Year of publication:
2005
Titel der Quelle:
Holocaust and Genocide Studies
Angaben zur Quelle:
19,2 (2005) 252-275
Keywords:
Hitler, Adolf,
;
Antonescu, Ion,
;
Jews History 1939-1945
;
Jews
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
Abstract:
Examining the question of how Antonescu's regime in Romania "jumped from regular antisemitism" to a plan to exterminate the Jews, contends that this was a result of Antonescu's admiration for Hitler and his regime, as well as contacts between the two. In January 1941 Hitler revealed to Antonescu his plan to invade the USSR, and conveyed to him in June 1941 his "Guidelines for the Treatment of the Eastern Jews". Well before the Wannsee Conference, Antonescu launched Romania's Final Solution in response to Hitler's cue: he created a unit similar in purpose to Einsatzgruppe D, issued the order for "cleansing of the land" to the gendarmerie, and ordered the army to identify all Jews. Romania was the only one of Germany's partners that employed its own army in the murder of Jews instead of handing them over to the Germans. Antonescu abandoned his Final Solution not for humanitarian reasons, but as a consequence of growing Romanian-German tensions, apprehension of increasing German influence in Romania, and German military setbacks. What we know of the Antonescu-Hitler connection argues against the functionalist interpretation of the Final Solution.
URL:
Locate this publication in Israeli libraries