Holocaust in Romania - Corvinus Library - Hungarian History

panic on its victims), the racist laws of the Iron Guard system followed inquick succession in an endless flow of suffering. The racist legislation of theIron Guard was not constructed on any basic tenets of law or justice; itlacked morality and logic and even its guiding ideology—be it nationalistor ultra-nationalist—was simply the shameful weapon employed by thestate and its leaders to rob unprotected victims, just as lowly bandits usedclubs and pistols.The justification for these laws, which served as models for many clerks forfour years, will remain as monuments to judicial stupidity, themisrepresentation of the truth and the cynical mockery of morality andbenevolence.The Iron Guard did not maintain the dizzying speed at which itintroduced racist legislation, and neither did such legislation encompass allsectors at first under threat. The reasons for this lie neither in thebenevolent hesitation of the Iron Guard leadership nor in any peculiarresistance by state governors. The Iron Guard’s passion for fighting andlooting did not let up for a moment, between September 6, 1940 andJanuary 21,1941. In part, however, they achieved weak results throughtheir recourse to the law since the spoils had to be shared with the state,which received the lion’s share. Furthermore, terror used parallel withlegislation proved much more effective because it excluded competitionfrom the state, thus securing for individuals themselves all that they hadyearned for, or items to which they had laid personal claims. This can serveto explain the suspension of Iron Guard racist legislative activity in themiddle of November, by which stage the terror had started to blossom andit was becoming increasingly clear why the Iron Guards were notexpropriating Jewish real estate in towns or that belonging to commercialand industrial firms.The shameful Iron Guard legislature started to work on October 3, 1940by issuing a legally enforceable decree. /... /Bills providing for serious, organized and meticulous robbery were passedtwo days later. On the holiday of October 6, which the Iron Guardsorganized for themselves to celebrate their first month in control of thecountry, General Antonescu honored the “guys” with many gifts.60