Holocaust in Romania - Corvinus Library - Hungarian History

complaints prove justified, it is their sole responsibility to take immediateaction to ensure that my promises to the citizens, and the Iron Guard’spromises to me are not simply empty words. Should such cases occur in thefuture, I will not endlessly tolerate irregularities which turn the countryupside-down. I am daily assured by the Minister of the Interior thateverything is quiet, and nothing is happening. I am not defending theJews, who are in great part to blame for the unfortunate events which havestruck the country, however, as head of government, I cannot tolerateactivities which compromise the consolidation I have introduced. For thisI need calm and order. Some people’s flippant activities are a dailyhindrance to me. These people fail to understand how much damage theycause, both to the country and the Iron Guard movement. Lastly, I wouldlike to ask for everybody’s co-operation in exerting an influence on theIron Guard—some through their positions of respect within themovement, and others through the weight of their position within thestate apparatus (the Ministry of the Interior)—so that they will renouncemethods which yield nothing and compromise everything. I would likeGeneral Petrovicescu to inform me in writing that he has taken note of thisdirective, and indicate the steps he has taken towards its immediateimplementation."This di rec tive did not bring a change for the better. The opposite was true!One thread of the frayed rope link ing the gen eral to the Iron Guard Move -ment was torn. The Jewish lead ers carried on with their cam paign un til thevery last moment, thus con trib ut ing to the gen eral’s de ci sion to scrap thein sti tu tion of Of fi cers of Romanianization , and to ex pel some of the lead -ers be hind the reign of ter ror from top po si tions in pub lic of fices: the Min -is ter of the In te rior, the Gen eral Director of In ter nal Security and theChief of Po lice of Bu cha rest. This move was the signal for the so-called“up ris ing”, which brought mourn ing, wail ing and de struc tion to Jews,while clos ing a hellish chapter in Jewish suffering.Be lief and con jec ture claim ing that between Sep tem ber 6, 1940 and Au -gust 23, 1944 Gen eral Antonescu was con cerned with the in creas ingly des -perate plight of Ro ma nian Jews, that he wanted to take care of them, thathe ex pressed feel ings of good-will to wards them, and that he worried aboutthem, are false or even criminal.73