Top 100 Generals

I’m profoundly grateful for the responses by both Romano-Dacis and Carpathian Wolf, along with Deadkenny’s contribution and DSMyers1 admonition to my mildly provocative post. Had you all not reacted the way you did, I’d have been forced into the silence of embarrassment. Instead you’ve all graphically illustrated the point I’m about to make.

At no point was my intention either to go off topic, indulge in an anti fascist “Holocaust rant” [there are plenty of those already throughout the net], or decry Romania and Romanians in general. My intention was to demonstrate the quagmire of nationalist historiography that pollutes the history of the Balkan region.

One of you palmed off the issue by stating “it was the Croats; not us, you got it wrong!”, another “this is all anti-Romanian soviet propaganda, Jews were never persecuted in Romania!”, another “the Nazis took over and did it in Hungary so, by implication they must have done the same in Romania!”

All of you are correct from your own perspective; your education and research clearly brings you to the conclusions you draw. I have no reason to doubt either your honesty or integrity.

Allow me to quote from the following works published in America, “outsiders’ views” if you like.

“No country, with the exception of Germany, was involved in massacres of Jews on such a large scale. There were also instances when the Germans actually had to step in to restrain and slow down the pace of the Romanian measures. At such times the Romanians were moving too fast for the German bureaucracy.”

Raul Hilberg, “The Destruction of the European Jews.” New York: Holmes and Meier, 1985.

“The government, headed by Ion Gigurtu, introduced draconian anti-Jewish legislature, which was openly inspired by the Nazi Nuremberg Laws. Antonescu, who followed Gigurtu as leader of the nation, created the Legionare state in coalition with the Iron Guard. They expanded on the laws passed by Gigurtu.  During 1941 and 1942, thirty-two laws, thirty-one decree-laws, and seventeen government resolutions, all sharply anti-Semitic, were published in the Official Gazette (Monitorul Oficial). Among other things, these laws forbade Jews:

access to higher education, the right to hold pubic office, the possession of radios, and the right to practice legal or artistic professions. Many professional organizations excluded Jews from membership. They included: the Bucharest Bar, the Romanian Opera, the Society of Romanian Writers, and the General Assembly of Dentists”

Randolph Braham, “The Tragedy of Romanian Jewry.” New York: Colombia University Press, 1994.

“…and go to the camps established at Tirgu Jiu. It is estimated that more than one thousand Jews died on these trains, suffocating to death.”

“Ion Antonescu declared about the Jews in Bessarabia and Bukovina: I am in favour of expelling the Jews from Bessarabia and Bukovina on the other side of the border. There is nothing for them to do here and I don’t mind if we appear in history as barbarians. There has never been a more suitable time in our history to get rid of the Jews, and if necessary, you are to activate machine guns against them.”

“In Transnistria about 200 different labour and concentration camps were set up for Jews, throughout the 118 counties in the area. About a third of the Jews at these camps died of malnutrition, and the remaining ones were killed. Jews in these camps were killed without warning and in the most brutal matter. On October 16, 1942 for example, one hundred and fifty young women were told that they would travel to go work in German hospitals. They were brought to the forest, where they were raped and killed. Similar actions followed. The Antonescu regime, together with German troops, continued to torture Jews in Transnistria until August of 1944, even after the Soviet attack. Many others died in the effort to move Jews to regions further west, such as Bessarabia, Bukovina, and even Tirgu Jiu.

Avigdor Shachan, “Burning Ice.” New York: Colombia University Press, 1996.

These are internationally accepted accounts of events that happened [or not, depending on your perspective] in Romania less than 100 years ago. Now take into account several centuries of ethnic hatreds and violence, between Croat and Serb and Bosnian, and Wallachan and Hungarian and Bulgarian and Pole and German and Turk and Moldavian, and so on, each with their own take on events and their own agendas.

Was Stefan a great general or was he a minor average opportunistic guerrilla leader? I doubt we’ll ever get a clear picture. Certainly not based on Romanian sources alone.

Thank you for the grammar lesson.  

"At no point was my intention either to go off topic, indulge in an anti fascist 'Holocaust rant' [there are plenty of those already throughout the net], or decry Romania and Romanians in general. My intention was to demonstrate the quagmire of nationalist historiography that pollutes the history of the Balkan region."

 Is that better? Shall we get back on topic now?  

Mihai was assassinated, not beaten in battle.