Romania in World War II, 1939-1945

Focusing on the case of a small state engulfed in the worldwide war, this book is a critical analysis from a global comparative perspective of Romania's major developments between 1939-1945. The book explains significant events as recorded in documents and in cross-examination and reenacts the way of thinking, actions, reactions, and motivations of the decision-makers and of the political opposition of the time, as events unfolded beyond their capacity to control them. The author puts events within a historical, geopolitical, perspective, both global and local.

This volume discusses the major components, especially political and military, of Romania's history from 1939 to 1945. Topics include neutrality; the 1940 territorial losses; the Legionary national state; Marshal Ion Antonescu's authoritarian regime from January 23 1941 to August 23, 1944; the alliance with the Third Reich; the Romanian army on the east and west fronts; the Jews of Romania (1940-1944); soundings for getting off the Axis; August 1944; the drastic reduction, disarming and purging of the Romanian army in the interior, on the ultimative orders of the Soviet Command and the Soviet Allied Control Commission; and a few conclusions on Romania's participation in World War II.

Dinu C. Giurescu
Hardcover 518 pages 2000