The Day Bucharest Burned: Romania's 1941 Pogrom

On January 21, 1941, a rebellion by the Iron Guard turned Bucharest's streets into a battlefield. For three days, the Legionary Movement, allied with the Romanian Army under Ion Antonescu, fought a civil war within a war. But before the Guard was crushed, they targeted Bucharest's Jewish population in a brutal pogrom. Over 120 Jews were killed, synagogues were desecrated, and the city's Jewish quarter was ransacked. This episode examines the Legionary Rebellion, the rise of the Iron Guard under Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, the violent ideology of 'Legionary Romania', and the aftermath that saw Antonescu consolidate power. We discuss the role of the Guard's leader Horia Sima, the mysterious murder of Codreanu, and how the pogrom foreshadowed the Holocaust in Romania. It's a dark chapter that reveals the depth of fascism in pre-war Romania and its bloody consequences.

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