Thread by @GHarward

#OTD in 1942 Vice Prime Minister Mihai Antonescu announced a temporary halt to deportations of Jews, and Roma (Gypsies), from Romania. A crucial change in policy. A 🧵 below. 1/
#Romania #Jews #Roma #Holocaust #Transnistria #Auschwitz #Stalingrad

After mass deportations of Jews from Bessarabia & Bukovina to Transnistria in summer/fall 1941, the Antonescu regime had only deported individual Jews as a punishment, mostly for avoiding forced labor. In 1942, 306 Jewish men, plus 249 family members, had been so punished. 2/

The head of the Jewish Central Office Radu Lecca had been negotiating with SS representative Gustav Richter to deport remaining Jews from Romania to Nazi-occupied Poland. The fizzling talks now ended. (A courtroom sketch of the Romanian official postwar.) 3/

Moreover, the Romanian Gendarmerie - urged on by its chief General Constantin Z. "Piki" Vasiliu - had deported 11,474 nomadic and 13,245 "criminal" sedentary Roma in two waves starting on 1 Jun 1942. Rumors of a third wave targeting even more Roma abounded. 4/

A few liberal elites in Romania, such as Constantin I. C. Brătianu (leader of the outlawed Liberal Party) began to protest further deportations of Roma. Roma leaders wrote petitions and convinced sympathetic allies in local government to write petitions on their behalf too. 5/

International pressure from the papal nunico, Swiss Embassy, and US (passed along by the neutral Swiss because the two nations were at war) against the Antonescu regime's continued persecution of Jews in Romania had increased. 6/

King Mihai I and Queen Mother Helen expressed private disapproval of deportations of more Jews to Transnistria and of plans to sent them to Nazi-occupied Poland. 7/

Finally, perhaps most importantly, the situation at the front caused the Antonescu regime to reconsider its plans and halt all deportations of Jews or Roma. Despite impressive advances, Axis forces hadn't taken huge numbers of POWs and were halted at Stalingrad. 8/

The Antonescu regime worried about the economic impact the removal of all Jews would have as they made up a large portion of the middle class despite efforts at "Romanianization." Plus extorting Jews for exemptions from forced labor was profitable for Lecca and others. 9/

The halt order was only temporary, however. If Stalingrad fell or the USSR collapsed, the vice prime minister and the conducător Marshal Ion Antonescu could resume negotiations to deport Jews from Romania to Auschwitz. 10/