The start of World War II brought the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Transylvania's transfer to Hungary, as well as Romania's fascist alliance with the Axis Powers. Stamatiad was grieved and confused by the situation: he organized the Anglophile intellectual circle at Nestor Coffeehouse, but also preached support for Nazi Germany; the Germans, Stamatiad claimed, were to give Romania back "all the territories she lost". As noted by sociologist Nicolae Petrescu, who was in the audience, Stamatiad was "as always, incapable of putting things in perspective"; "nobody even took his statements seriously." In 1941, Ion Antonescu's regime clamped down on the Nestor circle; Stamatiad's colleague Șerban Cioculescu, who was also a member of the National Peasants' Party, narrowly escaped deportation for his involvement in such activities.