Soon afterwards, the Guard fell from power, and Bassarab was arrested on orders from "Conducător" Ion Antonescu. When Romania entered World War II in June 1941 as part of Operation Barbarossa, Bassarab was placed into a frontline unit with a high risk of casualties, participating in the recovery of Bessarabia. He vanished outside Țiganca. Legends began circulating that he had been killed while demining a field with his bare hands. Another account has it that he had been taken prisoner by the Red Army, detained at Chișinău, and finally slashed with a bayonet when he protested against the torturing of a Romanian officer. The most likely version is that he was captured and shot at Țiganca.