page_title: Legionnaires' rebellion and Bucharest pogrom
section_title: The quelling of the rebellion
hierarchical_section_title: Legionnaires' rebellion and Bucharest pogrom / The quelling of the rebellion
caption_attribution_description: English: Romanian fascists, members of the Romanian Iron Guard, arrested by the Army after the Bucharest Pogrom and anti-government rebellion.
context_page_description: The Legionnaires' rebellion and the Bucharest pogrom occurred in Bucharest, Romania, between 21–23 January 1941. As the privileges of the Iron Guard paramilitary organization were being cut off gradually by the Conducător Ion Antonescu, its members, also known as the Legionnaires, revolted. During the rebellion and pogrom the Iron Guard killed 125 Jews, and 30 soldiers died in the confrontation with the rebels. Following this, the Iron Guard movement was banned and 9,000 of its members were imprisoned.
context_section_description: During the days of the rebellion, Antonescu avoided direct confrontation with the Legionnaires but brought military units, including 100 tanks, into Bucharest from other cities. As the chaos spread—worrying even Hitler, who was interested in Romania as an ally—the horrific picture of the pogrom became clear. As stories spread, the military's fury against the Legionnaires grew (the Legionnaires had assaulted captured soldiers, stripped them of their uniforms, and even burned several of them). When Antonescu thought the moment was most appropriate, he gave the order to crush the rebellion. The military, led by Gen. Ilie Șteflea, quelled the rebellion in a matter of hours with little difficulty. The Legionnaires could not defend against the military's superior firepower. As soldiers stormed their strongholds, the Legionnaires fled. During the skirmishes 30 soldiers were killed and 100 were wounded. The number of legionnaires killed during the rebellion was approximately 200, although in later years Horia Sima would claim there had been
  800 legionnaire casualties. After the rebellion was suppressed Antonescu addressed the public on the radio, telling them "the truth", but never mentioning the pogrom. He asked the German garrison, which had sat idly by throughout the rebellion, to show their support. German troops were sent marching through the streets of Bucharest, ending in front of the Prime Minister's building, where they cheered Antonescu.
  After the Legionnaires' fall the trend reversed, and those who had joined them fled. The press stopped supporting the Legionnaires, but remained antisemitic and nationalistic. Some of the Legionnaires' leaders, including Horia Sima, fled to Germany. Around 9,000 members of the Legionnaires' movement were sentenced to prison. The Legionnaires who led the antisemitic movement in Romania had fallen and never regained power. However, the movement continued even without them, although it was set back for a while, as the atrocities of the Bucharest pogrom gradually became known to the Romanian public. A few months later those atrocities paled in severity compared to those of the Iaşi pogrom, initiated at the orders of Antonescu. One leader of the pogrom, Valerian Trifa, became a cleric and emigrated to the US, where he became a citizen, but he was stripped of his citizenship in 1982 and left the US rather than be deported.
caption: Romanian members of the Iron Guard, arrested by the Army after the Bucharest pogrom and anti-government rebellion.
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