Gherman Pântea Gherman V . Pântea ( ; surname also spelled Pîntea ; , " German Vasilievich Pyntya " ; , " Herman Vasilyovich Pyntya " or " Pintia " ; May 13 , 1894 – February 1 , 1968 ) was a Bessarabia n - born soldier , civil servant and political figure , active in the Russian Empire and Romania . As an officer of the Imperial Russian Army during most of World War I , he helped organize the committees of Bessarabian soldiers , oscillating between loyalty to the Russian Provisional Government and the cause of Bessarabian emancipation . Pântea was subsequently Military Director of the Moldavian Democratic Republic , answering to President Ion Inculeţ . He personally created a Bessarabian defense force , tasked with combating Bolshevik subversion and Russian intimidation , but also braced for defeat after the October Revolution . With some hesitance , Gherman Pântea endorsed the Republic ' s union with Romania , and affiliated with Romania ' s National Liberal Party . Having parallel careers as teacher , lawyer and journalist , Pântea remained a presence in Romanian political life , as member of Parliament , negotiator of détente with the Soviet Union , and three times Mayor of Chişinău . He was however mistrusted for his defense of arrested Bolsheviks , his critique of centralized government , and his alleged corruption . During World War II , Pântea was Mayor of Odessa under a Romanian occupation . He intervened to save Jews from the 1941 Massacre and the subsequent deportations to camps in Transnistria . He had a tumultuous relationship with Ion Antonescu , the Romanian dictator , and was kept in check by the occupation authority . His administration managed to set in motion a plan for Odessa , and helped the city overcome devastation through the adoption of free trade , but also created various controversies . Pântea was long suspected of war crimes , and spent much of his post - war life as a fugitive . He was eventually apprehended , and became a political prisoner of the . In 1956 , he managed to have the war crimes verdict overturned but , albeit rehabilitated in part , continued to be harassed by the communist apparatus until the 1960s . Biography . Early years and World War I service . Much of Gherman Pântea ' s life remain mysterious , inaccessible to researchers , and , according to historian Ion Constantin , " a permanent crossover of myth and reality . " Of ethnic Romanian and lower - middle - class origins , Gherman Pântea was born on May 13 , 1894 , in the northern Bessarabian village of Zăicani ; he was one of several children born to lawyer Vasile Pântea and his wife Ioana . They were of the Eastern Orthodox religion , and Gherman was a practicing Romanian Orthodox until late in life . The boy had trouble adapting himself to the requirements of living in what was then Russia ' s Bessarabia Governorate : although he was studious and completed primary school with honors , he had difficulty learning the official Russian language . He finished secondary school in Glodeni , before leaving for Akkerman , where he attended Russian normal school and witnessed the start of World War I . He frequently sailed to Odessa , the Black Sea port which was to fascinate him for the rest of his life . In June 1915 , shortly after completing his studies , Pântea was drafted into the Imperial Russian Army , and relocated to Kiev , where he attended a Junker School . He was again in Odessa , where Bessarabian - born officer Emanoil Catelli was giving standard Romanian language classes to Russian officers , and became close friends with his new teacher . ( Some sources represent Pântea as a graduate of Odessa University . ) Upon graduation from the Junker School , the young " Podporuchik " was dispatched to the Romanian front , to function as a translator between the Russian Ninth Army and their colleagues in the Romanian Land Forces . He also fought with valor during battles against the German Army , and twice received the Order of St . George . Russia ' s February Revolution caught Pântea entrenched with his men somewhere near the town of Roman . The news , he later wrote , was a wake - up call for the Bessarabian Romanians in foreign lands , since it offered the prospect of self - determination at home . As the Provisional Government took hold of military matters , Pântea became President of the Ninth Army ' s Soviet , and also helped organize the Bessarabian soldiers into a single political body . Similar actions were being taken by other nationally - minded Bessarabian officers . Some — Catelli , Anton Crihan , Constantin Osoianu , Ion Păscăluţă , Andrei Scobioală — were active on Bessarabia ' s borders , while others addressed Bessarabian units in places such as Novorossiya ( Elefterie Sinicliu ) or Crimea ( Grigore Turcuman ) . Here was the nucleus for a single military and political unit of the Bessarabian , or " Moldavian " , national movement , which sought to gain control of Chişinău ( the informal Bessarabian capital ) . At the time , tensions were sparked between " Podporuchik " Pântea ' s Roman organization and the inner - Bessarabian faction which demanded a social revolution , namely the Chişinău Soviet of Workers and Soldiers ; he also had to struggle with Bessarabian apathy , communist gains , and territorial claims stated by the neighboring Ukrainian People ' s Republic . Through Pântea and Scobioală , the Roman group communicated directly with a civilian network formed by the Bessarabian expatriates of Iaşi , who endorsed the effort to consolidate political unity . On behalf of the Roman leadership , Pântea made a journey to Odessa , where he contacted the eastern committee formed by Catelli and the others ( May 1917 ) . At the time , Odessa Bessarabians were forming their " Moldavian Cohorts " , armed units which were supposed to challenge the Chişinău Soviet . Moldavian Central Committee . Eventually , in June 1917 , Gherman Pântea and two other Ninth Army soldiers — Petre Vărzaru , Ion Mitrean — were mandated by their colleagues to leave for Chişinău and organize the national movement locally . The youngest of all activists involved in the project , Pântea was elected head of the resulting Moldavian Central Committee of the Soldiers and Officers ' Union . Pântea , Vărzaru and Mitrean benefited from some Russian support , after Commander Alexander Shcherbachov gave them a free pass and an indefinite leave from the Romanian front . However , their Central Committee met a new rival in the parallel Military Revolutionary Committee , formed by revolutionary Russians loyal to the Chişinău Soviet . This authority gave formal backing to its Moldavian equivalent , supporting its struggle for self - determination and even discussing a merger , but discreetly tried to combat Bessarabian Romanian influence in all other fields . A truce was agreed upon between Pântea and the Russian Committee representative Levenzon , which even allowed both organisms to share office space in the same building . During September , after clashes with some of the radicalized peasants hampered propaganda efforts in the countryside , and Ukrainian or Russian pressures increased , the Moldavian Committee began issuing its own political newspaper . Known as " Soldatul Moldovan " ( " The Moldavian Soldier " ) , it had poet Gheorghe ( Iorgu ) Tudor as manager and Pântea as one of three editors . Pântea carried from Iaşi a large bag of propaganda literature , in Cyrillic letters — Vasile Harea of " Cuvânt Moldovenesc " paper , who witnessed the event , described Pântea as " a rather affected young man , with a nervous gaze , ambitious and conceiving of all sorts of schemes " . At around the same time , the Moldavian Central Committee took steps to create a Bessarabian national force within Russia ' s Army , with Vasile Cijevschi as Commander . The request was presented to the " Stavka " ( supreme command of the Russian forces ) in Mogilev . It provided an ambiguous response , and Pântea led a delegation to request further clarification . On their way through Kiev , the Bessarabian envoys chanced upon Romania ' s own delegates to Russia : Dinu Brătianu and Constantin Iancovescu . The two missions shared a train carriage , and the time they shared prompted " Stavka " staff to suspect a conspiracy . The Bessarabians tried to mend the situation , and Pântea had interviews with Commander Nikolay Dukhonin and Russian Premier Alexander Kerensky . Pântea later wrote that Kerensky was the most welcoming , allowing the gradual creation of a single Bessarabian army ( and even promising to transfer the Odessa 40th Regiment its jurisdiction ) , but forbidding any unilateral Bessarabian decision on this matter . Before and after the October Revolution overturned the Provisional Government and brought the Bolshevik ( communist ) movement to power in Russia , Gherman Pântea played a game of intricate diplomacy . According to Ion Constantin , he was good at seizing political opportunities " in those murky , troubled times , subject to fast and radical changes to the map of East - Central Europe " . By early October 1917 , Pântea was realizing that Kerensky and the Provisional Government could lose the battle . In a bid to discover the other side ' s intentions regarding Bessarabia , he traveled to Petrograd and met Bolshevik ideologue Vladimir Lenin . As Pântea later stated , Lenin declared himself for revolutionary self - determination in the national issue — some researchers regard this claim as an urban legend , with which Bessarabian intellectuals tried to convince communists that Lenin himself validated their national aspirations . " Sfatul Ţării " and Moldavian Directorate . Meanwhile , Pântea ' s Committee organized a Moldavian Soldiers ' Congress , which was to form the basis for a Bessarabian legislature , called " Sfatul Ţării " . A dispute endures surrounding the initiative behind this Congress , since both Pântea and Ştefan Holban claimed to have had the idea first . In order to ensure attendance , Pântea ( or Holban ) appealed to a ruse , circulating a telegram which misleadingly suggested that the Russian Provisional Government was backing the Congress . Within days , Pântea was designated Vice President of the Bessarabian soldiers ' assembly ; Cijevschi was its President . Their act of insubordination enraged Kerensky : just before Lenin ousted him from power , the Russian Prime Minister issued a warrant for Pântea ' s arrest ; by then , however , the Bessarabian Congress had been recognized by third - parties , from the Menshevik s to the Bundistn . In the confusion that followed Lenin ' s seizure of power , Pântea still recognized the Russian Constituent Assembly , and presented his candidature in the Russian parliamentary election . He was included on a Bessarabian Peasants ' Party list headed by Ion Inculeţ and Pantelimon Erhan . The election itself was a chaotic affair , and votes were never officially counted anywhere in Bessarabia . Once " Sfatul Ţării " came into existence , Pântea was involved in more political maneuvering , helping his colleagues to topple Ion Pelivan , the designated first President of the Assembly . In doing so , Pântea gave approval to the demands of non - Romanian or pro - Russian delegates , who were scandalized by Pelivan ' s vocal Romanian nationalism . Like Crihan and Ion Buzdugan , and eventually Pelivan himself , he transferred his support to Inculeţ , who was widely perceived as a moderate , a loyalist , and a product of the February Revolution . Pântea too was designated a " Sfatul Ţării " member , representing both the Soldiers ' Congress and a Bălţi Country constituency . His first address , in Russian , spoke about the opportunity for reform , and promised that , under " Sfatul Ţării " , Bessarabia would bloom into " a rose " . Pântea was then an active as legislator , serving on the " Sfatul Ţării " Commission for Schooling and the Commission for Liquidation . Additionally , he was a delegate to the Congress of Schoolteachers , wherein he recommended teaching Romanian to all Bessarabian schoolchildren . From 1918 to 1925 , he edited the Russian - language regional daily " Golos " . When Bessarabian deputies created the autonomous Moldavian Democratic Republic , Pântea was integrated on the governing Moldavian Directorate : he had in his care the General Directorate for War and Navy , initially as " Locum " for Teodor Cojocaru , and then as " de facto " Director . His main task was the creation of a " Moldavian " armed force , which integrated the previous Cohorts , guarded over the unruly withdrawal of Russian forces , and established friendly contacts with the French Army . The Director witnessed with growing alarm as some components of his new army were coming under Bolshevik influence . Such was the case of Chişinău Garrison , which was being maneuvered by Ilie Cătărău , a mysterious adventurer and political radical . After Cătărău openly questioned " Sfatul Ţării " authority over his troops , Pântea took a singular measure : together with a rogue unit of Amur Cossacks , he surprised Cătărău on New Year ' s Eve , arresting and deporting him into the Ukraine . Between the two distinct phases of this incident , the Republic ' s army was sworn in during a ceremony attended by Moldavian President Inculeţ . Union with Romania . Bolshevik agitation , endorsed from a distance by Lenin ' s Russian Soviet Republic , peaked over the early days of 1918 . The withdrawing Russians were sacking the region , and Bolshevik factions such as " Front - Ordel " stood to gain the upper hand in Chişinău , Cotiujeni and the Budjak . Pântea instituted a state of emergency , and attempted to introduce more severe sanctions for insubordination . The Bolshevik groups resorted to intimidating acts in the capital , kidnapping some of the " Sfatul Ţării " deputies and attacking the Romanian - organized Volunteer Corps in Russia . In his addresses to " Sfatul " , Pântea began identifying the Republic ' s enemy as exclusively " non - Moldavian " , but noted that the Bessarabian army behaved " like a flock of rams " , with no leadership and morale . On January 9 , 1918 , the Director was himself a victim of a Bolshevik maneuver , being apprehended by " Front - Ordel " men and only released , together with soldiers of the Volunteer Corps , when the Bessarabian army intervened in force . Facing the threats of Russian Civil War expansion into the Republic and communization in his own ranks , Pântea became a major contributor to the accelerated political process of union with Romania . In January 1918 , he welcomed the Romanian Land Forces and General Ernest Broşteanu , who had a mandate to reinstate order , and who arrived in Chişinău alongside the French military envoy Henri Mathias Berthelot . There followed a common offensive against the Bolshevik insurgents , part of the larger Western intervention in the Civil War . In the end , the Bolsheviks retreated to Tighina , and the Russian Soviet government broke diplomatic contacts with Romania ( " see Odessa Soviet Republic " ) . Later that month , the Moldavian Republic proclaimed itself an independent state , with Daniel Ciugureanu as the new head of government . The administration was reorganized , and Pântea lost his position to Colonel Constantin Brăescu , the Minister of War . President Inculeţ compensated for the loss of prestige , raising Gherman Pântea to the rank of Major and making him Knight of the Moldavian Order of St . Vladimir . By then , Romanian intervention posed a fundamental dilemma , since the political class became undecided about whether to cement Bessarabian statehood or look forward to a union . Inconclusiveness touched the Bessarabian army . Its new uniforms , on the Romanian model , led Bessarabians to assume that it was a branch of the Romanian Land Forces ; the monogram " R . M . " , for " Republica Moldovenească " ( " Moldavian Republic " ) , was commonly misread as standing for " Greater Romania " ( " România Mare " ) . Pântea himself appeared undecided about the situation , and , in a letter to pro - Russian officer Anatol Popa ( later sentenced to death by the Romanian military ) , argued : " I promise you that I ' ll be defending republican Bessarabia next to Russia , even if it costs me my life [ . . . ] . I gave the order for all the Moldavian army to take action ; when it turned out that the Romanians were arriving with too great a force , I changed that order . The Romanians hold on tight [ . . . ] . I fear greatly that the Romanians are here to steal away our Bessarabia . " This correspondence remains a problematic aspect of Pântea ' career . While some take it to imply double dealing or at least an ideological ambiguity , Ion Constantin suggests that it may have been in fact a ruse . At the time , Romanian authorities were less convinced of Pântea ' s loyalty . They suspected him of playing the Romanians and the Russians against each other , and subjected him to a formal inquiry . Years later , Pântea referred to Broşteanu ' s intervention as misguided and sanguinary , because it carried out summary executions of suspected rebels , encouraged denunciations , and stained the unionists ' international reputation . The union was effected on March 27 , 1918 , when a " Sfatul Ţării " majority voted in favor . The 86 yea votes , which carried the day , included Pântea ' s . He also voted in favor of a Romanian - wide land reform , an additional condition to the union . Contrary to later Bolshevik allegations , he and the other pro - union voters did not receive land property in exchange for their loyalty . Lawyer , journalist and PNL politician . Over the following period , Pântea campaigned internally for further recognition of the assembly ' s decision , approaching the reluctant communities of Black Sea Germans . In March 1919 , he was at Tarutino , where a mass of Germans was persuaded into voting for the " Sfatul Ţării " union resolution . He subsequently accompanied a deputation of Black Sea Germans to Bucharest , capital of Greater Romania , and , with them , was received by King Ferdinand I . His rank in the Bessarabian army was recognized by the Romanian military reserve force , which integrated him as Major . Pântea was in Romania for a while , taking his license degree from the University of Iaşi Faculty of Law ( September 1919 ) . Later investigation into his career resulted in allegations that Pântea never did attend class , and that his diploma was abusively released by Rector A . C . Cuza ( answering the special request of Romanian Premier Ion I . C . Brătianu ) . Whether or not this is true , Pântea is known to have been enlisted with the Bessarabian bar association as of 1919 . Late in the year , he began publishing another Russian - language daily , " Bessarabia " , which went under in short while and was revived by Vasile Bârcă in 1923 . This venture drew suspicions from the Romanian authorities , who organized a search of the premises and , reputedly , uncovered samples of communist propaganda . Loyal to Inculeţ , Gherman Pântea followed the former Moldavian President into Romania ' s National Liberal Party ( PNL ) , and became deputy leader of the group ' s Bessarabian section . This affiliation got him elected into the Romanian Assembly of Deputies ( lower chamber of Parliament ) , the first of ten consecutive terms . Pântea was nevertheless considered suspect by the Romanian establishment , who believed him a man of left - wing sympathies and a promoter of communist literature . He was attorney for the group of Bessarabian communists , led by Pavel Tcacenco , who had agitated against the Romanian state . The " pro bono " activity was largely successful : Tcancenco and other three men were found guilt of sedition , and sentenced to death " in absentia " ; 65 detainees were acquitted ; 39 others were set free after trial de novo . This implied placing himself against the PNL government , particularly since Pântea reported to the world on the alleged the abuse of power by Romanian administrators in Bessarabia . His intervention in Parliament prompted the Interior Ministry ( headed by Nicolae L . Lupu ) to sack the leadership of " Siguranţa " police in Chişinău . In 1922 , from Tighina , Gherman Pântea began issuing another Russian daily . Titled " Yuzhnaya Bessarabia " or " Iujnaia Besarabia " ( " Southern Bessarabia " ) , it survived until April 1923 . He first had a stint as Mayor of Chişinău , beginning and ending in 1923 , when he outlined plans to improve education and the urban landscape of peripheral quarters . In October 1923 , he was elected one of four Vice Presidents of the Assembly of Deputies , the first of two such assignments he would receive in his career . Diplomatic missions and Georgist dissidence . In summer 1923 , mandated by Foreign Affairs Minister Ion G . Duca of the PNL , he played a part in negotiations to restore contacts with the Russian government . He was in Paris , meeting with the Romanian communist Christian Rakovsky , who was the Soviet Ambassador to France . They discussed the litigious issue of Bessarabia , which the Bolsheviks still refused to recognize as part of Romania : Pântea was supposed to convince them that the union had been a legitimate affair , and , according to Pântea , Rakovsky showed himself unusually receptive . With a delegation which included Constantin Langa - Răşcanu , Mircea Djuvara , Petru Cazacu and Anton Crihan , Pântea represented Romania in bilateral talks with a delegation from the Soviet Union , headed by diplomat Nikolay Krestinsky . These negotiations took place in Vienna during late March 1924 . In conversation with Krestinsky , Pântea even transmitted the government ' s offer to renounce claims to the Romanian Treasure in Russia , in exchange for the Soviet recognition of the 1918 union . Contacts broke down when the Soviets presented their proposal : a plebiscite in the disputed region or , alternatively , Romania ' s cession of the Budjak . Pântea believed that their uncompromising stance showed the swift radicalization of Soviet foreign policy under new Bolshevik leader Joseph Stalin , who was Rakovsky ' s enemy . The same year , Tcacenco returned to Romania , instigating the " Tatarbunary Uprising " . This rebellion was quashed by the Romanian authorities , and Pântea was again defense attorney for the Bessarabian communist cell . Pântea also received his second term as Vice President of the Assembly after the 1927 election . He still held the office in 1925 , when he took part in debates to extend the scope of Jewish emancipation . To the alarm of antisemitic groups such as the National - Christian Defense League , he assessed that all Bessarabian Jews had the right of naturalization . By then , the former Military Director was also a managerial director for Chişinău ' s chamber of commerce , and tried to obtain tax reductions for the Bessarabian artisans . Gherman Pântea returned as Mayor of Chişinău , in office from 1927 to 1928 . In 1930 , dissatisfied with the PNL and in dispute with Inculeţ , he became a member of the dissident National Liberal Party - Brătianu ( the " Georgists " ) . He was notoriously critical of the PNL ' s party line , alleging that Inculeţ had exploited Bessarabia for the Old Kingdom ' s benefit . Around the same time as Bessarabia marked its first full decade of Romanian rule , Pântea , Buzdugan , Crihan and Catelli were members of the Chişinău Union of Reserve Officers . A rough equivalent of the pre - union Assembly of the Nobility , this association stood out for demanding equal access to Romanian pensions for veterans of the Bessarabian army . Early 1930s . The Georgist party failed to register much success , and Pântea left it before the 1931 election ; he joined the " National Union " list of incumbent Prime Minister Nicolae Iorga , and was returned to the lower chamber . His third and final mandate as Mayor of Chişinău was in 1932 , when he began taking steps to erect a local statue of Ferdinand I . As the region suffered the consequences of the Great Depression , he helped Chişinău ' s poor , using public funds to buy back their pawned property items . As claimed by his political rivals ( including historian Ştefan Ciobanu ) , Pântea was corrupt and irresponsible in office , pocketing large sums of public money , and partying at Chişinău ' s expense on a visit to Italy ( where he was supposed to reward Pietro Badoglio ' s support of the Bessarabian union ) . An anonymous brochure called the mayor a " Rasputin " , alleging that he tole public furniture , while an antisemitic city councilor depicted him as " in cahoots " with the Bessarabian Jews . During those years , Pântea also became an active member of the Bucharest Bessarabian Circle of Nicolae Bosie - Codreanu , which monitored the evolution of Soviet attitudes on Romania . By then , there was a visible rapprochement between the Romania and the Soviet Union , effected by Romania ' s Foreign Minister Nicolae Titulescu and his PNL faction . The two governments had signed the London Convention for the Definition of Aggression and resumed diplomatic contacts . Renewing his attempts to obtain a definitive Romanian – Soviet agreement on Bessarabia , Pântea had informal talks with Mikhail Ostrovsky , the Soviet Envoy to Bucharest . Pântea preserved the image of a philo - Romanian Ostrovsky , who believed that Stalin would in time accept the union ; the initiative , however , came to nothing , as both Ostrovsky and Titulescu were sidelined by their respective governments . Pântea was also focusing on writing his memoirs of World War I and the union . Some of these texts were originally published by " Dreptatea " daily in 1931 , and were later collected into the book " Unirea Basarabiei . Rolul organizaţiilor militare moldoveneşti în actul unirii " ( " Bessarabia ' s Union . The Role of Moldavian Military Units in the Act of Union " ) . A second edition , published in 1932 , had a eulogistic foreword by Nicolae Iorga , the historian and political ally ; the book also received endorsements from Pântea ' s former colleagues ( Catilli , Cijevschi etc . ) . Around 1935 , Pântea ' s account was rejected by historian Emanoil Hagi - Moscu and " Epoca " newspaper , who discussed Pântea ' s statements of loyalty toward the Russian Republic , and even alleged that the Director had been responsible for the January 1918 attack on the Transylvanian volunteers . With his own version of events supported by Iorga , Pântea sued Hagi - Moscu for slander . Between 1934 and 1937 , when he resumed his activity a lawyer , Pântea sat on Chişinău City Hall ' s Board of Revision . He reconciled with the PNL , but the party resented his earlier disloyalty : also in 1937 , he left the PNL , never to return . In October 1937 , he was an honored guest at the festive anniversary of the Moldavian Soldiers ' Congress , in Chişinău . That year , he alo published the second volume of his memoirs : " Unirea Basarabiei . Două decenii de la autonomia Basarabiei " ( " Bessarabia ' s Union . Two Decades since the Bessarabian Autonomy " ) . Carol II ' s regime and the loss of Bessarabia . Pântea witnessed the rise of fascism in Romania , confirmed when the PNL lost the December 1937 election ; in those circumstances , King Carol II appointed the far right ' s Octavian Goga as Premier . The move alarmed the Soviets , and clashed with their popular front policy : according to Pântea , Ambassador Ostrovsky called on him to inform Romanians that Stalin and France ' s Léon Blum insisted that Goga should be deposed and Romania taken out of " the fascist camp " . Pântea maintained that , on it own , Ostrovsky ' s warning to Carol II resulted in the formation of a new Romanian cabinet , headed by Miron Cristea . The new regime was an authoritarian one , centered on Carol II , and confirmed by the 1938 Constitution of Romania . Parliament was practically dissolved , but , as a long - time member of the former Assembly , Gherman Pântea was assigned a permanent seat in the reorganized Romanian Senate . Following Carol ' s administrative restructuring , he was also named counsel at the superior court of Ţinutul Nistru . He was at odds with Grigore Cazacliu , the King ' s Resident ( Governor ) , accusing him of dishonest business practices . During the first years of World War II , Romania was caught between the hostile governments of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union ( " see Molotov – Ribbentrop Pact , Romania in World War II " ) . In that context , the Soviets communicated an ultimatum to Romania , and occupied Bessarabia ( June 1940 ) . Pântea and his family escaped to Bucharest , where the refugee politician continued his work with the Bessarabian Circle . Later that year , German pressures resulted in the loss of Northern Transylvania , which confirmed the break - up of Greater Romania . By then , the Bessarabian Circle represented a 120 , 000 - strong refugee community , having Inculeţ and Daniel Ciugureanu as Presidents , Bosie - Codreanu and Pântea as Vice Presidents . The major territorial losses resulted in Carol ' s fall from power , and inaugurated the National Legionary State , with Ion Antonescu as " Conducător " . Initially , this regime followed Nazi policy , and prevented the more obvious displays of Bessarabian unionism , leading Pântea to exclaim : " General Antonescu [ . . . ] cannot speak his mind on all subjects , so hopefully he would allow us to discuss and to shout out the issue of our justice " . In May , shortly after the Antonescu regime had restructured itself ( " see Legionary Rebellion " ) , Pântea entered a dispute with other members of the Bessarabian Circle , and resigned from the post of Vice President . Odessa Massacre . On June 22 , 1941 , a little more than a year into the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia , Romania partook in the surprise attack on Soviet territory as an Axis country . Gherman Pântea was mobilized and dispatched to the Fourth Army , where he was legal adviser to General Nicolae Ciupercă . The latter asked him to review a list of 100 Bessarabian " undesirables " , singled out for their left - wing opinions and facing summary execution — Ciupercă wanted his secretary to ensure that no " good Romanians " had been included , but Pântea was able to obtain that the order itself be postponed . Among those rescued as a result of his objection were the communist activists Gheorghe Stere ( son of Bessarabian unionist Constantin Stere ) and Alexandru Mîţă . The extension of Romanian rule into a new eastern province , carved out under the name of " Transnistria " , brought Pântea to high office . As Pântea later noted , Antonescu considered him a suitable Transnistria Governor , but revised his stance when he discovered that Pântea still did not support his policies . Consequently , Pântea was assigned Mayorship of Odessa , taking hold of his seat only after the city ' s violent siege had been completed . In order to appease the Germans , Odessa was formally kept out of Transnistria , and the Odessa Mayor ' s office remained separated from those of other Romanian administrators . Among the latter , Transnistrian Governor Gheorghe Alexianu , Gendarmerie commander Constantin Vasiliu and Army General Nicolae Ghineraru regarded Pântea with particular disdain or mistrust . Instead of condoning the Romanian - and German - led mass murder of Ukrainian and Bessarabian Jews ( " see Holocaust in Romania " ) , Pântea is credited with having saved many of the potential victims — probably numbering in the thousands . On October 22 , 1941 , Pântea issued a proclamation in " Odesskaya Gazeta " , promising a return to normal , and announced freedom and equality between all Odessans . However , this statement was rendered ineffectual by events which occurred on the same day : an explosion on Marazlie Street took the life of General Ioan Glogojeanu and other Romanian officials . The Antonescu regime supposed a terrorist attack , ignoring all accounts according to which the retreating Red Army had mined the location . Reportedly , Pântea and his Transnistrian colleague Nichita Smochină were informed of the mining , and tried to warn their superiors not to enter the Marazile building . Antonescu ' s reaction was sanguinary , and a collective blame was placed on the Odessa Jews . The community was decimated during what became known as the " Odessa Massacre " . As a witness to this slaughter , Pântea noted that 450 Jewish people were hanged on the first day , others were randomly shot , and still others were rounded up , their fate to be determined by General Nicolae Macici . Pântea thereafter worked to persuade Macici that the killing quota imposed by Antonescu was excessive . On October 23 , he and Macici asked Governor Alexianu to turn back the column of Jews sent on a death march . They registered only partial success , as some of the deportees returned : according to Pântea , all but 2 , 000 survived the experience . However , researchers of the events record a much higher death toll . According to them , Romanian troops randomly murdered some 20 , 000 or 30 , 000 of those sent on convoys . The following week , the Mayor contacted socialite Alexandrina Cantacuzino and presented her with a report on the Massacre , which she was to hand over to Antonescu . In assigning blame for the killings , Pântea noted that he himself was not a defender of the Jews , but a man concerned with justice . His document highlighted the acts of " barbarity " and the " un - Romanian " behavior of various officials ; Antonescu threatened to have the author shot on the spot , but later ordered an investigation into some cases of abuse . Plan for Odessa . Pântea maintained Odessa a functional metropolis , with adequate food and electricity supplies , and as such , when compared to the rest of Transnistria , city life flourished under most of his mandate . He assigned engineer Lisenko , who had flooded the Odessa power station during the Soviet retreat , to build a new electrical substation ; once this began operating , he reopened the Odessa Opera and Ballet Theater , refurbished Odessa University ( while building a close relationship with the students ) , and cleared for use the city ' s tramway lines . Businesses also reopened , benefiting from free trade and voluntary taxation — the city treasury , Pântea claimed , collected some 170 million " Reichsmark " in revenue . According to historian Mark Mazower , the experiment was largely carried by corrupt practices , but also gave the Soviet - born Odessans a unique experience of capitalism . Liberal enterprise coexisted with the minute regulation of social life : in Russia , Pântea ' s resolutions on this subject are remembered as farcical and unwittingly humorous . One of them limited children ' s use of bicycles and roller skates , under the pain of court - martial for their parents . The cultural projects he promoted doubled as a propaganda effort : the new authorities staged shows which suggested that Odessa was , and would remain , part of a new Greater Romania . During 1943 , he renamed Avchinnikov Street after Octavian Goga , and turned a lodging once visited by Goga into a hotel for Romanian writers on vacation to " Romanian Odessa " . Some of the Russian locals played along , in a bit to ensure cultural survival . Among the latter was actor Vasily Vronsky ( Vasile Vronschi ) , who knew Pântea from Chişinău , and who received permission to establish the Russian - language Vronsky Theater ; granted Romanian citizenship , he gave speeches denouncing Soviet agitprop . During January 1942 , there was another planned exodus of Jews from Odessa . Pântea , whose official reports described the claim of " Jewish instigation " as a canard , was reportedly alarmed by the decision . Mostly in vain , he tried persuading Alexianu to reduce the number of Odessa Jews delivered to Berezivka concentration camp — the Mayor hoped to at least obtain the return of Jews who were artisans , teachers or Crimean Karaites . His own membership of the Eviction Bureau remains a contended issue : Pântea categorically denied it ( a negation that is backed by Ion Constantin , and reflected in various primary sources ) ; nevertheless , one archive document refers to him as one of ten supervisors of the 1942 deportation . He also took measures against squatting in formerly Jewish houses , but , historian and former Soviet partisan Yitzhak Arad argues , meant to " keep those apartments for the Romanian administration [ . . . ] and to sell a certain number of the apartments to turn a profit . " In time , Mayor Pântea found a middle ground between the various political factors , and selected his own administrative team from a mixture of Bessarabian and Soviet clerks . In addition to Vice Mayor Vidraşcu , it included old unionist combatants ( Vladimir Chiorescu , Elefterie Sinicliu ) and Odessan notabilities ( Dr . M . Zaevloshin , architect Vladimir Cundert ) . Reportedly , City Hall did not exercise political repression against known communists , who were merely required to register on a special list . The Romanian Mayor was also careful to preserve contacts with the two most powerful forces battling each other for control , namely the Germans and the Soviet partisans . His intervention saved the life of Yelena Rudenko , sister of Soviet General Fyodor Tolbukhin , who had fallen severely ill at the family home in Odessa . Alexianu was especially weary of the Mayor ' s web of connections . In December 1941 , he inquired Pântea about his alleged employment of political suspects , which Pântea categorically denied . In 1942 , government embarked on a complex , but erratic , investigation into the presence of former Komsomolists among Odessa ' s public sector employees . Allegations regarding Pântea ' s complicity in some acts of corruption prompted additional surveillance from Romanian Special Intelligence . Its subsequent reports accused the Mayor and some in his staff of keeping company with covert communists , and of trading on the black market of Chişinău . Later , sources adverse to Pântea claimed that he was the main beneficiary of trade in Moldovan wine and used good s , and that he had vested interest in aiding the Transnistrian Jews , who were his business partners . By late 1942 , Pântea again irritated the Romanian commandants , when he complained that General Vasiliu had requisitioned Odessa ' s trolleybus es and moved them to Craiova , in southern Romania . Pântea still tried to enforce his own plans for Odessa ' s development . In October 1943 , on the 2 - year anniversary of the occupation , he issued , by means of " Molva " gazette , a new address to the city ' s residents , in which he proudly listed his contributions . A few weeks later , he began employing laborers from the neighboring " Reichskommissariat Ukraine " for a new set of public works in Odessa . 1945 prosecution . During January 1944 , as the Eastern Front moved closer to Romania , Alexianu ' s bureaucracy was replaced with a defensive military structure , headed by General Gheorghe Potopeanu . Pântea considered his own position redundant , and asked to be recalled , but Antonescu ordered him to continue with his mandate . He was still at his post when Potopeanu relinquished his command to the Germans , and protested as Potopeanu handed over to the Nazis all property that Romania had confiscated from Soviet citizens . Enmity between the two Romanian administrators was on the rise . According to one account , Potopeanu still remembered that Pântea had tried to sell him a grossly overpriced used car . During March , Pântea was himself forced to relinquish City Hall property , assigning it to the Germans . After farewell ceremonies at the University and in the factories , he and his wife Lucia left to join the retreating Romanian troops . The Pânteas were in Bucharest during King Michael ' s Coup ( August 23 , 1944 ) , with which Romania effectively changed sides in the war by toppling Antonescu . Their house on Argentina Street was damaged in the subsequent Nazi air raid , and the family moved with politician Petre Ghiaţă , in Colentina . On August 24 , Gheorghe Potopeanu , who had emerged as Finance Minister , demanded Pântea ' s arrest as a potential turncoat ; and since the political transition found Pântea included on the transitional regime ' s list of enemies , it was also assumed that he was one of Antonescu ' s war criminals . The post - Antonescu government of Constantin Sănătescu proceeded to include him Pântea a revised list of war criminals , even though its Soviet partners still did not describe him as such . When the Red Army entered Bucharest in September , it arrested Potopeanu at his Ministry desk . Meanwhile , Pântea decided to obey the new legislation , and handed down to the state all items of property he had taken on as Mayor . By January 1945 , when the Sănătescu list was published , Pântea turned fugitive : for a while , he lived in Craiova , where his brother Constantin resided ; later , he was in Sibiu , living under the assumed name of " Lozont " ( or " Lozony " ) " Cernescu " . Like Antonescu and Potopeanu , Pântea faced trial in front of the newly created People ' s Tribunal . In the end , he was acquitted , since Yelena Rudenko and Tolbukhin informed the Romanian state about Pântea ' s honorable conduct , and since the Allied Commission recommended his release . Pântea was arrested on several other occasions , but , singularly among Romanians prosecuted for war crimes , he was acquitted each time . Although his rivals in the Transnistrian administration were by then destroying evidence of his more positive role in the affairs of state , Pântea preserved certified copies as a precautionary measure . Communist sentencing and rehabilitation . In 1947 , Ilie Cătărău vindicated his 1918 deportation on Pântea ' s orders , and began circulating serious allegations against his rival . Published in the Romanian press , these resulted in a national manhunt for Pântea . Fearing a political retribution , the latter made himself lost in Sibiu , where he lived with false papers until December 1949 . He was making short visits to Bucharest with forged identity papers and the alias " George Mincu " , and kept contacts with Anton Crihan , who was preparing for a defection to Yugoslavia . Meanwhile , Soviet occupation gave way to a satellite . Pântea was tracked down by famed Commissar Eugen Alimănescu and handed down to the Securitate ( that is , the communist secret police ) . He was interrogated by Securitate commandant Alexandru Nicolschi , and confronted with allegations made against him by Gheorghe Stere and Alexandru Mîţă , whose lives Pântea had helped save . Pântea was sent to Jilava prison , and kept without trial for three years ; in late 1952 , a Military Tribunal sentenced him to a further 10 - years hard labor , as a " war criminal " and " enemy of the working class " . His first year after the verdict was spent under heavy regime , at Aiud prison , but Pântea was later moved into other infamously tough detention facilities : Gherla and Ocnele Mari . In November 1954 , he was dispatched to a milder prison , at Craiova , and then sent to Poarta Albă , a labor camp on the Danube – Black Sea Canal . In October 1955 , Gherman Pântea was included in an amnesty decreed by the Romanian communist authorities , as the early sign of a reluctant liberalization . In January of the next year , he was even partially rehabilitated during a trial de novo for some 800 sentenced war criminals . After gathering evidence and testimonials from Soviet nationals , he took his case to the Supreme Tribunal , which concluded that his sentencing as a " war criminal " was illegal ( while finding little evidence that his were crimes " against the working class " ) . However , the Securitate still kept a file on Pântea , keeping him and his family under constant surveillance . At a time when repression was organized against the Bessarabian refugees , its staff gathered data according to which Pântea was capable of organizing Bessarabian resistance in Romania - proper . With noted help from the Soviet KGB and a female Soviet envoy ( codenamed " Valeria " ) , the secret police began re - investigating Pântea ' s various activities in politics . The Securitate archives also show that Securitate men approached the former Bessarabian Director with an offer to become their informant , but register Pântea ' s blunt refusal , even after intimidation . Final years and death . Communist harassment continued over the following years . After the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 , the Securitate kept close watch on Pântea ' s reaction , reporting about his anti - communism , his contacts with the exiled Crihan or underground PNL - ists such as Aurelian Bentoiu , and his hopes for an American intervention . Consequently , through a decision signed by Nicolschi in 1960 , he and his wife were stripped of their pensions . Officially , the Pânteas stood accused of illegally trading in gold coins ; a brutal police inquiry followed , and Lucia Pântea ' s arm was fractured in the process , but the prosecution was stopped in its tracks by the Great National Assembly . Gherman and brother Constantin were again picked up in April 1961 , and detained in the prison of Craiova together with other 5 " reactionary elements " from Bessarabia — in 1962 , all were sentenced to 1 year in jail . Around 1964 , as Romania embraced ( nominally anti - Soviet ) national communism , Pântea began hoping that communist censorship would revisit the Bessarabian dispute from a traditional viewpoint . In this context , he corresponded with official historian Andrei Oţetea , praising his " courage and clarity " in exposing the hidden side of Marxist historiography . He himself began writing new memoirs for the Bucharest Institute of History , and , on May Day 1965 , began receiving a state pension honoring his " outstanding contributions in service to the working class during the years 1919 – 1926 " . By 1967 , Pântea made a final return to the public sphere , openly restating his version of historical events . He spoke on the subject at the funeral of fellow Bessarabian refugee Ion Buzdugan , at the " parastas " of Gurie Grosu , and again at a commemoration for Alexe Mateevici , reportedly causing panic among his public ( most of whom were by then the survivors of communist jails ) . The Pântea family moved back to Bucharest , at the old home on Argentina Street . Gherman Pântea died on February 1 , 1968 , in unusual circumstances : he had been absent from home for almost two days , and the family was informed that he had collapsed in the street , minutes after being spotted at a Piaţa Amzei diner ; medical investigation showed that he was not suffering from any life - threatening condition . The funeral was at Bucharest ' s Bellu cemetery , on February 4 . The ceremony , which included an Orthodox service by priest Vasile Ţepordei , doubled as a low - key political rally : it brought together the community of Bessarabian refugees , who regarded Pântea as their hero , and was closely monitored by the Securitate . The funeral orations were delivered by , among others , Father Ţepordei , Sinicliu , and the Bessarabian community elder Pan Halippa . Legacy . Gherman Pântea is briefly mentioned in " For Soviet Power " , a 1953 war novel by Soviet author Valentin Kataev . Here , in keeping up with Soviet historiography of the late Stalin period , he is mainly depicted as a criminal figure who takes absurd decisions . In contrast , the Bessarabian folklorist Tatiana Găluşcă - Crâşmaru composed the 1968 poem " Lui Gh . Pântea , vechi luptător " ( " To Gh . Pântea , and Old Combatant " ) , which depicts the Moldavian Republic ' s Director as a hero of the entire Romanian people . Between these images is one proposed by the Bessarabian expatriate and Romanian historian Alexandru I . Gonţa , according to whom Pântea is a relevant but second - rate figure in the history of Bessarabian unionism ( this view , first made public in 1973 , is hotly contested by other authors and activists ) . After the Romanian Revolution of 1989 , as Romania ' s participation in the Holocaust was being acknowledged , various commentators contrasted Gherman Pântea ' s behavior with that of other Transnistria administrators . According to Romanian - born Israeli historian Jean Ancel , Pântea ' s protest against Antonescu ' s orders is compatible with the work of his Cernăuţi colleague Traian Popovici , known for defending Bukovina Jews from planned extermination . In 2008 , a similar point was made by writer Boris Marian in the Jewish community magazine " Realitatea Evreiască " : " The Romanian Mayor of Odessa was shocked by the cruelty with which the orders coming in from Bucharest were being executed . His name was Gherman Pântea and he was a normal man . Like Mayor Traian Popovici of Cernăuţi , Gh . Pântea wished above all to fulfill his duty as a human being . " On the commemoration of the Odessa Massacre in 2011 , Romanian filmmaker Florin Iepan produced the documentary " Odessa " , which gives evidence about the scale of murder . In an earlier interview , Iepan mentioned that Pântea was " an interesting character " and " a rather luminous figure in that context of bitterness and violence . " During debates with the public , held after the film ' s release , Iepan also quoted Pântea ' s report to Antonescu as proof that some Romanian officials knew about ( and , in this case , deplored ) the killings in the city . However , Pântea ' s own testimonies on the Holocaust subject have various ambiguities and omissions . Mark Mazower notes that , in writing his reports , Pântea never realized the level of Antonescu ' s involvement in the 1941 Massacre . Before the official recognition of Holocaust crimes , the Odessa Mayor ' s accounts were being cited against themselves by those who tried to minimize Romanian involvement . In reaction , Jewish community historian Teodor Wexler argued that the attempt was missing its target : " Gherman Pântea ' s letter [ is ] of an unrestrained tragicalness " , confirming " once and for all the historical responsibility of those who dictated the undertaking of the Holocaust in Romania . " Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 , most of Bessarabia returned to independence , as the Republic of Moldova . As of that moment , Pântea ' s name continues to be a subject of contention in the debates over Moldovan nationhood : a hero to the pro - unionists , he is largely ignored by the Moldovenists . This was noted in 2010 by unionist politician Mircea Druc , who assessed that , other than a commemorative plaque in Chişinău , there was little left to attest Pântea ' s significance to the Moldovan Republic . Nicolae Costin , who was Mayor of Chişinău between 1990 and 1994 , reportedly sought to revive Pântea ' s urban projects ( continued , after another long hiatus , by Dorin Chirtoacă ) .