Vasile Marin
Vasile Marin (January 29, 1904, Bucharest, Kingdom of Romania – January 13, 1937, Majadahonda, Spain) was a Romanian politician, public servant and lawyer. A member of the National Peasants' Party until 1932, Vasile Marin later became a prominent member of the Iron Guard, a Romanian fascist organization. His death and that of fellow Iron Guard leader Ion Moța in the Spanish Civil War as volunteers for the Nationalists are credited with contributing to the growth of the Iron Guard. Biography. His law thesis, finished in 1932 at the University of Bucharest, was entitled "The Fascism". Marin married, with the  approval of Legionary leader Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, Ana Maria Ropala in February 1933. Ropala was the daughter of a Romanian army officer and a Jewish woman who had converted to Christianity. She was a medical doctor. In December 1936 Marin, along with Ion Moța, led a small force of Legionnaires into Spain during the Spanish Civil War to present a ceremonial sword to the survivors of the Siege of the Alcázar and announce the alliance of the Iron Guard with Nationalist Spain; they also decided to enlist. Both Moța and Marin died on January 13, 1937 during the first day  of fighting at Majadahonda on the Madrid front. Their funerals in Bucharest (February 13, 1937) were an immense and widely publicised affair attended by some ministers of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Francisco Franco's Spain, as well as representatives of Portugal, Japan, and delegates of the Polish Patriotic Youth. A memorial monument was erected at Majadahonda, on September 13, 1970, with the support of Franco's government.