Ion Antonescu
Ion Antonescu, a Romanian soldier with a penchant for authoritarian politics, was a man of paradoxes. Despite his initial detention by King Carol II for his anti-semitic views, Antonescu clawed his way back to power, declaring himself the Marshal of Romania. He presided over two wartime dictatorships during WWII, aligning Romania with Nazi Germany. A chilling architect of the Holocaust, his policies resulted in the tragic loss of 400,000 lives, predominantly Bessarabian, Ukrainian and Romanian Jews, and Romanian Romani.
Romania suffered a devastating loss of 150,000 brave souls to the relentless Russian Red Army in the tumultuous Battle of Stalingrad. Fast forward to May 1946, the notorious Antonescu stood in the dock at the first of the People’s Tribunals, facing daunting charges of war crimes. The verdict? Guilty. His sentence for his heinous role in numerous genocides, massacres, and killings was a swift execution by firing squad.