King Michael of Romania Is Dead at 96 (Anti-Nazi and anti-Communist hero)

NY Times ^ | 12-05-2017 | DOUGLAS MARTIN

[NRx]

King Michael of Romania, who was credited with pre-emptively saving thousands of lives in World War II when, at 22, he had the audacity to arrest the country’s dictator, a puppet of Hitler, died on Tuesday at his residence in Switzerland. He was 96.

His death was announced in a statement from the royal family. King Michael cited a diagnosis of cancer when withdrawing from public duties last year.

The king was often remembered for distinctions that were not of his own making. He is, for example, said to have been the only man to both precede and succeed his own father as king.

But his shining achievement was assuredly his doing. It came on Aug. 23, 1944, when Michael, whose powers were perceived as largely ceremonial, bravely summoned Hitler’s crony Ion Antonescu, the fascist dictator of Romania, to his palace and arrested him.

By then Michael was in league with antigovernment forces, and soon afterward he renounced Romania’s ties to the Axis powers, paving the way for a Soviet takeover as Germany’s military strength was waning. Historians say his action might have shortened the war by months, saving tens of thousands of lives.

Later, as postwar Romania slipped into communism, Michael strove to preserve its constitutional monarchy. But he was forced at gunpoint to abdicate and flee.

[NRx]

Memorie veșnică!

[blueunicorn6]

I stand ready to assume the throne.

What’s the pay like?

[SandRat]

I wonder id there will be new King or Queen?

[Conservative Gato]

Never knew this story, very cool.

RIP

CGato

[DesertRhino]

Baloney. He was installed as “king” in 1940 at age 18 in a Pro-nazi coup. He stayed home and got a chest full of medals as hundreds of thousands of Romanian soldiers died on the eastern front fighting for Hitler. He wasnt the real power, but he lived the royal life and gave the nazis his royal fig leaf of legitimacy rather than doing anything risky to refuse them his stamp of legitimacy. He was just as happy to do the same post war for the soviets but of course they weren’t interested in monarchy and didn’t need him.

Then after the Normandy invasion had succeeded and was pushing deep into France and the Russians were closing on on Romania, he switched to the Allied side.

Just another azzwipe royal collaborator. Good riddance to royalty trash. At best, he was a grifter and lived the royal life to whatever group of thugs would respect his “position”. Fwiw... the Brit royals and aristocracy would have done nothing different had Germany taken them over. If they got to keep their status...they would play ball.

European royalty is a blight on humanity.

[DesertRhino]

“when, at 22, he had the audacity to arrest the country’s dictator, a puppet of Hitler”

After 4 years of collaboration with the Reich, sending hundreds of thousands to die for Hitler and as Russia was closing on on Romania, the landings in Southern France went great, and Patton was rolling across central France.

What a leader./s

[colorado tanker]

the Brit royals and aristocracy would have done nothing different had Germany taken them over

Beg to differ. George was staunchly behind Winston. Had the Nazis invaded the Royal Family and the Government probably would have moved to Canada to continue the fight.

Now, his brother, the Duke of Windsor, was a different matter entirely. That's one reason he was packed off to the Bahamas for the duration.

Of course, all this is academic since after the Battle of Britain there was virtually no chance the Nazis could invade.

[DesertRhino]

Beg to differ. The duke of Windsor wasn’t a one-off thing. There is a good reason Rudolph Hess flew to Scotland and why it was kept secret until the day he died....and afterwards.
Hess was going to meet with people who he had very good reason to believe would play ball.

You’re probably right that the king would have flown ot of the country. But, i see zero reason to think the Brit aristocrats would have behaved any differently than any other Euro royalty (including the Vatican).
The hard cold facts are that across Europe the very wealthy, the aristocracy, and the Vatican all played ball to the degree it took to keep their position in society.

[colorado tanker]

You paint with much too large a brush. The royal houses of Norway, the Netherlands, Yugoslavia and Greece all refused to cooperate with the Nazis and established governments in exile. The Bulgarian king refused to declare war on Russia or send troops to the Eastern Front.

The position of the Pope during WWII is controversial to this day, but the debate is not over cooperation with the Nazis, which he did not do, but the extent to which the Pope resisted them given his means.

[kearnyirish2]

“as hundreds of thousands of Romanian soldiers died on the eastern front fighting for Hitler”

Romania’s primary motivation to fight the USSR was the same as Finland’s: To recover territories seized by the Soviets in 1940 (in the case of Romania, it was Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina). The Western Allies left Eastern European countries little choice, leaving them to fend for themselves: They could either face Bolshevik revolutions that would destroy their cultures and institutions (political and religious), or embrace fascism to suppress the Bolsheviks. It is easy to understand, after 8 years of Obama, why people would opt for the latter; we have a bakery in front of our Supreme Court for refusing to bake a cake for two deviant mental cases - and that Supreme Court gave those deviants the right to pretend they were married (with all that entails).