• DOI:10.1177/002200949102600313
• Corpus ID: 144944383

An Eyewitness Note: Reflections on the Rumanian Iron Guard

@article{Yavetz1991AnEN,
  title={An Eyewitness Note: Reflections on the Rumanian Iron Guard},
  author={Zvi Yavetz},
  journal={Journal of Contemporary History},
  year={1991},
  volume={26},
  pages={597 - 610}
}

• Z. Yavetz
• Published 1 July 1991
• History
• Journal of Contemporary History

As an ancient historian, I became interested in anti-semitism in the Roman world. I am convinced that Mommsen's terms Judenhass and Judenhetze are more appropriate for the ancient world than 'antisemitism' and, in an attempt to coin a better concept in English, I studied various forms of anti-Jewish propaganda through the ages. Having been born in Rumania, I had the feeling that the antisemitism of Cuza, Goga and Codreanu was somewhat different from that of the Hungarians and Poles, but I knew very little about it. I thus read the writings of Eugen Weber, whose magisterial studies on the Iron Guard offer the definitive clue to this rather strange and unique 'variety of fascism'. A few years ago, Arnim Heinen published a new study on the Iron Guard, Die Legion 'Erzengel Michael' in Rumanien (Munich 1986), and on the basis of these works, I reflect here on some issues which intrigued me as an amateur and as an eyewitness. The surprising results of the Rumanian general elections of 1937 are still vivid in my memory. I knew some leading Iron Guardists in Czernowitz (Bucovina) -two of whom were my teachers in high school and in spite of the fact that I have never scrutinized archives nor studied electoral statistics, I am nevertheless able to attest that the prevailing atmosphere in those days is not always reflected in documents, newspaper editorials, and/or political writings of the protagonists. No ancient historian would disregard the memoirs of a private Roman soldier in the praetorian guard in the days of Tiberius, little as he may have understood the situation on the eve of Sejanus's downfall. It is clear that, eventually, the information coming from the Acta Senatus would prevail in history books, but the memoirs of a private soldier (if indeed recovered) would certainly merit a footnote, and it is precisely a footnote of this kind that will be provided here. Heinen mastered practically everything available on the Iron