Maria Antonescu facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Maria Antonescu
Maria Antonescu greeted with flowers during one of her official visits (ca. 1941).
Wife of the Conducător of Romania
In office 6 September 1940 – 23 August 1944
President of the Social Works Patronage Council
In office 20 November 1940 (formally 10 April 1941) – 23 August 1944
Monarch	Michael I
Preceded by	none
Succeeded by	none
Personal details
Born	Maria Niculescu 3 November 1892 Calafat, Kingdom of Romania
Died	18 October 1964(1964-10-18) (aged 71) Colțea Hospital, Bucharest, Romanian People's Republic
Spouses	Gheorghe Cimbru (wid.ca.1919) Guillaume Auguste Joseph Pierre Fueller (m.1919, div.1926) Ion Antonescu (m.1927/8, wid.1946)
Children	Gheorghe Cimbru (adopted Antonescu, d.1944)
Conviction for	Embezzlement (1950)
Criminal penalty	Imprisonment (1950–1955) Deported (1955–1964)
Nickname	Rica Antonescu

Maria Antonescu (born Maria Niculescu, 3 November 1892 – 18 October 1964) was a Romanian socialite and philanthropist. She was the wife of Ion Antonescu, who was the leader of Romania during World War II. He was known as the Conducător, which means "Leader."

Maria Antonescu lived in France for a long time. She was married twice before she married Ion Antonescu. She became well-known for leading many charitable organizations. These groups were part of the Social Works Patronage Council. This Council received a lot of money, some of which came from policies that affected Romanian Jews.

After her husband was removed from power in August 1944, Maria Antonescu was arrested. She was held as a prisoner of war in the Soviet Union for a short time. Later, the new communist government in Romania put her on trial. She was found guilty of economic crimes, like misusing funds. She was imprisoned for five years. After that, she was sent away from her home to live in a different area, a process known as the Bărăgan deportations. She spent her last years living under this internal exile.

Maria Antonescu's Life Story

Early Years and Family Life

Maria Niculescu was born in Calafat, Romania. Her father, Teodor Niculescu, was an officer in the Romanian Army. He fought in the Romanian War of Independence. Her mother was Angela. Maria married Gheorghe Cimbru, a police officer. They had a son, also named Gheorghe, who had a physical disability from poliomyelitis. Gheorghe Cimbru died before 1919.

After her first husband died, Maria moved to Paris, France. In 1919, she married a businessman named Guillaume Auguste Joseph Pierre Fueller. They divorced in 1926. She then married Ion Antonescu, who had been a military representative for Romania in France. They moved to Bucharest, where he worked for the Defense Ministry. Sources say they met and fell in love before her divorce was final. They married either in August 1927 or in 1928.

Ion Antonescu was known for being very strict and not liking public life. But as he became more important in politics, Maria also gained public attention. Some people from the upper class thought she was a "newcomer" because of her background.

In 1938, Ion Antonescu had problems with King Carol II. The King tried to put Ion Antonescu on trial, claiming that Maria and her previous husband had never truly divorced. Ion Antonescu, with the help of his lawyer, proved this was false. Many people felt that the King was unfairly targeting him, which made Ion Antonescu more popular.

Maria Antonescu's Role During the War

In late 1940, Romania faced a big crisis. King Carol II gave up his throne to his young son, Michael I. Ion Antonescu took over with strong powers as Conducător. He worked with the fascist group called the Iron Guard. Around this time, Maria became good friends with Veturia Goga, whose husband had been a prime minister. Their friendship grew into a political group that included other wives of important officials. This group was sometimes seen as Maria Antonescu's "court," similar to the King's court. Queen Mother Helen was cautious of Maria Antonescu's growing influence.

In early 1941, Maria Antonescu joined a welfare organization called Regina Elisabeta Society, which Queen Helen led. Maria also took charge of a new state-run charity called Sprijinul ("The Support"). This charity made her a key figure in the conflict between her husband and the Iron Guard. After the Legionary Rebellion in 1941, the Iron Guard lost power. Maria Antonescu was then chosen to lead the Social Works Patronage Council. This new council brought together all recognized charities. It was officially created in November 1940 and started its work in June 1942.

The Council was a state organization with its own legal standing and money. Its members included government ministers and the head of the Romanian Orthodox Church. Its main goal was to organize and control all public and private welfare groups. It also started new social welfare programs. The Council focused on helping working-class people. It spent a lot of money on school cafeterias and free or low-cost soup kitchens.

Romania joined Operation Barbarossa in 1941. This led to Romania taking back Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina and occupying Transnistria. The Social Works Patronage Council received its own special badge, the Blue Cross. It became a major charity, competing with Queen Helen's work and the Romanian Red Cross. The government used propaganda to promote its activities. The Council also took over the property of older welfare organizations.

Maria Antonescu and Veturia Goga also tried to get support for the government from older political parties. They visited Topoloveni and met with Ion Mihalache, a leader of the National Peasants' Party. Maria Antonescu praised Mihalache's work in the community. However, another leader, Iuliu Maniu, warned Mihalache not to get involved with the government. Maria Antonescu also supported some fascist causes. In July 1941, she attended an Anti-Masonry Exhibit in Bucharest.

Charity Work and War Funds

As the war continued on the Eastern Front, the Social Works Patronage Council helped soldiers and their families. It also helped invalids, orphans, and widows (called IOVR). By December 1941, the Council had raised and spent millions of Romanian lei to help soldiers, the wounded, and their families.

During this time, Romania also carried out policies against Jews, including sending many to Transnistria. In October 1941, Wilhelm Filderman, the head of Jewish communities, wrote to Maria Antonescu and her husband to protest these actions, but he received no answer. After the Jewish area in Chișinău was emptied, the authorities set aside confiscated property for the Patronage Council, the Red Cross, and Romanian hospitals and the Army.

The Patronage Council received supplies from these confiscations. In August 1942, some Jewish businessmen gave 50 million Swiss francs to Maria Antonescu's charity. This may have helped delay plans to send Jews from Romania to other camps. Also, the Jewish Affairs Commissioner, Radu Lecca, collected a lot of money from Jewish communities. A large part of this money, over 780 million lei, was given to Maria Antonescu's charities.

The Council also received money from other sources. For example, Maria Antonescu set up a special Blue Cross tax on cinema tickets. She also used equipment from the Odessa Film Studio to create traveling cinemas.

Radu Lecca later said that Maria Antonescu often asked for money for her charity. However, Maria Antonescu sometimes helped to ease the harsh policies. She is believed to have convinced her husband not to create a special Jewish area in Iași. In return, local Jews gave 5 million lei to the Patronage Council. She and Veturia Goga also helped Petru Groza, a left-wing activist who was later imprisoned by the Antonescu government.

Maria Antonescu also helped the Chief Rabbi, Alexandru Șafran, to stop the government from taking over a Jewish cemetery in Bucharest. But Rabbi Șafran also noted that she was unwilling to provide water and milk for children being sent to Transnistria. However, Maria Antonescu is also credited with helping Jewish people from Dorohoi return home. She also collected medicine, food, and clothing to send to Transnistria. She accepted donations to the Patronage Council in exchange for helping other Jews escape.

Later Life and Imprisonment

Maria and Ion Antonescu's lives changed greatly after King Michael and other groups arrested Ion Antonescu in August 1944. This took Romania out of its alliance with the Axis powers. Maria Antonescu's son, Gheorghe Cimbru, died around this time. Maria fled to Băile Herculane but was arrested in Căzănești. Some accounts say she asked Queen Mother Helen for help, but was refused.

In March 1945, Soviet forces took Maria Antonescu into custody. Like her husband, she was taken to the Soviet Union. She was only questioned once there. They were not told that they were held in the same prison, even though their cells were said to share a wall in Moscow's Lubyanka.

Maria Antonescu returned to Romania in April 1946. She was questioned by Avram Bunaciu, a member of the Romanian Communist Party. She was asked about her support for the war. She said she started her charity work before the war and felt she had to continue because of the poverty in Romania. She denied taking money unfairly but admitted receiving funds from Radu Lecca. She said she didn't think Jews needed help because they had "enough funds," and she denied knowing they were in concentration camps.

After her husband's trial and execution in June 1946, Ion Antonescu met his wife one last time. He gave her his watch and asked her to imagine it was his heart beating.

Maria Antonescu was arrested again in 1950. The communist government found her guilty of "bringing disaster to the country" and economic crimes, especially misusing money. From 1950 to 1955, she was held in Mislea prison, a former convent. She was kept in solitary confinement. One fellow prisoner said Maria was only allowed out of her cell at night to collect cigarette butts left by guards.

After her release from prison, Maria Antonescu was forced to live in a specific place on the Bărăgan Plain. This was part of the Bărăgan deportations. While in Bordușani, she met other women who had been imprisoned. She complained that her husband had not been allowed a trial by the International Military Tribunal.

The Ialomița area, where she lived, has very harsh weather. Maria Antonescu said that heavy snowdrifts kept her from leaving her home in winter. She spent a lot of time knitting. She was also held in Giurgeni and worked in a cafeteria for the local state farm. She had a serious heart condition. After asking the authorities, she was allowed to return to Bucharest for treatment in 1958 or 1959. She was back in Bordușani from 1959 to 1964. Her health worsened, and she was taken to a special clinic, then to the Colțea Hospital. She died there from a third heart attack. She was buried in Bellu cemetery.

Maria Antonescu's Legacy

Maria and Ion Antonescu helped build three Romanian Orthodox churches in Bucharest. They are even shown in a painting in one of these churches. Maria also founded the Sfânta Maria Church of Ghencea and helped build the Delea Nouă Church. In 1941, after floods in Argeș County, they founded Antonești, a model village in Corbeni. This village was partly built by Ukrainian prisoners of war.

Even though her picture was often in newspapers, some people at the time saw Maria Antonescu as a quiet and less important figure. Others who knew her, like Princess Ileana, shared stories about her life.

During her husband's time in power, the official press praised Maria Antonescu. This led to talk that she was trying to be as popular as Queen Helen. She was the main subject of two films and was often seen in weekly newsreels. Another film about Romanian charities was changed because officials felt it showed too much positive light on the Red Cross and not enough on her Blue Cross. Her constant presence in the news made some people tired of her. In 1943, she admitted that people, especially the "lower class," were getting tired of her Blue Cross propaganda.

The Antonescu family's property was taken by the state because of laws against war criminals. This included the watch Ion Antonescu gave his wife, which was taken from her shortly after she received it. In 2008, Maria Antonescu's relatives tried to claim the couple's villa in Predeal, but a court in Brașov rejected their claim, citing the original law that confiscated the property.

In 2002, after the Romanian Revolution ended communism, actress Margareta Pogonat played Maria Antonescu in a film.

Honours

Foreign honours

•  Nazi Germany: Grand Officer of the Order of Social Welfare, Special Class