Iosif Iacobici

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Iosif Iacobici (born December 8, 1884 in Alba Iulia , † March 11, 1952 in Aiud , Nagyenyed in Hungarian) was a Romanian minister of war and chief of staff in World War II .

Life

Iacobici graduated from the cadet school in Košice around 1890 , then the military academy in Mährisch Weißkirchen and the higher war school in Vienna . During the First World War he served in 1914 as a captain in a department of the Austro-Hungarian General Staff, then as a staff officer in the main headquarters. He became Chief of Staff of the 56th Mountain Brigade and worked in the Organization Department of the General Staff.

Early military career in the Romanian army

In December 1918 he was accepted into the Romanian army and took part in the campaign against the Hungarian government under Bela Kun between April and August 1919 . On April 1, 1919 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and was appointed chief of staff of the 19th Infantry Division until September 1921, in between his promotion to colonel on April 1, 1920 . On September 19, 1924 he became the commander of the 3rd Mountain Regiment. From 1925 to 1929 he served as an aide-de-camp officer and military advisor to the king. He then commanded the 1st Mountain Brigade until his promotion to Brigadier General , which took place on May 10, 1931. From 1931 to 1933 he served as a senior staff officer in the Army Inspectorate, then followed in Bucharest until the beginning of 1936 as a general staff officer in the general staff. On October 22, 1937 he was commander of the 2nd Mountain Division and on December 24, 1937 promoted to major general. On October 22, 1937, he was appointed director of the military training department in the War Ministry. From April 1 to October 14, 1938, he commanded the II Corps, after which he held the position of Minister of the Army Foundation until February 1, 1939. In the period from September 23 to October 27, 1939 he was the first commander of the 4th Army , after which he was entrusted with the supreme command of the 3rd Army from December 1939 to January 1941 . In between he was raised to lieutenant general on June 6, 1940 .

Minister of War and Chief of Staff

After the failed putsch of the Iron Guard against Ion Antonescu , the politically pro-German oriented General de corps Iacobici was appointed Minister of War on January 27, 1941. After the liberation of Bessarabia and northern Bukovina , Antonescu gave the order to exterminate the Jews there. Iacobici appointed the chief of the 2nd Division of the General Staff, Lieutenant Colonel Ionescu, with the order "to remove the Jewish elements from Bessarabia and to advance the organization and establishment of the Romanian troops there." The order came into force on July 9, 1941 . Between September 10 and November 8, 1941 he commanded the 4th Army again as the successor to Lieutenant General Nicolae Ciupercă during the siege of Odessa . On September 22, 1941, after the death of General Alexandru Ioaniţiu, Iacobici was appointed Chief of the General Staff. Marshal Antonescu himself was now in charge of the War Ministry. In early October 1941, the Romanian troops resumed the attack on Odessa and entered the city on October 16. Of the few remaining Soviet soldiers, many hid in civilian clothes in the city and began fighting underground as partisans. Iacobici was involved in their discovery and the subsequent massacre of the Jews . On January 2, 1942, Antonescu announced that he would participate in the German spring campaign in central Ukraine with ten Romanian divisions and later with another 5-6 divisions. Under pressure from Antonescu, General Iacobici had to vacate the position of Chief of the General Staff on January 20, 1942, because he resisted the German request to provide additional Romanian forces for the 1942 summer offensive. After the fall of Antonescu, Iacobici was in custody for the first time between May 18 and August 26, 1946; he was released for the time being due to a lack of evidence. He was immediately arrested on August 12, 1948 and sentenced to 8 years in prison by a Romanian court on January 18, 1949. He died in Aiud military prison in March 1952.

literature

  • Lucian Predescu: - Enciclopedia României , Editura Saeculum, Bukares 1999, ISBN 973-9399-03-7

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