1. Ioan Dumitrache was a Romanian major general during World War II, in command of the 2nd Mountain Division.
17 Facts About Ioan Dumitrache
1. 2.
Ioan Dumitrache's troops were recognized as the elite troops of the Romanian Army throughout the campaign on the Eastern Front.
3.
Ioan Dumitrache was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross of Nazi Germany, awarded to him for capturing Nalchik on November 2,1942.
4.
Ioan Dumitrache was born in Ciorasti in 1889, in what was then Ramnicu Sarat County, in the Muntenia region of Romania, the son of Gheorghe and Ioana Dumitrache.
5.
Ioan Dumitrache attended the gymnasium in Ramnicu Sarat and the Alexandru Ioan Cuza High School in Focsani.
6.
Ioan Dumitrache was wounded in the battles of 1916 and 1917, and advanced to the rank of captain in 1917.
7.
Ioan Dumitrache was awarded in October 1941 the Order of Michael the Brave 3rd class for his actions in the reoccupation of Hotin.
8.
The 2nd Mountain Brigade was upgraded to a Division on 15 March 1942, and Ioan Dumitrache became its commanding officer.
9.
Ioan Dumitrache's incursion constituted the farthest advance of the Axis powers in the Caucasus and the entire Eastern campaign.
10.
On 1 January 1943 Ioan Dumitrache was promoted to major general, and on 15 February he was awarded the Order of Michael the Brave, 2nd Class.
11.
On 1 August 1944, Ioan Dumitrache was appointed to the command of the newly reorganized Mountain Corps that was deployed on the Romanian-Hungarian frontier in Southwestern Transylvania.
12.
On 7 March 1945, Radio Moscow transmitted an informative note by which Ioan Dumitrache was accused of ordering, in October 1942, the killing of 600 prisoners, partisans, women, and children at Nalchik, as well as ordering the transport of materiel to Romania.
13.
On 23 August 1947 Ioan Dumitrache was promoted to lieutenant general; he retired from the Army a week later.
14.
Ioan Dumitrache was held at Aiud, Jilava, and Vacaresti prisons, ultimately being released in October 1950 for lack of evidence.
15.
Ioan Dumitrache settled down in Brasov, where he lived in obscurity, under surveillance by the Securitate.
16.
Ioan Dumitrache spent many years writing his memoirs; the typed text was donated to the Brasov Museum of History and Archaeology, and was published twenty years after his death in 1977.
17.
Ioan Dumitrache is buried at Saint Paraschiva Church's Groaveri Cemetery in Scheii Brasovului.