1. Maria Antonescu, known as Maria General Antonescu, Maria Maresal Antonescu, or Rica Antonescu, was a Romanian socialite and philanthropist and the wife of World War II authoritarian prime minister and Conducator Ion Antonescu.
27 Facts About Maria Antonescu
1. 2.
Maria Antonescu married Gheorghe Cimbru, a Police officer, with whom she had a son, known as Gheorghe.
3.
Cimbru died before 1919, after which date Maria Antonescu Niculescu is known to have moved to Paris.
4.
However, as Antonescu reached prominence and earned important political assignments, Maria too became the focus of public attention.
5.
In late 1940, as a result of a major social crisis, the National Legionary State was set up in Romania, and Carol relinquished the throne in favor of the junior king Michael I Antonescu took over with dictatorial powers, as Conducator, and struck a partnership in government with the fascist Iron Guard.
6.
At around this time, Maria Antonescu became good friends with Veturia Goga, widow of antisemitic Premier Octavian Goga.
7.
The political wives' circle was in some ways Maria Antonescu's "court", rivaling that of Queen Mother Helen, just as Antonescu's had come to rival the kingly court; for this and other reasons, Queen Helen became especially distrustful of Maria Antonescu's political initiatives.
8.
Nevertheless, at the very start of 1941, Maria Antonescu joined the board of Regina Elisabeta Society, a welfare organization chaired by Queen Helen.
9.
Maria Antonescu took over a new state-run charity, Sprijinul, which reputedly made her a contender in the conflict opposing her husband to the Guard, before the Legionary Rebellion of early 1941 brought the Guard's downfall.
10.
The pro-Allied PNT leader, Iuliu Maniu, saw in this an attempt by Maria Antonescu to co-opt Mihalache as a minister.
11.
Occasionally Maria Antonescu intervened with her husband to alleviate some antisemitic measures.
12.
Maria Antonescu is thus believed to have persuaded the Conducator not to create a special ghetto in Iasi, in exchange for which local Jews provided the Patronage Council with 5 million lei.
13.
Maria Antonescu is believed to have eventually heeded other calls, and to have pressured Ion Antonescu into allowing Jewish deportees from Dorohoi to return home.
14.
Maria Antonescu is credited with having collected medicine, food, clothing and window panes to be sent into Transnistria, and to have accepted Patronage Council donations in exchange for allowing other Jews to escape.
15.
In March 1945, Maria Antonescu was taken into custody by the Soviet occupation forces, and, like her husband before her, was transported into Soviet territory, where she was only interrogated once.
16.
Maria Antonescu returned in April 1946, at the same time as her husband.
17.
Maria Antonescu was submitted to interrogations by Interior Ministry Secretary, Romanian Communist Party member and public investigator Avram Bunaciu, who recorded her views on Antonescu's political choices.
18.
Maria Antonescu lacked the means to support herself, and was cared for by her friends and family.
19.
Maria Antonescu was kept there under the rules of "in-secrecy" solitary confinement, and, according to the account of one of her fellow inmates, allowed to step out of her cell only at night, when she would collect and smoke the cigarette butts discarded by the guards.
20.
Ionescu later retold his conversations with the Conducators wife, specifically her complaint that Ion Maria Antonescu had been refused trial by the International Military Tribunal.
21.
Maria Antonescu complained that snowdrifts prevented her from leaving her home in winter, and spent much of her time knitting.
22.
Maria Antonescu was by then afflicted with a debilitating heart condition, and, after petitioning the authorities, was briefly allowed to return to Bucharest for treatment in 1958 or 1959.
23.
Maria Antonescu was again in Bordusani from 1959 to 1964, when a turn for the worse saw her internment to a specialist clinic, and then at the Coltea Hospital, where she was cared for by a friend doctor.
24.
Maria Antonescu died there as the result of a third heart attack, and was buried in Bellu cemetery, in a tomb owned by distant relatives.
25.
Maria Antonescu herself founded Sfanta Maria Antonescu Church of Ghencea and contributed significantly to constructing Delea Noua Church.
26.
Maria Antonescu was the sole subject of two nationally released films, and an obligatory presence on weekly newsreels.
27.
The Maria Antonescu estate was passed into state property, in accordance with provisions for war criminals.