Horia Sima

Horia Sima (July 3, 1907-1993) was the second and last leader of Romania's Iron Guard in the Second World War.

Horia Sima was born on July 3rd 1907 in a village near Făgăraş, Romania. Between 1926 and 1932 he was a student at the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy of the University of Bucharest. From 1932 he started to work as a local high-school teacher of logic and philosophy. In October 1927 he entered the newly-formed Iron Guard and became responsible for the Banat area.

Sima became commander of the Legion after the founder and leader of the Iron Guard, Corneliu Zelea Codreanu was imprisoned. Tension build-up following a series of assassinations of Iron Guard members, including Codreanu (who was killed in prison), in late November 1938, followed by hundreds of others. In early 1939, Sima was able to flee to Yugoslavia and then to Germany. In the summer of the same year, he was sent back in order to prepare and conduct the assassination of the Romanian Prime-Minister, Armand Călinescu, on September 25 1939.

In September 1940, King Carol II abdicated and the Iron Guard entered a tense alliance with the general Ion Antonescu. At that point Sima was able to return from exile as vicepremier in the government and Commander of the Legionary movement. The Romanian territorial cessions in the summer of 1940, secretly instrumented by his Nazi protectors, offered him the pretext for mounting a huge wave of xenophobic and antisemitic attitudes, based on Romanians frustrations. As a member of Government, Sima initiated a series of brutal pogroms, assassinations and de-possessions among Jews and competing politicians.

In January 1941, in time of the Legionnaire rebellion, Antonescu made Hitler choose between himself and the Iron Guard. When Hitler decided to back him over the Guard, Antonescu proceeded to the suppression of the Legion from the government.

With the tacit agreement from Antonescu due to Hitler's influence, Sima was able to leave Romania for Germany, where he was imprisoned in a special camp destined for the Iron Guard members. Meanwhile in Romania he was sentenced to death, in order to ensure his permanent exile. In 1942, once again he was able to escape and flee Germany but he was caught in Italy and extradited back to Germany.

When Romania changed sides in World War II, joining the Allies in August 1944, Sima was released and he ended up building a pro-Nazi puppet government in exile, in Vienna. He fled to Alt-Ausse under the alias Josef Weber. Living in Paris, Italy, and finally Franco's Spain, he was sentenced to death in absentia in Romania in 1946.

Works

• Europe at the crossroads: war or capitulation? Munich Verlag "Vestitori" 1955 (view here (http://miscarea.com/horia-sima-english.htm))
• The Rumanian situation after 19 years of Communist slavery and policies of the western powers, 1944-1963; a declaration by the Rumanian Legionary Movement Rio de Janeiro? 1963?
• Hunger In Romania (http://miscarea.com/horia-sima-english1.htm) 1964
• Articole politice, 1950-1963 1967.
• XL anniversary of the foundation of the Rumanian legionary movement, 1927-1967; declarations of the legionary movement concerning the fate of the free world and the tragedy of the Rumanian people 1968
• Ce este comunismul? Madrid, Editura Dacia, 1972.
• Histoire du Mouvement Légionnaire, Rio de Janeiro, 1972 (The History of the Legionary Movement, Legionary Press, 1995)
• An interview with Horia Sima, Commander-in-chief, Legion of the Achangel Michael "Thule of Palermo", 1977
• The Truth About The Legionary Movement (here (http://www.cdlreport.com/patrioticbooks2.htm))
• The Natural World Order (here (http://www.cdlreport.com/patrioticbooks2.htm))

References

• Romanian Nationalism: The Legionary Movement by Alexander E. Ronnett ISBN 0829402322 Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1995.
• The Green Shirts and the Others: A History of Fascism in Hungary and Rumania by Nicholas M. Nagy-Talavera, 1970 ISBN 9739432115 & ISBN 0817918515
• Biographical Dictionary of the Extreme Right Since 1890 edited by Philip Rees, 1991, ISBN 0130893013

External links

• Leadership of the Iron Guard (http://hist.academic.claremontmckenna.edu/jpetropoulos/ironguard/leaders.htm)
• He Who Kept The Legion Alive (http://www.geocities.com/integral_tradition/sima.html) by Ovidiu Gules
• Museum of Tolerance entry (http://motlc.wiesenthal.com/pages/t070/t07084.html) of The Simon Wiesenthal Center
• Romanian volunteers in the Waffen-SS (http://www.axishistory.com/index.php?id=2353) by Marc Rikmenspoelnl:Horia Sima