ABSTRACT
Little has been written about Romania’s role as Nazi Germany’s ally during World War II. The degree of acceptance of Antonescu as a war criminal by Romanian historians, Romanian politicians and the public is the yardstick by which the country’s willingness to face up to its record as an ally of Nazi Germany is measured. Romania’s alliance with Germany between 1940 and 1944 was generated by the disintegration of the European order established after World War I. The status quo was shattered by the signing on August 23, 1939 of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, which established Germany and Russia as predominant in Europe. While the German economy was more advanced than the Romanian economy, Romanian resources were important to Adolf Hitler’s war machine. Although a huge increase in German synthetic production and a growth in Austrian and Hungarian natural production offset the fall in Romanian supplies of oil, the German army’s voracious demands meant that Romanian oil remained crucial.
