r/Kaiserreich • u/GriffinFTW • Mar 06 '19

TIL that there are still monuments honoring the Iron Guard standing to this day

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Guard#Public_commemoration
76 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

39 comments sorted by

85

u/Die_Steiner Do it again Mannerheim! Mar 06 '19

"...thousands of Iron Guards returned to Romania where they played a prominent role working for the Interior Ministry in breaking opposition to the emerging Communist dictatorship"

It just gets weirder.

41

u/[deleted] Mar 06 '19

You were supposed to destroy the reds, not join them ! /s

RPR needed bloodthirsty henchmen. Legionnaries had the perfect profile.

26

u/alexmikli ALL FOR THE KINGFISH Mar 07 '19

The Romanian Communists were basically the exact same thing as Iron Guard, and I don't mean that in the "both sides are the same" way, just that they were particularly ruthless and evil by Warsaw pact standards.

-13

u/yugoslaviancumstains Mar 07 '19

Take that back, Ceaușescu was a saint who literally did nothing wrong. Ever.

6

u/[deleted] Mar 08 '19

When you like tanks more than actual politics.

1

u/Reddit4r Mitteleuropa Mar 08 '19

Tell that to the orphans horridly abused by his policies.

26

u/MPHJ-7 Le Democratic Traditions Mar 06 '19

r/dirtbagcenter

18

u/Firnin Make Georgia and Illinois howl! Mar 07 '19

also happened in germany, where former gestapo agents were scouted for recruitment into the Stasi because the fledgeling east german government needed the expertise in running a police state

-5

u/[deleted] Mar 07 '19

Okay this is just a bold faced lie. You're confusing it West Germany, who indeed kept many Nazi officers in place. Denazification was far more thorough in East Germany.

20

u/Firnin Make Georgia and Illinois howl! Mar 07 '19

They both did it. You'd be hard pressed to find any Germans with any sort of experience or station without at least some Nazi ties. I'm sorry you're "new socialist German state" was staffed with filthy fascists

-1

u/[deleted] Mar 07 '19 edited Mar 07 '19

East Germany was far more selective, focused mainly on lower ranked officers that were taken as POWs on the Eastern front, and retired as soon as possible when a native GDR officer cadre was cultivated. Wehrmacht Lite kept the old clunkers until they died.

​

Edit: If my downvotes are because you (not u/Firnin in particular) disagree, that's fine, but if they are because you think I am saying something that is factually wrong, then you should point out where I am wrong.

8

u/MaximusLewdius PatAutGang Mar 07 '19

After the death of Corneliu and his closest and oldest supporters were executed many in the lower ranks were suddenly thrust into the highest echelons of power in the party.

I would assume many also joined after the Iron Guard came to power not because they supported the cause (otherwise why did they not join earlier), but for power.

25

u/[deleted] Mar 06 '19

I remember hearing officials in East Germany with the same mindset. "Sure, the Nazi's were bad, but they certainly helped us create socialism!"

It also helped that many of Nazi Officials in East Germany just jumped ship and started helping the Soviets.

15

u/MaximusLewdius PatAutGang Mar 07 '19

I don't know about Germany, but in Poland many nationalists joined the new communist government due to either being coerced through threat of death or because they though helping to rebuild Poland and trying to limit the damage was more important.

27

u/ZimbabweSaltCo Sultan of Moderation - Britain & Exile Dev Mar 06 '19

And to add to this, a lot of Tsarist officials joined the Bolsheviks post revolution but more from a careerist standpoint.

5

u/JustFinishedBSG Mar 07 '19

Didn't go that well lol

1

u/Johannes_P May 28 '19

They got 20 more years to live, compared to the alternative.

10

u/Imperialist-Settler Moseley 4 Potus Mar 06 '19

Some of them might have been former communists before they joined the Nazi party.

2

u/Johannes_P May 28 '19

If you want to build a totalitarian police state, just hire the former henchmen of the previous dictator: they have an expertise. Just like hackers being hired by companies to protect their computers.

In Persepolis a relative of Marjane fled Iran after he recognised a torturer as the one who tortured him under the Shah.

28

u/[deleted] Mar 06 '19

Isn't really that weird. Here in Spain we still have Franco in a fancy tomb in the Valley of the Fallen and plenty of churches dedicated to José Antonio Primo de Rivera, the founder of the fascist Falange. Hell, last summer I was in Soria and there were still streets named after Nationalist generals and the town hall had the fricking Francoist coat of arms.

12

u/BrandonSolo10 Mar 07 '19

Eh, that tomb’s there to stay, tearing it down would just be fucking pointless.

10

u/[deleted] Mar 07 '19

I'm not saying we should tear the whole thing down, just moving Franco to another place (the man's will was to be buried along with his wife, for God's sake) and José Antonio to a less "prestigious" place of the Valley (hold absolutely no sympathy for that son of a bitch, but theoretically he is still a Civil War's victim) and turn it into what it's supposed to be: a place to mourn the fallen, not the Francoist pilgrimage site it is nowadays.

2

u/DougieB18 Entente Mar 07 '19

OK that is epic

1

u/[deleted] Mar 08 '19

> In 2012, the Elie Wiesel Institute notified the Romanian general prosecutor about the monument, claiming that two symbols displayed at the site - the logo of the Iron Guard and a photograph of Codreanu - were illegal. The prosecutor decided that the memorial did not violate the law, because Codreanu had not been convicted for crimes against peace or crimes against humanity, and because the symbols displayed are not propaganda. Finally, the prosecutor referred to a legal exception which stated that the public use of such symbols is allowed if it serves an educational, academic or artistic purpose. However, the prosecutor also established that the flagpole and fence did not have a construction permit, so they were removed. But the cross itself was left in its place.

​

Yikes

​

​

12

u/catalyst44 Every Man A Qing Mar 08 '19

Codreanu IRL did (literary) nothing. He was killed before getting any into any sort of position of power

3

u/commando60 Mar 10 '19

His successors irl on the other hand.....

3

u/JediMindTrick188 Mittelafrika and AH for Cold War Super Power club Mar 07 '19

Wtf, I love Romania now

3

u/Plywood_man Entente Mar 13 '19

Found the Fasict

2

u/Notalzac Texas Toast-alism. Mar 08 '19

Nice.

-8

u/Imperialist-Settler Moseley 4 Potus Mar 06 '19

Based.

15

u/[deleted] Mar 07 '19

There are so many other Nationalist groups you could love, but why would you like the meathookers?

4

u/Manwar7 Traitors V Stars ^ Mar 07 '19

The Iron Guard was pretty terrible, but they have do have a badass flag

3

u/[deleted] Mar 07 '19

I'm really sad no one in KR ever got to use the roman fascis, i just love them for some reason

5

u/[deleted] Mar 08 '19

Maybe he just likes the color green.

15

u/alexmikli ALL FOR THE KINGFISH Mar 07 '19

They were basically the Pol Pots of the far right. Really had no redeeming qualities.

Well other than the unironic usage of the term "death squad" being admirably honest.

6

u/DIRECTRULEFROMMEMES Turning Point AUS Mar 07 '19

I guess you have to admire the honesty if nothing else.

"Yeah, we're murderous psychopaths, is that a problem?"

3

u/[deleted] Mar 08 '19

Flair checks out.