Gavril Olteanu (1888–1946) was a leader of a

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

paramilitary A paramilitary is a military that is not a part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the use of the term "paramilitary" as far back as 1934. Overview Though a paramilitary is, by definiti ...

militia A militia ( ) is a military or paramilitary force that comprises civilian members, as opposed to a professional standing army of regular, full-time military personnel. Militias may be raised in times of need to support regular troops or se ...

group, part of the Maniu Guards during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, which became notorious for the killing and deportation of ethnic

Hungarians Hungarians, also known as Magyars, are an Ethnicity, ethnic group native to Hungary (), who share a common Culture of Hungary, culture, Hungarian language, language and History of Hungary, history. They also have a notable presence in former pa ...

Transylvania Transylvania ( or ; ; or ; Transylvanian Saxon dialect, Transylvanian Saxon: ''Siweberjen'') is a List of historical regions of Central Europe, historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and ...

. Olteanu was born in

Târgu Mureș Târgu Mureș (, ; ; German language, German: ''Neumarkt am Mieresch'') is the seat of Mureș County in the historical region of Transylvania, Romania. It is the list of cities and towns in Romania, 16th-largest city in Romania, with 116,033 ...

(Marosvásárhely),

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...

in 1888. After

Northern Transylvania Northern Transylvania (, ) was the region of the Kingdom of Romania that during World War II, as a consequence of the August 1940 territorial agreement known as the Second Vienna Award, became part of the Kingdom of Hungary (1920-1946), Kingdom ...

was ceded by Romania to

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

in 1940, as a result of the Second Vienna Award, he moved to

Brașov Brașov (, , ; , also ''Brasau''; ; ; Transylvanian Saxon dialect, Transylvanian Saxon: ''Kruhnen'') is a city in Transylvania, Romania and the county seat (i.e. administrative centre) of Brașov County. According to the 2021 Romanian census, ...

, where he took command of a paramilitary unit of the

Iron Guard The Iron Guard () was a Romanian militant revolutionary nationalism, revolutionary Clerical fascism, religious fascist Political movement, movement and political party founded in 1927 by Corneliu Zelea Codreanu as the Legion of the Archangel M ...

. During

, this unit was active in Trei Scaune, Ciuc, Odorhei, and Mureș counties. Following

King Michael's Coup King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a constitutional monarch if his power is restrained by ...

of 23 August 1944, Romania switched allegiance from the

Axis powers The Axis powers, originally called the Rome–Berlin Axis and also Rome–Berlin–Tokyo Axis, was the military coalition which initiated World War II and fought against the Allies of World War II, Allies. Its principal members were Nazi Ge ...

to the Allies. In early September, Soviet and Romanian forces entered Transylvania, captured the towns of Brașov and

Sibiu Sibiu ( , , , Hungarian: ''Nagyszeben'', , Transylvanian Saxon: ''Härmeschtat'' or ''Hermestatt'') is a city in central Romania, situated in the historical region of Transylvania. Located some north-west of Bucharest, the city straddles th ...

, and engaged units of the Hungarian 2nd Army and the German 8th Army at the Battle of Turda. On 26 September 1944, in reprisals against attacks on Romanian troops by the local population, members of the paramilitary Maniu Guard led by Olteanu massacred a number of Hungarian civilians in Aita Seacă village; 9 were shot, 2 decapitated, and 2 later died of their wounds. Other such incidents occurred in Sândominic, Huedin, Aghireș, and other localities around Transylvania. At the request of Soviet representatives Deputy Foreign Minister

Andrey Vyshinsky Andrey Yanuaryevich Vyshinsky (; ) ( – 22 November 1954) was a Soviet politician, jurist and diplomat. He is best known as a Procurator General of the Soviet Union, state prosecutor of Joseph Stalin's Moscow Trials and in the Nuremberg trial ...

and Vladislav Petrovich Vinogradov on behalf of the Allied Control Commission,Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (AMFA), note nr. V 120 from November 12, 1944 Romanian authorities disbanded the Maniu Guard, arrested Olteanu, and sentenced him to imprisonment. He died at Aiud Prison in late 1946; some sources claim he was murdered, while others claim that he committed suicide by ingesting

strychnine Strychnine (, , American English, US chiefly ) is a highly toxicity, toxic, colorless, bitter, crystalline alkaloid used as a pesticide, particularly for killing small vertebrates such as birds and rodents. Strychnine, when inhaled, swallowed, ...

Notes

External links

Atrocities against Hungarians p30-32

Chronicle of Cruelties pp80-85

Romania and Transylvania in the 20th Century, Ildikó Lipcsey p54
{{DEFAULTSORT:Olteanu, Gavril 1888 births 1946 deaths Anti-Hungarian sentiment in Romania Mass murderers Romanian military personnel of World War II Inmates of Aiud prison Members of the Iron Guard People from Târgu Mureș Romanian collaborators with Nazi Germany Romanian people who died in prison custody Romanian war criminals Prisoners who died in Romanian detention