DRUMET IN CALEA LUPILOR
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Pilgrim in the path of the wolves
-Hello? Hello?
Hello, who is it?
-It’s no one, dear. No one.
-We have been hearing for a while now,
that Bucharest
should place itself in the realm of reality,
by drawing inspiration from the ideas
of our age.
Otherwise, history would soon fall
with all its weight on Romania.
Count Csaki, the Foreign Minister
of Mr. Horthy,
claims that in such a way the relationship
with us would
….”cleanse” itself.
Let's speak our mind, leaving behind the
ostrich-like policy.
Here it is what a historian replies to
this triple summoning:
the reality regarding Transilvania
is the great Romanian majority
in the mountainous lands;
ones that Romania owns,
by paying for them with the lives
of 800.000 people!
The ideas of our age, for witty people,
are each nation’s right to live
in the land that they’ve been working
for centuries.
As for how heavily history
befalls upon nations
is showed by the entire process of irreversible
destruction of supranationalist Hungary,
which became a national state, with whom,
just as with the Hungarians from our lands,
we wish to live in perfect kindness!
Regardless of how much people who forget their
responsibilities might play around with words.
What frightens people today,
more than even the most flawless
weapon of mass destruction,
is the great corruption of ideas.
Of the most archaic, valuable
and sacred ideas of humanity.
Generations in a row sacrificed themselves
for the national identity,
whose formula remained the very
same for centuries:
To set free in order to educate and
rise above.
The good, archaic beliefs of humanity,
however, have been corrupted by
individuals lacking any sort of spirit and
moral restraint, who try to deceive
millions of people, by throwing ideological
nonsense in their face!
Comrade Boeru:
Two in eight, two in nine, one in ten.
Comrade Tucan:
One in eight, three in nine, one in ten.
Comrade Dacu:
One in eight, one in nine, two in ten,
One out.
Comrade Vioreanu:
One in eight, one in nine, three in ten.
Very well.
Comrade Iacobuță:
Two in seven, one in nine,
Two out.
Your hand is quite shaky, comrade Ștefan.
Let's see whose hand would shake if we were
to have the right target instead of this one.
And look how a German philosopher
pertaining to an economic policy
that has long deviated from its path, lectures
us about the requirements of geo-politics.
This insulting theory, just as the
racial matter,
makes its way dangerously
through politics and war.
No one can refute a nation’s right
to have its own state,
to dominate it freely and independently,
while growing inside its natural boundaries.
Nonetheless, it has been put forward
once again,
by those that want to justify
the march of their predatory armies
that never belonged to them, the
geo-political theory out of which
the hegemonic ethos of the vital
space emerged.
The sacred formula is simple: you are a
small nation,
of inferior agriculture, you obey a big
vehicle-manufacturer state,
but one which, what can you do, is hungry.
And as the state cannot appease its hunger
at home, from that moment on,
you are part of its vital space.
From where you are no longer allowed
to escape.
Any sales convention of your agricultural
products,
just like the creation of new industries,
will be utterly forbidden.
You will receive at once a strict
control over production.
- But, this, professor, is pure political
annexation.
Exactly.
For someone to obey such a doctrine
is to validate any type of forceful action
that could unleash upon us as well.
These theories have never been and
cannot be praised in this country,
whose traditions and interests are
completely against them.
And we shall never praise
those that dare preach
or represent these theories.
- One moment, Professor!
Just one remark- you are forgetting an
essential aspect:
why do you not mention anything about
Haushofer’s geo-politics,
which we know has radicalized the
ideas of Friederich Gratzel,
by asserting as clear as possible:
“Territory is not only the vehicle of power,
it is power itself.”
-Mr….student
-Vioreanu!
-Yes. Mihai Vioreanu.
3rd Year, 2nd Group.
Setting aside the audacity of your
interference,
I shall remind you something that we
have debated together more than once,
both in our lectures and seminars.
To believe that someone can revive
the old imperials is an illusion.
In whatever form it might have had
once upon a time.
Much less will it last in its new
cover of imperialism
of a superior nation,
as its followers, fanatic disciples of a
Haushofer, Gratzel,
or Mackinder travel today all Europe in
tiny steps, treading under their boots
and under the rattling tracks of their tanks
on both nations and territories!
- For Germany, the vital space
represents today
more than a doctrine!
Lebensraum has become a binding word,
in the name of which a nation of a
superior race,
defeated and humiliated in the last war,
has now plunged into life again.
-To life through death, dear student?
Our colleague forgot, professor,
that this radicalist of vital spaces,
Karl Haushofer,
was a Brigade General, during the ‘914 war.
And as a historian, he did nothing more
than the political solipsism of aggression
and of territorial annexations,
mixing in a rather dubious manner
geography with racial mysticism.
We understood and we adhered without
reserve to this one-of-a-kind way
of understanding and interpreting history.
Be aware, gentlemen, that by “we” you
are exclusively engaging yourselves,
and certainly not the Romanian nation.
- Please don’t tell us it's you who’s
engaging it!
- As if you are the apostle of the people!
- Shame on you! Get out!
-I have asked you a thousand times,
Delia, stop meddling!
-I begged you!
Do you not understand you are playing
with fire?
What came onto you to make a scene
during a public discussion?
Make me understand.
Do you not realize you are compromising
my prestige?
You put me in a situation highly…towards…
-Towards who, Mihai?
-Towards a bunch of bullies?
-Delia!
-At odds with the most elementary norms
of education and respect.
- Please be careful with your words. They
are legionnaires, they are comrades!
- They are hooligans!
-Delia!
-Whose only pleasure was to mock
an entire amphitheatre!
- I don’t understand!
-And since when have you become their
spokesperson?
-That’s none of your business!
- How could you not be ashamed to interrupt
Professor Iorga with all sort of nonsense,
in front of hundreds of people?
-In the meantime, I see that you’ve started
making a united front
with one like Trandafirescu!
And others of his sort! Whose communist
views are
well known by the entire faculty!
-Mihai, don’t be a fool. Forgive me.
You know what Professor Iorga once said:
that “Fool is not the one that
misunderstands certain things,
but the one that understands
everything backwards.”
I didn’t make a united front with anyone,
but my own common sense.
Anyone in good faith
needs nothing more to understand just
how absurd the theories with which
Her Hitler justifies burning down all of
Europe really are.
And elates the souls of millions
of youngsters.
To whom he put on their chests the swastika
instead of their registered school number.
That is what the professor was
talking about.
I hope you won’t ask me to make a united
front with your comrades.
-You can make a united front with
whomever you want!
But bear in mind one single thing:
the legionnaire vengeance shall spare
no one.
The legionnaire punishment is… a religion!
A sacred ideal! Order must be made!
A new order!
-So you are threatening me…Mihai.
-This one for the first, Mr. Panait.
One second, please.
“The easiest thing nowadays is
to destroy a state.”
Write it down, please.
“An entire European generation,
intellectuals and illiterate,
good and bad collapse together,
burning in the withering flames
of the most flawless killing machines.
Demonic, apocalyptic beings jubilate
while beneath the dark clouds of war fall,
one at a time,
state after state and nations are
being enslaved.
-Professor!
The work of myriads of
workers is being sunk in the depths.
Entire cities are turned to ashes.
For the moment, triumphant shall be the
one who will occupy the most territories,
the one that will destroy more works
of civilization
and who will kill more people.
-Professor!
-And after the totalitarian, utter and
universal victory, what happens?
-The Germans have occupied Paris.
-Impossible.
Paris was declared an open city.
-Those who will not stay away, will be pushed
aside! Without mercy!
The Legion is the only party in this moment,
that set the goal of breaking history
into two,
by making its own way towards governing!
With the sword in hand!
With its spiritual ardor, taken all the way
up to self sacrifice,
it will eventually light up the flame
of a terrible vengeance!
Especially in the conscience of the youth!
No one, among those who have refuted
the ideal
or those who have stood in the way
of the legionnaire victory,
no one shall remain unpunished.
-You are lying to yourselves, Mihai! This
conscience that you mention,
is not like modelling clay, for just anyone to
shape and colour it
according to the form and colour of
the moment.
You are not talking to an
ignorant, you know!
I do also know the metaphysical and
theological theories of the Romanian destiny,
thrown away by Mr. Nae Ionescu,
the mentor and Demiurge of The Captain,
if I am not mistaken.
I have also read those booklets for
legionnaires and
their chiefs. You gave them to me.
-I gave them to you in vain. You
understood nothing.
-Think what you want.
What I do not understand is how come
you view your ideal as being the solely
valid and possible.
In the name of which you arrange
the future of an entire nation!
I do not believe that someone can
convince a nation
of its good intentions with the sword
in his hand.
-Delia!
-Imitating the mystic heroism of
Michael The Archangel.
-Look, Delia!
There are a few things that I cannot
explain for the moment .
I cannot. I am not allowed.
You shall understand perhaps one day.
Just keep your opinions to yourself.
You know only too well that Professor
Iorga is
one of the most feared enemies
of the Legion.
Look, I’m not asking you to fully
agree with me,
but once again: if you do not calm down,
you are putting my life at risk.
-Take these photos and dry them up. Take
them to Professor Iorga, at the typography.
At the “Neamul Românesc”.
Go on, move, they have to get there urgently,
before the printing of the newspaper.
-So, Mr. Ordăneanu, the virtuous Horia Sima,
who barely returned from Germany
a month ago,
is honoring His Majesty with his presence
for the second time. Hmm…
Radio Stuttgart lost its Romanian
newscaster,
and in turn, we are stuck with a
new dignitary.
Precisely, Professor. His Majesty practically
opened up his way to the Government.
Since a few hours ago, the new Undersecretary
of State for National Education
is one and the same as the leader of the
Legionnaire Movement.
The Trojan Horse of the German comrades
is in the fortress.
I don’t understand anything anymore.
-The donkey ears of this Trojan Horse have
been noticeable for quite a while now.
- Let us be careful, professor, let us
be careful.
These legionnaires are vengeful.
Let’s absurdly assume they could take the
power. Can you imagine?
-That is exactly what they are dreaming
to do, take the power with foreign help.
Similar cases have been seen in history.
They struggle to bewilder people with
the ancestor glory
and with a country like the holy
sun on the sky,
but they work in the shadows, for interests
that are unfavorable for the nation.
I know them all too well.
-Be careful, Professor. You have confronted
them in numerous occasions
and have remained for them one of their
most feared enemy.
You have to be careful.
For me, Mr. Ordăreanu, it has been pouring
down with threat letters for a long time.
Codreanu’s people have been going
behind my back for years.
They even prepared about two death
sentences for me until now.
-Professor, let’s not forget, that ever
since Homer,
vengeance is sweeter than the honey
of the Gods.
-Mr. Iorga, I invited you, under the
pressure of this serious,
even crucial moment we are all living.
We would like to use the great popularity
that you have throughout the country
and which even a crowned head envies.
It is only right to calm spirits down.
-Your Majesty, whatever influence I might have
fades away when I end up being a colleague,
that is through Your Majesty’s will,
with an outlaw.
It would mean betraying myself.
-I am not asking, Mr. Iorga, to deny
everything you have believed in and fought for,
both in writing and as an unrivaled
orator, for a lifetime.
Nonetheless, I want to try a reconciliation
with the Iron Guard
that we began ever since the end of May,
by accepting Sima’s visit.
I have to eliminate this animosity between
the Royal Court and the legionnaires,
in order to get rid of the endless
threat of Germany.
I want to use them like antibodies,
with which to block the action of microbes.
-Antibodies have a positive role in the
system, Your Majesty,
whereas The Iron Guard has always had a
negative role in the social organism,
bringing about anarchy, political
assassinate...even military takeover.
-That is right.
-Your aversion to the Guard is very
well known to us, Mr. Iorga.
However I still believe that we can ask,
even claim of you, to support our try,
maybe desperate as a solution, to
overthrow the traditional alliances.
The only one for us at this moment.
-The alliances of traditional parties were
overthrown practically by themselves, Majesty.
I do not think that through a reconciliation
with the legionnaires, with people of crime
and who do not respect the public order
of the state,
Your Highness will be able to bring about
a change in the desired direction.
Barely have the signatures we forcibly
laid on the Oelvafum Pact dried out.
Germany would like our petrol, cereals,
and timber, for practically nothing
and we are supposed to enter into
a new treaty?
With the legionnaires? You mean with the
devil.
-Yes.
I admit and I sadly accept, Professor
that you are the anvil on which many
arguments wear off.
-I can have nothing in common with
the legionnaires,
who work through nothing but
crime and terror since they appeared,
making their way to power under the
protection of a foreign flag,
one stained with blood.
That is why even their hatred or
their appreciation are indifferent to me.
-Perhaps you are scared, Mr. Iorga.
-Your Majesty, I am scared of being scared.
-And I am scared of not having courage. I
decided though a modus vivendi with the Guard.
I know what you will say, along with all
those that have even planned my own death,
under a foreign order.
But history is written with edge of the
sword, even when you thrust it in the sheath.
And after all, one who cannot have vultures
needs to settle with sparrows, too.
-Nowise, Your Majesty!
History is not written with only blood or
sword, still in the sheath.
It would be too simple.
History teaches us that the greater guilt
belongs to the one who did not deter,
then to the one who acted.
That is history, Your Majesty. Each and every
one remains the prisoner of his own destiny.
-Special edition! King Carol's abdication!
Event of the day! The King's abdication!
-Good afternoon, pop Tomiță! What
are the news?
-Nothing new, miss Alina.
Mr. Professor used to receive newspapers
and letters from all the countries.
But now…not so much.
Here!
-Is this all?
-I'm sorry. This is all.
Take a look at that, it has no sender.
As if it’s from no one.
I think the professor received something
like this last week as well.
-How many times has it been, lately?
-“Mr. Iorga, in its path and even further
on towards the sacred legionnaire goal…
…The Iron Guard is not deterred by anyone,
no one and nothing.
We have always considered your
actions against the legion
as being against the country.
For all that you have done, written
and uttered against us,
we consider you a traitor.
We advise you to keep quiet and
wherever you are to hide away.
Otherwise, the death team
number…”
-I think we should let the general know.
Or at least respond in some way.
- I do not owe any explanations to some
troubled, frenetic or bewitched people,
whose logic is at the level of spelling.
-The victory of The Iron Guard arrived
to Romania!
The victory of imperialist agents against
the Romanian people arrived!
The regime of the military-guard dictatorship,
one brought at calls from Berlin,
is putting the Romanian people under
the yoke of Hitler.
The exploitation of workers and peasants
is becoming harsher.
Wages have not increased at all, compared
to the constantly rising prices,
the lack of food is felt more and more
due to the export
of all our products to Hitler’s Germany.
Land was not and will not be given
to peasants.
After countless mendacious denials,
the military-guard dictatorship is today
insolently and boldly
admitting the presence of German troops
and Hitler’s officers in Romania.
Here's the national freedom promised by
the nationalists of The Iron Guard.
-You would not say, Mr. Colonel, that the
French don’t have good things as well.
When cognac, perfumes and cheese
are concerned,
few people venture to compete with them.
Speaking of which, have you ever
been to France?
-Yes, in my youth. As a student at the
Polytechnic University.
But I left Paris with a rather bitter taste.
It is bizarre how in such a beautiful city,
the people have so little respect for
discipline.
As if all the splendors gathered
there would have came out of chaos,
and not rigor and systematic spirit.
-Let’s hope that now, the French…
will come to a real understanding of
these precepts of civilization.
Surely the Fuhrer will convincingly set upon
France as well, this spirit of new order
with which he ventured to reel
the whole Europe.
-Unfortunately, Mr. Sima, we worriedly
notice that this very spirit
is not welcomed at all here, in Romania.
-Berlin is quite alarmed, particularly by
the fact that the population is showing
an outright anti-German attitude.
There appear all kinds of defamatory
and slanderous rags,
especially in the working factories.
And the sabotages have started to
come in a row.
-As far as we, the Legion, are concerned,
I assure you, Mr. Colonel,
that we are doing everything in our power
to direct the country towards a common path.
Formerly, it was said that if Paris had
a runny nose, then Bucharest would sneeze.
Today, if Bucharest has a migraine, then
neither Berlin can sleep.
Our Legionnaire Police has received
unlimited power,
regarding any type of manifestations
hostile towards the Reich.
But once we shall have all the power
in our hands,
you will be able to assure Berlin that
with regards to Romania,
it can rest at ease.
-You can hasten the process.
We know that you have a lot of
enemies, some still very powerful.
We have managed to gather a great deal
of them. At Jilava.
We’re not actually keeping our hands
in our pockets, Mr. Colonel.
Our patience has a limit.
Do you know the poem “Confessions”
by Heine?
Heine...He was an unhappy poet,
quite interesting.
Shame he was a Jew.
Well, Mr. Colonel, please pass on the message
to Berlin that we, here,
we shall be more than the sea water from
the poem of this poor poet.
We'll erase not only the writing on the beach
sand, but also the thought that dictated it.
We will quite soon adopt a final solution,
as the Fuhrer would say.
-The final solution?
The total solution, Mr. Sima, if you wish to
correctly cite the Fuhrer.
It was the only solution by which he
managed to admirably solve,
at the right time, the R case, and not
just that one.
-Good morning, pop Tomiță!
-Good morning!
-What good news do you have?
-Good? Just newspapers, Miss Alina.
Newspapers.
-By roughly commenting the visit of
General Antonescu in Berlin,
the German press is outlining among others:
“ The Romanian leader’s visit had both
a political and spiritual aspect to it.”
Romania’s framing into the Axis system
is a great success
for Germany and Italy.
The ties between Nationalist Germany
and Legionnaire Romania
shall never be broken.
-This is Radio Romania.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are now
airing choruses of Wagner’s work.
-Mihai, turn off the radio!
-Mihai, please!
-Mihai, I have to study.
You have been listening since this morning
only choruses and the same news bulletin.
-Remember Tănase’s old saying, Catinco.
Did we sell the petrol? Yes, we did.
Did we sell the wheat? Yes, we did.
Now look, they sold the entire country
to the Axis.
-And?
And what have we accomplished with that?
-Whoever said that Jupiter first takes
away the minds
of those he wants to get rid of,
was right.
-Comrade Caranica!
-Here!
-Comrade Terimace!
-Here!
-Comrade Sterie Ciumeti!
-Here!
-Comrade Bozântan!
-Here!
-Comrade State!
-Here!
-Comrade Moța!
-Here!
-Comrade Marin!
-Here!
-Comrade Codreanu!
-Here!
-Attention!
-Comrades, after the brilliant victory of
September 6,
the legionnaire movement took a decisive
step in the path of The Captain.
Never was the legion stronger,
never did it walk more boldly in its
unbridled march towards total victory.
Towards the fulfillment of its supreme ideal,
to which The Captain died dreaming about.
Today, ours souls demand vengeance.
Any indulgency, any weakness, any hesitation
towards those still working and plotting
against our sacred cause,
means betraying the movement.
The engagement with death frightens us not,
because the sacrifice of each legionnaire
entails the total victory of
our movement.
The dead, they look upon us and they judge.
The Nicadors, The Decemvirs!
Their blood sacrifice demands sacrifice.
The Captain said:
“The Legionnaire Movement is a school
of the ceaseless fight
against those that are restlessly trying to
compromise its existence.
A school in which if one enters a man,
he has to come out a legionnaire hero! “
-Comrades, we can no longer wait for
justice to be made by a... drained system.
A blind one! Drowned in the formalism
of paragraphs.
This is unacceptable!
We need to clean up the mess.
Wound to wound, pain to pain,
torment to torment,
grave to grave.
That is how we have conquered so far.
That is how we shall win.
“Our patience will one day come to an end!”
said the Captain.
Let it end, we say! The day has come!!!
I have ordered the drawing up of a list
of all those guilty of conspiracy,
persecution and crimes, against The Legion.
You shall receive precise duties
to carry out.
From the darkness of the graves of so
many martyrs of The Legion,
taken down by those who have
also killed The Captain.
Let us unbury the sacred law of vengeance.
-Yes, please!
- Please pass me on to the chief.
Urgently, miss, urgently!
-But who’s looking for him?
Hello?
-Hello?
-The Student. The Student, that’s all.
-Wait.
-Mr. Colonel, the urgency of the matter
led me to ask
for this meeting.
The start of several simultaneous
actions can occur
at any moment now.
-Yes, I have long known that Sima and
his folks will not stop
until they have total power in
their hands.
They have been drawing up black lists
for months, threatening and arresting people.
They have even managed to obtain the
alteration of prisons’ regulations,
only to have all their enemies in one place.
At Jilava, go figure!
A prison guarded by only the army.
-For me, Colonel, Jilava seems more like
a slaughter-house.
Most of the prisoners are there without
any legal procedures of arrest.
Even more, in spite of all the law suits
that
the legionnaires claim they want
to speed up,
lawyers and even relatives of those
imprisoned are prevented from
having contact with the latter.
Or they obtain them following several
absurd interventions and overrides.
When you look for the Prefect Zăvuianu,
he is at Jilava.
Simply encouraging this situation.
-I know, Mihai, I know that all too well.
The guilt or innocence of each one
for the death of The Captain and of others,
as well as for the legionnaire persecution
under King Carol II, shall be established.
With evidence, witnesses.
There is also a commission of investigation.
-Do you imagine that The Legion will
declare itself satisfied
with the conclusions offered by
the commission?
Let’s be serious.
Pardon me.
But while now, his former Majesty,
King Carol II,
has beat it out of the country with a
train coach filled with
all you can imagine, and is now walking miss
Lupescu through Europe,
the number of death teams has risen to 91.
And General Antonescu believes that
these 91 formations,
of legionnaire elite, standards of hunger
for vengeance,
will wait or be satisfied
with the conclusions of this commission?
One that is in their way anyhow ever
since it was created?
It is a pity that the leader
of the Legion in the Govern and the General
are both in the same shirt, quite difficult…
The only solution would be flagrant crime.
-Precisely so that no one can
prevent their plan.
All the death teams have been alerted.
This flagrant crime you are talking about
could mean tens of human lives.
A death pool at a national scale.
-What’s up with them, Mr. Cutinel?
What could they be doing there at this hour?
-The hell I know, Dimitri. They’ve been
digging ever since this morning.
-They want to unbury those bones,
that the captain talked about.
And of the others buried with him.
When I started my shift, they had
reached a big concrete board.
I heard that after they find the bones,
they want to carry them on the
streets of Bucharest.
With masked horses, and then they
wanna burry them again,
at their green house.
-But, what captain was’ e?
That they buried him all the way here next
to the jail?
Cuz there was talk around us, but
I didn’t know that he was military.
-That’s what they called him, because he was in
charge, not because he was an important figure.
The Germans called Hitler “Fuhrer”, the
Italians called Mussolini “The Duke”,
the legionnaires called Codreanu
“The Captain”.
Had things been different, he would've long
destroyed the entire machinery of the country.
In the meantime, I see that they still got
where they wanted to.
If even General Antonescu put on their shirt,
what more do you want…
Each one dresses to his own liking,
Pavel boy.
Why didn’t we wear it?
Or Dumitru? Or others?
-Hello? Hello?
-Yes…
-Comrade Vioreanu.
-Yes...
-Comrade Vioreanu.
-Comrade Vioreanu…
-Be ready in five minutes! We’re leaving on
mission. Civilian attire.
-Hello? Hello?!
-Mihai, who is it?
-Good morning, Tomiță!
What’s the matter, something wrong?
-Good morning, professor. Although to be
honest, it ain’t good at all.
-Oh my. How come?
Wait, wait, take a seat.
Here are the stamps for your boy.
I promised that I’ll collect more for
him. There are even two from Australia.
A couple from Argentina, a few from America,
the rest, there’s all of Europe
in the envelope.
-Mr. Professor…
-I hope the lad is alright. As far as I
know, he’s home, no longer in the hospital.
Thank you, he is alright. This isn't about
him. I wanted to tell you something else.
A few hours ago, when the sun had barely
rose,
I woke up home with one of my
brothers in law.
He’s my sister’s man, who works
at the constable post in Azuga.
Mr. Professor, the situation in
Bucharest is terrible.
He quickly came to tell us to be careful
what we say and to whom we talk to.
Last night in Jilava the legionnaires
really blundered.
All the constable posts in the country
have been alerted.
He says they shot some in other parts,
too, but their number is uncertain.
They are set on doing the worse, Mr. Professor.
That’s why I came now to tell you.
So that you know.
-So, a night of the long knives,
perfectly planned
after the example of the Berlin comrades.
So many people…
-Father…
-An entire nation at the mercy
of some maniacs of crime.
-Father, we all ask of you!
You have to do something!
To leave. At least for a while.
As mother and so many others say.
Until things calm down.
Because this cannot possibly last.
-It would mean running away. Deserting.
-Please, forgive me. But you are no longer
writing at the newspapers, nor talking on
the radio, or speaking to students.
Don’t mind my saying, but when
you look from outside
at your window, the curtain waves
like a white flag.
As if you’ve surrendered.
-Are we going to the mountains?
-Yes.
-Weren’t we supposed to get back?
-We’re going to Sinaia.
To take a breath of fresh air.
I’ve been waiting for this trip for
so long….
-Excuse me?
Who are you?
-Good day, Madam. Please apologize coming in
like this, but the door was open.
-Yes. I think my daughter left it like this.
She is out for a walk.
What is it that you want?
-We are the legionnaire police, Madam.
We are sorry, but…we are forced to
disturb professor Iorga.
-He cannot receive you.
He is ill.
-Ill? But he has to see us.
We are here to invite him to Bucharest in
order to make a statement.
in a very important investigation.
-Father, what’s the matter? Where
are you going?
-These gentlemen here are taking me
to Bucharest for a statement.
-What statement?
-An important one. I will be back
tonight.
-Probably. If we hurry up.
-Why can’t he make the statement here?
Since you already bothered to come here.
-It is not just a mere statement, miss.
It is also a questioning regarding
The Captain’s trial.
The professor’s presence is
mandatory.
-You are taking my father to
Bucharest for the investigation?
Father, how can you allow this?
-Alina, please.
-This way, professor.
We are leaving.
-Thank you.
I usually travel in the front seat.
-One moment! I forgot my hat,
I will be right back.
I’ll accompany you, miss.
I’ll be right back.
-Go see what they want!
-Sir, how dare you treat my daughter
like this?
-Madam, please forgive me,
but this is neither the time, nor the
place for me to explain too much.
As soon as we leave, do not waste
a second, call Bucharest
and ask for the President of The
Counsel of Ministers.
-What?!
-The chamber of the Undersecretary for
Foreign Affairs, colonel Rioșeanu.
Remember Madam, Rioșeanu.
Tell him everything that happened
here and all you’ve been told.
Don’t forget to say the exact time
we left for Bucharest.
-What’s all this, Mr. Zăvoianu? I’ve been
reported that since this morning
people grouped in legionnaire teams
have been haunting the capital, going crazy.
Trespassing homes, arresting former dignitaries,
all this in the name of the police.
Whose prefect, if I’m not mistaken, you
have the great honor of being.
I have been told that professor Madgearu
was found shot to death
in the woods of Snagov.
-I know nothing about it, Mr. Colonel.
-How not?! Just now I found out that
professor Iorga was too taken from his home
in Sinaia.
-Mr. Undersecretary of State…
-Mr. Zăvoianu, if this scandal does not end,
I will, right now, walk in on the General
in full Government meeting
and take the guard regiment out
into the streets.
-Get moving, Sir!
-Here’s Ploiești! We are unable to find
Mr. Horia Sima.
No one knows anything about him. Wherever
we called: they have no idea.
What are your orders?
-Keep searching, what do you mean what are
my orders? We must reach him.
-Hello? Stănescu.
-Yes, Mr. Undersecretary.
-Double all posts in the county at once.
Pay attention to the areas of Sinaia,
Brașov,
Câmpina, Ploiești.
-I’ve been told from Sinaia that
professor Iorga
was taken from his home.
Dispatch all the active teams that
you have on route.
-Comrade Victor, take with you Tomescu
and comrade Dacu and go down to
the city hall.
Remain there and standby.
Keep yourselves busy so that you
don’t appear to be fiddling around.
Rioșeanu is no man to stand idly by.
I am sure that he already alerted his
“pack of wolves.” But any team, any patrol
first stops at the city hall.
-Understood.
-As soon as they arrive, send
comrade Boeru over.
-Iacobuță, tell him to put the car in
the garage next to mine.
And to keep an eye in the area.
-Tomescu, take care of my driver.
-He’s in the kitchen, helping my wife.
-If anyone shows up, you let us
know immediately.
-Understood.
-In any case, you get rid of whomever.
-Got it.
-Do it.
-Nastisio, we have things to do. I am
going to the city hall.
You listen well on the other side. Maybe
they need something.
If you have to, send the little
one to get me.
Careful, it’s not every day that the
chief of the legion crosses our doorstep.
-Had we known before. And where do
you want me to send the little one?
Can’t you see the state he’s in?
-Stay in the car, Mr. Iorga.
-He asked nothing.
He didn’t fight back.
He didn’t utter a single word all the way.
To be honest, comrade Horia,
even in the situation he is in, and of
which he is well aware,
because he is no ignorant, this man
continues to defy us.
To ignore us.
I would have stopped the car at the
first corner in the woods
and unloaded my gun in his neck.
-Simple, comrade Boeru. Simple as that.
Too simple.
-In this way, his elimination would’ve
been far from revenge,
but a sort of…reward.
For how many years has Mr. Iorga
been tormenting us?
Who fought against us, who humiliated us?
Who decapitated our Legion, by
denouncing Codreanu
to the Court?
Professor Iorga !
He couldn’t rest until, together with
others, he turned Carol
against us too!
But he will be able to rest.
Soon, he will.
But not now!
He needs to account for his actions in
front of the entire Legion.
Proofs? We have enough of them.
He needs to be humiliated. Brought down
to his knees. Morally torn apart.
For everyone to know.
The rest…
-I say his place was still in Jilava.
-Perhaps. But his arrest would have
stirred things up
much more than the others’s did
all together.
There could have even been the risk of
losing control of all.
We have decided to interrupt for a
while your trip
to Bucharest.
For safety reasons.
We cannot risk anything happening to you.
I was informed that all kinds of cars have
started running on the streets.
With unknown individuals.
Also, all sort of patrols.
And you know how it is, you never know
when some untrained soldier
unexpectedly pulls out his gun.
Without warning.
That was the way they said things happened
with the Captain as well, wasn’t it?
No?
Well, we do not want any remorse.
-Interesting.
Your care for me is touching.
-However Voltaire used to say that
people never feel remorse
for things that are in their nature to do.
To be honest, I prefer a German proverb:
"Wegen der Spatzen, muss mann dies at,
nicht aufgeben."
The French have it too:
“One needs not give up on sowing the field,
because of sparrows.”
-What were you working on, Mr. Iorga, when
we had to interrupt you?
-I was working.
I was correcting the galley proofs
of a book.
A universal history I began a while back.
-And at which point have you got
with history?
- History always gets to where it is
supposed to all by itself, Sir.
As for me, I have arrived to the point
of Persians.
At Darius and his vast military campaigns.
Military expeditions, which are, at
any rate, much less atrocious
than the ones happening today.
-From a moral point of view, throughout
history, monstrosity
is absolutely interpretable.
It depends on who and what it refers to,
the one that is referring.
You cannot necessarily qualify a military
expedition as an….atrocious historical act,
without considering the causes.
And the nature of the final goal.
-A military expedition through which
frontiers are breached,
territories are annexed and nations
are enslaved,
can’t possibly have anything
interpretable, Sir.
The cause and the final goal can only
be as monstrous
as the act of aggression itself.
And in history two things are important:
to understand it as development, and
to judge, love
or spiritually condemn those that
have really played a part
in history, to treat them as living
human beings.
-If I understand correctly, you actually
consider yourself,
a living historical figure.
-That’s not for me to decide. The supreme
authority will. Posterity.
-Was that what you were thinking when
The Captain was killed?
-In order to live the life one was given,
one has to deserve it.
At every moment!
Through one’s actions!
By betraying his people, Codreanu
betrayed his own life.
And he paid the price!
-Perfect! Except that now, the day for
others to pay as well has come.
The due date.
-Wait! Wait! Wait!
What is intriguing about you, and always
has been, Mr. Iorga,
is the rigidness of your reasoning.
Of your judgement.
-I don’t understand!
I don’t understand how in your case,
intransigence and intelligence go together.
Let’s assume that for you history holds
no more secrets.
That it’s like an open book.
Admitting thus, that you can predict,
as in a chess game
even the subsequent moves…
How come you are here now…
HERE, in this situation?
-He couldn’t understand the present,
let alone foresee the future.
-A man who has dedicated his entire
life to history,
cannot understand its mechanism?
Or at least can’t decipher its current
meaning?
-You are a victim of history, Mr. Iorga.
-Do you follow?
-I am no soothsayer, Sir. I am
not Mafalda, the fortune teller.
I am a laborer of history.
And besides, after the furious madmen
and the maniacs of brutality
showed up as heads of states, no one
can anticipate anything anymore.
-However, you could’ve anticipated your
sentence.
You cannot complain that we
haven’t warned you.
Every time you gave us the chance,
we wrote to you.
Unfortunately, too much wasted ink.
So here we are, finally, at the end of
a road, so very lengthy.
-The long road begins at the point
where you have grown tired, Dear Sir.
When each can only rely on only what
he himself has,
one on strength, another on spirit,
and the spirit is eternal.
Whereas strength is ephemeral.
Or sometimes, it depends on an ounce of
luck, but even this luck...
can only hold for so long.
Because the spirit numbed or paralyzed by
the force of a nation,
can wake up to life when you
least expect it.
In the meantime, Mr. Iorga, after he
provoked the public opinion for so long,
the Government and even the Royal Court
with a raging hatred against the Legion,
throwing at us epithets like assassins,
traitors, filthy shirts,
spies sold to The Third Reich,
animals, illiterates, illiterates! etc. etc.
In the meantime, your luck has pretty
much come to an end.
You shouldn’t have forgotten that one day,
the series of punishments will arrive.
And the list has not yet been finished.
The Captain said it clearly in the chamber.
Viorel, you were Prime-Minister in the
Government, what did The Captain say?
-The Captain said:
“Victory will happen the following day after
the earth shall be soaked in blood. “
The earth does not need blood, Sir.
It needs water.
Light. Warmth. Good seed and
work.
Threats tell me nothing.
That’s why they do not deserve a reply.
I didn’t address any word to Codreanu
in the Chamber either,
when he would launch his threats, his
insinuations and fulminations.
I once replied however, by inviting his
reconciliation messengers out of the room.
I cannot have anything in common with
the man who declared
that just 48 hours after the legionnaire
victory,
Romania will have an alliance with Hitler’s
Berlin and Mussolini’s Rome.
-The deadline was not respected!
Because there were some trying to stand
in our way,
but The Captain’s promise was kept.
Three days ago, Romania joined the
Tripartite Pact.
We are officialy part of the
Berlin-Rome-Tokyo Axis.
-Romania signed nothing, Mr. Sima!
Those that signed were those that
manipulate a simple truth.
They did it in their name, not that
of the country.
That is why they will wear on their
foreheads the sign of Cane,
and if Mr. Hitler imagines that in this way
he will end up giving orders here too, how….
definitive that will be, remains to be seen.
-Your aversion towards the chancellor
falls under
the primitivism of a conscience
and judgement.
A sign of a...patriarchal vision, so to say,
to remain within the limits of...
Of euphemisms.
-Professor, the Fuhrer is changing
the face of Europe!
And soon, he will change the destiny
of the entire world.
That is the truth!
-That is the reality!
-The truth is completely different, Mr....
I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name.
-Tucan! Ion Tucan!
-The truth is that the cold water, which
only hurts the ill teeth,
because of the Fuhrer’s whims, this
man without a past and without a future,
your idol, praised in military hyms
and odes,
because of him we were forced to give
up part of Ardeal,
only so that Berlin can be closer to
the petrol in Valea Prahovei.
Nonsense! Mr. Iorga, nonsense! Among
the labyrinth of your own opinions.
Today, when France, Holland, Belgium,
Norway and Luxembourg,
have already been brought to their knees,
when the invincible army of the Fuhrer
shudders the entire
British Empire under the bombs of
the Luftwaffe ,
we should make all of you who
hurt us build a highway!
From Bucharest to Berlin!
In the end, this is neither about me,
nor you.
But about the destiny of this country.
Small one, Sir, which today can only take
advantage of the collaboration
and the appreciation of a big and
victorious country!
-Being swallowed up in its vital space,
as General Haushofer would say.
-Isn’t that so, Mr. Student?
This collaboration that you tried to shove
down the nation’s throat,
has made it possible for us to be stolen
in the most impartial diplomatic forms,
allegedly through The Vienna Dictate,
43.492 km2 of land and over two million
and a half of Romanians,
who are now left with their own virtue:
the faith of being reunited.
Do you think that this historical absurdity
shall last?
-Drop it, Mr. Iorga!
You have offered us enough lessons!
Ever since we’ve known you, you’ve been going
on and on with “this can happen, this can’t”,
“this will last, this will not”,
we are tired of you keep teaching us
the basics!
Today it is us ruling the country, and our
will is the country’s will.
-That’s what you say, even sadder is that
you actually believe it.
A country is made up of the people within it,
whose will has to be found and respected,
if you have the courage to find it out
and to respect it.
-Enough, Mr. Iorga!
Enough!
You have schooled the nation’s destiny
for too long!
Frontier changes do not frighten us!
The fact that today we are enjoying the
Fuhrer’s sympathy and appreciation, means
more than the entire historic past for which
you’ve worked
until now.
Uselessly!
-In the name of who, do you, Sir, claim
that Romania must become a German colony?
That this nation needs to end up the slave
of some savages,
worse than the savage?
-Oh please, it's not like you're the only one
preoccupied by the interests of this nation!
History will prove, to say it in your
prophetic language,
who served its interests better!
Serving the nation’s interests has nothing
of what in the dialect of cowardice
is called “the instinct of self
preservation”.
History always mocks those that
do not know it.
By repeating itself.
As it mocks those who use it...for their
own liking,
trying to twist its meanings,
all for petty, momentary interests.
-Like it or not, you will have to accept
your faith!
-Accepting fate is no liberation, but on
the contrary,
a shackle, a betrayal!
-You are obsessed by the idea of betrayal!
Actually, your problem is with the
German people.
Of course, a complex generated by your
exaggerated admiration
for the French, who are today subdued
by the superiority of the Third Reich!
-I read your...articles.
This complex clearly manifested itself
in the last 6-7 months,
the Fuhrer’s victory against France became
an undeniable historic act ever since June!
But you still continued to publish in
your gazette,
next to accusations brought to the military
actions of the German soldier,
also photographs of Paris with the
French flag.
I am surprised you didn’t ask us all to
go out into the street on the 14th July
and sing the Marseillaise.
-I have nothing against the Germans, Sir.
You are repeating an accusation that has
been made before
by count Klipphausen.
Yes, in the Deutsche Allgemeine
Zeitung, qualifying me
as an „ardent French patriot“.
Just like you, what the honorable
count was knowingly omitting
was that I studied in both Berlin and
Leipzig.
That I was Lamprecht’s favorite student,
that I wrote two volumes of the History
of The Otoman Empire in German,
that I collaborated on Helmholtz’s Universal
History
and even on The History for the German
Army and Fleet.
Not the ones from today.
Likewise, on the Great German Encyclopedia.
And another detail:
I had my PhD in philosophy at Leipzig.
What could I then possibly have against
the German people?
Against Bach? Beethoven. Goethe.
Then, Mr. Iorga, I don’t see why you are
not beside the German now as well.
Anyhow, you do not even want to stand
beside us,
although we have nothing against
the ancient German culture either.
In whose language you could write
other books too.
-You are talking of the German culture, which
is now burning on stakes in public squares.
That is what you will eventually do with
the Romanian culture too.
-Any revolution means a work of
purification, Mr. Iorga!
We don’t have to tell you that much!
Our revolution, however, will mean…
-Extermination, Sir. Extermination.
I look at you, gentlemen, and I wonder
where you showed up from,
what seed foreign to this land
could give you a face, a pulse and word.
This nation has never had…
-Enough! Enough!
We believe in the Fuhrer’s plans
so deeply, plans
that will change the order of the
world at the core, that
as The Captain said,
the entire nation can crumble along
with the Axis,
if God forbids, its defeat would occur.
-Such words are a blasphemy! No one is
allowed to utter them
no matter one’s faith or political beliefs.
-I see that for you, reality continues
to remain
a great unknown.
That is why you are probably so fiercely
obstinate
to remain an enemy of ours.
And of the current historic moment.
No wonder that the present reality
excluded you from all positions,
from the university, from the newspaper,
from everywhere.
-You’ve tangled too much into
everything, Sir.
In politics, in culture,
in history and in education.
In our existence, what remains is…the
memory of your stanza.
-We have tried in vain to offer you
the freedom
of admitting by yourself the justness of
our cause.
-We naively thought that we could reach
a compromise with you,
at least now.
It is time you leave our poor country alone.
So that we can give you your
right to rest too.
And the right to a long, long penance.
-A military vehicle with three soldiers
and a deputy showed up.
I sent them away for now.
-Comrade Ionescu stayed at the city hall.
Who knows, they might come back.
-We will leave in turns.
-One moment, comrades!
From this moment on I am executing
the orders of my direct superior,
colonel Rioșeanu.
-Agent, you are standing in front of the
Commandant of the Legion.
Superior as dignitary to your boss in
the state’s hierarchy.
I warn you to drop your weapon now
and surrender to the comrades.
I shall appeal your recklesness to the
Regional Court.
-After his wife takes care of him,
tell Tomescu to go back to the city hall.
To give a call to Bucharest immediately and
tell the boys to
pay a visit to that bastard of a
cop, Rioșeanu.
Tell them to check. And clean up the mess.
You leave at about mid-night.
And what if Rioșeanu’s greyhounds
don’t calm down?
Hell, we might even run straight into
him and he could take the professor
before we get to Bucharest.
-Simple.
You’ve got carte blanche, comrade Boeru.
Pull up the car and...
-Forensic report:
According to the dispositions given by the
public prosecutor of the Ilfov Court of Justice.
I have established the following: the
victim’s death was violent,
the body presents three orofacial wounds
of 7 mm, provoked by a firearm.
In the right pectoral region, above
the teat,
an orifice provoked by firearm,
at the level of the internal angle of the
left eye,
and another orifice in the middle
region of the left cheek.
The trajectory of the projectiles was
anterior-posterior,
some penetrating in the direction
left-right, others coming from
the opposite direction, from a relatively
short distance.
In the morning of 28 November 1940,
riding my bike to the post,
I met guard Zamfir, who was heading
towards the Ploiesti police station,
and who told me that within the radius
of our post there was a bearded body.
I thus immediately left at the scene, and
on the Ploiesti-Strasnic highway,
at about 1 km from the Stresnic
commune, on the right side of the road,
at a distance of 20-30 m into the grass,
I saw the body of a bearded John Doe,
an aged, large man,
of about 68-70 years old,
who fell on his back, with his right hand
slightly away from the body
and his fingers joint as if for the
sign of the cross.
Judging by the fact that the body was
covered in rime,
I personally believe that the victim
was killed before mid-night.
Translation: Andrada-Erika Badiu