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During the 1930s, three notable death squads emerged from Romania's Iron Guard: the Nicadori, the Decemviri and the Răzbunători. Motivated by a combination of fascist political ideology and religious-nationalist mysticism, they carried out several high-level political assassinations in the inter-war period. ==Theoretical background== Death was a central part of the Iron Guard's ideology. Its members, known as Legionnaires, were officially asked "to embrace death" if needed; in practice, they were supposed to be ready to both ''give'' and ''embrace'' death—in other words, to be willing to assassinate their political enemies at the risk of their own life. This "Legionnaire's death" was widely celebrated. For instance, the second verse of the hymn used by the Guard's youth wing is: The Guard aligned itself with the Romanian Orthodox Church, which prohibits murder. However, it had ways of justifying the notion of "giving death" (a notion its founder, Corneliu Codreanu, never fully explained, as he was given to laconic pronouncements).〔Petreu, p. 42〕 Codreanu noted that, given the opposition the Guard faced from the state, other political parties, and the media, the Legionnaires had made "the decision to embrace death. The 'death squad' is the expression of this determination, shared by all Legionnaires in the country. It means that these youths are willing to ''accept death''. They are willing to move forward, through death". He suggested that in pursuing their goal, "a new Romania and the long awaited revival of this Romanian nation, the aim of all our efforts, struggle, and sacrifice", the Legionnaires were ready to sacrifice themselves, to become martyrs for their country.〔 It was during the Legionnaire-dominated Students' Congress of April 3-5, 1936, held at Târgu Mureş, that the death squads were officially established. However, writing in ''The Nest Leader's Manual'', which appeared in May 1933, Codreanu taught: "A Legionnaire loves death, for his blood shall cement the future Legionary Romania". In 1927, at the Guard's very creation, its members swore to be "strong by severing all ties connecting us with mundane things..., by serving the cause of the Romanian nation and the cause of the Cross". By claiming to renounce material wealth and invoking the Cross, the Legionnaires were channeling Christ: they believed they would die for the nation as he had died to redeem mankind. Vasile Marin, who made important contributions to Legionnaire doctrine, amplified on this notion when he praised the Nicadori in 1934: "Three young students have committed an act in the service of a great cause. You all know what that act was. Their sacrifice was inspired by a great idea. It was done in the name of a great idea. They performed this act, and now they are paying the price".〔Petreu, pp. 42-3〕 For the Legionnaires, the murder of a political enemy or a traitorous comrade meant sacrificing oneself for a greater cause: the Christian religion, one of mercy, was thus transformed into an ideology of murder. They drew inspiration from Codreanu himself, who had planned a large number of political assassinations with Ion Moţa, and who had killed a policeman in Iaşi in autumn 1924. At his trial for that deed he proclaimed, "it was my faith and my love of this country that guided me in this struggle, in everything I did. We pledge to fight until the end". He was acquitted, as was Moţa (who shot Vernichescu, the man who revealed the assassination conspiracy, seven times, albeit not fatally); both were acclaimed as heroes.〔Petreu, pp. 43-4〕 As assassinations rendered their perpetrators heroes, they became a sought-after activity for Legionnaires, and Codreanu further enticed them: "The day after the victory of the Legionnaires we shall convene an EXTRAORDINARY TRIBUNAL called upon to judge, for ''high treason'': ... all those who, in defiance of the laws of this country, persecuted, imprisoned, or otherwise caused harm to the Legionnaires and to their families ... no one shall escape judgment". Codreanu's former deputy Mihai Stelescu, after leaving the Legion, publicly accused Codreanu of sacrificing young men for the advancement of his own career, and of devising a type of murder based on "manipulation of the masses", using others as assassins and leaving them to face justice.〔Petreu, p. 44〕 Furthermore, Legionnaires were animated by the idea that the nation included both the dead and the living, with its heroes providing assistance to the latter when invoked. This element of their ideology involved an authentic mystique of the idea of dying for one's nation, as those killed in the course of their duties automatically became heroes who could continue to support their living comrades' undertakings. This enthusiasm for death motivated Moţa, who went to Spain to die for Romania so that (as he believed) his country would be redeemed in God's eyes, as well as in the death-exalting literature produced by that segment of the intellectual élite which had proved receptive to Legionary ideas: Mircea Eliade, Radu Gyr, Constantin Noica, and others.〔 The Legionnaire's death was amply practiced. Many gave their lives certain that the movement and the national cause would be strengthened; they never hesitated to kill in the name of the same idea. Aside from the three cases discussed below, Iron Guard members were responsible for the Jilava Massacre at the eponymous prison on the night of November 26-27, 1940, when 64 political prisoners, 46 officers and guards, and a number of military detainees were killed; the murder of Nicolae Iorga and Virgil Madgearu that same night; other killings during the National Legionary State; and the deaths of hundreds of officers, civilians, and Bucharest Jews during the Legionnaires' Rebellion and Bucharest Pogrom.〔Petreu, p. 45〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Iron Guard death squads」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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