1941: Alexandru Bessarab, fascist artist
July 8th, 2019 Headsman
On this date in 1941, the fascist artist Alexandru Bassarab was killed in World War II — generally believed to be among captured Romanian prisoners of war summarily executed by Soviet troops.
A woodcut/linocut specialist — as evidenced by his gaunt self-portrait to the right — Bassarab was an early adherent of the Iron Guard and became one of its outstanding propagandists.
His very Deus Vult-vibing work Arhangel, for example, was used by the Guard as a banner at the 1940 state funeral it threw for far-right martyr Corneliu Codreanu. (The Iron Guard was shorthand nomenclature for an organ formally named the Legion of the Archangel Michael — and its members hence known as Legionnaires.)
But the Iron Guard’s moment at the political apex was a brief one, and when it was sidelined by a different right-wing strongman, Ian Antonescu, Bessarab found himself arrested and forced into a front-line army unit recapturing (appropriately) Bessarabia. He disappeared into presumed Soviet custody and execution near Tiganca, in present-day Moldova.
His work, including apolitical pieces, was taboo in postwar Communist Romania, but has enjoyed a bit of rediscovery since the end of the Cold War
On this day..
- 1797: Abraham Johnstone - 2020
- 1825: Tahvo Putkonen, Finland's last peacetime execution - 2018
- 1835: Dean and Donovan, white abolitionists - 2017
- 1617: Eleonora Galigai, Marie de' Medici favorite - 2016
- 1949: Antoun Saadeh - 2015
- 1814: Two War of 1812 deserters - 2014
- 1771: Henry Stroud and Robert Campbell, for revenge - 2013
- 1486: Humphrey Stafford of Grafton, no sanctuary - 2012
- 1938: Anthony Chebatoris, in death penalty-free Michigan - 2011
- 1538: Diego de Almagro, explorer of Chile - 2010
- 1839: William John Marchant - 2009
- 1999: Allen Lee "Tiny" Davis, the end of the road for Old Sparky - 2008
Entry Filed under: 20th Century,Artists,Arts and Literature,Borderline "Executions",Execution,History,No Formal Charge,Romania,Russia,Shot,Soldiers,Summary Executions,USSR,Wartime Executions
Tags: 1940s, 1941, alexandru bessarab, art, corneliu codreanu, fascism, fascists, iron guard, world war ii
Correct name is Ion Antonescu