Edmund Veesenmayer. Agent und Diplomat der nationalsozialistischen Expansionspolitik by Igor-Philip Matić (review)

Abstract

358 SEER, 84, 2, 2006 In the words of Maurice Pearton, the theories of Corneliu Codreanu 'were derived from the Book of Revelation'. Codreanu made a practice of going up in the mountains to pray, something that Hitler and Mussolini were not known to have done. Codreanu conceived the Guard'sprogrammelike a monastic order.It was endowed with a spiritualmissionto change Romanians by creating 'the new man', one bent on socialjustice. There was no place for the bourgeoisie.Codreanu'soppositionto democracywas expressedin a virulent anti-Semitism.The Guard'sarticlesof faithdictateda pathologicalhatred ofJews whom Codreanu saw as the fount of Communism. lordachi ascribesthe Guard'sappeal to Codreanu'scharisma.The genesis of that charisma was a vision that Codreanu had on 8 November 1923 whilst in prison for organizing a plot to shoot politicianswho had supported an amendment to the Romanian constitutiongrantingJews the right to citizenship . He claimed that the ArchangelMichael had appearedto him, urging him to dedicate his life to God. The particular inspiration for Codreanu's charismatic revelation seems to have been an icon of Saint Michael in a Bucharestmonasteryin which the archangelis depicted in a punitiveposture, wieldinga swordin one hand, and holding scalesofjustice in the other. It was in this mould that St Michael became the object of a fanaticcult. Proclaiming the archangel as patron and symbol, Codreanu founded, in July I927, the Legion of the ArchangelMichael. Michael'ssaint'sday 8 November was the officialcelebrationof the Legion. lordachi constructsa convincing theoretical frameworkin which to place an illuminatingexegesis of the Guard'spropaganda. Codreanu's intellectual followers developed his charisma into an effective propaganda machine. In various articles Codreanu was portrayed in multiple and complementary roles, as a religiousprophet, spiritualreformerand predestinedhero. He was proclaimedas 'a new Messiah',the instrumentsent by the ArchangelMichael to bring salvation to the Romanian people. Codreanu's charisma was thus supernatural,being based on a divine call of mission originatingoutside the established Church. In his depiction as a predestined revolutionaryleader, Codreanu was celebrated as one of a line of Romanian heroic figures,just as Ceausescu was some half a century later. Codreanu was compared with Stephen the Great (I457-I504), and was addressedby the title of 'Captain' on the model of the haiducs, popular outlaws fighting for socialjustice. With this intricate yet lucid analysis, the author furthers our understanding of Romanian Fascism. School of Slavonic andEastEuropean Studies DENNIsDELETANT University College London Matic, Igor-Philip. EdmundVeesenmayer. AgentundDiplomatdernationalsozialistischen Expansionspolitik. StidosteuropaischeArbeiten, II4. R. Oldenbourg, Munich, 2002. 324 pp. Notes. Bibliography.Index. ?49.80. FOR most of the Third Reich, from I934 to I944, Dr Edmund Veesenmayer was virtuallyinvisible to the public as he worked mostly behind the political REVIEWS 359 scenes. Only when Hitler appointed him Plenipotentiary of Hungary in March I944, did Veesenmayer step out of this political twilight.The trained economist, member of the NSDAP (fromI932) and the SS (fromI934), was an economic consultantand special agent at the same time and worked in these capacities at keyjunctures in the making of Hitler'sempire:the Anschlussof Austria (1938), thedestruction of Czechoslovakia (I939) andYugoslavia (I94I), and the German invasion of Poland in I939. In all these assignments his main task was to make contact with key players of industryand commerce, undermine political opponents of National Socialist Germany, and foster future allies in the local nationalistparties. Veesenmayer's career path took a differentturn only months afterhis successin Croatia. InJuly I941, he was sent to quell the military and civil resistance against German occupation in Serbia. As in his previous assignments,Veesenmayer's overall assessmentof the local situationwas factualand rational.He advisedthe ForeignOffice that only a political and not a militarysolutionwould end the popular supportfor the Serbianresistance,which he feltwas largelyled by Communists.However, Veesenmayer also identified the SerbianJews as the main instigatorsof this resistanceand suggested that allJewish men (about 8,ooo) be deported. The assignmentto Serbia was Veesenmayer'sfirstcontact with National Socialist anti-Semitic policy. It would continue to play a sizable role in his last three years as a career diplomat in Slovakia (I943/44) and as Plenipotentiaryof Hungary (I944). Veesenmayer believed then that a shared guilt in the deportation of the Jews would bind the wavering allies Slovakia and Hungary to Germanyat a time when the EasternFrontwas alreadybreakingdown. At...