Ion Antonescu (born June 15, 1882, Pitești, Rom.—died June 1, 1946, near Jilava) was a Romanian marshal and statesman who became dictator of the pro-German government during World War II. After World War I, Antonescu served as military attaché in Paris and in London and, in 1934, as chief of the Romanian general staff. Named minister of defense in 1937, he retained office with the establishment of King Carol II’s corporatist dictatorship (1938), only to be dismissed after a few weeks as a sympathizer of the principal Romanian fascist group, the Iron Guard.

On the domestic front, he was an anticommunist and an anti-Semite (?), but he favoured France and Great Britain in international relations.
However, he managed to save a lot Jewish lives, by having Jewish people plant trees around Bucharest, saving them from being sent to extermination camps.
We were born in 1953, among Jewish people in Bucharest. A solid community in the middle of Bucharest, surrounded by Jewish Temples.
Our best friends were of Jewish origin.