The Transnistria Governorate was a Romanian-administered territory between the Dniester and Southern Bug, conquered by the Axis Powers from the Soviet Union during Operation Barbarossa. A Romanian civilian administration governed the territory from 19 August 1941 to 29 January 1944. A brief military administration followed, during which the Romanians withdrew from the region by late March 1944. German control became official on 1 April 1944.
1941 Romanian stamp commemorating the Fall of Odessa and the "Crusade against Bolshevism".
Romanian stamps from late 1941 issued for Transnistria
Romanian soldier reading an opera house advert in Odesa, 1942. The photo also demonstrates the spelling of Odesa in 1942.
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The Kingdom of Romania, under the rule of King Carol II, was initially a neutral country in World War II. However, Fascist political forces, especially the Iron Guard, rose in popularity and power, urging an alliance with Nazi Germany and its allies. As the military fortunes of Romania's two main guarantors of territorial integrity—France and Britain—crumbled in the Fall of France, the government of Romania turned to Germany in hopes of a similar guarantee, unaware that Germany, in the supplementary protocol to the 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, had already granted its blessing to Soviet claims on Romanian territory.
Antonescu and Adolf Hitler at the Führerbau in Munich (June 1941).
American B-24 Liberator flying over a burning oil refinery at Ploiești, as part of Operation Tidal Wave on 1 August 1943. Due to its role as a major supplier of oil to the Axis, Romania was a prime target of Allied strategic bombing in 1943 and 1944.
Sephardic Temple in Bucharest after it was plundered and set on fire in 1941
King Michael I of Romania led the coup that put Romania on the Allied side.