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Toma Arnăuțoiu
Toma Arnăuțoiu
	Toma Arnăuțoiu in the uniform of the King’s Horse Guard Regiment – 1946
Born	14 February 1921; Nucșoara, Muscel County, Kingdom of Romania
Died	18 July 1959 (aged 38); Jilava Prison, Ilfov County, Romanian People's Republic
Allegiance	Kingdom of Romania
Service / branch	Army
Years of service	1942–1946
Rank	Lieutenant
Battles / wars	World War II
Awards	Order of the Crown (Romania)
Children	Ioana Raluca Voicu-Arnăuțoiu
Relations	Ion and Laurenția Arnăuțoiu (parents)
Other work	Leader of Nucșoara group of anti-communist resistance fighters (1949–1958)
Website	www.tomaarnautoiu.ro

Toma Arnăuțoiu (14 February 1921 – 18 July 1959) was a Romanian officer who led a small group of anti-communist resistance fighters in the Southern Carpathian foothills between 1949 and 1958. It ended up as one of the most enduring resistance groups in Eastern Europe.

Biography

Early life

Arnăuțoiu was born in the village of Nucșoara, Muscel County (now Argeș), Kingdom of Romania. He was the second son of schoolteacher Ion Arnăuţoiu and his wife, Laurenția. Starting in 1942 he attended the Cavalry School "King Ferdinand I" in Târgoviște, graduating fourth in his class in April 1944 with the rank of second lieutenant. He saw action in the fall of 1944, after Romania joined the Allied campaign against Germany as a result of King Michael's Coup. For his actions he was awarded on 4 November the Order of the Crown of Romania, knight class.^[1]

On 26 December 1944 Arnăuțoiu was wounded in action in Hungary. After spending three months in a hospital, he resumed military duties in the "Roșiori 5" cavalry regiment. On 20 June 1946 he was transferred to the King’s Horse Guard Regiment. Having been promoted to lieutenant on 6 August 1947, he was discharged only days later in a political purge of royalist officers.

Resistance years (1949–1958)

In January 1949, Arnăuțoiu met Gheorghe Arsenescu, a discharged colonel who had fought on the Eastern Front, to discuss the possibility of mounting an anti-communist resistance.^[2]^[3] They both resented the way the communist regime had been imposed by Moscow and the strong Soviet presence and influence in the country. They believed a war between the West and the Soviet Union was imminent, and partisans would be able to neutralise the local authorities and speed up the overthrow of the regime. In March, Colonel Arsenescu, having failed in a first attempt to organise a local resistance around Câmpulung and fearing arrest, joined Arnăuțoiu in Nucșoara to set up a group of anti-communist partisans in the surrounding hills.^[4] There they were joined by Toma’s brother Petre and his father Ion (Iancu) Arnăuțoiu, the teacher Alexandru Moldoveanu, the priest Ion Drăgoi and his student son, Cornel Drăgoi. Some of the meetings took place at the home of Gheorghe and Elisabeta Rizea. They were followed by 16 villagers, including four women.^[2]^[5] His sister, Elena Arnăuțoiu, also provided support to the resistance group.^[6]

The authorities got wind of what was being planned and first arrested Arnăuțoiu’s parents. Securitate (security police) troops then ambushed four members of the group; in the ensuing shoot-out two sub-officers were killed and Arnăuțoiu was wounded. The partisans managed to flee, but from then on there was hardly any way back for them. By July, they split fearing the group was too big to be able to hide from the troops combing the area. Disagreements over tactics also played a part. Some villagers stayed with Arsenescu, while others followed Arnăuțoiu. In November 1949 Arsenescu left his men, most of whom were later captured. He went into hiding at a farm until 1960, when he was caught and sentenced to death.

The Arnăuțoiu followers carried on for nine years. Constantly harassed by Securitate troops, their ranks were gradually depleted. Towards the end, the group was reduced to Arnăuțoiu, his younger brother Petre, Maria Plop^[7] (who had fled her village, Prisăcani, in Iași County when the Red Army arrived in 1944), and Constantin Jubleanu, whose mother had been killed while trying to flee a platoon, and whose father was in prison serving a 25-years sentence. They were constantly on the move and, with the support of villagers, managed to survive nine winters in the mountains. Their final hiding place was carved out on a rocky hillside,^[7] where a daughter was born in 1956 to Toma Arnăuțoiu and Maria Plop.

On 20 May 1958, the Arnăuțoiu brothers were ambushed and captured. They had been betrayed by Grigore Poenăreanu, a former school mate of Toma Arnăuțoiu who had given the two brothers a laced drink. Maria Plop, and the two year-old child were summoned to surrender and came down a ladder from the hideout the partisans had carved in a hill close to the village of Corbi. Jubleanu died in a shoot-out with the Securitate troops.^[8] A military court sentenced the Arnăuțoiu brothers to be shot alongside 14 villagers who had supplied them with food, medicine, clothing, a radio set, or weapons.^[9] The brothers were convicted of “acts of terror committed as part of an armed anti-communist resistance group”.^[10] The group was executed in the Jilava Prison on the night of 18/19 July 1959;^[9] Arnăuțoiu was shot at the order of the prison commander, lieutenant colonel Mihai Gheorghiu.^[10] More than 100 locals were sentenced to prison terms ranging from one year to hard labour for life. Elena Arnăuțoiu spent 7 years in detention. Maria Plop and Laurenția Arnăuțoiu died in the Miercurea Ciuc prison, while Ion Arnăuțoiu died in the Botoșani prison.^[11]

Ioana Raluca Voicu Arnăuțoiu, Maria Plop and Toma Arnăuțoiu's daughter, survived and in 2009 published a book about the group with photographs and documents from the Securitate archives.

Notes

^ "Pictures of Toma Arnăuțoiu".
^ ^a ^b "Toma Arnăuțoiu 1921–1959" [Memorial Toma Arnăuțoiu]. Retrieved September 23, 2020.
^ Dologa, Laurențiu (May 19, 2012). "Un coșmar al Securității: Păunașul codrilor din Muscel (I) – Documentar". ziare.com (in Romanian). Retrieved September 23, 2020.
^ Ștefan, Ion (February 2, 2017). "Poenărei, sat martir – adăposturi ale partizanilor [1952–1958] (I)". Argeș Expres (in Romanian). Retrieved September 23, 2020.
^ "Eroine Nucșoara – Femei luptătoare în rezistența anticomunistă" (in Romanian). Retrieved September 23, 2020.
^ Grigorescu, Denis (December 14, 2017). "Elena Arnăuțoiu, sora liderilor mișcării de rezistenţă din Nucșoara: "Dacă ar vedea frații mei ce se petrece în țara asta, și-ar da seama că au murit degeaba"". Adevărul (in Romanian). Retrieved September 23, 2020.
^ ^a ^b "Toma Arnăuțoiu – Virtual exhibition". Retrieved September 23, 2020.
^ Grigorescu, Denis (January 5, 2019). "De ce a fost trădat la Securitate partizanul Toma Arnăuțoiu de un fost coleg de școală". Adevărul (in Romanian). Retrieved September 23, 2020.
^ ^a ^b "Toma Arnăuțoiu – Trial sentences". Retrieved September 23, 2020.
^ ^a ^b Iancu, Mariana (July 19, 2019). "Detalii terifiante din noaptea în care a fost asasinat Toma Arnăuțoiu. Eroul din munți a fost executat sumar în închisoare". Adevărul (in Romanian). Retrieved September 24, 2020.
^ "Toma Arnăuțoiu – Dead in prisons". Retrieved September 23, 2020.

References

Deletant, Dennis (2019). Romania under communism: paradox and degeneration. Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-138-70742-9. OCLC 1050140552.
Voicu-Arnăuțoiu, Ioana Raluca; Crăciun, Ioan (2009). 50 de ani de la procesul și execuția grupului de rezistență condus de Toma Arnăuțoiu: album de fotografii și documente din arhiva C.N.S.A.S. [50 years from the trial and execution of resistance group led by Toma Arnăuțoiu: album of photographs and documents from the National Council for the Study of the Securitate Archives (CNSAS)] (in Romanian). București: Ars Docendi. ISBN 9789735584351. OCLC 1166799539.
The Trial and Execution of Members of Anti-Communist Partisans Group led by Toma Arnăuțoiu. Album of photographs and documents from the National Council for the Study of the Securitate archives (CNSAS). Edited by Ioana Raluca Voicu-Arnăuțoiu and Ioan Crăciun. Ars Docendi Publishing House of the University of Bucharest, Bucharest, 2010.
Voicu-Arnăuțoiu, Ioana-Raluca (2009). Luptătorii din munți: Toma Arnăuțoiu, Grupul de la Nucșoara. Documente ale anchetei, procesului, detenției (in Romanian) (2nd Revised ed.). București: Editura Vremea. ISBN 978-973-645-357-1. OCLC 558876157.
Voicu-Arnăuțoiu, Ioana-Raluca (2019). Rezistența anticomunistă de la Nucșoara. Portrete de familii (in Romanian). București: Ars Docendi.
Crăciun, Ioan (2011). Povestea familiei Arnăuțoiu din Nucșoara – relatări de Elena Ion-Arnăuțoiu (in Romanian). București: Ars Docendi.