Dumitru Dămăceanu
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dumitru Dămăceanu (1896 – 1978) was a Romanian army officer in World War II, later promoted to Brigadier-General, who played a predominant role in the Royal coup of August 23, 1944.[1]
Before the war, he was military attaché in Rome, director at the Voievodul Mihai School, and adjutant to King Carol II.[2]
From 1941 to 1942 he was commanding officer of the 10th Roşiori Cavalry Regiment, fighting on the Eastern Front.[3] From 1942 to 1944 he was Chief of Staff of the Capital Military Command.
Colonel Dămăceanu participated in the August 23, 1944 coup led by King Michael against the government of Marshal Ion Antonescu. Together with the Romanian Communist Party's Emil Bodnăraş, he coordinated the weakening of a segment of the Moldavian front called "Poarta Iaşiului" against the Soviet offensive of August 1944.[4] A few days later, he travelled to Moscow with a Romanian delegation; they were received by Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov on August 30 or 31.[5] On September 12, 1944, General Dămăceanu was one of the plenipotentiary signatories of the Armistice Agreement between Romania and the Soviet Union (the other signatories were Lucreţiu Pătrăşcanu, Ghiţă Popp, and Barbu Ştirbey on the Romanian side, and Rodion Malinovsky on the Soviet side).
In 1946, he was a member of the Gheorghe Tătărescu-led Romanian delegation to the Paris Peace Conference. The Peace Treaty with Romania was signed in Paris on February 10, 1947, in the Salon de l'Horloge of the Ministère des Affaires Étrangères. On the Romanian side, the four signatories were Tătărescu, Pătrăşcanu, Ştefan Voitec, and Dămăceanu. Other signatories included James F. Byrnes (for the United States), Vyacheslav Molotov (for the Soviet Union), and Ernest Bevin (for the United Kingdom).[6]
On August 20, 1975, by then Colonel General Dumitru Dămăceanu was promoted to Army General.[7]
He had a son, Simion Dămăceanu, whose second wife, Ortansa, was born in July 1905 and was still alive as of March 2007;[8] their elder son is sculptor Ion Dămăceanu, noted for the Heroes' Monument (Monumentul ostaşilor români cazuţi în lupta pentru eliberarea patriei de sub jugul fascist) in Bucharest. Ion Dămăceanu's son, Radu (who married Dana, the daughter of Securitate general Ion Mihai Pacepa),[9] was a set designer at Animafilm.[10]
[edit] Notes
[edit] References
- (Romanian) Miron Vasile, "Bodnăraş unelteşte, la Palat, deschiderea frontului prin 'Poarta Iaşiului'", in Historia, August 2004
- (Romanian) Ion Cristoiu, "Istoria ca telenovelă - Deşănţata culme a propagandei", in Jurnalul Naţional, May 14, 2006.
- (Romanian) Andreea Sminchise, "Centenarii României – 'Pacepa mi-a distrus băiatul...'", in Jurnalul Naţional, March 27, 2007.
- (Romanian) Cornel Micu, "Armata Roşie ocupă Bucureştiul", in Jurnalul Naţional, October 26, 2005.
- (Romanian) "Tristeţea omuleţului lui Gopo", in Săptămâna Financiară, June 20, 2005
- (Romanian) "Generalul Aurel Aldea: 'Acesta este adevărul'-Document din arhivele Securităţii", from an article in Revista 22, by Claudiu Secasiu
- "Paris-WWII Peace Conference-1946: Settling Romania's Western Frontiers", notes prepared by Dan Dimăncescu from original files and records of D. Dem Dimăncescu, member of the Romanian Delegation at the Paris Peace Conference, available at the Honorary Consulate of Romania in Boston
- Rudolf Woller, "Warsaw Pact Reserve Systems: A White Paper", Bernard & Graefe, Munich, 1978. ISBN 3763752056
[edit] External links
- Short bio at Generals.dk
- "Dimitri D. Dimăncescu, 1896-1984", at the Honorary Consulate of Romania in Boston, has a photograph of Dumitru Dămăceanu at the Paris Peace Conference in 1946
- (Romanian) Cristina Diac and Florin Mihai, "1939-1944: 23 august, Cronica unui dezastru", in Jurnalul Naţional, August 23, 2006.
