ant source of oil for Nazi Germany, which attracted multiple bombing raids by the Allies. By means of the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union, Romania recovered Bessarabia and northern Bukovina from Soviet Russia, under the leadership of general, later marshal, Ion Antonescu. The Antonescu regime played a major role in the Holocaust, following to a lesser extent the Nazi policy of oppression and massacre of the Jews, and Romma, primarily in the Eastern territories Romania recovered or occupied from the Soviet Union (Transnistria) and in Moldavia. Jewish holocaust victims totaled at least 280,000 and 11,000 Romani victims.
In August 1944, Marshal Antonescu was toppled and arrested by King Michael I of Romania and the country changed sides and joined the Allies. But its role in the defeat of Nazi Germany was not recognized by the Paris Peace Conference of 1947; even though the Romanian Army had suffered 170,000 casualties after switching sides.
Communism.
During the Soviet occupation of Romania, the Communist-dominated government called new elections, which were won with 80% of the vote. They thus rapidly established themselves as the dominant political force. In 1947, the Communists forced King Michael I to abdicate and leave the country, and proclaimed Romania a people's republic. Romania remained under the direct military occupation and economic control of the USSR until the late 1950s. During this period, Romania's vast natural resources were continuously drained by mixed Soviet-Romanian companies (SovRoms) set up for exploitative purposes.
In 1948, the state began to nationalize private firms, and to collectivize agriculture the following year. From the late 1940s to the early 1960s, the Communist government established a reign of terror, carried out mainly through the Securitate (the secret police). During this time they launched several campaigns to eliminate "enemies of the state", in which numerous individuals were killed or
