- Ion Moţa
Ion I. Moţa (
July 5 1902 ,Orăştie ,Transylvania —January 13 1937 ,Majadahonda ,Spain ) was theRomania n ultra-nationalist deputy leader of theIron Guard killed in battle during theSpanish Civil War .Biography
Son of the nationalist Orthodox priest
Ioan Moţa , who edited a journal called "Liberty", Ion I. Moţa studied law atUniversity of Paris (1920-1921), the University of Cluj,University of Iaşi andUniversity of Grenoble . His thesis, finished in 1932 at theUniversity of Grenoble , was entitled "Juridicial Security in the Community of Nations."At
Cluj , he foundedAcţiunea Românească ("Romanian Action"), a nationalist group inspired byCharles Maurras 'Action Française . This organization fused withA. C. Cuza 'sNational-Christian Defense League in 1925. Moţa metCorneliu Zelea Codreanu at a meeting ofantisemitic students in August 1923. The two formed a plan toassassinate Romanian politicians and leaders of RomanianJewry seen as traitors and corruptors of Romanian national life. They were arrested inBucharest onOctober 8 1923 and sent toVăcăreşti prison . Acquitted in March 1924, Moţa shot Vernichescu, the member of their conspiracy who betrayed it to the authorities, seven times (but not fatally). He spent two months inGalata prison before being acquitted and released on29 September 1924 .Codreanu made Moţa leader of "Frăţia de Cruce", a group of peasants and students who would fight for nationalistic renewal (founded on May 6 1924). Moţa attended the
World Anti-Semitic Congress in September 1925; upon the founding of the Iron Guard (the "Legion of the Archangel Michael"), on June 24 1927, he became deputy Captain to Codreanu.Ion Moţa represented the Legion at the 1934
Fascist International meeting inMontreux . He was vice-president of theIron Guard more political creation, the "Everything for the Fatherland Party".In late 1936, he formed a Legionary unit to fight against the Republican forces in the
Spanish Civil War . He andVasile Marin (another prominent Legionary) were killed on theMadrid Front on the same day of fighting.Their funerals in Bucharest (February 13 1937) were an immense and orderly processionFact|date=July 2007 attended by the Ministers of
Nazi Germany , FascistItaly , andFrancisco Franco 'sSpain , representatives of Portugal, theJapan of the earlyShōwa period , and delegates of thePolish Patriotic Youth .On the commemoration of the deaths of Moţa and Marin,
January 13 1938 , Codreanu created a special order in the ranks of the Legionary units: theMoţa-Marin Corps under the direction ofAlexandru Cantacuzino . The members of this elite corps had "Ready to Die" as their slogan.An monument was erected at
Majadahonda , on September 13 1970, with support ofFranco 's government.References
*"
The Green Shirts and the Others : A History of Fascism in Hungary and Rumania" byNicholas M. Nagy-Talavera (Hoover Institution Press , 1970).
*"Romania" byEugen Weber , in "The European Right : A Historical Profile" edited byHans Rogger and Eugen Weber (University of California Press, 1965)
* "The Romanian Legionary's Mission in Spain" (Part III, A., xi Romania, 116.) in "Fascism" (Oxford Readers) edited byRoger Griffin (Oxford University Press, 1995, ISBN 0192892495).
*"Biographical Dictionary of the Extreme Right Since 1890 " byPhilip Rees (Simon & Schuster , 1991, ISBN 0130893013).External links
* [http://hist.academic.claremontmckenna.edu/jpetropoulos/ironguard/leaders.htm Leadership of the Iron Guard] and [http://hist.academic.claremontmckenna.edu/jpetropoulos/ironguard/culture.htm Culture and Cultural Policy] at
Claremont McKenna College .
* [http://www.axishistory.com/index.php?id=287 Image of a 1940 Ion Moţa commemorative stamp]
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