‘Dual State’ and Legal Impunity: Institutional Culture and the Modi Operandi of the Romanian Gendarmerie during the Mass Shootings of Jews in Bessarabia (July–August 1941)

This article examines the impact of the Romanian gendarmerie’s institutional culture on its involvement in the Holocaust in Romania by focusing on the case study of the mass shootings of Jews and the so-called ‘political suspects’ in Bessarabia during the summer of 1941. In interwar Romania, this region was a space for experimenting with what the official discourse labelled ‘exceptional measures’ to counter ‘threats’ to state security. Some of these measures were integrated into the legal framework (mainly by using the state of siege), while other more expeditious ones, such as summary executions, were carried out outside the legal framework. By drawing on the concept of ‘dual state’ coined by Ernst Fraenkel, I argue that the modi operandi of the Romanian gendarmes during the mass shootings of July-August 1941 were influenced by their interwar experiences, which made them more inclined to follow illegal verbal orders to perpetrate mass shootings. Many Romanian gendarmes who were used to legal impunity during the interwar period expected the same to happen with the murderous orders of the summer of 1941. Moreover, the verticalization of power, promoted by the Antonescu regime and boosted by the state of siege, led to a transfer of sovereign power to mid-level and local echelons of the gendarmerie. This encouraged abusive behaviour and fuelled corruption networks within the institution.