Nicolae Dabija (soldier)

Major Nicolae Dabija (April 13 (18?), 1907 — October 28, 1949), knight of Order of Michael the Brave, was an officer of the Romanian Royal Army and a member of the anticommunist armed resistance in Romania. He was the leader of the resistance group The National Defense Front - The Haiduc Corps.

During World War II, he served as an officer in the Romanian Army, participating in the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union,[1][2] commanding 5th Company/38th Infantry Regiment from the 10th Infantry Division.[3] He distinguished himself on the Eastern Front, notably at the Taman bridgehead, and he was awarded the Order of Michael the Brave, 3rd class, and the German Cross in Gold.[3]

Arrest and execution

The Romanian authorities learned about the location of this fighter after an arrested rebel revealed their location on Muntele Mare and their strength. On March 4, 1949. Security forces led by Colonel Mihai Patriciu charged the peak where the fighters were located, with a gunfight and later hand-to-hand combat occurring but many anticommunist fighters escaped. The Security forces suffered three deaths and three others wounded. Dabija was arrested on March 22, 1949 after a local villager, whose barn he was sleeping in, notified the communist authorities of his presence. All partisans and their aids were captured.[4] They were subject to inquiries in Turda, Bucharest and especially in Sibiu were Securitate's chief was the well known officer Gheorghe Crăciun.[4] Later they were tried and convicted - sentence no. 816 / October 4th, 1949 of Military Tribunal of Sibiu.[4] On October 28, 1949, seven members of the group: Titus Onea, Ioan Scridon, Gheorghe Oprița, Traian Mihălțan, Augustin Rațiu, Silvestru Bolfea and Nicolae Dabija, were executed in Sibiu.[4] and buried in mass grave. At the funerary ceremony held in 1994 in Sibiu the fighters were commemorated by a group of former political prisoners, former soldiers subordinated to major Dabija and others. Also the Association of Former Political Prisoners in Romania erected a monument in their honor.

References

  1. ↑ Rezistenta armata anticomunista in sud-estul Muntilor Apuseni (I)
  2. ↑ Rezistenta armata anticomunista in sud-estul Muntilor Apuseni (II).
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 The Taman bridgehead - 1943
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 "28 octombrie 1949 - execuţia maiorului Nicolae Dabija şi a altor 6 membri ai organizaţiei Frontul Apărării Patriei Române". Memorialul Victimelor Comunismului şi al Rezistenței. Fundația Academia Civică. Retrieved January 17, 2014.