Ion Antonescu was a Romanian military leader and politician who served as the Prime Minister of Romania during World War II. He is best known for his role in aligning Romania with Nazi Germany and for his involvement in the Holocaust, which led to the persecution and deaths of many Jews and Romani people in the country. After the war, Antonescu was captured and tried for war crimes. In 1946, he was executed by the Romanian government, which sought to distance itself from the actions taken during his regime and to establish a new political direction in the post-war period.