Gheorghe Avramescu

Bust of Gheorghe Avramescu in "Ștefan cel Mare" Square, Cluj-Napoca

Gheorghe Avramescu (26 January 1888 - 3 March 1945) was a Romanian Lieutenant General during World War II. He served as General Officer Commanding of a number of army units: the 10th Division in 1941, the Mountain Corps later that year, the III Corps in 1943, and the VI Corps and 4th Army from 1944 to 1945. In 1945, he was arrested by the Soviets as "pro-German."

Death

On March 2, 1945, general Avramescu was convoked to the commander of 40th Soviet Army. After one hour, the Romanian delegation was announced that Avramescu and Russian general Filip Fedorovici Jmacenko left for command point of Ukrainian Front 2, as they were expected there by Marshall Malinovski. In fact, General Avramescu was arrested. Romanian 4th Army was placed in command of general Nicolae Dăscălescu, who struggle to find out from soviets about the general Avramescu. Soviet general Jmacenko advised him to find out about Avramescu at the Romanian Minister of Defence or the Romanian General Staff. On March 3, 1945 Adela, Avramescu's wife and Felicia, his daughter were arrested and sent to Siberia. His daughter committed suicide; Adela returned in Romania in 1956.

The Soviet authorities announced that Avramescu was killed on 3 March 1945 (the very same day of the arrest of his family), allegedly in an aerial attack over the car which transported him, and his body was buried in Budapest Soshalom cemetery. The car in which he was transported was touched by one single bullet, the one which "happened" to kill the general.

This case of strange death stays open for historical research; the de-secretisation of some military soviet archives may elucidate this death. On October 23, 2000, his remains were brought back to Romania and were reburied with military honours in Military Cemetery of Cluj Napoca.

Awards

• German Cross in Gold on 25 October 1942 as General der Jäger and commanding general of a mountain corps