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((refimprove|date=January 2013))
The '''Ioanid Gang''' (((lang-ro|Banda Ioanid))) is the name given by Communist propaganda to a group in [[Socialist Republic of Romania|Communist Romania]] named after two of its members, Alexandru and Paul Ioanid. They were accused of carrying out on 28 July 1959 the most famous [[bank robbery]] in a [[Communist state]].

==Timeline==
An armed group of six [[History of the Jews in Romania|Jewish Romanian]] intellectuals and [[Romanian Communist Party|Communist Party]] [[Professional revolutionaries|cadres]] (Alexandru Ioanid, Paul Ioanid, Igor Sevianu, Monica Sevianu, Sașa Mușat, and Haralambie Obedeanu) were alleged to have stolen 1,600,000 [[Romanian leu|Romanian lei]] (about 250,000 [[United States dollar|US dollars]] in 1959) from an [[Armored car (valuables)|armoured car]] of the [[National Bank of Romania]] in 1959. The first five were alleged to have been in a getaway car, while Obedeanu was alleged to have been in a telephone cabin, keeping the bank's phone line busy.

The case was investigated by the [[Securitate]], Communist Romania's [[secret police]], and the supposed perpetrators were arrested within two months. They were rounded up in night-time raids, tried behind closed doors, and all but one [[Death sentence|sentenced to death]]. The executions, also kept under secrecy, including for family members, were carried out in 1960.

Monica Sevianu, the only woman involved, had her sentence commuted to forced labor for life because she was pregnant with her second child. In 1964, following an amnesty of political prisoners, she was allowed to emigrate to Israel.

=="Gang" members==
*'''Alexandru "Lică" Ioanid''', birth name Herman D. Leibovici, born in 1920.<ref name="Historia"/><ref name="R22">((cite web|first=Mihai|last= Demetriade|url=https://revista22.ro/opinii/mihai-demetriade/radiografia-unui-hold-up |title= Radiografia unui hold-up|magazine= [[Revista 22]]|date= 14 June 2016|access-date= 7 January 2019|language=ro))</ref> Communist Party member and lieutenant-colonel of the [[Militsiya|police]], he had been married to the sister-in-law of [[Alexandru Drăghici]], head of the [[Securitate]] secret police.<ref name="Historia"/> After holding different positions, among them that of head of the police legal department, from which he was fired in March 1959, he was pensioned two months later.<ref name="Historia">((cite web|first=Marius|last= Ionescu| url=https://www.historia.ro/sectiune/general/articol/cel-mai-mare-jaf-din-perioada-comunista|title=Cel mai mare jaf din perioada comunistă|magazine= Historia|language=ro|access-date=7 January 2019))</ref>

*'''Paul Ioanid''', birth name Leibovici, born in 1923, the younger brother of Alexandru Ioanid.<ref name="Historia"/> An engineer, aeronautics specialist and airplane pilot, he was a well-known newspaper and radio commentator on space flight issues.<ref name="Historia"/> He had received his [[Ph.D.]] in [[Moscow]],<ref name="Historia"/> where he had studied with [[Andrei Tupolev]] and [[Oleg Antonov (aircraft designer)|Oleg Antonov]].<ref name="BBC"/> A prominent Communist Party member, he had been a [[List of academic ranks#Romania|professor and head of the aeronautics department]] at the [[Carol I National Defence University|Military Academy]].<ref name="Historia"/><ref name="BBC"/> After working on behalf of Romania at the secret Soviet space programme, he was investigated by the Securitate upon returning home.<ref name="Historia"/><ref name="BBC">Dorian Galor, [http://www.bbc.co.uk/romanian/news/story/2004/05/040525_arena_marele_jaf.shtml  Marele jaf din 1959 la Banca Naţională], [[BBC Romanian]], 25 May 2004, access date 7 January 2019</ref>

*'''Igor "Gugu" Sevianu''', birth name Herșcovici, born in 1923.<ref name="Historia"/><ref name="geni">[https://www.geni.com/people/Igor-Hershcovici/4612699919820048350  Igor Hershcovici], on geni.com, access date 7 January 2019</ref> Sevianu was an aviation engineer and Communist Party member who had participated in sabotage operations against the [[Nazi Germany|Nazi German]] army during [[World War II]],<ref name="Historia"/> and had taken part in the [[Romania in World War II#Campaign against the Axis|August 1944 fights]] on Bucharest's streets that helped remove the German troops from the city.<ref name="BBC"/> Sevianu had been a police lieutenant after the war until 1951, and had also worked at different times for the aviation department of the Interior Ministry,<ref name="BBC"/> as a National Tourism Office (ONT)<ref name="Historia"/> [[tour guide]],<ref name="geni"/> and [[agitprop]] activist,<ref name="geni"/> but at the time of the incident had been unemployed since 1957.<ref name="Historia"/> In 1959 the Sevianu couple and their two children were surviving on Monica Sevianu's income as private teacher.<ref name="Historia"/>

*'''Monica Sevianu''', birth name Monique Alfandary, born in 1923.<ref name="geni"/> A journalist, she had worked for the national radio station, but had been fired in 1957, the reason given being her lack of [[Higher education|higher academic degrees]].<ref name="Historia"/> After serving part of her life-time sentence, she was released in 1964 through an [[amnesty]] decree<ref name="Historia"/> for political crimes((cn|date=January 2019)) issued by [[Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej]]. She emigrated to [[Israel]] in 1970 where she died in 1977.<ref name="Historia"/> She had already "made [[aliyah]]" once to [[Mandatory Palestine|British Mandate Palestine]], where she had lived for three years until returning to Romania in 1948 and marrying Igor.<ref name="BBC"/>

*'''Sașa Mușat''', birth name Abrașa Glanzstein, born in 1924.<ref name="Historia"/><ref>((cite web|first=Andrei|last= Băleanu| url=https://www.dw.com/ro/reconstituirea-manipulare-politic%C4%83-%C5%9Fi-controvers%C4%83-istoric%C4%83/a-2632751|title="Reconstituirea" – manipulare politică și controversă istorică|publisher=[[Deutsche Welle]]|date= 1 October 2004|language=Romanian|access-date= 7 January 2019))</ref> Mușat had been a member of the [[Union of Communist Youth|Romanian Communist Party's youth organisation]] already during its underground years preceding [[King Michael's Coup]] of August 1944.<ref name="Historia"/>((dubious|CP or SD (see further)? (Apparent) contradiction? Before 1945 CP and after - SD?|date=January 2019)) A leader of the [[Romanian Social Democratic Party (1927–48)|Social-Democratic]] youth organisation after WWII, with some considering him to be a Communist agent sent to infiltrate the SD movement.<ref name="BBC"/> He was a close collaborator of Communist Party leader, [[Emil Bodnăraș]], being also a cousin of his first wife.<ref name="Historia"/> In 1948 he was sent on an espionage mission to [[France]], but his cover was blown and he was expelled back to Romania.<ref name="Historia"/> Here he worked as an [[List of academic ranks#Romania|associate professor]] and Party secretary at the History Department of the [[University of Bucharest]], positions he was fired from in 1957 or 1958, the reason given being him lacking a [[PhD degree]].<ref name="Historia"/><ref name="BBC"/>

*'''Haralambie "Hary" Obedeanu''', birth name Hary Lazarovici, born in 1921.<ref>[https://www.geni.com/people/Hary-Obedeanu-Lazarovici/4026023303000020333  Hary Obedeanu Lazarovici], at geni.com, accessed 7 January 2019</ref><ref name="R22"/> Communist Party member and former employee of the [[Ministry of Internal Affairs (Romania)|Ministry of Interior]].<ref name="Historia"/> Obedeanu had worked until the end of 1958 as a journalist for [[Scînteia]], the Communist Party newspaper,<ref name="Historia"/> and – until being fired – as the [[List of academic ranks#Romania|dean]] of the Journalism Department of the [[Ștefan Gheorghiu Academy]] (the Party's political cadres academy).<ref name="Historia"/><ref name="BBC"/>

==1960 propaganda film==
In 1960, the government issued a propaganda film, ''Reconstituirea'' ("Reconstruction"), to be viewed only by Communist Party members, which reconstructed the way in which the heist had allegedly been planned and carried out. The jailed members of the Ioanid Gang acted out their own roles, either simply forced or possibly having been told that their death sentences would be [[Commutation (law)|commuted]] in return.

==Controversy==
===Contradictions===
There were several unusual things about the story in its most common version. Beyond accusations based on various ideological guidelines, no reasons for the alleged robbery, or for the Ioanid group to have perpetrated it, were ever given. Although the persons on trial were accused of intending to donate the money to [[Zionism|Zionist]] organisations that would send Romanian Jews to Israel, the stolen sum was in lei, which at the time could not be exchanged for [[hard currency]] anywhere in the world. Besides, none of the accused had been Zionists.

Given that [[Communist Romania]] was a [[police state]], and unprecedented measures of strict control and surveillance were supposed to have been enforced in all areas of society (phone calls were routinely [[Wiretapping|monitored]], correspondence was intercepted, and secret police [[informant]]s were common) a plan such as the one allegedly designed by the group would have been exceedingly difficult to carry out. It is also highly unlikely that the members of the "Ioanid Gang" could have been unaware of these facts. One of them, Alexandru Ioanid, was a colonel in the Securitate and, according to Victor Frunză, he had been related through marriage to the Securitate chief [[Alexandru Drăghici]]<ref>Frunză, p.398</ref> (he had been married to, and recently divorced from, the sister of Drăghici's wife Martha Cziko; following the divorce, Drăghici had vowed to destroy him). During many months preceding July 1959 (the date of the alleged heist), at least one of the members, Obedeanu, was aware of being followed and of being constantly watched through binoculars by the Securitate from a building across the street from his apartment. Moreover, also for months preceding July 1959 the phones of the "Ioanid Gang" members had been tapped. In the aftermath, several of the friends with whom they had talked lost their jobs or positions.

After 28 July, the group was said to have engaged in reckless spending on luxuries, depicted in the original Reconstruction movie. It is, however, highly unlikely that a person living in Romania at the time, let alone such educated individuals, could have imagined being able to get away with such behaviour unnoticed by the surveillance apparatus. Moreover, in Obedeanu's case for example, the crew making the Reconstruction film resorted to bringing furnishing props, including carpets, furniture and curtains, to his apartment in order to show how he had spent the money. Obedeanu never really changed his spending habits, unlike apparently (according to [[Irene Lusztig]]) Sevianu, leading some to believe that, in trying to stage the event, authorities may have offered Sevianu money based on his more immediate needs (unlike the others, Sevianu was unemployed). Nora, Obedeanu's wife, was arrested at the same time as her husband but not accused; she was held for two months, which was the maximum allowed by law at the time. It has been indicated that Nora was interrogated only about the content of conversations among group members, and found out about bank robbery accusations only upon her release from prison.  

All these aspects, together with the numerous cases of sentences based on false accusations, have led some, including relatives of the alleged robbers, to doubt that any robbery actually took place or that those charged with the crime really committed it, especially as there was no actual direct identification of the accused by the supposed witnesses. One conjecture is that the case was manufactured by the government in an attempt to justify a purge in the Securitate ranks – by accusing officers of incompetence in solving the case – as well as to remove most remaining Jews from leading positions inside the government and the [[Romanian Communist Party|Communist Party]]. Yet another contention with no evidence is that the executions were staged, so that the five men would have their records erased and become [[undercover agent]]s abroad. Since most evidence has been filtered by the Securitate, the truth is extremely hard to discern, especially since Securitate files are unlikely to contain any self-incriminating notes of the staging of the heist, and restrict themselves to following the official story-line.

===Anti-Jewish party purge scenario===
All those accused in the robbery were Jewish Communist intellectuals, all of whom had been party members during the years of underground activity<ref name="Tismaneanu"/> (between 1924–1944 the Communist Party had been outlawed in Romania). A large [[party purge]] was put in motion in 1958, a year characterised by a move away from Soviet Russia – the [[Soviet occupation of Romania|Soviet troops stationed in Romania]] since 1944 were leaving the country – and critics of party chief [[Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej]] are ousted.<ref name="Tismaneanu"/> The purge takes the shape of a "Romanian ethnicisation" of the party, ethnic Jews and Hungarians being the target.<ref name="Tismaneanu"/> The chief ideologue put in charge of the purge was [[Leonte Răutu]] who, in spite of his Jewish roots, had become a stauch [[National communism|Romanian national communist]].<ref name="Tismaneanu"/> The "gang" members were even accused of planning to assassinate Răutu.<ref name="acrobat'>Vladimir Tismăneanu, Cristian Vasile, ''Perfectul acrobat. Leonte Răutu, măștile răului'', [[Humanitas (publishing house)|Humanitas]], Bucharest, 2008, pp. 23, 103. ((ISBN|978-973-50-2238-9))</ref> [[Vladimir Tismăneanu]] sees the whole affair in the light of a typical [[Bolsheviks|Bolshevist]] [[show trial]], with the Romanian national communists set out to remove Jewish intellectuals from the party.<ref name="Tismaneanu"/> Some Jewish intellectuals, though being former underground fighters, are accused of lacking working [[class consciousness]].<ref name="Tismaneanu"/> Paul Ioanid's Soviet connections have become a burden, and the personal [[Feud|vendetta]] of Alexandru Drăghici and his wife Martha (née Cziko) against Alexandru Ioanid for having divorced the sister of Martha Drăghici, is given the ideological spin of him having gravely strayed from "Socialist morals".<ref name="Tismaneanu">[[Vladimir Tismăneanu]], [http://www.contributors.ro/politica-doctrine/marele-jaf-%C8%99i-pedagogia-infernala/  Răni deschise: "Marele Jaf" și pedagogia infernală], 21 January 2015, accessed 7 January 2019</ref>

===Blackmail scenario===
Based on what is known about the group members (journalists, a physicist, a history professor, and a Securitate colonel, all of them were fully cognizant of the Romanian situation) and about the political climate at the time, as well as on recollections of some family members, another scenario also seems likely. Following prolonged Securitate surveillance of the group, which resulted in the accumulation of evidence about conversations with [[dissident]] tones, members may have been [[blackmail]]ed including threatened with harm against their families and themselves, and promised some reprieve or even permission to leave the country with their families, if they went along with the staging of the robbery to serve several government and personal purposes. 

In this event, the government failed to uphold its end of the bargain. As a parallel, in what was a highly unusual move for those times when nobody was allowed to leave Romania, another Jewish Securitate officer, Ion Crișan, incidentally described as "friend" of the Ioanid group, was permitted to leave the country with his family and go to [[Brazil]] around 1961,<ref name="Tismaneanu"/> shortly after the alleged incident; this has led some to believe that he may have been the agent through whom the government communicated its promises and made them credible.

==In culture==
Apart from the original Reconstruction movie produced by the Romanian state and widely screened before Communist Party members, there have been several other movies and documentaries, including ''[[Reconstruction (2001 film)|Reconstruction]]'' (2001) by [[Irene Lusztig]] and ''The Great Communist Robbery'' (2004) by Alexandru Solomon. The film ''[[Closer to the Moon]]'' (2014) by [[Nae Caranfil]], starring [[Harry Lloyd]], [[Vera Farmiga]], [[Mark Strong]] and [[Joe Armstrong (actor)|Joe Armstrong]], is fictional and very loosely connected to the real events.<ref>Sauciuc, Gloria, [http://www.cinemagia.ro/stiri/closer-to-the-moon-de-nae-caranfil-se-filmeaza-din-5-septembrie-18921/ "Closer to the Moon, by Nae Caranfil, was filmed from September 5"], ''Cinemagia'' (Romanian), 2 September 2011. Retrieved 2011-09-13.</ref>

==See also==
*''[[Reconstruction (2001 film)|Reconstruction]]''—the documentary film made by Irene Lusztig

==References==
((Reflist))

==Sources==
*((in lang|ro)) [http://www.bbc.co.uk/romanian/news/story/2004/05/040525_arena_marele_jaf.shtml Doriana Galor, "Arena: Marele jaf din 1959 la Banca Națională" ("Arena: The Great 1959 National Bank Robbery"), at the BBC Romanian section site]
*Victor Frunză, ''Istoria stalinismului în România'' ("The History of Stalinism in Romania"), [[Humanitas (publishing house)|Humanitas]], Bucharest, 1990
*Direct recollections of family members.

[[Category:1959 crimes in Romania]]
[[Category:Socialist Republic of Romania]]
[[Category:People detained by the Securitate]]
[[Category:Jewish Romanian history]]
[[Category:Romanian bank robbers]]
[[Category:Executed Romanian people]]
[[Category:People executed by the Socialist Republic of Romania]]
[[Category:People executed for robbery]]
[[Category:Robberies in Romania]]
[[Category:Gangs in Romania]]

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