# Modest Isopescu

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**Modest Isopescu** (30 November 1895 – 17 October 1948) was an [Austro-Hungarian](/source/Austria-Hungary)-born [Romanian](/source/Romania) officer, administrator and convicted war criminal.

Born in [Frătăuții Vechi](/source/Fr%C4%83t%C4%83u%C8%9Bii_Vechi), in Austrian-ruled [Bukovina](/source/Bukovina),[1] he entered the [Austro-Hungarian Army](/source/Austro-Hungarian_Army) in 1916 with the rank of reserve second lieutenant, and fought in [World War I](/source/World_War_I). He was promoted to captain in the [Romanian Land Forces](/source/Romanian_Land_Forces) in 1923, he was advanced to major in 1934 and lieutenant colonel in 1939.[2]

Romania entered [World War II](/source/World_War_II) in June 1941 at the onset of [Operation Barbarossa](/source/Operation_Barbarossa), under the [Ion Antonescu](/source/Ion_Antonescu) regime. At that point, Isopescu was commander of a battalion in the [gendarmerie](/source/Gendarmerie), part of the [Romanian 4th Army](/source/Fourth_Army_(Romania)). He entered [Chișinău](/source/Chi%C8%99in%C4%83u) with his battalion in July 1941, and in August he established a gendarmerie outpost in [Bălți](/source/B%C4%83l%C8%9Bi). He filled this position until October, when he was named [prefect](/source/Prefect_(Romania)) of [Golta County](/source/Pervomaisk,_Mykolaiv_Oblast) in [Transnistria Governorate](/source/Transnistria_Governorate). He remained as such until March 1944; meanwhile, at the end of 1942, he was transferred to the reserves. Under Isopescu's administration, the Golta district became a veritable "kingdom of death" for the Jews deported there.[2]

In January 1945, several months after Antonescu was deposed in [King Michael's Coup](/source/King_Michael's_Coup) of August 1944, the Romanian government ordered the arrest of 65 persons, including Isopescu, for the "national disaster".[1] Charged with war crimes, he was sentenced to death by the [Bucharest People's Tribunal](/source/Romanian_People's_Tribunals) on 22 May. On 1 June this was commuted to hard labour for life. He died at [Aiud Prison](/source/Aiud_Prison) in 1948,[2] of cancer and a liver abscess.[3]

## Notes

1. Octavian Roske (ed.), *Mecanisme represive în România 1945-1989: dicționar biografic*, vol. III, p. 274. Bucharest: Institutul Național pentru Studiul Totalitarismului, 2004

1. Ottmar Trașcă, [Dennis Deletant](/source/Dennis_Deletant) (eds.), *"Chestiunea evreiască" în documente militare române, 1941-1944*, p. 479. Bucharest: Institutul "Elie Weisel", 2010

1. Țârău, Virgiliu & Ciupea, Ioan. ["Morții penitenciarului Aiud 1945–1965"](https://web.archive.org/web/20150924030352/http://www.historica-cluj.ro/anuare/AnuarHistorica2010/09.pdf) (in Romanian). Archived from [the original](http://www.historica-cluj.ro/anuare/AnuarHistorica2010/09.pdf) on September 24, 2015. Retrieved March 29, 2021.

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