Hello, I hope you're interested in an answer, the Iron Guard and Zelea Codreanu are extremely interesting yet really controversial in Romania. Some people see them as heroes, others as the product of the time, others as violent thugs, however it is safe to say that most Romanians do not remember much about them anymore.

Anyways, to understand the Iron Guard and Zelea Codreanu, first you need to understand the Romanian society in the late 19th century and early 20th century, because antisemitism, irredentist nationalism and traditionalism were familiar with Romania before the Zelea Codreanu was even born.

Romania, a country that started it's existance after the unification of Wallachia and Moldavia in 1859 under Alexandru Ioan Cuza, was the product of rise of nationalism all over Europe. Wallachia and Moldavia both had nationalistic and liberal revolutions like in a lot of European countries in 1848, and the sentiment of national unity started to occur in regions Romanians did live. While antisemitism in Wallachia was at bay, because the Jewish population in the region was limited, antisemitism was extremely popular in Moldavia, because this region had a really big and also wealthy Jewish population. Alexandru Ioan Cuza was in the end forced to abdicate, and soon Prince Carol of Hohenzollern was crowned as "Domnitor" in 1866. Romania gained it's independence after the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-1878, and Romania gained Northern Dobrugea, in exchange for Southern Budjak (Which is located in today's Southern Ukraine). Soon, in 1881, Carol I became the first King of Romania, thus Romania made the transition from Principality into a Kingdom. Fast forward, the goal of Romania was to unite all Romanians in a single country (Transylvania and Bukovina were part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Basserabia was part of the Russian Empire). Romania gained control over Southern Dobrugea after they joined the war against Bulgaria in 1913. Romania, initially defeated in the First World War, ended up signing peace with the Central Powers in early 1918, however Romania rejoined the war one day before it ended. After heavy social tensions, a war with Hungary and 2 treaties, "Greater Romania" was achieved, and now most Romanians did live in a single country.

Zelea Codreanu, the future leader of the Iron Guard, was from a young age attracted by the nationalistic and antisemitic rhetoric, considering that his father was from Bukovina (his mother was German) and he did live in Moldavia, where the Jewish population was high. At a young age, he joined the A. C. Cuza's National Christian Defence League, which was ideologically close to the Iron Guard, however way more moderate.

First, we must understand the Iron Guard's relation with the Romanian Monarchy. The Iron Guard believes that the crown is a sign of unity for Romanian people, that is constantly attacked by the Jews. ("To the Romanians the crown always constituted a dear patrimony. As the guarantor of our unity and resistance facing any dangers, the Jews never hesitated to attack it, to insult and compromise it by any means")

Now, antisemitism is not some monolithic term, there's a really big debate if the antisemitism practiced by the Iron Guard was even remotely close to the ones of the National Socialists in Germany. In his book, Zelea Codreanu is stating that the Romanian political class is not fighting for the interests of Romania, but for those who are funding them, and according to Codreanu, the political parties are being funded by the Jews. ("All those who can and do finance are the Jewish bankers, the very rich Jews, the big Jewish grain dealers, the great Jewish industrialists and merchants. They finance the political parties in order to exterminate the Romanians in their own country"). At the same time, the Iron Guard, believed that the Jewish people are being used by the Soviet Union to spread communism in Romania, which he makes clear when he is talking in his books about the incidents from Iasi. ("The most powerful communist center was formed by the Romanian railway works at Nicolina. Over 4,000 men worked there, nearly all bolshevized. Residential areas around these works, Podul Ros, Socola and Nicolina, were invaded by a considerable number of Jews."). Despite their obvious hate for communism, the Iron Guard was in favour of "National-Christian Socialism", Codreanu claims in his book that the name has nothing to do with the National Socialists from Germany, since he never heard about them when National-Christian Socialism. Keep in mind, this concept of National-Christian Socialism appeared before the Iron Guard, but Zelea Codreanu kept this ideal intact.

The Iron Guard was extremely religious, they were so religious that they did not even believe that they are "doing politics", but rather all they did was motivated by religion. ("We have not been engaged in politics, for not even one single day in our lives, ever. We have a religion, we are the slaves of a faith. We consume ourselves in its fire and, totally subjected to it, serve it to the limit of our strength. There is no defeat and disarming for ourselves, for the power whose tools we want to be, is eternally invincible."). The Legionaries were known for doing voluntary works for the Church, and at the same time, a lot of Orthodox Priests joined the Guard's ranks in the interwar era.

The reason the Iron Guard disliked / hated the Magyars is that Transylvania was part of Hungary for such a long period of time, meaning that Hungary, even after the Treaty of Trianon, while not officially, hold claims over Transylvania. The Iron Guard saw this as a threat to the national integrity of Romania. About Gypsies, Zelea Codreanu did barely talk about them in his book, however they were most likely disliked aswell, considering that gypsies were really isolated from the rest of society and they were generally seen as outside elements.

The role of the Iron Guard in the Holocaust was limited, since the Iron Guard was dissolved first by Zelea Codreanu in 1938, and then by Ion Antonescu after Horia Sima's Iron Guard attempted to coup the Government in early 1941. A lot of the Iron Guard members still took part in the crimes against Jewish people during World War II, however the Iron Guard wasn't a political movement after 1941. They did some nasty stuff in a short period, such as Bucharest Pogrom during their coup attempt and Iasi Pogrom which happened after the collapse of the Iron Guard, however the Romanian authorities released lots of jailed Legionaries, armed them, and allowed them to kill lots of Jews.

It is also safe to say that Zelea Codreanu admired Benito Mussolini, and when the March on Rome happened, Codreanu "celebrated like it was a victory for his country". According to him, Benito killed a beast with two heads, Communism and Masonry, both represented by the Jewish people. Codreanu saw Hitler as a great man aswell, seeing him as the liberator of Germany.

If you got any questions about the Iron Guard, I will answer them. Everything in quotation marks was taken from Zelea Codreanu's book, "For my Legionaries".