Justin Georgescu

Who is Justin Georgescu?

Justin Georgescu was a Romanian communist activist and anti-fascist militant assassinated in police custody during World War II.

Born in Bucharest, Romania's capital, in 1922, Justin Georgescu became an orphan at an early age. After finishing primary school, in 1933 he entered in the Matei Basarab High School, where he was one of the top students. By autumn 1939, Georgescu took contact with communist ideals, becoming a member of the clandestine Union of Communist Youth. In the following months he took part in several action of the group, spreading manifestos and leaflets against Carol II's authoritarian regime and its alignment with Hitler's Germany. He also organized a protest of the students with communist sympathies against an initiative of his high school that would have eliminated poor students. Soon after, the UTC nominated him as leader of a "technical group", responsible for propaganda work in Bucharest's Green Sector.

In 1941, Georgescu enrolled in the Faculty of Letters of the University of Bucharest, and in spring 1942 he was elected a member in the leadership of the university's UTC cell.