In May, after witnessing the result of German pressure on Austria ("see Anschluss"), Călinescu decapitated the Guard by ordering arrests of its leaders, beginning with that of Codreanu, as well as many of its members and sympathisers (including Nae Ionescu and Mircea Eliade). Codreanu and other leaders (probably as much as 300 people) were consequently killed in custody; ostensibly because they were "killed while trying to escape". Other Legionaries were pressured to sign "declarations of dissociation". Many other Guard leaders, including Horia Sima, fled to various locations in Germany.