Hermina Vlasopolos - April 9, 1984
Jews in Post-war Romania
How did the Jewish community reorganize in Romania after the war? And when communism came in, was...?
Oh it was a--you know, it is very, very hard for--the Jewish community, the only thing what they were able to, to do is, is org...syn...synagogues, you know. And they were still allowed, you know, to organize something for Passover, some, some uh, I mean, matzahs and so on. But it was really not very organized uh, you know, unity there because you couldn't. I mean, it was not uh, my, this cousin of mine who, who had this newspaper and who, I mean, he wrote, of course, the editorials and he had others and he was a lawyer too. And he started, he was a lawyer for the Israeli embassy. And he was arrested, you know, for Zionism. He was five years in jail. He was given fifteen years. My pediatrician, who was also in the Jewish organization, and everybody--he was arrested and he was--he came out after five years. And my cousin died also, you know, very quick after this, because the jails were not like here when you put people in jail and they have television. Mostly the political prisoners were much worse than the uh, you know, common groups and so on. So uh, he was in, in jail, he was given fifteen years. And he was in jail. His wife was given twenty years because he was with the ??? organization. So it couldn't be, you know. It was only by, called underground meeting, but it was not. Because the, the really Jewish chef, I mean, chief rabbi. You know he was--he had two roles, I don't know if you've heard about him. He was, he had to play, you know, the communist game in order to be able to be maintained, you know, as chief rabbi. And uh, so...
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