She gave us little doilies and said her way to survive the Ceaușescu regime was to stay in her one-room house, quiet as a mouse, and crochet doilies. She spoke English and wanted to talk to my wife and me as often as possible. There was a contingent of Romanian students in the camp, and one of their supervisors was an 80-year-old woman who had lived through the hell of World War II.īeing first overrun by the Nazis and then by the Russians, she had lost her father, brother and two of her children during the war. The camp was in the High Tatras Mountains in Poland. Two factions ultimately took down this regime: the young people, high school age and even younger, and the military, which ultimately refused to shoot their younger brothers and sisters who were willing to die on the streets for freedom.Ī personal story: In 2000, 11 years after the end of the dictatorship in Romania, I was teaching debate to high school students from most of the nations that once were in the Warsaw Pact. One could be standing on the sidewalk while the police killed the person next to you. The biggest black-market commodity was cigarettes.

Part of a candy bar was a rare commodity that could be exchanged for favors.

George Orwell, years earlier, wrote effectively about this process in '1984.' Daily, everyone experienced the pressure of staying alive another day. Children were encouraged to inform on parents, grandparents on their children, children on their teachers - you get the picture. The state's power hits home to the reader through Christian's daily encounters, starting with him being forced into being an informant for the state. Between 5% and 15% of the Romanians were informers for the Securitate State before the country's fall in 1989. The story is told from the perspective of 17-year-old Christian Florescu, who dreams about becoming a writer.Īlthough the story is fiction, the author has done incredible research, so many of the incidents in the book actually happened.Įveryone is under constant surveillance. Survivors were left with the physical, mental and emotional trauma that took years to mitigate. The end of the Ceaușescu regime left thousands of casualties, including 100 children. However, while led by vicious dictators Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu, Romania holds onto power with a strong military and a tattle tale social structure.

I must betray