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Guest MattP

Convictions

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Posted

Having a go at a woman make you feel hard, did it?

 

To be fair, it's not like he's going to have a go on a woman any time soon........

Posted

Not me, but my late dad was arrested in an abandoned government building in Romania in 1930. He was just being curious. He was imprisoned as a "political" for 5 years until he was given the choice of remaining in prison or joining the army to fight the Russians.

 

He joined the army. The prospect of being dying in combat was better than an indeterminate time in a Romanian prison.

 

 

Jesus is this true?

 

 

 

Yes absolutely true. (although I got the year of his arrest wrong, it was 1935 when he was 17) My dad was expatriated (if that's the right word) to England, though he had a choice of here or Australia, (I've barely forgiven him).

 

For several years the authorities denied any knowledge of him so, from the day he was arrested until he finally managed to get a letter out of prison, his family had no idea what had happened to him. He maintains that the worry caused his mother to go blind.

 

He got seperated from his troop and effectively went AWOL from his platoon close the Russian front, and then made his way across Europe joining different groups of soldiers to maintain contact with the army as well as posing as a mechanic and a baker, among other things, in order to get money, gain trust and recieve handouts from locals along the way. Because he was classed as AWOL, he would have been shot had he returned to Romania. He finally pitched up in Belgium.

 

In his later years he did go back to visit his family, but for a long time he was too scared in case he got picked up by the Securitate, particularly during Ceacescu's time in power.

 

 

He returned to Hamburg for a "holiday" just after the war and stayed in the same hotel room that Eisenhower used.

 

He was the interpreter for Rapid Bucharest when they played City in 1994. I had no idea he was doing this and I was working as Paramedic cover for the game when he came walking out of the tunnel with the Bucharest team!

 

He has written his memoirs in the form of a book for his family. He died aged 90 in 2008

Posted

It's not been published for general release it was just for family. To be honest it's not brilliantly written as English wasn't his first language and he wasn't a natural writer. My brother wrote the transcripts onto computer from my dad's handwritten words and a family friend edited and corrected typo's and  had it printed and made up into a book of which there are 4 copies in existence currently.

 

I appreciate your interest, though.

Posted

Yes absolutely true. (although I got the year of his arrest wrong, it was 1935 when he was 17) My dad was expatriated (if that's the right word) to England, though he had a choice of here or Australia, (I've barely forgiven him).

 

For several years the authorities denied any knowledge of him so, from the day he was arrested until he finally managed to get a letter out of prison, his family had no idea what had happened to him. He maintains that the worry caused his mother to go blind.

 

He got seperated from his troop and effectively went AWOL from his platoon close the Russian front, and then made his way across Europe joining different groups of soldiers to maintain contact with the army as well as posing as a mechanic and a baker, among other things, in order to get money, gain trust and recieve handouts from locals along the way. Because he was classed as AWOL, he would have been shot had he returned to Romania. He finally pitched up in Belgium.

 

In his later years he did go back to visit his family, but for a long time he was too scared in case he got picked up by the Securitate, particularly during Ceacescu's time in power.

 

 

He returned to Hamburg for a "holiday" just after the war and stayed in the same hotel room that Eisenhower used.

 

He was the interpreter for Rapid Bucharest when they played City in 1994. I had no idea he was doing this and I was working as Paramedic cover for the game when he came walking out of the tunnel with the Bucharest team!

 

He has written his memoirs in the form of a book for his family. He died aged 90 in 2008

 

Great story, thanks for sharing.

Posted

Great story, thanks for sharing.

 

You're welcome. I have recently had the urge to tell as many people as I can about his life so this was a good opprtunity.

 

That's the bare-bone outline, as i'm sure you'll appreciate.

Posted

You're welcome. I have recently had the urge to tell as many people as I can about his life so this was a good opprtunity.

 

That's the bare-bone outline, as i'm sure you'll appreciate.

It sounds a great adventure but I'm sure your dad didn't feel that way at the time. 

Posted

Fantastic, would love to have a read through the book.

 

Stuff like that should be published.

Posted

Yes absolutely true. (although I got the year of his arrest wrong, it was 1935 when he was 17) My dad was expatriated (if that's the right word) to England, though he had a choice of here or Australia, (I've barely forgiven him).

 

For several years the authorities denied any knowledge of him so, from the day he was arrested until he finally managed to get a letter out of prison, his family had no idea what had happened to him. He maintains that the worry caused his mother to go blind.

 

He got seperated from his troop and effectively went AWOL from his platoon close the Russian front, and then made his way across Europe joining different groups of soldiers to maintain contact with the army as well as posing as a mechanic and a baker, among other things, in order to get money, gain trust and recieve handouts from locals along the way. Because he was classed as AWOL, he would have been shot had he returned to Romania. He finally pitched up in Belgium.

 

In his later years he did go back to visit his family, but for a long time he was too scared in case he got picked up by the Securitate, particularly during Ceacescu's time in power.

 

 

He returned to Hamburg for a "holiday" just after the war and stayed in the same hotel room that Eisenhower used.

 

He was the interpreter for Rapid Bucharest when they played City in 1994. I had no idea he was doing this and I was working as Paramedic cover for the game when he came walking out of the tunnel with the Bucharest team!

 

He has written his memoirs in the form of a book for his family. He died aged 90 in 2008

 

That's fascinated me. He probably never thought himself a hero for how he survived what he went through and pitched up in England but i'm proud a bloke like your dad wanted to come here and live. I bet when he told stories people sat up and listened. Salt of the earth.

Posted

That's fascinated me. He probably never thought himself a hero for how he survived what he went through and pitched up in England but i'm proud a bloke like your dad wanted to come here and live. I bet when he told stories people sat up and listened. Salt of the earth.

 

Thank You, Ric. That's much appreciated.

 

Like a lot of men in the war, he rarely gave many details about what happened to him. It wasn't until I read the book which wasn't finished until after his death, that I realised what he had been through. His own words don't fully portray what and how he must have survived.

 

His description of his time in prison, particularly the first few weeks are very understated. He described how, on arrival, he was marched into a dark windowless room with about 10 other prisoners and him sitting as close to the toilet bucket as possible so he didn't have to fight to use it. He ate thin soup with hard biscuit type bread twice a day, that was all and even that got stolen if you weren't alert.

 

He didn't embellish his story much, almost as if he felt humbled by it. He always was a man of few words.

 

Thankfully as a "political" he was eventually allowed more freedom than a criminal prisoner and was able to use workshops and learnt carpentry and engineering and the food improved, so there was some good, I suppose.

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