The Dead Nation (Ţara Moartă: fragmente de vieţi paralele)

I am not here for vengeance, but to gather, with a loving heart,

those willing to join in the betterment of the Nation.

Seeing the representatives of all Romanians,

from Nistru to Tisa, from Hotin to the sea,

from Boian to Vatra Dornei, from Sătmar to Săcele,

I think with respect of the 800.000 dead

in Transylvania, Bukovina and Bessarabia,

who, with their blood, have forever cemented

the unification of the Country.

Let us all work together

for our dearest possession: our Country.

Romanians all over, join your thoughts and hearts!

Forward, to our labour!

THE DEAD NATION - fragments of parallel lives -

Long live our King,

In peace and honour,

He is our country's banner,

For him with joy we sing!

May he lead us ahead

May his fame always spread

For victory in wars!...

In the '30s, photographer Costică Acsinte opens his own studio,

"Foto Splendid", in South-Eastern Romania.

Our Legion proud By oath is bound

The price in blood to pay.

The sacrifices made, The strength of blades

Will lead to our victory day!

Dear heroes watch over us,

Guiding the Legion on its way. A brave death is all we want,

For it to Them we pray.

At the end of 1937, in Bucharest, Dr. Emil Dorian starts keeping a journal.

December 30th.

A bolt from the blue: Goga is now Prime Minister.

No one expected it.

The Jews are expecting disaster.

We see the fruits of anti-Semitic nationalism,

supported for years by all the parties.

Goga will enforce his racist convictions.

Several newspapers were closed because Goga wanted vengeance.

The collapse is general.

People expect the same measures introduced by Hitler in Germany.

January 6th. A sad observation:

People don't need freedom. It makes them sterile.

But collective discipline gives them peace.

January 14th. It finally happened:

I was fired from Social Insurance for being a Jew.

Newspapers boys announce: "No More Jewish Doctors in Insurance!"

Victory is theirs, nationalism has won.

I took it rather calmly.

I'd have preferred fewer calls of sympathy.

January 25th.

The TB Hospital has a single Jewish patient.

Prompted by an employee of the Universul newspaper,

the Christian patients petitioned for the Jew to be thrown out.

The most insulting measure against Jews

is the reappraisal of citizenship.

The Jews shouldn't accept it. Citizenship is definitive.

How inept, to reconsider such an act,

which has created enduring identities!

One million people are slapped in the face,

forced to travel all over the country for documents,

and to accept the 20-day deadline.

If I knew my family was safe, I would refuse to go.

What is the value of citizenship if any Minister can suspend it?

Our King has given an interview. He was very honest.

He assures that there will be no pogrom,

but Jews could make it easier by leaving Romania willingly.

August 15th.

22 years ago today, the waters of an age were parted.

I crossed a country at war. I was torn between poetry and reality.

I couldn't overcome an adolescence of deprivation.

Those events still echo inside me.

What became of the orphaned nurse who swore she would kill

the man who starts the next war?

Or the sick peasant who shouted:

"I'll stab the man who sent Dad off to die!"

Or the wounded magistrate who moaned:

"Doctor, the Country is sacred, but my life is more sacred!"

"Kill me if the Country couldn't!"

And that Bavarian boy, who, after days of starving,

when asked for information on the German troops, screamed:

"For bread I'll sell my country and the Emperor!"

And others I met at the crossroads of tears, hunger, blood and death.

How to live with these memories for 25 years,

while criminals plan those horrors again?

My daughters are dancing in the next room,

while on the radio a girl has announced

all the horrors of death from all over the world.

November 30th. New events confirm the rumours

about synagogues burning across the country.

Yesterday's assassination of a University Rector,

the bombing of a Jewish play in a theatre

and the shooting of Codreanu and other Legionnaires (fascists).

Officially, they tried to escape

and were all shot to death because of the fog.

It's still the Jews who worry most about the future.

Tragic experience has taught them they must be the scapegoats.

You fight bravely For our goal

To end our country's misery!

Free us poor peasants From our toils and misery,

For dirty Jews and thieves Suck our lifeblood ceaselessly.

January 2nd.

Historian Iorga gives statistics of doctors' ethnicities,

concluding that Jewish doctors are more numerous.

We still have too few doctors for the country's needs.

Fire them, hang them! Fine.

What I find criminal is his claim

that Romania's sanitary situation is caused by the Jewish doctors.

People with common sense know this is abominable.

But the others...

Things are progressing fast.

Now there's a single, Fascist Party and it will run for Parliament.

They have a uniform:, the Roman salute is now obligatory.

The rest will follow.

September 1st. The war has started.

Hitler has attacked Poland and annexed Danzig.

Death is getting close.

People were fine with the murders in China - it was all so far.

September 21st.

Legionnaires (fascists) have shot the Prime Minister.

It was announced on the radio,

probably by a Legionnaire who had entered by force.

September 24th. Arrests and executions.

There were many more executions than announced.

Dead Legionnaires were exposed in public squares.

In Bucharest people flocked to see the bodies exposed

where the Prime Minister was murdered.

A girl I know asked her father,

instead of icecream, to let her see the bodies.

December 31st.

All hearts tremble, less for the past, than for the next year.

The cheap emotion of tradition turns dramatic.

This time, "What next?" truly echoes in our hearts.

What next?

I warmly wish my country, as is the habit, "Happy New Year!"

Good tidings!

June 28th. History is getting closer.

Lightning has struck: the Soviet demand Bessarabia and northern Bukovina.

Germany and Italy don't support us.

The Crown Council accepted Russia's demands.

A minute of silence leaves our country breathless

at the supreme moment when Bessarabia is ripped from its body.

In the land stolen from us,

sons of Judas whom we raised too kindly rejoice in the streets.

See them laugh, while the Motherland bleeds!

June 30th. Jews are increasingly resented.

People say they welcomed the Russians in Bukovina and Bessarabia.

The radio in Rome spreads huge lies.

They claimed 3.000 Jews manifested at the Soviet embassy

convincing the Russians to ask for Bessarabia.

Now they claim Bukovinan Jews threw stones at withdrawing Romanian soldiers.

The scapegoat hunt begins.

Today, Jewish students of Medicine were prevented from taking their exams.

July 16th.

There are unbelievable rumours of crimes on trains.

The soldiers' pogrom against their comrades seems inexplicable.

We know what happened during the retreat from Bessarabia and Bukovina.

Formerly persecuted Communists and withdrawing soldiers caused destruction,

and the remaining population may have acted violently.

This is all common in exceptional times.

I can understand soldiers acting cruelly out of frustration.

But killing Jews like dogs in a peaceful Romanian town

is an act of unimaginable savagery.

But let's say, in some village full of poor Jews,

recent vexations led to serious deeds.

How to explain cold-blooded murder against loyal Jewish military men?

How can a soldier throw his comrade out of a running train?

These aren't some wild boys

having fun ripping dirty Jewish beards.

This is the assassination of innocent people,

though offended by the law, soon to face starvation.

How can they still conscript Jewish soldiers?

Is it cynicism, or a trap to carry out the massacre?

August 1st. Today I lost my last means of survival.

The bank whose physician I was fired me, citing national reorganisation.

I only had 15 days' warning.

August 9th.

Many Christians don't understand the Jews' humiliation as new pariahs.

Lovinescu told me the law was "liberal and fair".

Only a poet married to a Jew told me today:

"What does Hitler have against you all?"

"He asks any friendly country to give you grief."

The Jews already tell jokes about their wretched destiny.

One goes: Christians have 3 new ways to address us-

"Mr. dirty Jew", "You dirty Jew", and "Fuck off, dirty Jew",

by the 3 categories of Jews defined by the law.

August 21st.

Is no one ashamed to read the recent speeches

of H. O. Roth and the Minister of Propaganda?

The Saxon dared rebuke the country in the name of the German minority,

and the Romanian Minister answered humbly:

"Germans here are on par with the Romanians."

September 15th.

Romania is now a Legionnaire state!

Many MPs are Legionnaires: Horia Sima rules the Council of Ministers.

The Legion is the only recognised political movement,

meant "to improve Romania's morals and creative powers".

Gen. Antonescu is the head of the Legionnaire regime.

September 30th.

The Medical College has excluded all Jewish doctors.