Dan Mizrahy as a sportsman

This is me, Dan Mizrahy, during my first ski attempts in Predeal [mountain resort in Brasov County]. The photo was taken in 1946.

During the World War II, I lived in Palestine, away from my family, from the age of 15 years to 19 years. I returned to Romania in November 1945. The situation in Romania looked totally different from the one I had kept in my memories. I had left a prosperous society and I regained an impoverished one. The limousines and carriages driven by cabmen dressed in velvet had been replaced by army trucks packed with Russians with 'balalaikas'; the fancy ladies who used to go out for a walk on the beautiful avenues downtown had been replaced by war invalids with crutches who sold 'Nationale' or 'Marasesti' cigarettes with yellow paper and stinking tobacco. 

I distinctly remember the evening of 30th December 1947. I was on the streets of Predeal and I heard the loudspeakers connected to Radio Bucharest broadcasting the abdication declaration of King Michael, followed by the proclamation of the People's Republic. It was with total silence that the passers-by received those two announcements. Their faces were visibly grave and worried, while some of them made futile attempts to disguise their sheer sadness. It wasn't a surprise for anyone. But the date they had chosen might have been unexpected. We later realized that 'The Party' didn't want to give the King another chance to address his traditional New Year's Eve wishes to the people. I had been familiar with King Michael since he was a child. I can even remember the coins of 5 lei with his face as a child imprinted on them, then the countless pictures and newspaper stories about his schooling and upbringing. I remember him after I returned to the country, from the newsreels; no matter under what circumstance he was shown on the screen, the whole audience would burst out applauding. It was their only way to protest against the new realities imposed by the regime.

Photos from this interviewee