This photo was taken in December 2005, in Bucharest. I am holding a photo taken in 1948, featuring me, Oscar Roseanu, with my parents, Frida and Martin Rosenfeld.
My mother, Frida Rosenfeld [nee Lustig], was born in 1901 and was 11 years younger than my father. I know my father experienced a ?coup de foudre? [love at first sight] when he met my mother. He married her in 1921 or so and they were very happy.
My father, Martin Rosenfeld, was born in 1892 in Barul Mare, a village ? well, a commune, if you wish to honor it ? located between Petrosani and Hateg [in Hunedoara County]. He settled in Petrosani, found a job at the coal mines and worked there for 46 years. He also was the secretary-accountant of the Jewish Community from 1946 until the last day of his life, in 1979. He was a very special man, extremely earnest and moral; everyone who knew him looked up to him.
My name is Oscar Roseanu [changed in 1947 from Oszkar Rosenfeld]. I was born in Petrosani, on 2nd May 1923. Petrosani is the town of my childhood. I feel tied to this town by my most beautiful memories.
Petrosani is the town of my childhood. I feel tied to this town by my most beautiful memories. I read somewhere that the town had 18,000 inhabitants [in the interwar period]. Romanians, Hungarians, Jews, Germans, and Frenchmen lived together in harmony. Petrosani had a strong Jewish community and many notabilities were Jews: the town's notary, Bercovici, my father, Martin Rosenfeld, the head of the supply department of the Lonea coal mines, and many others. Once a year I try to go back there and visit my parents' tombs. A trip through the cemetery means remembering the whole past of this town by reading the names on the tombstones. Almost everyone who was buried here was my friend or my acquaintance.
