After my father, Maer Simovici got married, he fought in the Balkan War [on the Romanian side]. He came back, and then he left to fight for the reunification. [In World War I] he served as a paramedic. He would go to the battlefield during the fights and pick up the wounded. He was a soldier at first, and he finished as a corporal. He was decorated too, you can see his decoration here. He caught the typhoid fever and nearly died.
He kept his decoration on a piece of cardboard in a fram e. In 1940, a group of Legionaries came to our place; they were wearing green shirts with baldrics. I was 14 at the time. The group was led by a Legionary district attorney named Stoenescu. They rang the bell and entered. They started to search the house. They were infuriated by the sight of my father's decoration. They threw it on the floor and broke it in half. As soon as they left, my father picked it up and hid it. It survived to this day - I have it - although it went through so many things. It was his pride.
