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On 29th August 1953, on a Saturday evening at about 9:20pm, the phone rang [in the house at 1 Turbinei Street]. A female voice asked to talk to ‘comrade’ Henriette Mizrahy. Using few words, she said she was calling from the Presidency of the Ministers’ Council in relation to my mother’s petition and that she was being invited for an audience. If she agreed, a car would pick her up in a few minutes. According to my parents’ account, in less than five minutes after the conversation ended, a large, black car was waiting for them outside. The car stopped at the Ministers’ Council and they were accompanied to an elevator. A huge room with a desk in the back. At it, Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej [13], prime minister at that time, and Iosif Chisinevschi, prime vice-president of the Ministers’ Council at that time. Gheorghiu-Dej told my mother, ‘Listen, Madam, half an hour ago I received this petition together with your son’s photo.’ It was a photo of me and Mira taken at our place after a concert at the Athenaeum and I was still wearing my frock. ‘How is it possible, Madam, to have such a son and not come to me to tell me he has been suffering for such a long time? I get people from all the corners of the country, peasants and such; and you, who live in Bucharest, can’t get to me?’
Keeping her cool, my mother searched through her purse a little and took out a number of registrations that proved how many petitions she had filed in the years that had passed since my arrest. On seeing them, Gheorghiu-Dej turned to Chisinevschi, ‘You see, my dear, it’s true. Before you get to God, the saints eat you alive.’ Then he addressed my parents, ‘Tell me where your son is at this moment.’ They told him. ‘Is he all right?’ They told him about my leg accident. They didn’t know about the pulmonary congestion. [Editor’s note: In his book, Mr. Mizrahy elaborates on several health problems from that period.] The next second Gheorghiu-Dej picked up the phone and asked to speak to the Internal Affairs minister. He was told he was not in his office. They put him through to one of his deputies, named Tanasescu. My parents tried to describe to me the conversation that followed as accurately as possible: ‘Pay attention. In the Bicaz Labor Camp there is a young pianist named Dan Mizrahy. I want you to call Bicaz this instant and have them inform him he is free. Have him accompanied home by an unarmed officer dressed in civilian clothes. And I want you to confirm that the order has been carried out.’ Then he hung up. This way of controlling a man’s life and fate, this way of doing whatever one pleases – be it good or bad – through the simple push of a button, all the misdeeds committed for scores of years under all sorts of regimes, right wing or left wing, may seem like fairy-tales to a generation that didn’t live with them.
Keeping her cool, my mother searched through her purse a little and took out a number of registrations that proved how many petitions she had filed in the years that had passed since my arrest. On seeing them, Gheorghiu-Dej turned to Chisinevschi, ‘You see, my dear, it’s true. Before you get to God, the saints eat you alive.’ Then he addressed my parents, ‘Tell me where your son is at this moment.’ They told him. ‘Is he all right?’ They told him about my leg accident. They didn’t know about the pulmonary congestion. [Editor’s note: In his book, Mr. Mizrahy elaborates on several health problems from that period.] The next second Gheorghiu-Dej picked up the phone and asked to speak to the Internal Affairs minister. He was told he was not in his office. They put him through to one of his deputies, named Tanasescu. My parents tried to describe to me the conversation that followed as accurately as possible: ‘Pay attention. In the Bicaz Labor Camp there is a young pianist named Dan Mizrahy. I want you to call Bicaz this instant and have them inform him he is free. Have him accompanied home by an unarmed officer dressed in civilian clothes. And I want you to confirm that the order has been carried out.’ Then he hung up. This way of controlling a man’s life and fate, this way of doing whatever one pleases – be it good or bad – through the simple push of a button, all the misdeeds committed for scores of years under all sorts of regimes, right wing or left wing, may seem like fairy-tales to a generation that didn’t live with them.
Period
Year
1953
Location
Bucharest
Romania
Interview
Dan Mizrahy