Tag #129471 - Interview #84078 (Roseanu Oscar)

In 1939, the Goga-Cuza cabinet [5] closed down all the high schools in working-class towns. This brought about the end of the high school in Petrosani and of the secondary school in Lupeni. Children were thus indirectly forced to register in vocational schools and arts and crafts schools; their curriculum included internships in companies, which secured, in fact, free labor for the government. I was in the 6th grade and I was in danger of not being able to continue my studies. So my father started sending letters to Targu Jiu, Timisoara, Deva or Sibiu, trying to find a school that would accept me. The answer came from Sibiu. My father was so excited, that he came home by taxi, not by train; for one time, he didn’t care that was beyond our means.

After a while, during a religion class, the principal found me in the corridor – being a Jew, I didn’t attend that class. ‘What are you doing here?’ – ‘Don’t you know? I’m a Jew.’ – ‘Where are you from?’ – ‘Petrosani’ – ‘Who signed you up for this school?’ – ‘Well, my application was approved by the deputy principal!’ The principal had been on vacation and had no idea about this. It was his deputy’s responsibility to deal with such issues, but he hadn’t realized what my situation was either. The principal was mad at his deputy, who had dared take me in… But one month and a half had already passed and there was little he could do about it. So he let me stay. This is how I remained in Sibiu.