Tag #129493 - Interview #84078 (Roseanu Oscar)

In 1947, I changed my name. There were two reasons. The comrades at the County Committee of the Communist Party suggested me to change it; they told me it would be better if I did, that they had plans with me and that the moment was still right… This was the first reason. The second one is related to an incident involving my physics professor, academician T. H. Ionescu, whom we all considered a major reactionary [Ed. note: The term ‘reactionary’ designated an opponent of the communist regime at its beginnings.]. One day he had to give a lecture about the pendulum. Before he began, he asked us ‘Isn’t there anyone with davai ceas here?’ [Ed. note: ‘Davai ceas’ is Russian for ‘Give me your watch.’ It is said that the Soviet soldiers quartered in Romania at the end of World War II seemed to be fascinated by watches and ‘requisitioned’ any watch they could find from the Romanian civilians (along with many other belongings). This phenomenon was very widespread and the ‘davai ceas’ expression came to symbolize Soviet abuse in everyone’s mind.] We were 700 students in that class; we had been to concentration camps or labor detachments and had been deprived of our right to study, so we were all fierce revolutionaries at that time. We were required to give a written statement about that professor’s conduct. You can imagine we all rushed to expose his anti-Soviet attitude! The professor had access to our statements and knew our names. None of us passed his exam. I remember I took the physics exam 7 times and I failed 7 times. But, as soon as I changed my name, I took the exam again and I passed, because he didn’t recognize me under my new name.