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In 1949, I was summoned at the Ministry of Education and I was sent to the Danube-Black Sea Canal [Ed. note: The work at the canal began in 1949 and many of the workers were political prisoners from the communist jails. The work was interrupted in 1955 and wasn’t resumed until 1975. The canal, completed in 1984, begins south of Cernavoda and ends in Agigea, south of Constanta, connecting the Danube to the Black Sea and thus shortening the waterway to Constanta with almost 400 kilometers.]. My job was to organize the education along the canal. I was the head of the public education section. The minister of education, Dorian Popescu, was a cultivated and earnest man. He summoned the head of the [Constanta] county education section and told him: ‘All the towns located along the canal [Cernavoda, Medgidia, Ovidiu, Poarta Alba, Capul Midia etc.] are to be transferred under the jurisdiction of the Education Section of the Canal, and Mr. Roseanu here will be the head of this section.’ – ‘Comrade Minister,’ he said, ‘I will transfer all the existing teachers and I will bring much better ones to replace them; this is the Canal and, you know…’ To which I reacted: ‘But why should all these teachers and schoolmasters be sent somewhere else? If they’re not good enough, you should simply fire them; but, if this is not the case, let them stay here. What’s the point in transferring them?’ I later found out the man was terrorizing everyone; teachers got moved from one place to another all the time and the beginning of each academic year made everyone nervous. ‘What if some of them were Legionaries [13]?’ he said. ‘Look, Mister, I’m asking you a simple question: do we want them out of the education system?’ – ‘No!’ – ‘Then a Legionary is as good in one place as he is in the next. All I’m interested in is that he does his job well!’ This infuriated the man. He left and the minister approved of my idea. All the teachers were kept at the canal in their current employment. When I went on inspection tours, they couldn’t thank me enough.
I endowed all the schools along the Canal with all the equipment that was available: overhead projectors, 8 mm film projectors, chemical substances, castings for the biology classes etc. I set up weekly kindergartens, because the canal workers were busy and their children had to spend the entire week in kindergarten. I was once called to Navodari to see some improvements the parents had made to a kindergarten. They had brought soil and had planted flowers – it was an extraordinary thing. I always tried to get all the necessary equipment for my schools. Sometimes I got it, sometimes I didn’t. I once went to Leonte Rautu [Ed. note: Key figure of the regime, ideologist and head of the communist propaganda.]: ‘I need some equipment and these are the people who are refusing to give it to me!’ – ‘There must be some sort of shortage.’ – ‘Comrade Rautu, clearly you don’t understand the importance of the Canal!’ This remark got me everything I needed. I didn’t know they were using political prisoners at the Canal. All I knew was that there were some inmates working somewhere, but I later found out they were political prisoners.
I had a boss, like everyone else. One day he told me: ‘Comrade Roseanu, we must nominate some people for being decorated with the Work Medal. Could you think of a few of your teachers who are doing a great job here at the canal?’ I made up a list of 11 teachers. He handed me an envelope and told me: ‘You’re going to Bucharest to submit this envelope; it contains 12 names!’ – ‘What do you mean 12, Comrade? I only nominated 11 and, with all due respect, I am the head of the education section. What goes on here is my responsibility and I doubt that you have the right to nominate someone without informing me first!’ He told me that he actually had that right and it occurred to me it was pointless to argue with him. I got to the ministry and the clerk from the personnel department opened the envelope and said: ‘Did you know that you have been nominated for the Work Medal?’ How was I supposed to know? The truth is that only seven or eight teachers were decorated countrywide. I was awarded the Work Medal in 1950 or so. Academician [dr. Constantin I.] Parhon [Ed. note: (1874-1969), head of the State (1947-1952); president of the Provisional Presidium of the People’s Republic of Romania (1947-1948); president of the Presidium of the People’s Republic of Romania (1948-1952)] personally shook my hand. In 1950, I was transferred from the Canal to the Ministry of Education; I became a general inspector with the minister’s office [Dorian Popescu was the minister of education at the time of Mr. Roeanu’s appointment].
I endowed all the schools along the Canal with all the equipment that was available: overhead projectors, 8 mm film projectors, chemical substances, castings for the biology classes etc. I set up weekly kindergartens, because the canal workers were busy and their children had to spend the entire week in kindergarten. I was once called to Navodari to see some improvements the parents had made to a kindergarten. They had brought soil and had planted flowers – it was an extraordinary thing. I always tried to get all the necessary equipment for my schools. Sometimes I got it, sometimes I didn’t. I once went to Leonte Rautu [Ed. note: Key figure of the regime, ideologist and head of the communist propaganda.]: ‘I need some equipment and these are the people who are refusing to give it to me!’ – ‘There must be some sort of shortage.’ – ‘Comrade Rautu, clearly you don’t understand the importance of the Canal!’ This remark got me everything I needed. I didn’t know they were using political prisoners at the Canal. All I knew was that there were some inmates working somewhere, but I later found out they were political prisoners.
I had a boss, like everyone else. One day he told me: ‘Comrade Roseanu, we must nominate some people for being decorated with the Work Medal. Could you think of a few of your teachers who are doing a great job here at the canal?’ I made up a list of 11 teachers. He handed me an envelope and told me: ‘You’re going to Bucharest to submit this envelope; it contains 12 names!’ – ‘What do you mean 12, Comrade? I only nominated 11 and, with all due respect, I am the head of the education section. What goes on here is my responsibility and I doubt that you have the right to nominate someone without informing me first!’ He told me that he actually had that right and it occurred to me it was pointless to argue with him. I got to the ministry and the clerk from the personnel department opened the envelope and said: ‘Did you know that you have been nominated for the Work Medal?’ How was I supposed to know? The truth is that only seven or eight teachers were decorated countrywide. I was awarded the Work Medal in 1950 or so. Academician [dr. Constantin I.] Parhon [Ed. note: (1874-1969), head of the State (1947-1952); president of the Provisional Presidium of the People’s Republic of Romania (1947-1948); president of the Presidium of the People’s Republic of Romania (1948-1952)] personally shook my hand. In 1950, I was transferred from the Canal to the Ministry of Education; I became a general inspector with the minister’s office [Dorian Popescu was the minister of education at the time of Mr. Roeanu’s appointment].
Period
Location
Romania
Interview
Roseanu Oscar