Jozsef Farkas, Corneliu Crihalneanu and Strungaru

This picture was taken in East Germany. I was there in 1972 with a commercial delegation. I, Jozsef Farkas, am in the center, on my left is Corneliu Crihalneanu, he was the manager of the Napochim company, the one on the left was called Strungaru, he worked at the Foreign Trade Company in Bucharest.

I was a manager for 13 years while 'exclus din partid' [excluded from the Party]. I had no problems at all, because I did my work, and also traveled abroad. In 1971 I was in Belgium at an exhibition called 'Salon International de Arta Menajera' [International Household Arts Fair]. I was in Brussels, in Anvers [Antwerp] and in a city called Izegem, where we had some customers. From there we went across to the Netherlands. We stayed in The Hague, but also visited Amsterdam, Utrecht and Nijmegen. We had commercial relations there, we manufactured and sold small furniture. I was with one of the heads of departments of the Foreign Trade Company from Bucharest, called Strungaru, and one of my colleagues, who were originally from Szekelykeresztur.

I was in East-Germany, as well, in 1972, with the General Manager of Napochim in Kolozsvar, Corneliu Crihalneanu, his son is the current Greek-Catholic bishop of Kolozsvar, and with a man called Strungaru, who worked at the Foreign Trade Company in Bucharest. There was a time, during the dictatorship, when we were at the International Exhibition in Leipzig in 1972, and we had to report at the exhibition every morning at 9am, which ended at 6pm, and at 7pm we had to report at the embassy for a meeting. This was a way to check whether we were still there. This took place every evening. And when the meeting ended, we went for dinner, but we didn't get anything, because the other people had eaten already, while we were at the meeting. This is how things were then.