Mira Tudor with Valeriu Stanescu

This is a recent picture taken 2-3 years ago. The only professors of this graduation year who are still alive are myself and my colleague, Valeriu Stanescu, an Oil professor. We're at the faculty, at the anniversary of a graduation year. Valeriu is younger than me with a few years.

I spent 35 years in the same department, between 1948 and 1983. I think this says a lot. I didn't have to change my workplace, I didn't have any conflicts. I was the only Jew in the entire faculty. I didn't try to hide it. It would have been foolish to pretend I was Romanian just because my husband was. They knew I was Jewish, but didn't mind. Mr. Macovei was followed by another Academy member, Murgeanu, who loved me too. Then came the third head of the department, Theodor Joja; he also loved me. They were all fond of me, they protected me, and they prevented any tendency of anti-Semitic manifestations towards me. I couldn't say they all loved Jews, because I would be lying. But if some of them were anti-Semites, I never felt it. I only had a problem once. The Romanian Geology lecture was free, and Mr. Joja said 'Let's give it to Mira Tudor'. It was a very difficult and rather boring lecture. In general, geology is not a fun subject. A lecturer - God forgive him, for I did - rose against this suggestion: 'Why would she of all people hold the lecture on Romanian Geology?' He meant that a Jew didn't fit the profile. Poor Dragos had it coming - they all were against him. Ionel Motas, who was my assistant, told me about it: 'Dragos had better swallowed his tongue than speak his mind.' I held the lecture in honorable conditions.

After I retired, I worked for ONT [The National Travel Office], between 1983 and 1991, for Russian-speaking groups exclusively. For 8 years I ate at restaurants and I went to every corner of this country. I don't mean to brag, but I was better than the other guides because I had been throughout the country as a geologist and I knew things that the others couldn't have known. I was also requested for French groups, because they saw I was a good guide. But I preferred the Russians. They were more disciplined. They sorted them very well before letting them leave the country.