For the few of us born in Czernowitz or Northern Bucovina the question
if we consider ourselves Romanian is not an uninteresting topic. From
the few examples mentioned before, during our wandering years, it was
occasionally favorable to be born in Romania but other times not. When I
was waiting in Vienna for an US visa my Soviet citizenship was more
advantageous then the Romanian one as the Soviet quota was less crowded.
When during the cold war I was traveling with my first American passport
that had under "place born: Soviet Union" it was some time embarrassing.
So I made in the next passport sure that it stated: born in Romania. But
when I was visiting as a tourist the DDR, our bus was held up an hour at
"Checkpoint Charley" because my and my wife's passports needed an extra
scrutiny.
A few days ago when I was explaining (again) how my hometown changed its
nationality several times while staying geographically in the same
place, I was asked: but what do you feel yourself Russian, Romanian or
Ukrainian? I cannot say that my time spent in Romania or under the
Soviets has left me with any feelings of attachment or patriotism for
any of them, so I said: neither!
Through our parents and grandparents we may have some second-hand
cultural allegiance to the late Austro-Hungarian empire (see Cornel's
fascination with the A/H military and the Kaiser) But we know that the
Austrians were not " Feine Menschen" either, especially during the
second WW.
That is how I see it.
[Gabriel Rinzler]
On 7/7/2015 10:05 AM, Jorge Gubitsch wrote:
> My mother stopped considering herself Rumanian in the train that took
> her and her family to Antwerpen (1937), where they took the ship to
> Buenos Aires, she was nine years old and in the train she met a little
> girl that said to her: "let's say that our puppets are Jewish and we
> burn them!"
> On the other hand some Rumanians helped my family. My grandfather
> considered himself Rumanian, but his older brother saw himself as
> Austrian. After only one generation we had to move out of Argentina,
> another dictature had come. Don't know how long we'll stay here in
> France.
>
> Jorge "Dyuri"
>
> 2015-07-07 7:08 UTC+02:00, Sniderlh <sniderlh_at_netscape.net>:
>> Subject: Origins
>>
>> It is interesting to hear the varying opinions on this subject. Despite the
>> conflicting feelings I read here, I am thankful my father was considered
>> Rumanian at one time. He was born in Cz in 1911, but moved to Vienna in
>> 1914. In 1938, following the Anschluss, he managed to get into Luxembourg.
>> He had applied to many countries worldwide seeking asylum with no luck.
>> Finally, the U.S. granted him an Immigrant ID Card under the Rumanian quota;
>> it listed his Country of Birth as Rumania & his Nationality as: without.
>> Throughout his life he considered himself to be of Austrian roots, not
>> Rumanian, as that was where he spent the majority of his formative years---
>> grew up, went to school, graduated from university. He was always proud to
>> say he was born in Cz. What is MOST important to me, now, is that at a
>> critical point in time he was considered to be Rumanian, and that likely
>> saved his life. When all was said and done, he was proud to be an
>> American...
>>
>> To Christian and now Edgar, with their travel postings, and those of you who
>> lived in Cz sharing your life's experiences, I thank you. Keeping history
>> alive and informing the newer generations who were not there, is SO
>> important.
>>
>> Leah
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Received on 2015-07-07 17:14:39