"Reconstruction" at PFA Apr 6, 2010 reconsidered
One person missing I thought of is Ana Pauker, he first woman member of cabinet anywhere. She was also the first Jewish leader of a nation anywhere since.... Devorah :) She was in the cabinet from 1947 until 1952. Shortly after that, the Romanian Communist Party (RCP) purged many of the Jewish communists from its ranks. Her trial to remove her had the usual communist canards about here being a "cosmopolitan" (Jewish) and a Zionist (which she was NOT). It might have been interesting to mention her in the movie.
Several other points come to mind.
First, the nature of money was very different in 1950's communist Romania than
Romania now or the West at that time. Ms Sevianu and her co-conspirators took
1,680,000 lei's from the Romanian National Bank. The average worker's salary
at that time was 400 lei! But there was no honest way to make a lot of money at that
time, so anyone with a large amount of cash was suspect of illegal activity.
Second, it was not easy to travel abroad and take the money somewhere else.
At that time, there were very strict rules for where Romanians could travel.
Mostly, they could travel to other communist Easter European countries.
The people who robbed the Romanian National Bank were all Jewish,
so perhaps Israel might have been an option. But the 1956 Suez canal war caused Romania to
suspend diplomatic relations w Israel, so there was not possibility to emigrate.
Third, how could the people who took the moneys spend them? Or, more basically,
why did they rob the bank?
Probably it was not for the money. It seems they were all committed communists,
and for them money was not that important.
Forth, as I was watching this movie, I started thinking of another Romanian who a flaire
of unusual is Isidore Issou (Jean-Isidore Goldstein), the founder of letterism.
His followers were responsible for invading Notre Dame de Paris on Easter Day, Apr.
9 1950 and interrupting the Easter mass w a long diatribe against the Catholic Church
and Christianity. Grail Marcus' "Lipstick Traces" has a quote on p. 279 of the speaeh the letterists
managed to deliver before being chased out of the Notre Dame de Paris by a murderous crowd.
Maybe the bank hold up was a letterist action. After the communists' coup d'etat in 1946,
they said a big "f*** you" the the communist state with their coup de banc.
I wonder if the people involved in the bank robbery had any contact w Jean-Isidore.
They were all about the same age, being born 1923 - 1925, all from middle class
Jewish families from Bucharest. Possibly, but we don't know for sure.
Several other points come to mind.
First, the nature of money was very different in 1950's communist Romania than
Romania now or the West at that time. Ms Sevianu and her co-conspirators took
1,680,000 lei's from the Romanian National Bank. The average worker's salary
at that time was 400 lei! But there was no honest way to make a lot of money at that
time, so anyone with a large amount of cash was suspect of illegal activity.
Second, it was not easy to travel abroad and take the money somewhere else.
At that time, there were very strict rules for where Romanians could travel.
Mostly, they could travel to other communist Easter European countries.
The people who robbed the Romanian National Bank were all Jewish,
so perhaps Israel might have been an option. But the 1956 Suez canal war caused Romania to
suspend diplomatic relations w Israel, so there was not possibility to emigrate.
Third, how could the people who took the moneys spend them? Or, more basically,
why did they rob the bank?
Probably it was not for the money. It seems they were all committed communists,
and for them money was not that important.
Forth, as I was watching this movie, I started thinking of another Romanian who a flaire
of unusual is Isidore Issou (Jean-Isidore Goldstein), the founder of letterism.
His followers were responsible for invading Notre Dame de Paris on Easter Day, Apr.
9 1950 and interrupting the Easter mass w a long diatribe against the Catholic Church
and Christianity. Grail Marcus' "Lipstick Traces" has a quote on p. 279 of the speaeh the letterists
managed to deliver before being chased out of the Notre Dame de Paris by a murderous crowd.
Maybe the bank hold up was a letterist action. After the communists' coup d'etat in 1946,
they said a big "f*** you" the the communist state with their coup de banc.
I wonder if the people involved in the bank robbery had any contact w Jean-Isidore.
They were all about the same age, being born 1923 - 1925, all from middle class
Jewish families from Bucharest. Possibly, but we don't know for sure.
posted by Keruvim at 9:25 AM
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