Veronica Rozenberg, foreword by Arthur House. Jewish Foreign Trade Officials on Trial in Gheorghiu-Dej’s Romania 1960–1964

Among Romanian historians, Veronica Rozenberg is unknown. Her intellectual destiny is different from most researchers of communism in Romania. Her story and her writing are unique and originate from the history of her own family. As presented by the publisher of this exquisite volume, she is "historian and author." But Rozenberg is more than that. She is the only daughter of Adalbert Rosinger, a Jewish intellectual who held an important position in Ceaușescu's Romania. Born in Oradea in 1909, Adalbert Rosinger died in Haifa in 1981. He studied in Budapest and was part of the revolutionary labor movement, for which he was arrested several times by the Siguranţă. In 1942, he was admitted into Vapniarka camp in Transnistria. His memoirs are a true historical document.1 Beginning in 1946, he worked for Foreign Trade, and in 1949, he was appointed as general director of the State Enterprise for Foreign Trade, Românoexport. He had numerous successful trips abroad and was decorated with the Order of Labor. In June 1961, he was thrown in the cellars of the Securitate, and after three years of inhumane treatment, he was taken before the Military Court. On June 9, 1964, he was involved in the prefabricated trial against the Jews of Românoexport.Eight years and three months passed before Adalbert Rosinger returned home, and Veronica thus grew up without her father. She studied mathematics in Bucharest. In 1975, she was able to reach Israel, where she worked for an information technology company. Once retired, she decided to study the history of her family. This book is the voice of "imprisoned souls seeking dignity in the face of harsh authoritarian bureaucracy. It's the triumph of a skilled and tenacious daughter" (p. xiii) and also "the outcome of the complex doctoral dissertation in Hebrew" completed in 2016 at the University of Haifa. It has a Romanian edition,2 but this one presents to its English readers an astonishing number of mostly unknown details regarding the Romania of Gheorghiu-Dej.The book opens with "a brief historical overview of Romania between the two world wars" (p. 11), an important introduction for understanding that time and what it meant for the Jewish community that survived in Romania. "In itself, the Jewish problem remained a puzzle even for the Westerners entertaining leftist sympathies" (p. 25). This is important for understanding the beginning of the trials. "The purge of Jews during the years following the 1956 events was concurrent with the consolidation of policies against the opponents of the political regime" (p. 27). The second chapter focuses on "Political Trials as Repression Mechanisms in Communist Countries." It explains how political trials were seen as a tool of the regime. They were common in most Eastern European countries "after they became totalitarian regimes in the aftermath of World War II" (p. 41). We learn the story of "Purging Foreign Trade of Jewish Officials" in Chapter 3. Beyond being a painful and unjust story, the trials had a very powerful influence on Veronica's family because her father was among the people imprisoned. It's remarkable how the author managed to keep the balance between historical facts, based on archive documents, and personal history."The Criminal Procedure Followed in the Economic Trials" is explained in Chapter 4. "The methods used by Securitate to coerce them into submission were among the most brutal methods used by the Eastern European totalitarian regimes" (p. 107). "The accusations against the foreign trade defendants were economic in nature" (p. 131). Chapter 5 shows how the trials were staged. Elaborate explanations regarding "the damage of the national economy" are based on archive documents. "The convicted officials . . . were mostly Jews" (p. 170).Chapter 6 focuses on the famous "Românoexport Trial" in which the author's father was involved. "The accusations against RE (Românoexport) officials fell into the category of political crimes, being classified as actions against the internal security of the state, as acts of undermining the national security" (p. 182). Disturbing details show that "the investigation was conducted under inhuman conditions. . . . The treatment included beatings in sensitive parts of the body, crushing fingers with boots, swearing, and applying other means of physical and mental pressure" (p. 197).In creating this important volume, Veronica Rozenberg used primary sources from various Romanian archives, which were of utmost importance. But the most important were the Adalbert Rosinger's writings. Thus, the personal connection with this story, the connection between father and daughter, transformed the writing of this volume into "a micro-history page in the overall history of the communist regime in Romania" (p. 6).Jewish Foreign Trade Officials on Trial in Gheorghiu-Dej's Romania is an exceptionally well-written volume on a mostly forgotten subject of Romanian history and a touching personal book. I highly recommend it.