My main hobby is Esperanto. I’m a member of the Universal Esperanto Association, the Universala Esperanto Asocio, moreover I’m the Romanian representative of the Universal Medical Esperanto Association, whose headquarters are in Rotterdam.
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Displaying 18271 - 18300 of 50826 results
Dr. Gabor Lazar
We also went to Greece, we toured the whole country, and spent the last week in Crete. We visited many interesting places, and people welcomed us cordially everywhere. This trip lasted 13 days, and we stayed full board the last seven days, there was buffet lunch and dinner.
This cost 460 euros per person, besides spending money. We were in many interesting places. It was a nice experience for me as a doctor, that the first night we slept in the small town where Hippocrates had lived and worked, in Katerini.
This cost 460 euros per person, besides spending money. We were in many interesting places. It was a nice experience for me as a doctor, that the first night we slept in the small town where Hippocrates had lived and worked, in Katerini.
We travel somewhere each year, if we have some money saved up. Last year we visited Italy, we spent four days in Venice, and from there we went to Padua, Florence and Rome, we visited the Vatican too, then on the way back we saw San Marino, Vienna and Budapest.
It was a very nice, two week long journey.
It was a very nice, two week long journey.
In 2000 the Law No. 189 on allowance was introduced, which applies to those who had been persecuted between 1940 and 1944. Since in 1944 we had been victimized, they robbed us, I also applied, and my application was approved.
This is almost like the war invalidity pension, it means a lot of discounts, reduced fares, I don’t have to pay a house-tax, then the medical treatment and medicines are free. Well, I have been rejoicing over it since 2000.
Moreover, I got a small amount from Hungary too, an indemnification, because they had plundered us completely, the retreating German troops had ravaged all our property. Since 2004 the Claims Conference grants me a life-annuity, since I’m a Holocaust survivor.
This is almost like the war invalidity pension, it means a lot of discounts, reduced fares, I don’t have to pay a house-tax, then the medical treatment and medicines are free. Well, I have been rejoicing over it since 2000.
Moreover, I got a small amount from Hungary too, an indemnification, because they had plundered us completely, the retreating German troops had ravaged all our property. Since 2004 the Claims Conference grants me a life-annuity, since I’m a Holocaust survivor.
At the same time we had 20 hectares of land in Vetes, but after the revolution only ten could be claimed back. However, they established there a huge experimental station for fruits, and our property fell in that area. This experimental station covered I don’t know how many hundreds of hectares.
When we could claim it, they didn’t give it back, but I became a shareholder of the experimental station. Sometimes they paid, more often than not they didn’t. When the new law was issued, I submitted the request as well, so they gave me back ten hectares.
The land has a little orchard, not a big one, I have fruits approximately on one hectare from the ten, and the remaining land is plough-land and hay fields. They didn’t give back the land where our property was, that had a very good soil, but it was given to the local insiders.
However, this part isn’t bad either, it is closer to the village, I have seven hectares in one piece, and three hectares a little further away. Szatmar is 600 km from here, well I can go there once a year at most to look around and think about what to do with this land; there is a local innkeeper who rents it.
He pays a ridiculously low price: he gave me five and a half million for ten hectares, but the advantage is that the land is cultivated, and it doesn’t lose value. Unfortunately it seems that after he got rich enough, he didn't cultivate the land anymore, because due to the drought the harvest was poor two years ago.
So I got the land back. It's a little relief considering the pension, and I’m particularly glad to have the land because of my son; I won’t sell it, who knows what the situation will be, he has a job for the moment, but he could lose it in a second.
When we could claim it, they didn’t give it back, but I became a shareholder of the experimental station. Sometimes they paid, more often than not they didn’t. When the new law was issued, I submitted the request as well, so they gave me back ten hectares.
The land has a little orchard, not a big one, I have fruits approximately on one hectare from the ten, and the remaining land is plough-land and hay fields. They didn’t give back the land where our property was, that had a very good soil, but it was given to the local insiders.
However, this part isn’t bad either, it is closer to the village, I have seven hectares in one piece, and three hectares a little further away. Szatmar is 600 km from here, well I can go there once a year at most to look around and think about what to do with this land; there is a local innkeeper who rents it.
He pays a ridiculously low price: he gave me five and a half million for ten hectares, but the advantage is that the land is cultivated, and it doesn’t lose value. Unfortunately it seems that after he got rich enough, he didn't cultivate the land anymore, because due to the drought the harvest was poor two years ago.
So I got the land back. It's a little relief considering the pension, and I’m particularly glad to have the land because of my son; I won’t sell it, who knows what the situation will be, he has a job for the moment, but he could lose it in a second.
After the war we repaired the house in Szatmar, and moved in. When my mother moved to Bucharest and I was studying, my cousin Miklos Farkas lived there; they also left for America, and because they didn’t know I was in the country, they nationalized the house, as it was unclaimed.
When properties could be claimed back, I took my succession certificate, and claimed it back. There were four of us who were eligible to inherit it: two cousins, one of whom left for America and Anna, who was in Israel, and my brother and I. I claimed it twice. I submitted the request and in 1996, they approved to give it back.
The house was already sold, there was nothing to do, they had to indemnify us. But they didn’t pay anything, because they wrote that only after the house had been appraised could they give some indemnity. In the meantime Law No. 10 was introduced, so I submitted the documents again.
Eventually they appraised the house, and I got an indemnity. My brother renounced it in my favor, so I got one third. This matter has been dragging on since 1996, and I got it back recently, they paid 337 millions.
When properties could be claimed back, I took my succession certificate, and claimed it back. There were four of us who were eligible to inherit it: two cousins, one of whom left for America and Anna, who was in Israel, and my brother and I. I claimed it twice. I submitted the request and in 1996, they approved to give it back.
The house was already sold, there was nothing to do, they had to indemnify us. But they didn’t pay anything, because they wrote that only after the house had been appraised could they give some indemnity. In the meantime Law No. 10 was introduced, so I submitted the documents again.
Eventually they appraised the house, and I got an indemnity. My brother renounced it in my favor, so I got one third. This matter has been dragging on since 1996, and I got it back recently, they paid 337 millions.
I also counted on leaving for Israel after I was released from prison. But I started to think it over and decided not to leave, since we already had our house built, everybody knew me here, I didn’t want to start a new life, to learn a new language. It would have made no sense at all at the age of 58 or 59.
Though doctors were very well off there, they didn’t even have to pass any exams, but I didn’t leave. The fact that we lived in a mixed marriage also played a role. I knew very well that my wife would have never felt good under the circumstances that were typical for Israel back then. Now things have changed, it doesn’t matter if someone is a Jew or Christian, but then it counted from a social point of view.
Though doctors were very well off there, they didn’t even have to pass any exams, but I didn’t leave. The fact that we lived in a mixed marriage also played a role. I knew very well that my wife would have never felt good under the circumstances that were typical for Israel back then. Now things have changed, it doesn’t matter if someone is a Jew or Christian, but then it counted from a social point of view.
It is a wonderful country, only if there would be peace, shalom. Attempts occur all the time.
My brother’s wife had a cousin, Gyorgy Jakabovics, he was a lawyer or a notary in Holon. Once there was a huge attack at Pesach. They organized seder night in the Park Hotel, near Holon. This family went there together with the children. The parents entered the hotel, and the children went to look for a place to park their car.
This was their luck, that’s how they survived, because the parents died inside. The hotel and the restaurant, where the Pesach seder night was organized, were blown up. This happened about five years ago. [Editor’s note: this terrorist attack took place in the Park Hotel in the coastal town of Netanya in 2002.
My brother’s wife had a cousin, Gyorgy Jakabovics, he was a lawyer or a notary in Holon. Once there was a huge attack at Pesach. They organized seder night in the Park Hotel, near Holon. This family went there together with the children. The parents entered the hotel, and the children went to look for a place to park their car.
This was their luck, that’s how they survived, because the parents died inside. The hotel and the restaurant, where the Pesach seder night was organized, were blown up. This happened about five years ago. [Editor’s note: this terrorist attack took place in the Park Hotel in the coastal town of Netanya in 2002.
We visited Israel in 1980. We were there for one month and visited all the holy places: we were in Bethlehem, in the Church of the Nativity, in Jerusalem, in Nazareth, at the Dead Sea, we were everywhere. It is a very nice country, and one can see they created there a land of plenty indeed.
In fact the state of Israel was proclaimed on May 14th 1948, right on my birthday. Israel was born on that day, David Ben-Gurion [29] announced Israel’s independence.
There were Zionist organizations in Szatmar, but we weren’t members of those. To tell the truth I didn’t really know what it was about. The only thing I knew about Zionism, was that its aim was the creation of the state of Israel [27]. Tivadar Hertzl [Theodor Herzl] [28]was the conceiver of the state of Israel, he was a Jew of Hungarian origin.
He has a marvelous mausoleum in Jerusalem, we visited it.
He has a marvelous mausoleum in Jerusalem, we visited it.
I pray each day at dawn and before falling asleep: I recite the Jewish prayers: the Shema Yisrael, Hear O Israel, that’s the main prayer, and I also recite the Lord’s Prayer. I believe there must be something that created the universe.
I went through many things, and I think there is something in the universe, what should I call it, I don’t know, which directs one’s destiny.
I went through many things, and I think there is something in the universe, what should I call it, I don’t know, which directs one’s destiny.
I have a mezuzah on my door. I went to the community office, and I told them I would like to buy one. They took one out of a drawer and gave it to me. As a gift. And it is fixed on the doorpost. Well, we don’t really have such things here in Kovaszna. [This is said to be the only mezuzah in the town.
I observe Pesach, well I eat bread, but I have matzah too, for the sake of tradition.
I observe the [Christian] Good Friday as well, I fast like Christians. I value everyone’s religion, I respect my wife’s religion as well.
Even today I observe three fasts. One of these is the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, after New Year. The other is the Fast of Esther, and the third is Tisha B’Av, on the 9th day of Av; this is a day of mourning, because the Temple of Jerusalem was destroyed in 586 BCE, then in 70 CE by the Romans, the two events occurred on the same day, and we observe this fast in the memory of this.
I observe these three fasts, this is my pledge. I went through so many things, as I related to you, so I observe these. I don’t eat or drink for 24 hours. I take dinner, and after 24 hours I take dinner again.
Moreover, let me tell you one thing. This summer we went on a very nice trip to Greece. And the 9th day of Av fell during this period. So I solved this problem, since our first day on the Isle of Crete was the day of the fast, and we got meals there, I brought forward the fast by one day, so that I didn’t have to break it.
I observe these three fasts, this is my pledge. I went through so many things, as I related to you, so I observe these. I don’t eat or drink for 24 hours. I take dinner, and after 24 hours I take dinner again.
Moreover, let me tell you one thing. This summer we went on a very nice trip to Greece. And the 9th day of Av fell during this period. So I solved this problem, since our first day on the Isle of Crete was the day of the fast, and we got meals there, I brought forward the fast by one day, so that I didn’t have to break it.
I was a works doctor when in December 1986 I got arrested. I didn’t grant sick-leave to a woman worker. She had a relative at the Securitate, and she reported me. She wanted to ask for holidays, and I gave her one week. She wasn’t satisfied with this, so went to the gynecology department, and there she got ten more days.
After that she came back to me. There were about three, four or five people in the waiting-room, and this woman came and handed over a prescription. I took my oculars, took a look, and saw she had some kind of discharge, and the gynecologist prescribed her some medicine to purchase from the pharmacy.
I only said, ‘You go to the pharmacy, and buy your medicine.’ Well, this was only adding fuel to the fire, so she said, ‘You give to whoever you want to, and to whomever you don't want to, you don’t give. Just wait and see, because I’m going to fix this for you.’ And she ran away. I couldn’t prolong her sick-leave after the gynecologist. If he had had a proposal, if he had written there that he proposed further examinations, then yes. But I couldn’t.
What happened after a few days, maybe ten days? A car stopped in front of the consulting-room. I was just about to go to visit a patient, when they sent me back to the office; they turned it upside down, but they didn’t find anything significant. Then I thought there was something more to it.
Somebody brought me a small packet, every doctor got things, it was put in my locker. And when they opened the locker, I told them, ‘I got this today from someone.’ But I didn’t know what was in it. They opened it, there was some coffee, and hundred lei. But if I report myself, according to the laws in force I could have been let off.
Accepting a gift or money was considered bribery and was sentenced with three to six years of prison. I never asked anybody, and if the patient was poor, I gave back what they put in my pocket, so that the patient would buy their medicine from that.
Whoever willingly handed the bribe over to the authorities, or reported it, couldn’t get punished. That was the law then, proceedings couldn’t be started against a person who reported themselves. But it didn’t count at all, they didn’t take this into consideration, it didn’t matter that I presented them the packet, and it wasn’t the Militia who found it. They came to my home too, they searched through the whole house, they didn’t find anything here that would have shown excessive wealth for a doctor.
The substitute chief of the police of the inspectorate came out from Sepsiszentgyorgy [Sfantu Gheorghe in Romania, 30 km west of Kovaszna ], and they took me in the night, after the house search, and after that I saw Kovaszna again after being away for nine months.
They took me at the end of December 1986: first I was in prison in Sepsiszentgyorgy. They knew I was a Jew, and a Jew has gold even under his skin. They found out that my brother was in Israel, as they traced everything, so they thought I would have I don’t know how much gold and foreign currency and things like that.
In the meantime they made me include in my statement, ‘gold and currency’. I told them I had neither gold, nor currency. They took away all the family jewels they found, well they gave those back later.
I got fed up with all those interrogations, and then it came to my mind that wait, I have gold medals; I got them from the Red Cross. I told them, ‘I have got something.’ They weren’t interested in that. Then they interrogated me about traveling abroad too much. Whenever it was possible, we went with the family to the Czech Republic, Germany, we visited the Soviet Union, they issued a passport once in every second year, so we traveled somewhere.
And they say I was abroad a lot. I said, ‘Yes, I have relatives. Besides, if you’re that interested, you have the files, take a look to see where I was.’ The passport department was in the same building as the police’s lock-up, so they knew very well where and when we were traveling.
After that she came back to me. There were about three, four or five people in the waiting-room, and this woman came and handed over a prescription. I took my oculars, took a look, and saw she had some kind of discharge, and the gynecologist prescribed her some medicine to purchase from the pharmacy.
I only said, ‘You go to the pharmacy, and buy your medicine.’ Well, this was only adding fuel to the fire, so she said, ‘You give to whoever you want to, and to whomever you don't want to, you don’t give. Just wait and see, because I’m going to fix this for you.’ And she ran away. I couldn’t prolong her sick-leave after the gynecologist. If he had had a proposal, if he had written there that he proposed further examinations, then yes. But I couldn’t.
What happened after a few days, maybe ten days? A car stopped in front of the consulting-room. I was just about to go to visit a patient, when they sent me back to the office; they turned it upside down, but they didn’t find anything significant. Then I thought there was something more to it.
Somebody brought me a small packet, every doctor got things, it was put in my locker. And when they opened the locker, I told them, ‘I got this today from someone.’ But I didn’t know what was in it. They opened it, there was some coffee, and hundred lei. But if I report myself, according to the laws in force I could have been let off.
Accepting a gift or money was considered bribery and was sentenced with three to six years of prison. I never asked anybody, and if the patient was poor, I gave back what they put in my pocket, so that the patient would buy their medicine from that.
Whoever willingly handed the bribe over to the authorities, or reported it, couldn’t get punished. That was the law then, proceedings couldn’t be started against a person who reported themselves. But it didn’t count at all, they didn’t take this into consideration, it didn’t matter that I presented them the packet, and it wasn’t the Militia who found it. They came to my home too, they searched through the whole house, they didn’t find anything here that would have shown excessive wealth for a doctor.
The substitute chief of the police of the inspectorate came out from Sepsiszentgyorgy [Sfantu Gheorghe in Romania, 30 km west of Kovaszna ], and they took me in the night, after the house search, and after that I saw Kovaszna again after being away for nine months.
They took me at the end of December 1986: first I was in prison in Sepsiszentgyorgy. They knew I was a Jew, and a Jew has gold even under his skin. They found out that my brother was in Israel, as they traced everything, so they thought I would have I don’t know how much gold and foreign currency and things like that.
In the meantime they made me include in my statement, ‘gold and currency’. I told them I had neither gold, nor currency. They took away all the family jewels they found, well they gave those back later.
I got fed up with all those interrogations, and then it came to my mind that wait, I have gold medals; I got them from the Red Cross. I told them, ‘I have got something.’ They weren’t interested in that. Then they interrogated me about traveling abroad too much. Whenever it was possible, we went with the family to the Czech Republic, Germany, we visited the Soviet Union, they issued a passport once in every second year, so we traveled somewhere.
And they say I was abroad a lot. I said, ‘Yes, I have relatives. Besides, if you’re that interested, you have the files, take a look to see where I was.’ The passport department was in the same building as the police’s lock-up, so they knew very well where and when we were traveling.
I was very active within the labor union, I was vice-president of the local council. I couldn’t be the president, because I wasn’t a party-member. I was very active within the Red Cross, which gave me many distinctions, and I also helped the Women’s Committee.
When I was a student, they carried out an extensive verification of the party members. They organized it in the ceremonial hall of the university, and they invited me as an honest non-party person to participate; back then they called somebody an honest non-party person, if that person wasn’t a class enemy, only class-alien.
Back then the Siguranta had been thrashing these former communists, and there had been two cases: either they had beaten them to death, or the communists had confessed; and what happened after that? During this assembly it turned out that those who had confessed were expelled from the party.
They took them one by one, and carried out an inquiry. There was a committee, who called up the party members, and whoever had a past, had been imprisoned and had confessed, they were qualified as traitors, expelled from the party, and they re-organized the party from those who didn’t have a past. Those who didn’t have a past became the good communists.
Gheorghiu-Dej [21] and his company had been in jail for 12 years, then they turned against those who had come home from the Soviet Union [22], so there were serious party struggles. I never got involved in this. Back then many such trials took place, they executed for example Laszlo Rajk [23] as well in Hungary. What Rakosi organized there [the Rajk trial] [24], Gheorghiu-Dej and his company did the same here.
Nobody investigated me, I was an honest non-party man, I just simply didn’t join.
Back then the Siguranta had been thrashing these former communists, and there had been two cases: either they had beaten them to death, or the communists had confessed; and what happened after that? During this assembly it turned out that those who had confessed were expelled from the party.
They took them one by one, and carried out an inquiry. There was a committee, who called up the party members, and whoever had a past, had been imprisoned and had confessed, they were qualified as traitors, expelled from the party, and they re-organized the party from those who didn’t have a past. Those who didn’t have a past became the good communists.
Gheorghiu-Dej [21] and his company had been in jail for 12 years, then they turned against those who had come home from the Soviet Union [22], so there were serious party struggles. I never got involved in this. Back then many such trials took place, they executed for example Laszlo Rajk [23] as well in Hungary. What Rakosi organized there [the Rajk trial] [24], Gheorghiu-Dej and his company did the same here.
Nobody investigated me, I was an honest non-party man, I just simply didn’t join.
I could see that there too, there was an upper crust, who enjoyed everything, and well, there were the others.
The only thing was that unemployment didn’t exist. Only this one. But we, who lived through these decades, we know how it was. I could have joined the party several times. When I started to study, they invited me then too, but I didn’t enroll. I got on well with everybody, but I wasn’t interested in politics.
The only thing was that unemployment didn’t exist. Only this one. But we, who lived through these decades, we know how it was. I could have joined the party several times. When I started to study, they invited me then too, but I didn’t enroll. I got on well with everybody, but I wasn’t interested in politics.
I never joined any party, not even the Communist Party. I just simply didn’t, I'll tell you why. Because of my social background. I didn’t want to be kicked out as a kulak [a category of relatively affluent peasants in the later Russian Empire, Soviet Russia, and early Soviet Union].
My career in Kovaszna: first I worked in the hospital, on the children’s ward, from there they appointed me local medical officer, then I was a doctor. All the factories from Kovaszna fell under my responsibility, and I retired from there after 37 years of service as a chief medical officer, in 1990; in 1963 I passed the exam for the chief medical qualification too.
My son is reformed, he is also confirmed, but he’s a member of the Jewish community of Brasso.
My daughter-in-law is a mathematics teacher here in Kovaszna, she has a good job, she also finished her studies with honors, and she has all the possible qualifications.
Now he works in Kezdivasarhely as a technician in the furniture factory, called Mobexpert.
He worked here in Kovaszna at the furniture factory, after that he was unemployed for two years, because the factory was liquidated.
He finished at the timber vocational school, a technical school in Kezdivasarhely.
We built up our house with hard work; it belonged to my mother-in-law and was an empty lot; she gave it to us to build a house here. The construction co-operative built the house, my wife worked there too. We started it in 1969, we paid for it in installments, we both worked, so I remember that the greater part of the salary was paid as an installment, and we lived on my wife’s salary; however we finished it step-by-step.
What happened then? Well, they issued a decree saying that everybody had to perform a six-month long service in a village. This applied to me as well, so they placed me here, in this region [in Kovaszna’s surroundings]. First I was in Kommando in August and September 1956, from there they sent me to Kovaszna [today Covasna, in Romania, 191 km south-east of Marosvasarhely] to the hospital on the medical ward.
When the six months had passed, I started to think what to do, I had nobody in Marosvasarhely, only friends; my mother had died too. I thought I would try to leave Marosvasarhely entirely; I lived in lodgings there, I didn’t have a chance of owning an apartment.
I didn’t go back to Marosvasarhely after six months, I settled in Kovaszna.
When the six months had passed, I started to think what to do, I had nobody in Marosvasarhely, only friends; my mother had died too. I thought I would try to leave Marosvasarhely entirely; I lived in lodgings there, I didn’t have a chance of owning an apartment.
I didn’t go back to Marosvasarhely after six months, I settled in Kovaszna.
In the meantime I was sent to Bucharest in 1954, to the hematological centre; it's called the Institutul de Hematologie si Transfuzie [Hematological and Blood Transfusion Institute]. I got my qualification in blood transfusion; I was the first physician in Marosvasarhely who had a certificate in this.
Nobody wanted to go to this course. My brother was working there, my mother was there, so I presented myself. I went there, finished the course and got a qualification.
Nobody wanted to go to this course. My brother was working there, my mother was there, so I presented myself. I went there, finished the course and got a qualification.