Selected text
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.
Period
Year
1986
Location
Sfantu Gheorghe
Romania
Interview
Dr. Gabor Lazar