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There was complete 'application fever' in Kolozsvar and everybody without any further problems got it [the permission and the passport], but there were cases when a year or two passed until they got it. Our apartment was completely looted during the war, so I no longer had my diploma. I tried to get a copy of it and went two or three times to the ministry in Bucharest, but I was unable to get a certificate to prove the fact that I was a doctor.
In 1957 I got, with great difficulty, a copy and until then I worked without any certificate, meanwhile I had my specialist examination for head physician, but I still had no diploma. If I had left the country, who would have believed that I was a doctor without a diploma? This was one of the serious reasons.
The second reason was that my wife had been an English teacher in one of the most elite schools of Kolozsvar, the ex-Protestant Gymnasium for Girls, today Apaczai Csere Janos Lyceum. The third was that I was the youngest adjutant at the university, and there was only one professor above me who seemed likely to retire within four or five years' time, in which case I would be appointed lecturing professor.
If we had applied for emigration both my wife and I would have been sacked within twenty-four hours. We had two children to provide for, my in-laws had moved to us from Arad, and we had to support them too, my mother-in-law didn't work, she had no pension, the pension of my father-in-law wasn't even enough for cigarettes. If we were sacked all six of us would have died of starvation.
Those who were in a similar position to ours were tormented by not being given passports. They would have transferred us as they did with a friend of mine who is in Canada now. He was an assistant, he applied and after a week he was appointed to a place called Hunyad [in Romanian: Huedin] and he had to travel to and fro between Kolozsvar and Hunyad each day.
There was another problem between us. My wife had an elder sister in North- America, actually Cuba. She and her husband were doctors and they had a small daughter. When Cuba turned to communism under Fidel Castro, they ran to the United States with one suitcase. So they were beginners there. The question arose naturally. My wife wanted to go to America to be with her sister, I wanted - if we went anywhere - to go only to Israel where my friends were. 'Then let's not go anywhere, we won't argue about this, we'll just stay,' she said. So we stayed.
In 1957 I got, with great difficulty, a copy and until then I worked without any certificate, meanwhile I had my specialist examination for head physician, but I still had no diploma. If I had left the country, who would have believed that I was a doctor without a diploma? This was one of the serious reasons.
The second reason was that my wife had been an English teacher in one of the most elite schools of Kolozsvar, the ex-Protestant Gymnasium for Girls, today Apaczai Csere Janos Lyceum. The third was that I was the youngest adjutant at the university, and there was only one professor above me who seemed likely to retire within four or five years' time, in which case I would be appointed lecturing professor.
If we had applied for emigration both my wife and I would have been sacked within twenty-four hours. We had two children to provide for, my in-laws had moved to us from Arad, and we had to support them too, my mother-in-law didn't work, she had no pension, the pension of my father-in-law wasn't even enough for cigarettes. If we were sacked all six of us would have died of starvation.
Those who were in a similar position to ours were tormented by not being given passports. They would have transferred us as they did with a friend of mine who is in Canada now. He was an assistant, he applied and after a week he was appointed to a place called Hunyad [in Romanian: Huedin] and he had to travel to and fro between Kolozsvar and Hunyad each day.
There was another problem between us. My wife had an elder sister in North- America, actually Cuba. She and her husband were doctors and they had a small daughter. When Cuba turned to communism under Fidel Castro, they ran to the United States with one suitcase. So they were beginners there. The question arose naturally. My wife wanted to go to America to be with her sister, I wanted - if we went anywhere - to go only to Israel where my friends were. 'Then let's not go anywhere, we won't argue about this, we'll just stay,' she said. So we stayed.
Period
Location
Cluj Napoca
Romania
Interview
Gyorgy Neufeld