Germans and Hungarians trapped in Romania after August 23rd

[Florin]

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QUOTE The neighbor was a soldier trapped by August 23rd in Romania and was hidden by a Romanian family. The Romanians painted his blonde hair in black, to don't draw attention. Was that really necessary? I thought there were a lot blond Romanians! I think what might betray his true identity would be his general demeanor and lack of knowledge of the Romanian language. These two factors are how people generally tell who is a foreigner.

Hi Orok,

Yes, you thought right. There are a of lot of blonde Romanians, and blue-eyed blonde Romanians, and always were. By far much more than some people in Western Europe would like to accept. :wink: :!:

The story is not invented.
However, what you are saying about language is true. In the days he was talking with my grandfather, he was speaking Romanian fluently. But before he spent more of his time in the house of his benefactors. Your point still stands: it is hard to learn the accent of a new language when you are not a child any more. I still have a questionable accent in my fluent English. But considering how many people managed a poor Romanian in their everyday life in Romania (most of the Hungarian minority, for example), a guy talking a poor Romanian shouldn't be the target of an exagerate suspicion.
Best to watch, Orok :!: : In between wars, in Romania arrived an settled for permanent living many Danish and Italians. Also many Polish civilians remained in Romania in September 1939 and never returned to live again in Poland.
Yes, we had foreign immigrants willing to live in Romania in those good days...
So, what you are saying now... Still LOL?

Florin 8)

[C-2]

Hi OROK,
Like Florin wrote Romania till the last 50 years was a place were people emigrated to and not from.(Thats why there were almost no Romanians imigrants in the early days of the USA for example).
Here there were large comunities of Germans Hungarians Polish Russians Greeks Jews Slovaks Macedons Italians and belive it or not evan Suises!

[Victor]

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... and belive it or not evan Suises!

The Swiss emigrated to Bessarabia in the 19th century when it was in Russian posetion, so technically they did not emigrate to Romania

[dead-cat]

and the germans emigrated to hungary (saxons, 12-13th c.) and the habsburg empire (in the 18th c.) at least those from alsace, because the others technically belonged to the empire and just moved to a different province.

and there was a strong emigration from transsylvania to the USA 1890-1914 (that's why Hamburg-Amerika, Norddeutsche Lloyd, Cunard&White Star etc thrived).
again in the 20ies, when the US economy was booming (because of the automotive industr) there was another wave of emigrants to the USA, albeit a smaller one(this time from royal Romania). one of my grandfathers emigrated to the US in the 20ies, just as an example. check the genealogy pages to see how many actually left.

[C-2]

If we make a statistic ,raporting to the nr of the population of Romania very few left.
Comparing with countries like Ireland (from 3 mil,one died of hunger,and one emigrated to the US).
There were no big Romanian comunities any where in the "new worlds" till after ww2.
About the Swiss,I was talking about those who emigrated to Rom.not Russia!
The Cismigiu parc in Buc.is built by such a guy! And he wasn't the only one.

[Florin]

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and the germans emigrated to hungary (saxons, 12-13th c.) and the habsburg empire (in the 18th c.) at least those from alsace, because the others technically belonged to the empire and just moved to a different province.

After the union of Moldavia and Wallahia in 1859, but especially after the Independence War 1877-1878, Romania had a very good economic period, based mainly on her wheat exports. After 1900 it was harder, because Argentina and the United States offered cheaper wheat on the market.

This economic afluence atracted foreigners to open bussinesses, stores, repair shops, photo laboratories etc. Between them were Germans. These Germans settled in Wallahia and Moldavia and they were different from the immigration waves you mentioned.

Florin

[dead-cat]

and how many where they? 5000? you've got larger communities of arabic speaking ppl. today in RO without speaking about an arabic immigration phenomen.

[Florin]

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and how many where they? 5000? you've got larger communities of arabic speaking ppl. today in RO without speaking about an arabic immigration phenomen.

Yes, you are right. Their number was no match for the older German immigrants settled in Transylvania.

I started all this discussion about immigrants in Romania as it was before WWII when Orok pointed that a person unable to speak a perfect Romanian should be immediately spotted and identified.
I add now that even a new face in the neighborhood shouldn't draw too much suspicion in 1944. Especially in a Romania where relocation due to war was common picture: people from Moldavia evacuated from the front lines areas, people from Ploiesti area evacuated after the Americans started the bombing campaign in march 1944, people from Simeria evacuated after the rail transit depot, second biggest one in Romania, was bombed by the Americans in the summer of 1944.

Florin