Dracula's Castle, Castelul (Romanian for Castle) Bran. Picture author Kye Thayer from Wikipedia. Walkway of castle interior.
Problem
I was going to Romania and could not think of a single Romanian.
Answer
I started to check landmarks, lists of Romanians, too many and mostly not known to me. But I know three.
1 Dracula - major landmark, Dracula's castle.
2 Eli Wiesel, Nobel Prize winner. See the Jewish Museum in Bucharest, the capital of Romania.
3 Nadia, the darling of the Olympics.
Stories
1 The real life story of any leader and any war can be harrowing but Dracula's was worse than most. However, we have inherited beautiful buildings and castles from kings, tyrants and dictators which are now available for everybody to admire form the outside, and enjoy the inside and be free lo leave and move on geographically and mentally and physically back to the current century. The good old days? When were they? Maybe before the war. Not during the war, except for the small proportion who survived.
2 In London my family was delivered a copy of a free A5 magazine My local PINNER news, May 2017, issue 36. It is delivered every month.
The magazine features the story of a Romanian survivor of Auschwitz. Leslie Kleinman, (the surname is German for small man) was imprisoned in Auschwitz camp in Poland aged 15 and lost his mother and six younger siblings on arrival and when he was released April 23 he learned that he had also recently lost his older sister. Despite that, he has lived another 72 years and reached the age of 87.
On Holocaust Memorial Day, April 23rd, he told an audience of 350 people about his experiences. The event organiser quoted the words of another, well known Romanian survivor, Elie Wiesel, "Anyone who listens to a witness becomes a witness."
Translating the Hebrew, Yom Hashoah, yom is Hebrew for day, ha is the, shoah is the Holocaust.
More on
www.mynewsmag.co.uk
I then went on to research Romanian born Elie Wiesel who lived from 1928-2016 and was also a survivor of Auschwitz because at the age of 15 on the day he was admitted another prisoner warned him to claim to be an adult in order to survive the gassing of children.
The remarkable parts of his story included the account he wrote of his time in Auschwitz, which he never intended to publish, at least not for ten years. In 1954, until as a newspaper journalist he interviewed the famous Catholic writer Francois Mauriac, who had been awarded the Nobel prize for literature two years earlier, in 1952. Wiesel listened as Mauriac repeatedly talked about the suffering of Jesus. Wiesel finally burst out with the complaint that children had died less than ten years ago, he had seen it with his own eyes, and nobody talked about their suffering.
Mauriac followed Wiesel out and told him to write about what he witnessed. Eli Wiesel did what Mauriac suggested. His first book's title was changed to the simpler one word Night. Mauriac wrote a forward to the book.
Over the course of the rest of his life Wiesel wrote numerous books and a play, published posthumously (after death). His words are inscribed on a Holocaust museum in the USA. He was awarded the Nobel prize.
After researching Eli Wiesel, I turned to the next famous person on my list, an active person, in sport.
3 I could not remember the name of a famous Romanian Olympic winner but I was sure there had to be one. Were they all Russians? I recalled the name Olga Korbut. I looked her up and found an article which also mentioned Olga, who came from Belorussia, and Nadia Comăneci, who was Romanian born and was representing Romania.
Nadia Comăneci
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Nadia Elena Comăneci (Romanian pronunciation: [ˈnadi.a koməˈnet͡ʃʲ] (
listen); born November 12, 1961) is a RomanianOlympic gold medalist who, at the age of 14, became the first gymnast to be awarded a perfect score of 10.0 in the Olympic games during the 1976 Olympics in Montreal.[2] She would eventually go on to receive six more perfect 10s in Montreal as well as three gold medals. Four years later, she won two gold medals at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow. She won a total of nine Olympic medals and four World Championship medals during her career.
listen); born November 12, 1961) is a RomanianOlympic gold medalist who, at the age of 14, became the first gymnast to be awarded a perfect score of 10.0 in the Olympic games during the 1976 Olympics in Montreal.[2] She would eventually go on to receive six more perfect 10s in Montreal as well as three gold medals. Four years later, she won two gold medals at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow. She won a total of nine Olympic medals and four World Championship medals during her career.
Comăneci is one of the world's best-known gymnasts and is credited with popularizing the sport around the globe.[3] In 2000, she was named as one of the Athletes of the 20th Century by the Laureus World Sports Academy.[4] She has lived in the United States since 1989 and is married to American Olympic champion.
That's an amazing, impressive list. Not just once, but year after year of dedication.
If you should get into a conversation about Romanian history with somebody from Romania, somebody in Romania, or somebody who is interested in Romania, you have three world-famous Romanians you can talk about.
If you learned English and Latin at school as I did, you will find many Romanian words sound familiar. You can learn Romanian, which is similar to Italian - the name Romanian gives you a clue, from DuoLingo.
www.duolingo.com
Conclusion
You and I know already know, or can easily get to know about, three world-famous Romanians. If and when we visit Romania we can fly into Bucharest where we ca visit the Jewish Museum and take a side trip to Dracula's Castle.
Conclusion
You and I know already know, or can easily get to know about, three world-famous Romanians. If and when we visit Romania we can fly into Bucharest where we ca visit the Jewish Museum and take a side trip to Dracula's Castle.
Author of picture of Dracula's Castle, in Romanian Castelul (castle) Bran, is Florin 73m.From Wikipedia.
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I have several more posts on Romanian travel sights and learning Romanian.
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