'I emigrated from Romania to Germany in the year 1969, taking with me as important treasures these ‘letters’ sewn onto pieces of canvas, which reminded me of the hardest time of my life’ began Maria Luise.
Between 1958 and 1964, I endured the regime of the communist prisons in Romania for the guilt 'of having received a letter from a person in Germany’.
I remember the extremely hard life in prisons, where you had nothing, not even a piece of paper or a pencil to write a few lines to your loved ones. There were times of complete censorship and control from the communist authorities. I still managed to send some messages to my mother, letters ‘sewn’ with red thread on some textile pieces cut from my white shirt. The thread came from my blouse and the needle was borrowed from the ‘Men's Room’
Read Maria Luise's full story here
After the revolution in 1989, Maria Luise returned to Romania. She says, 'Right after the events of December 1989 in Romania, I decided to turn back to my country. My friends and relatives in Germany could not understand my decision: 'Why come back where you suffered so much?' But I felt I could contribute in my way to the rebirth of my country, so since 1990, I have been living in Sibiu.'
Fire at University Library of Bucharest
During the December 1989 events, a fire destroyed the historical building of the Bucharest University Library along with over half a million volumes.
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Contributing to Europeana 1989 in Bucharest, librarian Victoria Frâncu described the events.
'On December 22 1989 at night, after sending my children to bed, I went to some neighbors not to be alone. On TV, soon after, I saw the horror! I couldn't believe it was true… The University Library, where I worked, was on fire! The injuries caused by the firefighters to the library seemed irreparable. Why do this? Why make so much culture ash?
On the morning of December 23rd, I hardly reached the centre, brought by a car that stopped at my praying signs. From the Palace Plaza, where the car had left me, I walked, passing near the Creţulescu Church, to the library. I climbed the steps from Creţulescu and saw with my eyes the reality on the television. From the tears that flooded my eyes, an amputated building rose in front of me… my workplace didn’t exist anymore.'
Following an appeal of the UNESCO’s General Director Federico Mayor in 1991, donations of over 100,000 volumes were received by the library from individuals and institutions in the country and over 800,000 volumes from abroad.
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By Cristina Roiu, The Romanian Academy Library
Feature image: Revista ilustrată "Patria liberă", User contributed content via Europeana 1989, CC BY-SA