An Engrossing Read Providing A Window Into Romania's Past

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	• The Ransom of the Jews: The Story of Extraordinary Secret Bargain Between Romania and Israel Radu Ioanid Ivan R. Dee, Publisher, 2005 - 244 pages average customer review:based on 5 reviews view larger image
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I don't think the core issue of this book - the fact that Romania demanded payments from Israel and West Germany for allowing emigration during its Communist regime(s) - will really surprise or shock anyone today. Indignation too seems somewhat idle. Those were aberrant times, but does history ever really stop being aberrant?
Thankfully, the author - a historian - understands this well. This is a good book because it never rests in contemplation of its discoveries, never tells us what it thinks of them.
In contrast, Ion Mihai Pacepa, the famous defecting general, pathetically abandons himself to lament in the awful afterword he was allowed to write. Not once does he refer to the deals of his former supervisors (Gheorghiu Dej and Ceausescu) without frantically seeking for the most damning adjectives: despicable, hideous... Let's be straight: General Pacepa is an invaluable resource for this book but at the same time he is one of its aberrant characters.
He waits for the therapeutic mud to crack on Ceausescu's naked body while strolling with him 'along the restricted presidential shore of Lake Techirgiol', and six days later is 'magnanimously granted political asylum by the United States government' - whereupon Ceausescu tears his shirt screaming hysterically that he cannot even trust the shirt he's wearing (how could he, he was naked with his traitor less than a week ago).
Of much less anecdotical value is Pacepa's condemnation of the 'hideous sale of Jews'. We see him return to Romania, 20 years after giving Ceausescu the last monthly debrief of their transactions ('one hundred twenty two thousand dollars in cash', a dissapointing month) to claim back his 'properties' without even realizing that by now, the very same book he is so eager to praise has already revealed just how these 'properties' were acquired.)
I don't know what the author's real intentions were in allowing the retired General his self-serving epilogue. It may be ironical, it may come from a genuine fascination with the veteran officer, it may even be from gratitude (Pacepa claims to have been around when the idea for this book was 'born'). In any case, his voice at the end of the book adds something truly chilling (like a horror movie that doesn't allow itself to end without giving us a last glimpse of the undead malice that fed the story).
But these are all digressions of a satisfied reader. Read this book for the stories: there is one on every page. I haven't seen Steven Spielberg's 'Munich' yet but does he tell us that Abu Daud, the person who planned the attack on the Israeli Olympic team was photographed, fingerprinted, 'and lavishly fed' in Bucharest several weeks before Munich? Read the book to find out why he was there.
The book also provides a tremedously vivid portrait of Nicolae Ceausescu (although this is never its main intention). I was 16, spending Christmas with friends in a Moldavian village, when Ceausescu was executed. Nobody liked him, nobody believed him, nobody cared to know him better, nobody was sorry for him. I am wondering now, shouldn't we all have had the patience to sit through a proper trial and hear these stories. Would it really have been too risky giving us this chance after 25 years of aberrant life in an aberrant country? Because history doesn't just stop and start anew. The aberrant characters always find a way to continue their aberrant work until somebody tells the story and demystifies it.
So I must say that despite the great pleasure I took in reading this book, sometimes the stories left me wanting. The book gives a very generous account of the author's exhaustive investigation but it also 'loses' some stories when it was just about to get them. Do not expect justice to prevail and evil to be defeated at the end of the book. Some villans do go away with the money. Most of the corruption can only be glimpsed at for a moment before it slips away, still vigorously alive, unstartled by the momentary spotlight.
How can we possibly believe then the wised-up general's hope, dramatically expressed at the very end of the book, that the story we have just read should 'prevent that aberration from ever recurring'.
'That' aberration, maybe, but watch out for the next one. The players are still at the table. They've just been dealt a fresh hand.
There is much more in this book than stories about Romania: there are hints at the extraordinary passion and 'hunger' that led to the creation of the state of Israel. There are hints into the mixture of finance and ideology that drive terrorist organizations. And most interestingly, there are hints at how 'exciting' these negotiations, transactions, and betrayals are, how seductive, how irresistible. How different the motives, how nuanced, how terrible.

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What it means to finally know the truth!!!

Like so many Jews "bought" out of Romania, it was a chilling revelation to understand how lucky were we, and what a tremendous debt of gratitude we all owe Israel. And everything mentioned in the book (and in some cases even more) as far as the Romanian authorities' shenanigans played on the already traumatized emigrees ("traitors") are absolutely true! Many, many thanks to Radu Ioanid and everyone that made this part of history of the Romanian Jewish Community available to the people that lived it but were kept in the dark.

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An Engrossing Read Providing A Window Into Romania's Past

Between 1948 until 1989, the State of Israel had clandestinely engaged in one of the longest and most expensive ransom pacts in history, wherein Romania permitted most its 370,000 Jews, who had survived the Holocaust, to immigrate to Israel in exchange for hard currency and various other considerations.

Born and educated in Romania, and director of International archival programs at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., author Radu Ioanid, exposes in The Ransom of the Jews: The Story of the Extraordinary Secret Bargain Between Romania and Israel, a hideous chapter in Romanian history, that little was known until recently.

Although, officials in Washington may have been vaguely aware of this secret pact, they had no concrete evidence-until the defection to the USA in 1978 of one of the Cold War's most important defectors, Lieutenant General Ion Mihai Pacepa.
Pacepa was at the time of his defection a close confidant of Romania's head of state, Nicolai Ceaucescu, and he had been the country's chief spy.

As mentioned in the Afterword of the book contributed by Pacepa, the roots of The Ransom of the Jews go back to 1993, when the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum was opened. It was there that Pacepa had met with Radu Ioanid leading eventually to a long ensuing relationship. During this time, the author was informed of the many super-secret documents that existed in the still- classified archives of the Romanian espionage services.
Due to the relentless and determined doggedness of the author, much of the information contained in this book has now come to light.

Ioanid points out, that contrary to the glowing propaganda that had emanated from Romania pertaining to its treatment of Jews, they were nonetheless subjected to blatant anti-Semitism with all of its trappings that had been practiced in many of the Communist countries, such as loss of government jobs, paying for otherwise free education, badgering by governmental officials, and other abuses.
As a result, there had been an intense effort on the part of the Israelis to bring out as many individuals as possible, even if it meant signing a secret pact with the devil. And that is exactly what had transpired.

This is a remarkable and engrossing read providing a window as to what exactly transpired between Romania and Israel, and how the latter had been exploited by the former in order to gain needed hard currency as well as receiving most favored nation status by the USA.
The author's revelations, the product of many years of research, exude frankness and thoroughness that will give readers an excellent perspective of this surreptitious relationship that otherwise would be difficult to glean elsewhere.

Written with an open mind, this book will prove to be an important book in gaining a more clear perspective of how one Communist State professing to be somewhat independent of the USSR and even more democratic, was no better in its relations with treatment of its Jewish community.

Norm Goldman, Editor of Bookpleasures.com

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Mind warping

Mr Ioanid's mind boggling historical-political book reads as a story. Although a most disturbing and frightening one, it gives a very painful insight into the pristine hell that communist leaders offered not only to Jews but the whole people, as a matter of fact. Jews, as it unfolds from innumerable documents, were their choice bargaining chip for hard currency. For the sake of dollars, we the people were prize slaves, clearly branded and tagged with the relevant value and price.If only half of Mr Ioanid's story were true, it would be enough to spook the life out of any humble human being on the surface of planet Earth. A must read for anyone decent in this life !

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An extraordinary story

Radu Ioanid and his mother were among the Jews ransomed by Israel from Ceaucescu's Romania, and in The Ransom Of The Jews: The Story Of Extraordinary Secret Bargain Between Romania And Israel, he sets to rest the various myths and rumors about a policy which strangely enough resulted in the author's freedom. The author's investigation into the mysteries surrounding the ransom produces an extraordinary story which is a welcome contribution to the growing library of 20th Century Judaic History.

After 1948, the 370,000 surviving Jews of Romania became one of the main sources of immigration for the new state of Israel. Behind Romania's decision to allow its Jews to leave were practical economic and political reasons: Israel paid for them, and Romania wanted influence in the Middle East. The trade satisfied both states and is still considered a highly confidential matter. In The Ransom of the Jews, Radu Ioanid of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum traces the intriguing story of this secret exchange.

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