Before Immigration

Life in Romania

After World War II ended, Romania, along with many other Eastern European countries, was recovering from the war. They also had to deal with the communists that were trying to expand and govern over more land. In the 1950s, Liviu was young and living with his parents. At this time, Liviu's father had owned a factory which was then nationalized and taken over by the state. After this had happened, Liviu's father went to work for the government. While he did have a solid and reliable job, Liviu claims that "my parents being Jewish and not being communists... it was not a great time."

Map of Romania and nearby countries

Liviu's parents

Liviu's maternal grandparents had recently left Romania and moved to Israel in 1950. They assumed that Liviu's mother and their family would follow them in leaving Romania. However, their family "wasn't allowed out because of my Dad's fairly senior position" says Liviu. It wasn't until the end of 1962 that Liviu's family had gotten permission to leave the country. It didn't take long for them to realize that it was actually a mistake and they were not supposed to leave. Liviu stated in the interview that "as soon as my parents recognized that, we basically, in three weeks we left the country with whatever we had which wasn't very much."

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