Communist Romania: Individuals--Peter Georescu

Figure 1.-- These are the Georgescu brotherss about 1943 before the Communist takeover of Romania. The 1954 press caption here read, "The State Department annonced 4/17 that Communist Romania has freed the Georgescu brothers, Constatine, 20, and Peter, 15, to join, their naturalzed parents in this country." The boys had been separated from their parents for 7 years and subjected to hard labor in harsh conditions by the Communists.

Romania tried to stay neutral at the onset of World War II when NAZI Germany and the Soviet Union invaded Poland (September 1939). The Soviets then seixed mortheastrn Romabian (July 1940). Romania was vital to the Germans because of the Ploesti Oil fields. It was the primary source of oil for the NAZI war machine. Like most other Europena countries, Romania wanted to stay out of the war. Becuase of Soviet aggression, however, the country joined the Axis and participated in the NAZI invasion of the Soviet Union (June 1941). The manager of the Ploesti oil fields was Valeriu C. Georgescu. It was operated by the Standard Oil of New Jersey (ESSO now Exxon). ESSO lost control of Ploesti due to the War. Georgescu continued to manage opertions. During all this Peter was born (1939). The War did not go well for Germany and Romania. Two Romanian armies were destoyed at Stalingad (November 1942). After the huge Axis losses in the East, the Soviet Red Army invaded Romania (October 1944) and forced a Communist regime on the Romanian people. Stalinism was in full force in only a few years. The Securitate began arresting people they saw as threats (former military, police, landowners, government officials, non-commnist politicians, journalists, landowners, businessmen, clerlcs, and others). Some 300,000 people were eventally arested--and committed to labor camps. Few survived the harsh conditions. Pertr's parents were not arrested because they were in America as part of a business trip. They were thus separated from their children. Peter and his older brother Constantine lived quietly for a while with their ageing grandparents. The boys lived with their grandparents until their grandfather was arrested and died as result of the haesh conditions. Soon after the boys and their grandmother were also arrested. Their schooling stopped. Both were sent to a hard labor camp. At the time Peter was only about 9-10 years old. The boys were not the target. Their father was. The boys were set to work, 12 hours a day 6 days a week. Peter's first job was to clean the sewers. He was small emough he could fit into the sewer pipes. [Georgescu] This went on for about 5 years. The seventh day was mostly spent slepping, resting up from their six days of gruling labor. Their work assignments were interupted only for propaganda sessions telling the boys that their parents were evil people and traitors. The Securitate used the boys to force their father to spy for the Soviet Union. The Securitate demanded that their father due to his position spy holding the fate od the boys over him. Not trusting the Securitate, he sent to the FBI who asked him to become a double agent. He declined knowing that such activities do not normally go well. The U.S. Government advised him thar his only chance to get the boys back was to go public and speak to the press. Out of the blue, Congresswoman Frances Payne Bolton of Ohio took up their case. She had been an early supporter of Eisenhower and brought the family's plight to the new President's attention. The boys as a result were exhanged for unnamed Soviet spies. Then came a shock. The boys within days went from being slave workers to internatioanl celeberties. Shortly following the boys' release and safe arrival in the United States, they appeared on the on the morning TV show with Dave Garroway in an interview focusing on their ordeal and subsequent adventure. Other TV shows followed. Peter was offered a place at Phillips Exeter Academy at the invitation of the headmaster who had read about his ordeal. At the time, Peter could not only not speak English, but had no formal education since the second grade. He went on to earn his BA degree from Princeton University and his MBA from Stanford.

This is just one example of Socialist/Communist crimes against children. We will eventually link them together.

Sources

Georgescu, Peter. TV interview (2019).

Created: 2:32 PM 1/22/2020
Last updated: 2:32 PM 1/22/2020