The Flight of Andrei Cosmin by Tina Cosmin

The Flight of Andrei Cosmin by Tina Cosmin – is a memoir of an incredible woman who managed to save her husband. All the names are changed, including hers. The book was written in 1945 but published in 1972, after almost all the people died. She saved her husband after Romania was under soviet occupation. It sounds like an incredible story, but it is true.

The book starts with:
‘It happened at the time when the Soviet Union had ‘liberated’ Romania, and had enthroned its own brand of communism with the eager help of a local puppet government to perfect enslavement. It had been an easy task. The Soviet Army Divisions swarmed over the country, looting, raping and killing, and enforced their new way of life with the backing of their guns.
Almost overnight our values and beliefs, all that we had held sacred and lived by, the whole structure of our inner and outer world, had become the very things for which we had to be exterminated.’

I highly recommend the book for many reasons. It reads like a novel, it shows the reality of life in occupied Romania in 1945, a period when the west was recovering after the war, Romanians were under the oppression of the communists. It shows everyday life with its struggles, the differences between Romanian and russian guards. It talks about black market, Romanian mores, and everyday life. It shows the relationship between the ones who were bourgeois and their former employees, staff that worked for them doing cleaning and so on.

They were helped by Ivor Porter, the British Ambassador to Romania. He wrote a book I talked about on my blog – Michael of Romania (if you haven’t read my review, do it, it’s a long one with some pictures from Romania).

I read so many books about the plight of the Jews during WWII, how they had to hide to survive. There are similarities in this book, people had to count on other people, had to hope they will be kept safe, and, of course, knew that they were putting in danger the people where they were hiding. It’s such a sad story, even though it has a happy ending. It’s obvious that they got out, it’s in the title of the book, but nevertheless, it’s just incredibly sad. I think their story should be known, so do read it if you can.