Rosa G. Waldeck (1898-1982), a German-born American news correspondent with a PhD in sociology,
lived at the Athenee-Palace Hotel in Bucharest, within sight of the Romanian Royal Palace, from June 1940 until January 1941.
She arrived on the very day the German army marched unopposed into Paris; she remained to witness
Hitler's fascism spread Eastward across Europe and into Romania, compelling King Carol II to abdicate his throne, leaving
his teenage son Michael as Romania's King.
She remained during the Soviet occupation of northern Bucovina and Besarabia, and later the Legionaire's rebellion
and Bucharest pogrom during which more than one hundred jews were killed. Although Waldeck had converted to
Catholicism, she was Jewish by birth, and so thought it advisable to depart Romania at that point.
But for seven months she had experienced an up close view of historic events and persons, which she describes in her
novel/memoir with penetrating wit and charm.
Recent video footage of the Calea Victoriei vicinity in Bucharest, Romania (2016)
Website: http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/A/bo17224203.html
Webpage created on 25 JUN 2017; Last updated on 26 JUN 2017