Photo credit: Michelle Belliveau
“In the darkness of the early morning of March 3, 1949, practically all of the Transylvanian aristocracy were arrested in their beds and loaded onto trucks. That same day, the Romanian Workers’ Party was pleased to announce the successful deportation and dispossession of all large landowners. Communism demanded the destruction of these ultimate class enemies. Under the terror of the Gheorghiu-Dej and later Ceausescu, the aristocracy led a double life: during the day they worked in quarries, steelworks and carpenters’ yards; in the evening they secretly gathered and maintained the rituals of an older world. To record this unknown episode of recent history, Jaap Scholten traveled extensively in Romania and Hungary and sought out the few remaining aristocrats who experienced the night of March 3, 1949. He spoke to people who survived the Romanian Gulag and met the youngest generation of the once distinguished aristocracy to talk about the restitution of assets and about the future. How is it possible to rebuild anything in a country that finds itself in a moral vacuum?” Comrade Baron
For those of us who are Cold-War history buffs, award winning Dutch author Jaap Scholten certainly charmed the crowd of admirers at Aniko and Nash Schott’s Wesley Heights residence as he presented a synopsis of his latest book, his first non-fiction book and his first book in English. The book describes life before and under communism for a group of people, mainly the nobility who were victims of the latter’s regime, subject to indignities and degradation.
Jaap Scholten, Aniko Gaal Schott, General Peter Zwack
About the author: Jaap Scholten, (Enschede, 1963) studied Industrial Design at the Technical University in Delft, Graphic Design at the Willem de Kooning Academy of Arts in Rotterdam (BA), and Social Anthropology at the Central European University in Budapest (MA). He has published seven books: collections of short stories and three novels. His novel, De wet van Spengler (Atlas Contact, 2008), was chosen “novel of the year” in the Netherlands. His latest book, Kameraad Baron (AtlasContact, 2010) is the winner of the Libris History Prize 2011. His novels and short stories are translated into German, French, Hungarian, Croatian. In 2011 Scholten created and presented a six-part television series for the VPRO about hidden worlds in Central and Eastern Europe. He has lived in Budapest since 2003. The English edition of Comrade Baron will be released by Helena History Press on May 1, 2016 and distributed worldwide through Central European University Press.
Ambassador Henne Schuwer with Aniko Gaal Schott
Among those present were the Dutch Ambassador Henne Schuwer, General Peter Zwack, Consuelo Pareja, Bill and Lynda Webster, Jim and Nancy Rosebush, Charlotte and Michael Buxton, Willie and Finlay Lewis, Mary Mochary, Dr and Mrs Milton Corn, Nina Pillsbury and Susan Pillsbury, Sidney Johnson, Roland and Diane Flamini, Count Sandor Karolyi, Countess Katalin Teleki, Publisher Kati Kadar Lynn and husband Philanthropist Douglass Lynn, Marie Frances and Bill Waldee, Susan Hurley Bennett, Wendy Benchley and John Jeppson, Isabel Ernst, Kevin Chaffee, Carol Joynt, Shane Harris and and Victims of Communism President Marion Smith Lacey and Anna Smith Lacey and Jack and Donna Pflieger.
