Bernard Milstein at the August 23rd parade

This is my husband, Bernard Milstein, at the August 23rd parade. All Romanians participated in the parade, it was compulsory during Communism. My husband is the one wearing sunglasses, on the left.

My husband, Bernard Milstein, was from Botosani. He was about three years older than me, so he was born around 1919, something like that. We met through a common acquaintance and got married around 1962 or 1963. We had no religious ceremony performed, we were both afraid to do it. My husband didn't really talk much, he wasn't a very talkative person. But he was kind, he got along very well with my mother, his mother-in-law. I was a teacher, and he - chief accountant at the Town Hall. He had graduated high school, had no higher education, and yet he was chief accountant at the Town Hall. He would have needed a diploma, but he received an exemption, he was exempt from needing higher education as he was very skilled and the institution needed him.

I stopped observing the Jewish traditions after I got married. My husband observed them even less than I did, he was an atheist. He didn't even believe in Communism. He didn't even want to be a member of the Communist Party. I don't know what his father did for a living, he too worked for some boyars, and there was something wrong with his personal file. And he was afraid to join the Party, lest they should rummage through his file for information about his father. It could be possible that they urged him to do it, but he stood his ground and didn't join the Party. And he was a good accountant, they promoted him, made him chief accountant of the Town Hall where he worked until he retired.