By Dr. Ileana Johnson Paugh ——Bio and Archives--June 16, 2024

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Living imprisoned inside the borders of a socialist republic run by the Communist Party was not easy--one had to get used to the many affronts to liberty and daily survival, including food and amenities the western world had taken for granted for a long time and still do.

Deep down most people wanted to flee, get out, defect during a hard to obtain legal trip with a visa, or to disappear across the highly guarded border during the middle of the night.

Jewish citizens had more options; their freedoms could be bought with hard currency, the universally accepted (at the time) U.S. dollar. The currency was accepted by all because they had trust in the U.S. government. But faith and trust in the U.S. government is fading, in the same direction as the faith in the U.S. dollar.

Jewish emigration had one escape that the rest of the citizens did not have. Ceausescu used to say, according to Lt. Gen Ion Mihai Pacepa, the highest-ranking defector from a communist country,” Oil, Jews, and Germans are our most important export commodities.” Ceausescu had mastered the art of milking money from the west, specifically Israel and West Germany, in exchange for visas to freedom.

A spy named Henry was the intermediary in a trade that involved paying a certain amount of U.S. dollars to the dear leader’s personal account for each Jew allowed to emigrate. According to Pacepa, Henry negotiated a deal whereby........

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