This book is a collection of surveillance reports that Dr. Latham obtained from the Romanian archives following the collapse of the Communist regime. They reveal the extent of the surveillance to which Western diplomats were subjected and, more importantly, they reveal a great deal about the system and society that conducted it. Latham’s introduction provides the context of his work and Romanian conditions at that time. This book is essential reading for students of the Cold War as well as anyone interested in the mindset and methods of totalitarian regimes.
Originally published in 1933, Romania by Kurt Hielscher is an astonishing volume of photographs depicting the life of Romanian people in the interwar era. In 1931 he was invited by the Romanian government to visit the country. "As time went on," he said "every day, every week I loved the country more." It was a love that grew throughout 1931 and 1932 and resulted in over 5000 photographs of which 304 were finally selected for this album. Unfortunately in 1944, an Allied bombing destroyed his life's work after hitting his workshop in Poland. He lost over 40,000 photographs and negatives. This photo album is a recreation of Hielscher's work and brings an homage to the love and appreciation he showed for Romania. Featuring over 300 black and white and sepia photographs, a colorized cover, a preface from Octavian Goga, and an introduction by Ernest H. Latham, Jr., it's a one-of-a-kind collection for anyone interested in the history of Romania.
On the day that Paris fell to the Nazis, R. G. Waldeck was checking into the swankiest hotel in Bucharest, the Athene Palace. A cosmopolitan center during the war, the hotel was populated by Italian and German oilmen hoping to secure new business opportunities in Romania, international spies cloaked in fake identities, and Nazi officers whom Waldeck discovered to be intelligent but utterly bloodless. A German Jew and a reporter for Newsweek, Waldeck became a close observer of the Nazi invasion. As King Carol first tried to placate the Nazis, then abdicated the throne in favor of his son, Waldeck was dressing for dinners with diplomats and cozying up to Nazi officers to get insight and information. From her unique vantage, she watched as Romania, a country with a pro-totalitarian elite and a deep strain of anti-Semitism, suffered civil unrest, a German invasion, and an earthquake, before turning against the Nazis. A striking combination of social intimacy and disinterest political analysis, Athene Palace evokes the elegance and excitement of the dynamic international community in Bucharest before the world had comes to grips with the horrors of war and genocide. Waldeck’s account strikingly presents the finely wrought surface of dinner parties, polite discourse, and charisma, while recognizing the undercurrents of violence and greed that ran through the denizens of Athene Palace.
