{"id":3149,"date":"2020-03-26T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-26T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/?p=3149"},"modified":"2020-06-12T16:59:17","modified_gmt":"2020-06-12T16:59:17","slug":"paul-goma-writer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/?p=3149","title":{"rendered":"Paul Goma, writer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Paul Goma \u2013a Romanian writer, known for his activities as a dissident and leading opponent of the communist regime before 1989 \u2013 died due to Covid-19 on March 25, 2020.<\/p>\n

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Forced into exile by the communist authorities, he became a political refugee and resided in France as a stateless person. After 2000, Goma has expressed opinions on World War II, the Holocaust in Romania and the Jews, claims which have led to widespread allegations of antisemitism.<\/p>\n

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Goma was born to a Romanian family in Mana village, Orhei County, then in the Kingdom of Romania, now part of Moldova.<\/p>\n

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In March 1944, the Goma family took refuge in Sibiu, Transylvania. In August 1944, finding themselves in danger of involuntary “repatriation” to the Soviet Union, they fled to the village of Buia, by the T\u00e2rnava Mare River.<\/p>\n

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From October to December 1944, the family hid in the forests around Buia. On January 13, 1945, they were captured by Romanian shepherds and turned over to the Gendarmerie in Sighi\u015foara, where they were interned at the “Centrul de Repatriere” (“Repatriation Center”). There, Eufimie Goma forged documents for his family; however, Maria Goma’s brother, who didn’t have forged papers, was “repatriated to Siberia”. In June 1945, taking advantage of the forged documents, they returned to Buia. Later on, Paul Goma would describe his family’s refugee saga in the novels Arta refugii (“The Art of Refuge”, a wordplay on the Romanian words for “refuge” and “taking flight”), Soldatul c\u00e2inelui (“Dog’s Soldier”), and Gard\u0103 invers\u0103 (“Reverse Guard”).<\/p>\n

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In 1954, he was admitted to the Faculty of Letters of the University of Bucharest. In November 1956, he was part of the Bucharest student movement of 1956: during a seminar, he read out to other students parts of a novel he had written about a student who establishes a movement that is similar to the ones in Hungary during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. Goma was arrested on the charge of attempting to organize a strike at the University of Bucharest and he was sentenced to two years in prison. He served his sentence at the prisons in Jilava and Gherla, and then was put under house arrest in L\u0103te\u015fti (a former village of the Bordu\u0219ani commune) until 1963.<\/p>\n

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As a former political prisoner, he was not allowed to resume his studies and he had to work as a manual labourer until 1965 when a decree allowed former prisoners to study at the University. In September 1965, he was re-admitted as a first-year student at the Faculty of Letters of the University of Bucharest.<\/p>\n

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At the end of August 1968, Goma became a member of the Romanian Communist Party, in an act of solidarity with the Romanian position during the Warsaw Pact Invasion of Czechoslovakia (Romania did not take part, indeed condemning the invasion).<\/p>\n

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Several months later, Goma attempted to publish a novel, Ostinato (based on his experiences with the secret police), but it was not allowed by the censors after one of them claimed to recognize one character as Elena Ceau\u0219escu. Nevertheless, he published the novel in translation in West Germany in 1971, as a result of which, Paul Goma was excluded from the Communist Party.<\/p>\n

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During the summer of 1972, he was allowed to visit France, where he wrote Gherla, a novel based on his experiences in the Gherla Prison. This book was also denied publication in Romania but was published in France in 1976.<\/p>\n

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In 1977, Goma wrote a public letter expressing solidarity with the Charter 77, but, finding few friends willing to sign it, he wrote another letter, addressed directly to Ceau\u0219escu, in which he asked him to sign it, as the two of them (Goma and Ceau\u0219escu) were the only Romanians not afraid of the Securitate. Following this, he wrote another letter (addressed to the 35 countries in the CSCE) in which he called for respect for human rights in Romania.<\/p>\n

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In February 1977, Ceau\u0219escu made a speech in which he attacked the “traitors of the country”, referring to the two letters Goma wrote. The following day, a police cordon was in front of his building, not allowing non-residents, to prevent people from signing Goma’s letter. The authorities tried to convince Goma to emigrate, but he refused. As the police cordon got more relaxed, several more people signed the letter and they were arrested on exiting Goma’s apartment.<\/p>\n

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In March, he wrote an even tougher admonitory letter to Ceau\u0219escu, urging him not to break the bond between the people and him, a bond that was created after Ceau\u0219escu condemned the invasion of Czechoslovakia, and attacked the Securitate whom Goma said were “traitors and enemies of Romania, who produce nothing and prevent those who produce from producing more”. In the meantime, Goma gained the support of two intellectuals: psychiatrist Ion Vianu and literary critic Ion Negoi\u0163escu; in all, he had 75 signatures.<\/p>\n

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Called by Cornel Burtic\u0103, the Secretary for Propaganda of the Central Committee, on March 12, Goma got the promise of being allowed to publish again, but he refused as he said that he wants not to be followed by the Securitate. A week later, a former boxer, Horst Stumpf, broke into Goma’s flat and attacked him; the attacks repeated the following days. As he was barricading himself with some friends in his apartment, he gave an interview to French TV station Antenne 2.<\/p>\n

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Goma was arrested and excluded from the Writers’ Union of Romania. Following his arrest, he was attacked in the Romanian media: in a S\u0103pt\u0103m\u00eena article, Eugen Barbu called him “a nullity”, in Luceaf\u0103rul, Nicolae Drago\u015f said he was “rousing reactionary elements” and in Contemporanul, Vasile B\u0103ran, not mentioning Goma, claimed that “individuals calling themselves writers and journalists sully with the dirtiest of dirt our noble profession”.<\/p>\n

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An international appeal for his release was launched, among the signatories being Eug\u00e8ne Ionesco, Jean-Paul Sartre, Arthur Miller and Edward Albee. Goma was released on 6 May 1977, four days before the anniversary of 100 years of Romanian independence, celebrations which Ceau\u0219escu didn’t want overshadowing by Goma’s arrest.<\/p>\n

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On November 20, 1977, Goma and his family left Romania and went into exile in France.<\/p>\n

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On 3 February 1981, Goma and Nicolae Penescu (former Interior Minister) received parcels in their post. Penescu opened his parcel to find a book and when he lifted its cover an explosion wounded him. Goma, who had received two death threats since his arrival in France, called the police. Both packages had been sent on instructions by Carlos the Jackal.<\/p>\n

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In 1982, the Securitate planned to assassinate Goma. Matei Haiducu, the secret agent sent by the Securitate to carry out the plan, turned to French counter-intelligence (DST). With the help of the DST, Haiducu simulated an attempt on Goma’s life, by poisoning his drink at a restaurant; the drink was then spilled by a French agent, pretending to be a “clumsy guest”.<\/p>\n

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Although Goma’s numerous works (both fiction and non-fiction) were translated worldwide, his books, except the first one, were published in Romania only after the 1989 Revolution. He lived in Paris as a stateless political refugee, his Romanian citizenship having been revoked after 1978 by the communist government.<\/p>\n

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On March 18, 2020, Paul Goma was hospitalized at Piti\u00e9-Salp\u00eatri\u00e8re Hospital in Paris after being infected with COVID-19 and died on March 25, 2020. He was 84.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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Paul Goma \u2013a Romanian writer, known for his activities as a dissident and leading opponent of the communist regime before 1989 \u2013 died due to Covid-19 on March 25, 2020.   Forced into exile by the communist authorities, he became a political refugee and resided in France as a stateless person. After 2000, Goma has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3150,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[46,7019,6226],"tags":[6094,140,782],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/wp-content\/uploads\/imageholder\/uploads\/Paul_Goma.jpg?fit=%2C&ssl=1","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3458,"url":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/?p=3458","url_meta":{"origin":3149,"position":0},"title":"Bernard Epin, writer","date":"April 2, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Bernard Epin \u2011 a French writer, literary critic, and communist activist \u2013 died on 1 April 2020 after suffering from Covid-19. \u00a0 Born into a working-class family, Epin attended primary school in the 14th arrondissement of Paris. He joined the French Communist Party in 1954 and the editorial team of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "France"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3518,"url":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/?p=3518","url_meta":{"origin":3149,"position":1},"title":"Bucky Pizzarelli, jazz guitarist","date":"April 2, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"John Paul \"Bucky\" Pizzarelli, an American jazz guitarist, died due to Covid-19 on April 1, 2020 . He was the father of jazz guitarist John Pizzarelli and double bassist Martin Pizzarelli. He worked for NBC as a staffman for Dick Cavett (1971) and ABC with Bobby Rosengarden in (1952). The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Noteworthy"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5523,"url":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/?p=5523","url_meta":{"origin":3149,"position":2},"title":"Catalin Barbulescu, Thoracic Surgeon","date":"April 19, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Catalin Barbulescu \u2013 a Thoracic Surgeon at\u00a0 Spitalul Universitar de Urgenta Bucuresti, Bucharest, Romania \u2013 passed away on 18 April, 2020, due to COVID-19. Catalin Barbulescu was 65 years old. \u201cOur colleague Dr. Catalin Barbulescu passed away last night. 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