IMPACTUL EXPROPRIERILOR ŞI NAŢIONALIZĂRILOR ASUPRA ETNICILOR GERMANI ÎN PERCEPŢIA ROMÂNILOR
The Impact of Expropriations and Nationalization for Local Germans in the Eye of Romanians

Summary/Abstract: After the war ended, local Germans became an ill-famed population, considered responsible for all the hardships during the World War Two, and the winners decided that those considered guilty had to pay. As a consequence, they adopted a series of laws having a punishing character addressed to local Germans. On this respect, they stated that lands and properties owned by local Germans who collaborated to Nazi had to be owned by the political authority, without any compensation, and to be redistribute to the Romanian peasants. About 6-70.000 families were stripped of their land and home. In 1948, German minority lost their business and manufacturers due to nationalization. As a consequence, a great number of local German families lived at their limits. More, the Germans were confronted with the abuse of communist authorities but they were motivated by solidarity and they resisted to all repression. The relationships between Romanians and Germans were very hard affected by these illegal proceedings and one of the effects was a deep gap between them. This study presents the events as they remained in the collective memory of the Romanians and also try to reveal the way in which Romanians perceived local Germans according to their new status. We took into consideration 51 interviews with participants from Hunedoara, Alba and Sibiu counties.

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