Ștefan Tumurug (en)

“Through his songs, Fănică Tumurug managed to maintain the morale of the Romanian officers in the camp”.

I had him as a camp comrade beyond the Arctic Circle. Through his songs, Fănică Tumurug managed to keep up the morale of the Romanian officers in the camp. After 23 August 1944, unknown persons began to wander around the camp recruiting volunteers for the “Tudor Vladimirescu” division. Ana Pauker, a Bolshevik Jewess, came to persuade us. Fănică Tumurug, with his soft and respectful voice, refused the proposal. Finally, Ana Pauker became angry and threatened all of us who had refused to join the army: “Here you will rot without ever seeing the house where you were born and the […]

“In my life I have never met a more powerful personality than Fănică Tumurug”

In my life I have never met a more powerful and influential personality than the elder Fănică Tumurug. He was the one who pacified all the spirits, no matter how much they disagreed. Any quarrel or disagreement between prisoners was calmed by this man and the parties left him satisfied. I was with him most of the time he was alive. I’m a doctor by profession, but I couldn’t explain a strange phenomenon… When I was near him, I felt a kind of warmth of soul that enveloped me and gave me courage and an incredible clarity of mind, but […]

“Fănică Tumurug had this warmth that brought us closer to him, gathering us like little chicks under the warm wing of their mother”

[Fănică Tumurug] was a teacher and physical education instructor at the “Miroslava” High School in Iași, where he was also appointed pre-military instructor and organiser of some rare beauty contests. He had a violin that he played for us, and we students listened ecstatically, without blinking an eye, as if we were carved out of stone… Most of us, like him, were war orphans. The age difference between him and me was small, and as a war orphan I felt the need for a warmth of soul… and not only me, but all my colleagues. Fănică Tumurug had that warmth […]