BARASEUM

TOTAL TV presents

In memory of Manase Radnev

“And they went away like the wind…”

Prologue at “What Are You Doing This Evening?”

Our theatre is for saleMaybe we will find a clientWe are selling walls, stage lights, fantasy and talentGive a sum, however smallFor the Jewish theatreWhy should it go on livingSince the people avoid it

EUGEN STROE in “BARASEUM”show in Tel Aviv, 1991

Ever since there have been artistsIn this always-changing worldNothing has ever been sadderThan a theatre for saleI cry for that supreme moment Which comes in the life of every mortal beingBut when a theatre diesIt’s not just the setting that goes awayIt’s not just the lights that go offNot only the blue curtains...When a theatre diesOur souls also die a littlePerhaps everything we’ve treasured most,Hope, dreams, love, innocenceWe experienced every eveningIn this theatre which is now for sale[The BARASEUM actors, 1941-1944]When we went through rough timesWhen some scorned usWhen they covered our mouthsWe spoke through the theatreSo many actors played at the BaraseumStars as big as miraclesFrom our memories of them we’ll make songs and showBecause Baraseum is aliveAnd it will go on living for as long

As there is a single Jewish viewer left in this world

“BARASEUM”, show in Tel Aviv, 1991Created by: Aurel Storin and Harry Reininger

Baraseum BaraseumMerry by night, sad by dayYou have the soul of an artistBaraseumAnd whenever you are in troubleYou have your Jewish soulBaraseumBaraseumBaraseum

You gave us everythingYou have a wonderful soulBaraseumNo matter what happensWe’ll never forget youBaraseumBaraseumBaraseum

HARRY ELIADManaging Director of the Jewish Theater in Bucharest

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen! It gives me great pleasure to tell you that I am on the stage of the Jewish Theatre, formerly known as the Baraseum Theatre. I want us to be merry tonight, to take a trip down on memory lane, and to find out what the Baraseum Theatre means to you.

DOROTHEA LIVIOActress, Tel Aviv, 2010

To me Baraseum is the symbol of my entire career. It was there where my career began. I spent my youth there and I got acquainted with this floor that we call “stage”.

TRICY ABRAMOVITZActress, Tel Aviv, 2010

The same building where the Baraseum used to be, now belongs to the Jewish State Theatre from Bucharest. It’s been renovated of course, but the atmosphere, the walls are filled with the Baraseum, they know all about the Baraseum, they sing about the Baraseum. The texts of the Baraseum have permeated those walls. I grew up in this theatre.

LIA KONIGActress, Tel Aviv, 2010

When we used to perform there we felt surrounded by shadows who seemed to say: “This place has always been around and was able to rise from the ashes every time.”

SONIA PALTYWriter, Tel Aviv, 2010It was incredible to have a Jewish theatre during the Antonescu regime, during a time when the Jews were not allowed to laugh. They were persecuted. All Jews from Romania had to wear the yellow star, except those from Bucharest.

RUDY FRIEDMANActress, Tel Aviv, 2010

This theatre was in a Jewish neighborhood and all the Jews who were allowed go to the theatre – since access to some places was restricted for them – found in it moral support during those hard times of persecution, interdiction and danger.

AGNIA BOGOSLAVAActress, Tel Aviv, 2000

Baraseum was my life. It saved my life. And it wasn’t just that. It saved the dignity, the conscience, the joy, the Hope of our people who were so humiliated during the fascist regime in Romania.

Legionary demonstrationOctober 6, 1940

Today, the dynasty and the state, General Antonescu, the Romanian people and the Legionary Movement are a united force and an unbreakable entity.

LEON VOLOVICI, historianProfessor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem

The decrees which excluded all Jewish professionals from the Romanian trade unions appeared before September 1940 when the National Legionary State was created. They went on being issued almost daily, enforcing very severe prohibitions, which followed the Nazi pattern.

The GAMBERTO sisters, Paris, 2010FEDORA and HENRIETTA

All the Jewish artists were fired…

Stroe, Beate Fredanov, Agnia Bogoslava...

Alll of them....

We had all worked in Romanian theatres.

Finti...

There were no other actors. There were only actors in theatres. I was one of them back then. Before that I had starred in “The Lower Depths”, where I had performed together with the biggest actors: Vraca, Toni Bulandra…

A few important intellectuals, artists from the theatre, among them Beate Fredanov, Finti, Puiu Beresteanu, who was then the director, came up with the idea of a Jewish theatre and filed a petition at the Ministry of Information which was also the Ministry of Culture.

HARRY REININGERMusician, Tel Aviv, 2010

The people were confused at first, they didn’t know what to do. A certain gentleman, Otto Matkovich was his name, thought that it would be better to create a theatre.

When all the Jewish actors were fired there was a man who had this wonderful idea of gathering all the Jews from all theatres and orchestras to help start a theatre which was called Baraseum. Everyone was free to express themselves there.

DOROTHEA LIVIO in “BARASEUM”Show in Tel Aviv, 1991

Thoughts come to my mindJust like in a nightmareThe war years, years of tortureWhen my Bucharest sky Was filled with heavy, cruel cloudsBoots marching on my streetFear filling our soulsWhen suddenly the clouds went awayJust like in the fairy talesAnd the sky cleared above Vacaresti.

At Baraseum once againJewish artists were singingAnd we from the ghettoWere singing with them

Hello, Baraseum…

There were very strong anti-Semitic pressures. Some did not like to see these people of a certain intellectual background gathered together. They were competition for other theatres. Many prestigious actors from the Romanian theatre, many remarkable intellectuals did everything possible so this institution could be born.

[STROE and VASILACHEin BING BANG]

EUGEN STROEActor, Tel Aviv, 2010

The Stroe and Vasilache duo was banned from the theatre and from the radio in 1941 via a ministerial decree issued by Ion Marin Sadoveanu who was the Minister of Culture. It forbade them to collaborate in the future. Theater director Constantin Tanase who was my father’s very close friend told Stroe and Vasilache: I can’t pay only Vasilache’s salary. Both Stroe and Vasilache are on my payroll. So even if he didn’t perform on stage my father received his wages for four years from Tanase.

CONSTANTIN TANASEIn “Tanase’s Dream”

There are girls, red-cheeked and curvy…vouler, “bitte sehr”Cand te uiti la eleTi-a si zis “komme hier”Blode si cu fason“Alle mit seducsion”Si-n amor “mit organization”

Insa fete sa iubestiSunt mai multe dracului La Bucuresti.

Insa fete sa iubestiSunt mai date dracului La Bucuresti.

We were fired from Tanase’s theatre, right?The Nazis came and fired us.And gradually we all went to the Baraseum.

At first there were only 11 of us who had the courage to go there.

Benny, who was my partner at the Baraseum, was my cousin. [BENNY and RUDY] He told me, I don’t really know how he knew, that the Baraseum would open. We were not paid there and before we managed to rehearse there we had to do all sorts of menial jobs.

It was very hard for them. They had been fired from other theatres. They came to the

Baraseum because they needed to stay creative, to go on, to hope, to stay strong in their souls.

How come they were so strong? It seems that the love for this job and the will to overcome this difficult period gave them strength.

NICU NITAIActor, Tel Aviv, 2010These people who played at the Baraseum under such terrible conditions were real theater performers. They were like angels.

DOROTHEEA LIVIOI was a 15-year old girl who wanted to act. I was given no dress, no shoes, nothing. They told me to bring my own stuff from home. Then I met the Gamberto sisters who were very nice. Nuti gave me a dress and Fedora gave me a pair of high-heel shoes. I didn’t even know how to walk in them and I fell during the first costume rehearsal.

We rehearsed for a year. We thought the premiere would take place after three or four months. So we would dress up, we would put on makeup and right before the actual start the cashier would come and tell us: Stop. You can’t begin because we don’t have authorization. We still went to the theatre saying “let’s go and rehearse”. We didn’t actually rehearse, we just talked so we would feel together and give ourselves the illusion that we would perform soon.

Since the law allowed certain Jewish theater groups to be established for a Jewish audience, negotiations began for establishing a Jewish theatre where Romanian would be spoken.

After a long ban, Liviu Rebreanu signed a decree in 1941, which allowed Jews to form a troupe that was slowly becoming a very serious theatre due to the famous people who came to perform there.

ELENA PRIBEAGU, Tel Aviv, 2010Writer Ion Pribeagu’s daughter

The Baraseum Theatre was established by a doctor who was an extraordinary person. He built this theatre, which had two halls and a room for marriages, engagements and balls on the ground floor. Young people came, they danced there. It was beautiful.

The name Baraseum comes from Iuliu Barasch. This social and cultural institution is more than 100 years old. At first there was a clinic here. Iuliu Barasch bought this land. Then it became a small theater and gradually two halls were built on different floors. After 1941 all this became the Baraseum theater.

We began to rehearse "Pygmalion". It was the first play. Leny Caler played the lead. Each of us, very young back then, played old people, aunts, mothers. Leny Caler played Pygmalion, Ronea was Professor Higgins and so on. At some point something

happened and we no longer had these actors. They were taken by the Jewish Center (Centrala Evreilor). Only 13 of us remained. [from left to right: Sandu Eliade, E. Mirea, H. Malineanu, Agnia Bogoslava...]Then Malineanu, Mirea and Kannen came and began to write parts for these 13 people so they could act.

"BARASEUM", show in Tel Aviv, 1991By Aurel Storin and Harry Reininger

"Where are you girls? Aren't you ready yet?They rang up the curtain at our new theatre, Baraseum. The people have already taken their seats. So many people... so elegantly dressed... I am so excited. I saw some of our former colleagues in the first row.”“Whom did you see?”“Vraca, Vasilache, Birlic, Tanase! Remember girls. Tonight we are taking an exam! Good luck, Baraseum!”

“God, how could I thank you for making me a Jew? Please, God, help the Jewish theater. Put in a good word for Baraseum. Tonight we are at the Baraseum.”

After a year we were lucky to be able to begin.We began with "What Are You Doing This Evening”.

VERED SHWARTZ and ANAT SEGHEVActresses, Tel Aviv, 2010

What are you doing this evening?What’s on your mind?Will you put on your slippers or your nightcapTell me, would you be interestedIn a rare opportunity - let’s go to the cinemaYou’d sit between two girls, it won’t cost a pennyUncle Jean gave us tickets as a favorTell me, would you be tempted this eveningBy a rare opportunity - going to the cinema?

This is how the show began. This was the beginning of the Baraseum theater. It was a great success.

We were the shock team, as we said. We were only 13 at the beginning.

The 13 of us were an entity. Sandu Eliad was leading us. This is why I married Sandu Eliad.[Sandu Eliad and Agnia Bogoslava]Baraseum had such a big impact. Everyone became a star.

The house was full. It wasn’t only Jews who came, there were also Christians in the

audience. They came to see what the Jews could do on stage during those days of terror.

[“What Are You Doing This Evening?” in the middle, Jeni Smilovici]

Everything the Jews did on stage had such an impact.

Then there were German officers, some of them colonels, dressed as civilians who came to the theater. We knew they were German officers. They liked it. In fact, ours was the only theater still open. The city was being bombarded and everyone had left. We weren't allowed to leave Bucharest so we became celebrities willingly or not. We performed.

"What Are You Doing This Evening" became a legend because it meant the beginning of a new age. It proved that optimism could exist during such hard times.

“Every Day is Purim on Vacaresti Road”text: Lica Grinberg, music: Rotblum

"Tell me misterWhy does a Jew cry When you give him a loaf of breadWhy does he laughWhen you think he's deadWhy when you lift him highThen let him fall from the skyHe jumps and he's on his feet againIsn't the Jew some kind of a puppet?

Every day is Purim on Vacaresti RoadHundreds of people pass by wearing masksAll upset but wearing the mask of happinessPurim Spiel is everyday on VacarestiA poor man next to a groom in tailsA wedding next to a funeralAll wearing the mask of happinessYou are left to wonderIs the Jew the invention of a clownOr is the puppet some kind of a Jewish inventionPurim Spiel is everyday on VacarestiOnce you're there you no longer want to leaveYou are crying and laughing like a childBecause you too are wearing a Purim Spiel mask

Baraseum was my awakening as a child. I was in the fourth grade and our teacher Lica Grinberg who was also in the theater had made a show called “Babes versus the School”. I became a part of this show whose name was a hint to Mickey Rooney's “Babes in Arms”. I began to like acting. I didn't know the attraction would last for so long.

[LICA GRINBERGChildren theater animator]

The stage was an entirely new world for me. He gave me a dramatic part. They said I had a talent for tragedy even though I was a child. At the theater I got to know this fairytale world, I was like Alice in Wonderland.

I was a little boy when the Baraseum opened. We dreamt about it.... Let me invite on stage someone whose first show at Baraseum was What Are You Doing This Evening. Mrs. Rudy Friedman!

Mrs. Rudy, all my life I wanted to be Fred Astaire but I didn't have someone to teach me, someone like you.

As for me all my life I wanted to be Fred Astaire's partner and dance with him.Oh, he missed such an opportunity.Eh, what does he know?Let's go.

This is a carriage which brings to mind the extraordinary show “What Are You Doing This Evening” during the Baraseum period. Jeni Smilovici with “Live long, Jankel!” Who doesn't know this song? So many dreamt about being Jankel.

“What's mine is mine. Jankel, live long! I wouldn't trade you for Gary Cooper...” I can't remember the rest.

TRICY ABRAMOVITZ and SAȘA COSMANTel Aviv, 2010

You are pennilessPeople say: He's a punkBut I'm melting for youIt's been a year now...There is something about youA certain somethingYour little crossed eyesAre my lifeWhat's mine will always be mineAnd when you look at meYou are like Gaenseschmalz On breadJankel, live longJankel?Oh Jankel live long

“What's mine is mine” means you can't take everything from us. Every line was an allusion.

One day the cashier came and told us to be careful with what we said and sang because there are two armed “Legionaries” at the balcony. Although we were frightened, we

continued to perform and Agnia Bogoslava who usually sang this song "And they went away like the wind" with ardor and with intent, now sang it in a very sweet voice. How did she sing?

And they went away like the windAcross the world

AGNIA BOGOSLAVA in BARASEUMShow in Tel Aviv, 1991

And they go like the windAcross the worldWith a straw of mine in their beaksAnd they carry it up in the airLittle birdWhy are you scaredWhy don't you come to meI am not human so I can't hurt youIf you cameI'd shelter you from peopleAnd I'd keep you day and nightNear my heart made of warm straws.

After the great success with “What Are You Doing This Evening” there came another:“Different things”. Wonderful satirical songs. People laughed, applauded, they didn't want to leave, they were calling for the artists back on stage again and again.

Romanians also came to see shows there. They followed the actors there. The actors were appreciated and weren't abandoned.

People from the neighborhood came, many Jews, non-Jews, the anti-Semitic who wanted to show that they liked the Jews, and the public who used to watch them at Alhambra and Carabus. There were many famous people in the audience: academician Mihail Ralea, Constantin Tanase, of course, came for a few times and was given ovations for having come to see his Jewish colleagues. Then there was Vasilache who was coming to see my father. There was also a very close friend, Mihail Sebastian.

Mihail Sebastian was my teacher. He mocked the actors a bit saying that people were dying, while they were performing on stage. I don't agree with him though. I think it was essential to have these optimistic performances, a bit naive.

People from Bucharest came to the theatre from dusk till dawn. There were three theaters: the children's theater, the students' theater and Baraseum.

My father was also part of Baraseum's drama section where dramas and comedies were produced which had nothing to do with variety theater. My father had the leading role in “The Little Cafe”, for instance.

Leny Caler, Finti, Beate Fredanov, Stroe, Ronea and Bogoslava worked upstairs.

Bogoslava worked on the ground floor as well. So you can imagine what an extraordinary team it was and what they could do.

All of them were stars. We, the audience, both Jews and the Christians, when we left the room we hummed their songs and life appeared to us more beautiful than it really was.

When I went to school one morning, they asked me if I had gone to the Baraseum the previous evening. I said yes and even our teacher, Mrs Beinglass, said today we're not going to have a class, we're going to ask Sonia to tell us how it was at Baraseum.

This theater had become famous. Great Romanian actors came here: Vraca, Tanase, Vasilache, who had been separated from Stroe.

EUGEN STROE in “BARASEUM”Show in Tel Aviv, 1991

Stroe was there as wellPlease allow me to tell youThat this eveningI feel he’s once again among usTra la la laTra la la laWe’ll never forget himTra la la laTra la la laHe’ll be forever in our thoughts

N. STROEin the film BING BANG

It would be better if Costica Toneanu appeared instead of me ....Stop crying, dear. Are you stupid?You’re stalking Vraca like a cow

Every evening, after the show, they used to go to a restaurant called Smilovici famous for its grill. It was near the theater. My father said that Smilovici himself used to came after the first act to take orders from all the actors and many times after they partied until 2 am, Smilovici used to take the bill and throw it away saying: “It's alright, you don't have to pay”.

ELENA PRIBEAGUWriter Ion Pribeagu's daughter

My father and Stroe wrote for Tanase. Tanase was a very noble man and continued to pay them wages. Tanase once joked: “He lives on Mircea Voda Street, number 17 bis (=encore). He gets an encore at home as well!”

It was funny when the stage manager or the director came and said: you have to do your best this evening because lady Bulandra is in the audience. She was a great artist, she

had her own theater. Toni Bulandra accompanied her. Or some other evening they came and said: “Sica Alexandrescu is here this evening”. He was a great theater director and at his theater Fedora started to play in a few short plays by Caragiale.

I remember very well a step dancer called Benny. My classmates, girls of 13 or 14 years old, after they saw his show they wanted to have Benny as their step teacher. This is how Benny went from rags to riches. He was paid by the hour not only by my colleagues, but by the entire generation of young Jewish girls whose parents could afford Benny as a teacher.

Benny the dancer gave a wonderful performance, American-style. His sister was in the U.S. and he often traveled there.

Former performances from the Baraseum were resumed. This is how I came across them. Glick performed them, also Rudy Friedman, and Boltianski who did a dance routine with me. That’s how I found out about Benny.

Benny had been an international star for six years when I joined him. We formed a pair and we danced together almost every show, especially in musicals.

It was a great theater, with new ideas, it was Kleinkunst-Bühne as Germans call it, which means a small stage. That kind of musical did not imply a major staging effort, ballet and so on. The texts had to be special, though, explosive and imaginative.

My father was now able to act at the theater which was now reopened. The show was called "From One Joke to Another". It was created together with Nicu Kannen. It was very funny and interesting. The actors were very young.

Mira Moreno and Cornelia Vorvoreanuin “BARASEUM”, Tel Aviv 1991

The girls, the girls, the girlsThe girls look so lovelyYou feel like kissing them The girls aren’t at all like yentasWhen you see their talentsYou have no choice but to sinI am the younger girlI not that old myselfEach of us has something specialThe girls, the girls, they’re so niceYou feel like kissing their lipsOn the spot

We had an immense success and we were lucky to get along on stage just as we did in life. We did everything we wanted without a stage director. All we needed was a composer.

Elly Roman brought a friend to write. His name was Aurel Felea. He joined the Stroe,

Vasilache & Cristodulo team right after his first text for the Baraseum.

This was a show directed by Stroe.  We were acting in disguise.

Those who wrote the texts for this theater were Eugen Mirea, Nicu Kanner, very well known and the best in Romania. The composers for musicals were Malineanu who made his debut back then, and Elly Roman who generally wrote all the great songs, the best-known songs.

This show for instance was created by Elly Roman. The music is by him. Also, he wrote the music for the morning concerts and it was very funny because we had duets. Another concert conducted by Elly Roman.

Sasa CosmanComposer, Tel Aviv, 2010

I began my career as a composer at the Baraseum. The best musicians in Romania played in the orchestra there: Joe Reininger, Alfredo Thomas, Eugen Josesinger, piano player Ginu Koffler. This was the first orchestra which played Romanian music composed entirely by Jews. They had all been fired from other theaters. They all had been orchestra conductors.

SERGIU NATRAComposer, Tel Aviv, 2010

Baraseum was a great factory of artistic activity. There were concerts in the afternoon, in the evening, but the focus was on light orchestral music, dancing, jazz.

Another important figure of this theater and a collaborator of my father's was Teodor Cosma. He was the musical director of Baraseum and a great jazz expert.

TEODOR COSMAMusician, Paris, 2010At the Baraseum, I was part of the group but every Sunday morning I was producing a jazz concert. It was very successful. I received letters from Romanian generals and colonels, Christians, saying we should not be concerned about being Jewish because we are Romanians and we bring together the Jews and the Christians and we shouldn't worry about anti-Semitism. They used to come to my shows and were delighted because they were written in Romanian.

My Sunday morning concerts are mentioned here. This was my orchestra. They were all good musicians, all picked by me.

Romania's jazz performances using the violin started there, created by Joe Reininger, Alfredo Thomas and Jean Ionescu. They were the French equivalent of Grappelli.

Joe Reininger was another prestigious musician. He was a brand. He was well known among the bohemians of Bucharest and people came for the orchestra, for Reininger's violin.

Joe Reininger and Alfredo Thomas did the following act. Alfredo Thomas would wear short pants like a pupil and my cousin, Joe Reininger, was his violin teacher. They were playing Bach at two violins and one of the strings on Thomas's violin broke during a concert and he didn't know what to do. They both played jazz on one violin with two bows. Then they played on two violins, each one with his bow on the other's violin. Extraordinarily difficult. They had practiced it for a long time.

Since it was allowed to have a Jewish symphonic orchestra, the Jewish Center was probably interested in showing that the Jews also have an orchestra in Bucharest. The Baraseum Theater became the headquarters of this orchestra. The symphonic orchestra performed once every three weeks. Its activity was not that visible and the public was more interested in lighter performances, than in symphonic music.However these concerts had their fans who attended every concert because their artistic level was quite high. There were two important conductors. Alfred Mendelsohn, who was also my teacher, was one of them. He told me he would organize a concert with the Jewish symphonic orchestra with works composed by young Jewish composers. These were: Fromi Moreno, Marius Braunstein, who left for France and became the famous composer Marius Constant, and Sergiu Nadler. My name back then was Nadler. I changed my name to Natram in 1948, after the war was over, after I got married and decided we didn't want a German name.

We left after four years. When the bombing began in August, it was over with the Baraseum as well.

Mira Moreno and Cornelia Vorvoreanuin "BARASEUM", Tel Aviv 1991

The girls, the girls with bowler hatsNot even the stars have such things nowadaysThe girls, the girls with bowler hatsThey’re so beautifulAnd kissable

All this was a transition period for them. They were always talking about returning to their theaters. There were many jokes they made in the dressing room, very macabre jokes, about the Germans and the concentration camps, which were rumored to exist. I asked my father how come they could joke about such terrible things and he told me humor was their weapon backstage at the Baraseum. It helped them survive during this period.

AGNIA BOGOSLAVA in BARASEUMshow in Tel Aviv, 1991

They went away like the windSweeping across the landLeaving nothing but dust behind themThe dust of their livesThey fought for nothingThey killed for nothing

They continued to riseAnd then they fellYet I am still standing hereCrying for them with endless laughter

Because they are going away like the windThey really went away like the windDust is all that’s left behind themI am not alive, yet I am not dead either

Four or five years ago I was honored and lucky to meet Agnia Bogoslava. She was amazed to discover I knew all these songs by heart. There are others things that I've forgotten but these songs have remained like a connection between me and my mother. Mother used to sing them all the time when she cut onions and she cried.

The sound of train wheelsis like a whisper filled with sighsFrom steel, from iron, from rails,A sweet, sweet voiceWill tell youI love you, I love you, I love you...

If someone asked me what is my most beautiful memory that would be Baraseum. The best memory of my career. I was very successful among the great Romanian actresses with “The Voice of Train Wheels”. These are pleasant memories. I was 19. Yet it was a mature joy, just like coming across a treasure filled with gold, to put it in a Jewish way.

It's so important to remember these people from time to time. Musicians, actors, dancers, they achieved so much.

DOROTHEA LIVIO in BARASEUMshow in Tel Aviv, 1991

You brought me the entire worldBeloved songs from the pastWhere did you go? Where did you go?Where to?I sometimes find you lovinglyIn some memoryAnd I bring you back to life from ashesIn my heart...

The songs of the Baraseum are still sung by those who got to hear them back then. And by those who heard them from their parents and so on. Unforgettable songs.

People of certain age and life experience can tell stories about the Baraseum, they are able to sing bits from those song, they remember the actors and actresses and are nostalgic about those days when they came to the Baraseum.

When after many years I listened to the great actors from the Baraseum I realized that I already know all these songs from the Baraseum but I had no idea of their origin. They circulated not only among Jews. They became urban folklore as songs, as jokes. This shows the theater's impact. It managed to gather together so many stars. In fact, during the communist regime, the Street Theater, as it was called, took over and used songs which had started at the Baraseum.

Where are my illusionsThat I once hadI wanted cattleNow I lost themI left home being so sadGot a job as a servant in the cityAnd I fell for a boyRa, ra, ra, ra, ra.

He was standing in the window-shop so elegantly and he smiledThree thousand five hundred wrote on his chestLater I foundIt was just a dummy screwed into the floor

Where are my illusionsThat I once hadThey put screws into themAnd now they’re lost forever

I really enjoyed staying at the “Arlechin”, to watch them and listen to them telling stories in the dressing room about a fascinating world. Joy, strength, the Baraseum. I used to hear people say: we're going to the Baraseum. I wasn't going to the Baraseum, I was going to the Jewish State Theater on Iuliu Barasch Street.

People used to ask for tickets two weeks ahead of the show. The gendarmes kept order. The non-Jewish literary and artistic people wanted to see these shows. The news traveled about this extraordinary theater from a semi-central neighborhood where unique events were taking place.

Once upon a timeThere was the Vacaresti RoadWith Deichmann and sausagesAnd steaks at SmiloviciAnd fragrant garlic sauceGrills, large and small,There was once the Vacaresti RoadYou can almost feel its tasteWhen its memory comes to mindBut sometimes the Iron Guard cameThey terrified us with their stepsBreaking windows and tearing down storesBeating the merchants

Just because they felt like itJust because we were Jewish

There was once the Vacaresti RoadNo trace of it is leftThey tore down all they couldThey erased it from the face of the earthThe tear from my last step thereIs still in my mind

It was there once but it’s no moreTime fliesIt cannot be stoppedAll we’re left withIs its memoryCalea Vacaresti

It was an fountain of culture and hope for Jews. It helped them stay in touch with the artistic world in Romania and in Bucharest in particular, yet in ghetto conditions.

I don't know whether people will be able to appreciate in the context of those times the extent to which this theater helped an oppressed community to resist.

This is a fact which belongs to the history of the Jewish people in Romania. It's a proof of their existence and of their hope that they could live differently from how they were made to live.

Time has passed and people may have forgotten. It would be a shame to forget such a thing. Our youth is getting farther in the past. We are old but Baraseum will never be forgotten.

Our great actress, a Baraseum veteran: Agnia Bogoslava!

I came to tell you a big secret. I am very happy to have seen you, I am very happy that we are alive, together and that we are remembering the Baraseum and those hard times. Today it's our last show.

Baraseum! Baraseum!Baraseum! Baraseum!Merry by night, sad by day,You have the soul of an artist.Baraseum!And whenever you are in trouble,You have your Jewish soul.Baraseum!Baraseum!Baraseum!

You gave us everything,

You have a wonderful soul.Baraseum!No matter what happens,We’ll never forget you.Baraseum!Baraseum!Baraseum!

They chased us away from the big stageThey wanted to see us humiliated and hungryYet we defended all that’s sacred and humanAnd we built our Jewish theater

Baraseum! Baraseum!Merry by night, sad by day,You have the soul of an artist.BaraseumAnd whenever you are in trouble,You have your Jewish soul.Baraseum!Baraseum!Baraseum!

You gave us everything,You have a wonderful soul.Baraseum!No matter what happens,We’ll never forget you.Baraseum!Baraseum!Baraseum!