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 sale

Maybe we will find a client
We are selling walls, stage lights, fantasy and talent
Give a sum, however small
For the Jewish theatre
Why should it go on living
Since the people avoid it
EUGEN STROE in BARASEUM
show in Tel Aviv, 1991
Ever since there have been artists
In this always-changing world
Nothing has ever been sadder
Than a theatre for sale
I cry for that supreme moment
Which comes in the life of every mortal being
But when a theatre dies
Its not just the setting that goes away
Its not just the lights that go off
Not only the blue curtains...
When a theatre dies
Our souls also die a little
Perhaps everything weve treasured most,
Hope, dreams, love, innocence
We experienced every evening
In this theatre which is now for sale
[The BARASEUM actors, 1941-1944]
When we went through rough times
When some scorned us
When they covered our mouths
We spoke through the theatre
So many actors played at the Baraseum
Stars as big as miracles
From our memories of them
well make songs and show
Because Baraseum is alive
And it will go on living for as long

As there is a single Jewish viewer left in this world

BARASEUM, show in Tel Aviv, 1991
Created by: Aurel Storin and Harry Reininger
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
Well never forget you
Baraseum
Baraseum
Baraseum
HARRY ELIAD
Managing 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 LIVIO
Actress, 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 ABRAMOVITZ
Actress, Tel Aviv, 2010
The same building where the Baraseum used to be, now belongs to the Jewish State
Theatre from Bucharest. Its 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 KONIG
Actress, 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 PALTY
Writer, Tel Aviv, 2010
It 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 FRIEDMAN
Actress, 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 BOGOSLAVA
Actress, Tel Aviv, 2000
Baraseum was my life. It saved my life. And it wasnt 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 demonstration
October 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, historian
Professor 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, 2010
FEDORA 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 REININGER
Musician, Tel Aviv, 2010
The people were confused at first, they didnt 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 mind
Just like in a nightmare
The war years, years of torture
When my Bucharest sky
Was filled with heavy, cruel clouds
Boots marching on my street
Fear filling our souls
When suddenly the clouds went away
Just like in the fairy tales
And the sky cleared above Vacaresti.
At Baraseum once again
Jewish artists were singing
And we from the ghetto
Were 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 VASILACHE

in BING BANG]
EUGEN STROE
Actor, 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 fathers very close friend told Stroe and Vasilache: I cant pay only Vasilaches salary.
Both Stroe and Vasilache are on my payroll. So even if he didnt perform on stage my
father received his wages for four years from Tanase.

CONSTANTIN TANASE
In Tanases Dream
There are girls,
red-cheeked and curvy
vouler, bitte sehr

Cand te uiti la ele

Ti-a si zis komme hier
Blode si cu fason
Alle mit seducsion
Si-n amor mit organization
Insa fete sa iubesti
Sunt mai multe dracului
La Bucuresti.
Insa fete sa iubesti
Sunt mai date dracului
La Bucuresti.

We were fired from Tanases 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 dont 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 NITAI
Actor, Tel Aviv, 2010
These people who played at the Baraseum under such terrible conditions were real
theater performers. They were like angels.
DOROTHEEA LIVIO
I 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
didnt 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 cant begin because we dont have
authorization. We still went to the theatre saying lets go and rehearse. We didnt
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, 2010
Writer Ion Pribeagus 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, 1991

By 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 SEGHEV

Actresses, Tel Aviv, 2010
What are you doing this evening?
Whats on your mind?
Will you put on your slippers or your nightcap
Tell me, would you be interested
In a rare opportunity - lets go to the cinema
Youd sit between two girls, it wont cost a penny
Uncle Jean gave us tickets as a favor
Tell me, would you be tempted this evening
By 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 wasnt 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 mister
Why does a Jew cry
When you give him a loaf of bread
Why does he laugh
When you think he's dead
Why when you lift him high
Then let him fall from the sky
He jumps and he's on his feet again
Isn't the Jew some kind of a puppet?
Every day is Purim on Vacaresti Road
Hundreds of people pass by wearing masks
All upset but wearing the mask of happiness
Purim Spiel is everyday on Vacaresti
A poor man next to a groom in tails
A wedding next to a funeral
All wearing the mask of happiness
You are left to wonder
Is the Jew the invention of a clown
Or is the puppet some kind of a Jewish invention
Purim Spiel is everyday on Vacaresti
Once you're there you no longer want to leave
You are crying and laughing like a child
Because 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 GRINBERG
Children 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 SAA COSMAN
Tel Aviv, 2010
You are penniless
People say: He's a punk
But I'm melting for you
It's been a year now...
There is something about you
A certain something
Your little crossed eyes
Are my life
What's mine will always be mine
And when you look at me
You are like Gaenseschmalz
On bread
Jankel, live long
Jankel?
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 wind
Across the world
AGNIA BOGOSLAVA in BARASEUM
Show in Tel Aviv, 1991
And they go like the wind
Across the world
With a straw of mine in their beaks
And they carry it up in the air
Little bird
Why are you scared
Why don't you come to me
I am not human so I can't hurt you
If you came
I'd shelter you from people
And I'd keep you day and night
Near 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 well
Please allow me to tell you
That this evening
I feel hes once again among us
Tra la la la
Tra la la la
Well never forget him
Tra la la la
Tra la la la
Hell be forever in our thoughts
N. STROE
in the film BING BANG
It would be better if Costica Toneanu appeared instead of me ....
Stop crying, dear. Are you stupid?
Youre 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 PRIBEAGU
Writer 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. Thats 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-Bhne 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 Vorvoreanu
in BARASEUM, Tel Aviv 1991
The girls, the girls, the girls
The girls look so lovely
You feel like kissing them
The girls arent at all like yentas
When you see their talents
You have no choice but to sin
I am the younger girl
I not that old myself
Each of us has something special
The girls, the girls, theyre so nice
You feel like kissing their lips
On 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 Cosman
Composer, 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 NATRA
Composer, 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 COSMA
Musician, Paris, 2010
At 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 Vorvoreanu
in "BARASEUM", Tel Aviv 1991
The girls, the girls with bowler hats
Not even the stars have such things nowadays
The girls, the girls with bowler hats
Theyre so beautiful
And 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 BARASEUM

show in Tel Aviv, 1991
They went away like the wind
Sweeping across the land
Leaving nothing but dust behind them
The dust of their lives
They fought for nothing
They killed for nothing

They continued to rise

And then they fell
Yet I am still standing here
Crying for them with endless laughter

Because they are going away like the wind

They really went away like the wind
Dust is all thats left behind them
I 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 wheels

is like a whisper filled with sighs
From steel, from iron, from rails,
A sweet, sweet voice
Will tell you
I 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 BARASEUM
show in Tel Aviv, 1991
You brought me the entire world
Beloved songs from the past
Where did you go? Where did you go?
Where to?
I sometimes find you lovingly
In some memory
And I bring you back to life from ashes
In 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 illusions
That I once had
I wanted cattle
Now I lost them
I left home being so sad
Got a job as a servant in the city
And I fell for a boy
Ra, ra, ra, ra, ra.
He was standing in the window-shop so elegantly and he smiled
Three thousand five hundred wrote on his chest
Later I found
It was just a dummy screwed into the floor
Where are my illusions
That I once had
They put screws into them
And now theyre 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 time
There was the Vacaresti Road
With Deichmann and sausages
And steaks at Smilovici
And fragrant garlic sauce
Grills, large and small,
There was once the Vacaresti Road
You can almost feel its taste
When its memory comes to mind
But sometimes the Iron Guard came
They terrified us with their steps
Breaking windows and tearing down stores
Beating the merchants

Just because they felt like it

Just because we were Jewish
There was once the Vacaresti Road
No trace of it is left
They tore down all they could
They erased it from the face of the earth
The tear from my last step there
Is still in my mind
It was there once but its no more
Time flies
It cannot be stopped
All were left with
Is its memory
Calea 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,
Well never forget you.
Baraseum!
Baraseum!
Baraseum!
They chased us away from the big stage
They wanted to see us humiliated and hungry
Yet we defended all thats sacred and human
And we built our Jewish theater
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,
Well never forget you.
Baraseum!
Baraseum!
Baraseum!