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George Tomaziu (born 4 April, 1915 in Dorohoi; died 3 December, 1990 in Paris) was a Romanian painter, graphic artist, memorialist and poet. He was the godson of Romania’s most celebrated composer and musician, Georges Enescu, who was married to Princess Cantacuzino and lived in a palace. Nothing in his early life suggested the toughness needed to withstand abuse. On the contrary, his artistic spirit expressed itself in a voracious bi-sexuality and hunger for pleasure. At one point during the war, he was artistic director of the Odessa Opera, but he also worked for the British secret services, transmitting information about German troops on the Eastern Front and in Romania. From the autumn of 1942 he was made a lieutenant and ran a group of collaborators, one of whom was Alexandru Balaci. A year later, he was in Romania’s most notorious prison.
PRAISE FOR THIS BOOK FROM DENNIS DELETANT Woodrow Wilson Public Policy Fellow, Washington, DC; Emeritus Professor, School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College, London Jane Reid deserves praise on a number of counts for her enterprise in restoring to history George Tomaziu. First, she persuaded him to write an account of his life. Second, in doing so she highlighted the courage of a small group of Romanian, French and British figures who served the Allied cause in Romania during the country's alliance with Nazi Germany in the years 1940 to 1944 by providing intelligence to MI6. Third, she draws attention to the fact that most of the Romanians who did so were arrested by the Romanian Communist authorities under the direction of Moscow in 1950, tried on a charge of 'high treason', and sentenced to lengthy prison terms . . . Jane herself comes into the picture in 1968. Her husband Martin was posted to the British Embassy in Bucharest and it was during a reception given by the ambassador that she and her husband met Tomaziu. A friendship developed. In December of the following year, the embassy was able to persuade the Romanian authorities to grant Tomaziu, his wife and son an exit visa. They lived for several months in a flat in Kensington but unable to adjust to life in London they moved to Paris. At Jane's urging George wrote an autobiography, in French, in 1988 but was unable to find a publisher for it. He died in Paris on 3 December 1990 but Jane was determined to get his story into print. She translated the memoir into English and Envelope Books is to be congratulated for rewarding her persistence.
