*
the Cold War country trends Romania orphans orphanage, the Cold War country trends Romania prphans, orphanage
Communist Romania: Orphanages
Figure 1.-- Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu prohibited both abortion and contraception in an effort to increase the popultion. He was coninced that communism an populatiom groth woul automaticall generate prosperity. He even began fining childless people. The result was several hundred thousand unwanted children--the decreței. Romanian orphanages were overwealmed. Ceauşescu made no effort to provide the country's orphanages the resources or caring staff needed to care for all the unwanted children his policies created. The result was a Dantesque hell on earth for these unwanted children.
Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu prohibited both abortion and contraception. He wanted no limit on population growth. He was convinced that population growth combined with communism would lead to economic growth and prosperity. , He issued Decree 770 which banned abortion (October 1966). The only important exception was if the mother was over 40 years old or was caring for four or more children. As a result birth rates especially rose substantially and in homes where the parents could not or would not care for the children. Later Ceauşescu began to fine people for not having children (1977). The children born as a result of these Gobernment policies became known as the 'decreței' (diminuative of decree) meaning decreed children. This increase in births of children that parents did not want resulted in children being abandoned or turned over to opphanages. At the time the orphanages were the repository for children with disabilities and mental illnesses. The normal children were mixed in with them. Even before the wave of decretai began arriving, the orphanages were underfunded and comditions were appalling. The wave of new arrivals turned these facilities into what only be describbed as hell houses. The children experienced institutionalized neglect, physical and sexual abuse as well as drug use to control behavior. One repoter explins how, "The supervisors cultivated violence to humiliate and control the children, he said. The older kids hit the smaller ones. The educators beat everybody. The staff preferred to hit them in the face and head." [Odobescu] Children of school age were chained into cribs and rarely allowed outside. Food, clothing, and medical care were minimal. Some 500,000 children appeared to have been involved. No one knows how many died. Ceausescu used the Securitate to hide the awful truth. Many orphanage administrators embessled some of the limited funding provided by the government. When Ceausescu was deposed, the world learned of the horrifying details about the abused Romanian orphanas. Not only were there thousands of them whose developed had been distorted, but there some 3,000 infected with H.I.V. and not being treated. [Perlez]
Sources
Odobescu, Vlad. "Half a million kids survived Romania's 'slaughterhouses of souls.’ Now they want justice," GlobalPost (December 28, 2015).
Perlez, Jane. "Romanian 'orphans': Prisoners of their cribs," New York Times (March 25, 1996).
