LLI0591 - Living Behind the Iron Curtain 

Course Description

Pursued by the Americans and British from the West and Soviet forces from the east, Nazi forces in Europe were in retreat by early 1945.  Areas occupied since 1940-41 found themselves freed from Nazi control and oppression. Nations in Eastern Europe – Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria – were liberated by the Soviet Red Army. After the war ended, the Soviets remained in these countries longer than expected. By the late 1940s, most of eastern Europe was cloaked behind what would become known as the Iron Curtain. What was is like to live behind the Iron Curtain? Alina Warner shares from her experience as a child growing up in Romania, witnessing the isolation of the people and the hardship of the totalitarian regime. As a teenager she remembers living through the 1989 Revolution that freed the people from the dictatorship of Nicolae Ceausescu. That was the spark of her desire to reach the "free world." The session will end with a Q&A. 

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