Many Thanks to Tom Leimdorfer, Headmaster at Sidcot from 1977 to 1986 and to Dana Jackson, Inclusion and Corporate Development Officer with North Somerset Council, for coming into school last week to share their very personal accounts of living in Hungary and in Romania under a communist regime. We were very privileged to hear these accounts as it provides direct insights into life behind the Iron Curtain to support Year 11’s study of Soviet control of the Eastern Bloc 1945-1989.

Both individuals lived through revolutions in their respective countries, it was truly fascinating to grasp just a snapshot of their lives in such turbulent times. Tom spoke first and explained how in his early years his life and upbringing had been quite liberal, he was even able to attend a co-ed school. Although there was a military presence in Hungary this was something that they learnt to live with. Later in Tom’s educational career the communist regime had imposed single sex education and there were more limitations placed on people’s freedom and life choices. At the time the revolution broke out in October 1956 Tom was just 14 years old and he and his mother were living in a modest apartment near the Hungarian Parliament. As a result, he witnessed the uprising first hand. 

During a lull in the fighting, Tom left the centre of the city to stay with friends, a month later after the revoultion was crushed. (They had stayed initially in the hope that the revolution may be successful)! At this point Tom escaped across the border with his mother and some friends. At 14 he said it felt like a real-life adventure; crossing a river, dodging searchlights under the night sky, navigating by the stars and almost being arrested by Hungarian border guards, who subsequently let them go, enabling a second attempt and a more successful escape, assisted by a local resident. Thankfully two weeks later he and his mother made it safely to London, where they sought refuge with his uncle. Sadly, Toms mother died just a few months later after a short battle with cancer. Tom continued to live with his uncle’s family and completed his education in London.

Tom secured a 1st Class Degree in Physics, took a PGCE and then went on to become a teacher and later Head of Science at King Edwards School Witley in Surrey. In 1977, Tom joined Sidcot as Headmaster for nine years and then took up a position of Director of Studies at Bishops Wand School in Sunbury-On-Thames. Tom has spent much of his time as a Quaker working on conflict resolution across the world. He was present in Hungary in 1989 when the iron curtain came down. He even had a piece of the curtain with him to show students. Tom then handed over to Dana who had been a 10 year old school girl in Romania on the day that he was in Hungary near the Romanian border. Tom was there on behalf of the Quakers in the autumn of 1989 supporting Romanian refugees who were coming across the border. 

30th October 1989 - Dana explained the significance of this date as this was the last time that Romanians would be required to stand all day, waiting around to cheer for the dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu. She explained this annual occasion was really a façade as he was only ever shown the smart streets in the city, with billboards resurrected to hide all the deprived areas.

Dana explained how in 1989 the schools were cold and classrooms were not personalised as they were used for younger children in the morning and older children in the afternoon. Instead, classroom walls were covered with pictures of the dictator and propaganda notices. She explained how families would tag team in queues for food, often for 24 hours or more, sometimes to no avail. How there was no refrigeration in homes and that electricity was cut out at a set time every night. All children and adults who were physically able to were required to do agricultural work in the fields every week and for a six-week period during harvest. To try and save Dana from this forced labour her mother took her to the doctors in the hope that they would find something wrong with her as she was quite a petite child. As luck would have it the doctor diagnosed a faint heart murmur. This meant that Dana was exempt from agricultural labour duties and instead was given a free place on a three-week holiday for sick children in the mountains every year. This created bad feeling between her parents and their neighbours as they were angry and enraged that she had been let off.

The government also sanctioned which books they were allowed to read and Dana is really grateful to her parents for the few ‘normal,’ books they were able to source for her on the black market. Her parents were not members of the Communist Party as her mother had been refused entry for having a child out of wedlock. In many ways this was a blessing for her family as they were able to think for themselves and to a certain extent operate under the radar as they were just factory workers so they were not heavily monitored or called upon. They were not wealthy people either, again a blessing as they had little to lose so could not be blackmailed by the communist party. Things changed for the better in Romania after the revolution and improved further in 2007, when Romania joined the EU. 

Thanks also to Florian Fuecks who bought in an East German border guard uniform to show the class. The uniform was gifted to his uncle by a friend who had worked as a border guard as he had no need of it after the reunification of Germany in 1990.