Marian-Alin Dudoi

FAMINE, POVERTY, DROUGHT AND EPIDEMICS IN ROMANIA (1947). AN OUTLOOK OF THE NORWEGIAN PRESS

1 Ianuarie 2022

Cuvinte cheie:
Margrethe (Greta) Sturdza
Arnold Rörholt
Ragnar Kvam
Ingegerd Galtung
Red Cross
Rädda Barnen
DOI:

10.55201/UHPZ3807

Abstract

The study aims to investigate how the famine of 1947 manifested itself in Romania and what complications it produced. The sources represented three letters, one interview and one call for help which were published in the Norwegian press and found in Romanian translations in the Diplomatic Archives of the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in Bucharest. The sources presented the famine as a consequence of the severe drought between 1946 and 1947, which, together with already-existed pellagra and tuberculosis (but both in a larger extent in 1947) determined an unfortunate amount of human casualties and a great number of refugees. The hospitals were not provided with enough food or medicine either. In the autumn of 1947, the spectre of famine was diminishing and the Romanian Government, obedient to the Soviet Union, decided to refuse the help from United States and Western Europe and started harassing the Western representatives dealing with aid distribution. The people expressed satisfaction for Norwegian fish oil and especially for the larger Swedish aid.