Immigrating from Eastern Europe

In this deeply personal episode, we meet Marcel to preserve a gripping oral history of a family's journey from Eastern Europe to the United States. Marcel shares harrowing tales from World War II, including the story of a relative who was forced to fight for both the German and Russian armies, and another who survived five years in Siberia. He paints a vivid picture of life under a Communist regime in Romania, describing how the government confiscated his grandfather’s farm and how his parents were forced to pay rent on their own seized home before finally securing sponsorship to escape to America.

The conversation then shifts to the realities of assimilation after Marcel arrived in the U.S. at age two. He opens up about the struggle of navigating the American school system with English as a second language, revealing how he was mistakenly placed in special education classes before discovering a natural talent for computers. We bonds over the shared responsibility of acting as translators for their parents at a young age and reflect on the profound appreciation immigrants often hold for the liberties, like property ownership and freedom of speech, that many Americans might take for granted.