Romanian aristocrats, descendants of boyars from Moldavia and Wallachia, faced the loss of family memory during the repressive communist regime. One of the main characteristics of any aristocracy is the call to memory, the identification by reference to the ancestors' great deeds, to the antiquity of the genealogical tree, the positions of influence held by family members, the places and estates to which the family is linked, the memorial traces (manuscripts, correspondence, family portraits and photographs, family objects).
The end of World War II brought to Romania a communist regime whose goal was to destroy the entire class of business owners and landlords. Thousands of Romanian aristocrats were thrown into political prisons, and others had to choose exile. The aristocrats who remained in the country and survived the repression of the 1950s were faced with issues related to their survival and integration in the "new world". Thus, an unwritten law of oblivion imposed itself. In order to survive, aristocrats born in the first decades of the twentieth century tried to hide the details of their origin: they spoke rarely or not at all about governesses, family estates, famous ancestors and their illustrious deeds, about travels abroad or their political views before communism. In the next generation, aristocrats born under communism knew very little about their families' past. Parents tried to "protect" them from any family memories that could hinder or delay their integration into the socialist world.
A similar phenomenon can be found in the case of Romanian aristocrats who were forced to choose exile in the West. Even though they were no longer forced to hide their past and were no longer killed or jailed for it, the memorial treasure became less relevant. Their need for integration in the host countries and the difficulties of daily life have encouraged oblivion among the exiles as well.
I will analyze the relationship between memory and oblivion among Romanian aristocrats persecuted or uprooted after the establishment of the communist regime, using the unique archive of written, audio, and video testimonials resulting from my research project launched in 2009, "The Memory of the Romanian Elites". The archive contains over 180 testimonials by Romanian aristocrats of various ages, whether from exiled aristocrats or from families still extant in Romania, and who carry on the memory of more than 300 Romanian aristocratic families.
