Without being Greek, I had the joy and honor of enjoying the friendship of Apostolos Patelakis, who spoke to me about his scientific work. Immediately, I promised him that I would be by his side in every way possible to help him, especially in supporting his work regarding archival research. Therefore, I can state that I am among the fortunate ones who witnessed the birth of this book, even from its formative phase.

In our opinion, Apostolos' greatest contribution is that he managed to surpass his personal passion, his personal experience, and to record on paper a story that is sincere, honest, and as objective as possible.

The persistent research of Professor Patelakis will continue, we are sure, with the hope that this book will have a continuation very soon. On our part, we express our congratulations to the author, while urging the readers to engage with the following pages with the same love that the author wrote them.

Gheorghe Onisoru

Apostolos Patelakis' study is a sincere and honest contribution to an unknown, until now, chapter of Greek and Romanian history. I have known Apostolos for several years. I am honored by his friendship and I owe him gratitude for it. I know his passion for history, the Greek Civil War, political refuge, the "affectionate mother," his second homeland, Romania. I thank him for entrusting me with a manuscript of his study. I absorbed it with unwavering interest, I was moved following his example and his emotions, I got angry, I pondered as one of the darkest pages of modern Greek history unfolded before my eyes.

Apostolos Patelakis' study is written with the hand of thousands of political refugees, children of Greece in Romania and other socialist countries. It is their voice, deeply silenced for decades, surrendered to the oblivion of history. The study at hand will largely define the future of historical research regarding the communities of Greek political refugees. It will develop in a comprehensive and multidimensional way, I am certain, to become a point of bibliographic reference in the coming years. It is worth being carefully read by history enthusiasts and fueling a fruitful dialogue on an issue that continues to create tensions and ignite passions among people.

Iakovos D. Michailidis