Biography Of  Princess Catherine Caradja  Romania 1893 - 1993  By William J. Fili

During the incarceration of the American and British Airmen shot down during the siege of the Ploiesti Oil Complexes there was one person who persisted in trying to make life more tolerable. These men were held in three different prisons - - the King Michael Garrison, the school house and the military hospital grounds. We used to call this venerable lady the Blue Cross Lady because she was always dressed in a blue and white nurse’s uniform. By her very presence she encouraged us to feel like human beings again. We knew someone cared. Only after she came to America many years later did we find out that her dress was symbolic of the many orphanages she administered.

        Princess Catherine Caradja was forever bringing in a few small bags of much needed items as soap, tooth paste and cigarettes and it was shared with all. It soon became impossible for her to bring anything in since the camps rapidly filled with American and British airmen. When we left Romania we had no idea of the turmoil that was to take place in that small country of peace loving people. The very hour the Russians entered the city of Bucharest they started their plunder and mass executions of Military and Government Officials. Without a moments notice life under Communismbegan and the confiscation of all the orphanages. If we had the slightest knowledgethat this was going to happen we might have kidnapped Catherine to bring her to theFreedom of America. We all are, without a doubt, a better person for having known thisCompassionate wonderful person

        Catherine was born in Romania in 1893. Her Mother was Princess Cantacuzene and her father was Prince Kretulesco. When she was three years old her father secreted her out of Romania away from her mother, took her to England and placed her in an orphanage under a false name. Her mother lived through many bitter years in searching for her daughter and never gave up hope even to her death in 1906.During her tearful searching years Catherine’s mother had built a foundation for orphans whose motto was:

When Catherine’s mother died her father had removed her from the orphanage and took her to France under her real name. She was accidentally found in 1908 by an aunt who eventually helped her to escape her father and returned her to Romania. There the courts placed her in the custody of her grandmother who had taken over the foundation on the death of her mother. Catherine was married to Prince Caradja in 1914, just before World War I. By the fall of 1916 their estate had fallen to the Germans and she had to flee that part of Romania

Princess Catherine and Bill Fili at her Fair-well Banquet on May 18, 1991 in San Antonio, Texas

with two small children, one two years old and the other only ten days old.Within six months she had started to work as a volunteer in a thirty bed hospital for typhus cases. As would be expected she contracted the disease herself. In the fall off 1918, after the armistice was declared, she was able to take her children back to Bucharest and eventually to their estate near the Carpathian Mountains .

Arriving home in 1919 she found her grandmother in failing health and took over the running of the child foundation. Catherine kept busy caring for others and subsequently built the foundation up and added a foster home section in each of twelve villages. In 1920 She gave birth to a third daughter. In 1933 she lost a child of only seventeen years to an illness while in Vienna and her eldest daughter was killed with her father (Catherine’s Husband) in an earthquake in 1940.Her remaining daughter escapedfrom Romania in 1948.

Catherine worked very hard, especially during the Nazi occupation in 1940 through 1944 and the never ending Allied bombings in the spring and summer of 1944.Several American flyers landed on her estate, after either crash landing or parachuting,and she personally supervised their medical needs. During the later part of 1943 and most of 1944, she was constantly exerting her efforts to ease the burden of captivity for more than one thousand flyers who had been shot down.( This writer was one of the recipients of Catherine’s humanitarian care). It was her untiring efforts that helped these men through some of their most trying days. They knew someone cared.

Contrary to what is written in history books today the Russian army did not invade, conquer or liberate the Romanian people from Nazi tyranny. It was the Romanian people under the leadership of King Michael ( the twenty one year old boy king) who ordered the German Commander - - Colonel Alfred Gerstenberg - - to removethe German Whermacht from Romanian soil on August 23, 1944.The details of the German tyranny and terrorization on the following days can be read in the published book “Passage to Valhalla”. 

In the fall of 1944 with the foundation having about three thousand children to care for the communist party of Romania began setting up new laws. This new government passed the laws in 1949 allowing them to confiscate everything. This included Catherine’s foundation, orphanages and her estate - - once again she lost everything. The peace loving Romanian people were forced to endure forty-five more years of bondage, unspeakable hardships and a cruel dictatorship. This bondage and cruel dictatorship did not have to happen.
 

Col. James Gunn      Capt. Constantine Cantacuzene

When the Romanian people and King Michael ousted the Germans they did not foresee the terror. The Germans tried to recapture the American POWs to use them as hostages during their retreat from Romania. The Romanians protected these POWs. A former enemy pilot Captain Constantine Cantacuzene offered to fly the American Colonel James Gunn to an Allied field to effect a rescue of the POWs this Romanian

Captain was Catherine’s cousin and an ace fighter pilot with five bombers to his credit. Before leaving on that rescue mission Dr. Maniu the new Prime Minister sent a letter with Colonel Gunn begging the Allies and the American government to occupy Romania to keep the communists out. President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill refused this request. This refusal to help free people was the cause of their enslavement. The details of this request is in the published book “Passage to Valhalla”.

        With nothing to hold her in Romania Catherine accepted her last daughters offer to help her escape. After several death defying attempts she succeeded in early 1952.For a while she gave talks in France about “life behind the Iron Curtain". For several summers she spoke in London on the BBC networks discussing this same totalitarian way of life. In the winter of 1954-55 Catherine went to Algiers to assist wherever she could, organizing child relief after the earthquakes there. While in Algiers her spare moments were taken up by giving lectures on the value of Freedom.

        At last in December 1955, Catherine received permission - - a visa - - to come to the United States. After arriving, she quickly found that her dreams and theories about freedom were a reality and that we the people of America really do take our freedom for granted. For the first time in her life Catherine experienced true Freedom to do as one pleased.

Princess Catherine Caradja was truly a unique individual. No sooner had she stepped off the airplane she was on the Dave Garroway show talking about freedom and how we should have more respect for it. Each year, ever since that first step on American soil she has crisscrossed this land to seek out anyone who would listen to her when she applauds our freedom and how we should cherish it as a mother cherishes her new born baby. She applauds our freedom to do what we want - - freedom to do when we want - - and how we want to do. Catherine warned us that we also have the freedom to do absolutely nothing to protect our freedom. Her conclusion always was that she knew what it was to lose one’s freedom and warned again - - that once freedom is lost it may never be regained.

This solitary sole had been traveling these Unites States of America for more than thirty five years speaking at Rotary, Lions, Women’s clubs - - at high schools, colleges, churches - - and to anyone who would listen to her. Her mode of travel was by bus, sleeping in YMCA’s where she could find one. She always refused any monetary offering other than her needs for transport, sustenance and lodgings. During her travelsacross America Catherine found more than five hundred of the former POWs in Romania.She assembled many of them for a reunion in Dallas Texason August 28, 1972. Exactly to the day twenty eight years after their freedom was returned to them. This reunion has continued without interruption each year and their Princess was always the guest of honor and main speaker. Catherine always cautioned us to be ever vigilant with our guard up and our powder dry. In her words, “ This is the only way we can be assured that America will always remain proud and free.
 

This photo of Princess Catherine with Bill Fili at the Freedom’s Foundation In Valley Forge, Pennsylvania on August 27, 1976 during America’s Bi-Centennial year. She was the guest Of honor to help present this Peace Monument to the people of America. She was then nominated for and Received the prestigious General George Washington Freedom Medal In January 1977

In 1989 Catherine was tiring of the lifetime of seeking freedom and a new birth of energy sprouted in her when the Romanian people revolted against the cruel Chaucescu Dictatorship. Her eyes sparkled a little brighter with the thoughts of going home. Yes, she was tired and for the last year had been in a wheel chair at ninety seven years old. Early in 1991 the new Romanian government decided to return to Catherine more than twenty acres of her estate. Her one remaining daughter, who lived in France, went back Home to prepare a home and nursing care for her mother. This venerable lady was going home for the third and last time in almost one hundred years. Her singular crusade for universal freedom was, and still is, an effort unparalleled in the history of Mankind.

It was only fitting that so many of her boys - - as she called us - - would attend the farewell banquet in San Antonio, Texas on May 18, 1991 for Princess Catherine Caradja. Catherine you were always looking out for everyone’s freedom and now you can savor the fruits of your energies and to be able to see the country of your birth once again - - your Country bathed in freedom. Possibly - - one day - - your quest for freedom will be accepted by the leaders of Nations so that Mankind can co-exist in peace and harmony.

Catherine did arrive in her home in Romania to know the real feeling of Freedom even though it was such a short time. Catherine passed away just days after reaching her one-hundredth birthday. Her final request was granted - - to be interred with her two daughters, her mother and grand mother.

Catherine, from all of your adopted sons, “Thank You"." Thank you for alerting us to the dangers to our freedom". And “Thank You for Caring". May God bless you and your family on this your- - Final Journey”.