"Partizanul was founded in..." Alexandru makes an visible effort to try and remember. "1879. It was before my time, but I know it was founded by a foreigner that came here and made one of the best leather product factory in this part of Europe." he explained with a sense of pride.

"When the communists put their hands on it, they employed a lot of people there. I remember when there were only 16 unemployed in Bacau, but they would consider it an emergency." he laughs.

"There were 2000 of us (employees)." He lifts up his hands "shoes made by these hands were worn by french, german, italians..." his voice cracked.