In the last year or so details on a highly secret program are coming to light designed to ransom ethnic Germans in Romania and release them in order to migrate to West Germany. Massive amounts of money in cash was paid to agents of the Romanian secret service, the Securate. Over ca 20 year period amounts approaching 1 Billion DM(that’s with a B) were transferred to the Securata in order to secure exit visas for Donauschwabens and Siebenburger Saxons. The amounts demanded by the Romanians depended on the education level of those being released. The funds received appeared to go into the pockets of Romanian Security apparatus which was used to exercise control of the population on the same order as the Stasi in East Germany. Deutsche Welle has produced a number of TV programs describing this operation including a four part series “Teuer Freikauf”. These are all available on You Tube, of course, in German. Now Deutsche Welle has produced an abbreviated English version under the title, “A secret Cold War Deal between Romania…..”. You don’t need to type the complete title into You Tube before the program will come up. Dave Dreyer