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Tabula Rasa: Beyond a Place Called There...
In the early years of Zoltan Powell’s life, he lived for nearly nine years in a Romanian orphanage. With tears and laughter, despair and hope, you will read Zoltan’s vivid depiction of his personal journey as he shares his personal struggles of being a young boy caught in the circumstances of life within a communist institution.
181 pages, Paperback
Published April 20, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 21, 2026
Tabula Rasa: Beyond a Place Called There… by Zoltan Powell (2020) 169 pages.
This little book was brought to my attention by my hiking and Goodreads buddy, DeeDee Bass. She has had the honor of meeting this author in person and was told that the proceeds go to an orphanage. He makes public speeches to help spread awareness of abuse, especially ones pertaining to Romania.
Zolton Powell was only one of over five hundred thousand children who passed through those communist orphanages in Romania between about 1966 and 1990 when the proclamation known as Decree 770 was passed. This was meant to reverse low fertility rates, giving families more money per child. It backfired big time. A lot of these kids ended up in overcrowded orphanages. The author actually lived in one for nine years before finally being adopted out by an American family.
[But, according to DeeDee, this family didn’t work out, and he ended up in a group home for troubled kids that was also just as bad. Maybe, there will be another book in the near future. I would love to read the rest of his story.]
The children were definitely abused, physically and sexually, but he didn’t really elaborate on those abuses. What stuck out more was the everyday filth the children were forced to live in and how, it seemed, every staff ruled with such an iron fist….all except Olga, the lady in charge of adopting these boys and girls out.
The kids were beaten every morning if they woke up and had peed the bed. Yet, they slept on beds full of pee. If they had to sneak a poop in the middle of the night, they wiped their butts on mattresses, or they had to use their hands. The pot in the middle of the room was always overflowing, so they had to walk in pee and poop. In the mornings, the staff would bring a sheet full of washed clothes and throw them on the nasty floor. The kids had to grab anything from the pile, whether it fit or not. There was always that rank smell of urine and feces on the children.
Why is it that places like these lure in some of the most despicable people? They beat the kids for no good reason. They played with their psyche, scaring them half to death by randomly picking a child to beat in front of others, and they were made to live in the most filthy disgusting conditions.
Jesus has a special love for children…and a special place for people that hurt them.
Matthew 18:10:
“See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.
Matthew 18:6:
“But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.”
Powell has grown up to be an honorable, very well educated, and, I might add, a very good looking young man. (He is pictured on the back cover.) He has proven that your past doesn’t always have to dictate your future.
This little book was brought to my attention by my hiking and Goodreads buddy, DeeDee Bass. She has had the honor of meeting this author in person and was told that the proceeds go to an orphanage. He makes public speeches to help spread awareness of abuse, especially ones pertaining to Romania.
Zolton Powell was only one of over five hundred thousand children who passed through those communist orphanages in Romania between about 1966 and 1990 when the proclamation known as Decree 770 was passed. This was meant to reverse low fertility rates, giving families more money per child. It backfired big time. A lot of these kids ended up in overcrowded orphanages. The author actually lived in one for nine years before finally being adopted out by an American family.
[But, according to DeeDee, this family didn’t work out, and he ended up in a group home for troubled kids that was also just as bad. Maybe, there will be another book in the near future. I would love to read the rest of his story.]
The children were definitely abused, physically and sexually, but he didn’t really elaborate on those abuses. What stuck out more was the everyday filth the children were forced to live in and how, it seemed, every staff ruled with such an iron fist….all except Olga, the lady in charge of adopting these boys and girls out.
The kids were beaten every morning if they woke up and had peed the bed. Yet, they slept on beds full of pee. If they had to sneak a poop in the middle of the night, they wiped their butts on mattresses, or they had to use their hands. The pot in the middle of the room was always overflowing, so they had to walk in pee and poop. In the mornings, the staff would bring a sheet full of washed clothes and throw them on the nasty floor. The kids had to grab anything from the pile, whether it fit or not. There was always that rank smell of urine and feces on the children.
Why is it that places like these lure in some of the most despicable people? They beat the kids for no good reason. They played with their psyche, scaring them half to death by randomly picking a child to beat in front of others, and they were made to live in the most filthy disgusting conditions.
Jesus has a special love for children…and a special place for people that hurt them.
Matthew 18:10:
“See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.
Matthew 18:6:
“But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.”
Powell has grown up to be an honorable, very well educated, and, I might add, a very good looking young man. (He is pictured on the back cover.) He has proven that your past doesn’t always have to dictate your future.
May 6, 2020
Zoltan’s memoir of being in a Communist Orphanage is on the level of “The Nickel Boys” and “Before we were yours.” A Holocaust in an Orphanage , these children were treated no better. The atrocity of what was done to Zoltan and the others in this hell hole of what was called an Orphanage. How in this day and age was this ever allowed to happen in the world we know. How he makes it out of the filth of living in urine and feces and the monumental beatings and how he kept hope that he would someday would be adopted. It is a book that gives hope, a child beaten to almost death, starved, living in absolute filth who comes to America and ends up graduating from Miami University. Can’t wait for the prequel and sequel as this journey of this young man needs to be told and heard!
October 7, 2020
Great read of a orphans life
Wonderfully written enlightening look into the adoptee from a Romanians life. Very very very different as in the perspective and memories of a boy while in the orphanage.
Wonderfully written enlightening look into the adoptee from a Romanians life. Very very very different as in the perspective and memories of a boy while in the orphanage.
April 26, 2020
The true story of a brave little boy leading a horrific life in a Romanian orphanage. I am so grateful that Zoltan took the time to share his story and I hope you will take the time to read it.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews