NOTES
1. Jewish mother, non-Jewish father.
2. Jewish mother, non-Jewish father. There appears to be considerable controversy over this assertion, but it is essentially what Ionesco himself said in a 1968 article that appeared in the  weekly publication Figaro Littéraire.  On page 15 of the 5 August 1968 issue, Ionesco states in discussing his father's ever-changing politics: "L'avocat, toujours dans le sens de l'histoire, devient partisan des Gardes de fer et dit à son fils dont la mère était juive: <<J'ai commis une grande faute dans ma vie: j'ai sali mon sang, je doit racheter le péché du sang>>," which translates as: "The lawyer, still going in the same direction as History, became a partisan of the Iron Guards and said to his son whose mother was Jewish: 'I have committed one great error in my life: I have sullied my blood; I must redeem the sin of the blood'."  Although Ionesco refers to his father here simply as "l'avocat" ("the lawyer" - his father's profession), the description he gives  of "l'avocat " matches precisely the political biography of his father (police inspector and German collaborator in Bucharest during World War I, then a supporter of Averesco, then a social democrat and a Mason, then a supporter of Condréanu and the Iron Guard, then of Antonescu and the Nazis, and finally of the Communists, always somehow managing to remain in the good graces of whatever political order was in ascendancy).  Ionesco then states explicitly "et pourtant, ma père n' était pas à vrai dire un opportuniste," which translates as "and yet, my father was not really an opportunist."  So there is really  no question as to whether Ionesco was, in fact, discussing his father and himself in this passage.   The article was one of three  appearing in Figaro Littéraire (in the  29 July, 5 August, and 12 August 1968 issues) that were described as being excerpts from his then forthcoming memoir Présent Passé, Passé Présent  (Mercure de France, 1968).  The text of Présent Passé, Passé Présent  (on pp. 185-186, and on pp. 129-130 of its English translation by Helen Lane), however, deletes the phrase "dont la mère était juive"  ("whose mother was Jewish") and uses "l'homme"  ("the man") in place of "mon père" ("my father").  Of course, without the phrase "whose mother was Jewish," the statement by the Iron Guard sympathizer about needing to redeem himself for having "sullied [his] blood" no longer makes any sense.                   
3. Jewish father, non-Jewish mother.
4. Jewish father, non-Jewish mother.

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