He was born into a family that came to Romania from Bessarabia. She joined the Romanian Communist Party, then illegal, in 1933. A Jew, she was deported to the Transnistria Governorate during World War I. After the coup of August 23, 1944, she held a number of positions in the PCR (which soon after became the Romanian Workers' Party, PMR), starting as a member of the Bucuresti county party committee bureau. In 1948 she joined the Ilfov County party committee. Ghizela Vass served as adjunct to the chief of the Organizational Section of the Central Committee of the PMR; president of the county committee of party mem- ber verification from Resita, secretary of the Bucuresti city party committee (from January 1953); chief of the Women's Party Work Section of the Central Committee of the PMR (1955 - 24 January 1956); inspector for the Central Committee of the PMR and coordinator of the Foreign Cadres and Foreign Relations Sections of the Central Committee of the P M (until January 1957); chief of the Foreign Relations Section of the Central Committee of the P M (January 1957 -November 1965); chief of the International Section of the Central Committee of the PMR (from November 1965); and adjunct to the chief of the International Relations and International Economic Cooperation Section of the Central Committee of the PCR (1975- February 1982).