Without previous warning, on the evening of November 14, 1951, more than two
years after the Pitesti experiment was begun, orders came to stop all unmaskings;
not suddenly and abruptly but gradually, as a new phase was to be introduced.
In other words, the phase of "violence" (i. e., beatings) was to be
superseded by a new phase modeled to some extent on the method used at the
canal, but with better surveillance. The unmaskings did not, as a matter of
fact, end until February or March of the next year, when Colonel Zeller of the
Securitate appeared. He came on an official mission, that of increasing
production in the prison workshops, which meant sending as many prisoners as
possible into them. To this end, most of the re-educators as well as the
re-educated ended up having to go to work, and the whole prison population was
shifted around. The reassignments to shop or group produced an entirely new mixing
of students with other prisoners. This changed the atmosphere everywhere; it
became indescribably poisoned.
The students were no longer in positions of command, yet their whole
re-formed character was conditioned to control others through unmaskings. So,
since the O. D. C. C. 's right to beat prisoners had been revoked, they took it
upon themselves to inaugurate their own form of discipline at Gherla and, for
the next two years they maintained, with the help of a naturally cruel
administration, a state of terror unique in the annals of prison history.
Whether in workshop or cell, at the workbench or in the queue waiting for
soup, in the lavatory or the shower, at any time, the re-educator would listen,
all ears, to hear "what was being discussed," and would inform the
administration promptly and pointedly so as to keep the reprisals as close to
the spirit of unmaskings as possible.
Punishment for imaginary crimes was multiplied mercilessly. Incarceration, severe
beatings, solitary confinement with minimal clothing, halving of food rations
at the end of twelve hours of slave labor, the more severe regimen of being fed
only once every three days -- these constantly supplied a special section with
more and more tuberculosis cases, and the cemetery with hundreds of bodies.
After the right of the re-educated to torment was revoked, the torturing was
by Communists directly, and they used their best qualified individuals to do
it, namely the prison's political officers and especially their chief,
Lieutenant Avadanei.
As was normal Communist procedure, Director Gheorghiu was transferred to
some other place and in his stead was brought in a new director, Captain Petre
Goiciu. Formerly a tinsmith with the Romanian Railways in Galati, he was a
Bulgarian notorious for his ferocity, which exceeded that of Maromet, the
director of Jilava prison. As his assistant, and chief of production,
Lieutenant Mihalcea, another degenerate maniac, was appointed.
This trio, Avadanei, Goiciu and Mihalcea ruled the prison for years,
zealously executing orders and competing with one another for the highest marks
in sadism, until they were rewarded with promotion in the Party hierarchy.
Around Christmas of 1951, Turcanu and ten of his collaborators were called
to the prison's main office, where they were put in chains and sent away by
van, no one could imagine why. Everybody soon learned about their departure and
thought the unmaskings at Gherla had either come to an end or reached their final
stage so that Turcanu was no longer needed, and had perhaps been transferred to
take up his long-awaited and much anticipated activities at Aiud. Turcanu had
often bragged, "Soon I shall leave for Aiud, to accomplish the unmaskings
of the leaders there. "
He and his collaborators believed that they were being taken to Aiud, the
next step up for them, as just reward for all their hard work. A man who
traveled with them in the same prison van later related, "During the
entire trip, all the way to Jilava, they all sang, and enjoyed themselves as if
they were going home. When we drove by Aiud, and did not stop, they thought
they were being taken to the Ministry of the Interior to be freed, remembering
the promise by the Communists to reward them in consideration of their merits.
Even at Jilava, during our first days there, Turcanu talked about novels and
cowboy movies, and was relaxed, even radiant, and satisfied. "
But one day, an officer from the Ministry came into the cell occupied by
Turcanu and others.
"Why were you brought here, bandit?"
This was the first time since the beginning of unmaskings that Turcanu had
been asked that insulting question.
"I was brought here to be freed," he answered, somewhat
disgruntled.
"You bandit," growled the officer, "you were brought here to
account for the crimes you committed in prison." And he left, slamming the
door as he went.
The smug smile on Turcanu's face abruptly changed into an impotent grimace,
and that was the last seen of him by any survivors. From that moment on, for
more than three years, as long as the investigation lasted in the Ministry on
Victoriei Street, none but his inquisitors and their families saw his face.
Following his departure from Gherla, group after group of inmates, both
tortured and the torturers, were taken to the Ministry of the Interior. As the
re-educated continued to leave on these trips, the Gherla prisoners were sure
that Turcanu must be engaged in the unmaskings at Aiud and was getting more
collaborators from Gherla to step up the work. But after a while, some of those
who had left began to return, and the strict orders by the Ministry not to
utter a single word about the reason for their trip to Bucharest, was not
respected by all of them. Little by little, almost everybody except those who
fanatically believed in the practice of re-education by violence began to
realize that an investigation was going on. But no one really believed that
punishment of Turcanu was conceivable; they did not understand Marxist
dialectics, and so reasoned on the basis of their poor "reactionary"
logic. So almost everyone remained sceptical, believing this was only a new
trap. Besides, no sensational purging had taken place in the higher echelons of
the Party, and nothing had changed at Gherla either, where terror still ruled
and everything was proceeding according to the most perfect Communist pattern.
Furthermore, as time went by, the terror intensified, punishments becoming more
severe for infractions that no inmate had ever heard of. Lieutenant Avadanei was
more and more brutal and the spirit of O. D. C. C. continued to dominate
undiminished over the entire body of prisoners.
But on the dark depths of terror at Gherla, like a glimmering light, a
reaction was beginning.