If until then they had been under a strict regime, starting from the winter of 1949, the students in Pitești prison were moved to different cells, where they were warmly welcome, sometimes by former colleagues.

 

The friendly attitude gave them the feeling that they could trust the others, so they shared information about their life before prison, their anti-communist activities, and the ties they maintained before the arrest. Some revealed information they had managed to conceal during interrogation. In this atmosphere, the torture started all of a sudden. When Țurcanu shouted 'On them!', some of the inmates would take out concealed broom handles and bats and stormed the others.

 

The beatings could last for hours and were violent and chaotic.

The First Beatings

Since inmates refrained from speaking around Țurcanu's entourage, the Securitate quickly realized that the only method to get information is by violence. The first beating administered by inmates to other inmates happened in Room 1-Correction in late November 1949. It was followed by a new batch – on St. Nicholas Day (6th of December), then on Christmas, in the much larger Room 4-Hospital, after Țurcanu and his group were moved there. The inmates in other cells only suspected what was going on in the penitentiary, hearing the screams, not knowing what was happening.