'Unmaskings' took place in the Pitești penitentiary between November 1949 and May 1951, starting with the correction section and continuing with the hard labor section after a brief break of a few months.

 

Similar actions took place in other penitentiaries as well, once inmates from Pitești were transferred there, from March 1950. The most violent moments occurred at the Peninsula labor camp (The Danube-Black Sea Canal) and at Gherla (particularly in 1951). Among the 600 students tortured in Pitești, at least 11 died, despite the regime’s efforts to prevent deaths.

 

The last group of students left this prison in August 1951, but the violence continued at Gherla prison until December. The tortures were stopped due to the reports of a Jewish inmate, a former Ministry of the Interior employee, who presented the tortures in Gherla as an attempt on the part of the legionaries to compromise the communist regime. The party based the trials it staged a few years later on this false hypothesis.

 

 

THE REEDUCATION TRIALS

In 1954, in the first trial, Eugen Țurcanu and 21 other inmates, most of them victims, were sentenced to death for acts of terror. In a second trial, in 1957, a few members of the administration were given prison sentences for 'favoring the offenders'. The one responsible among the communist authorities, starting from Gheorghe Pintilie (the head of the Securitate), were never prosecuted.

 

 

THE EUGEN ȚURCANU TRIAL (1954)

Sentenced to death:

Eugen Ţurcanu, Ion Stoian, Nicolae Cobâlaș, Cristian Șerbănescu, Grigore Romanescu, Cornel Pop, Cornel Popovici, Octavian Zbranca, Ion Voin, Ioan Cerbu, Gheorghe Popescu, Constantin P. Ionescu, Constantin Juberian, Mihai Livinschi, Vasile Păvăloaie, Maximilian Sobolevschi, Vasile Pușcașu.

Sentenced to death, commuted to forced labor for life:

Alexandru Popa, Octavian Voinea, Aristotel Popescu, Nuti Pătrășcanu, Dan Dumitrescu.

 

 

THE TUDOR SEPEANU TRIAL (1957):
Tudor Sepeanu (8 years),
Alexandru Dumitrescu (7 years),
Gheorghe Sucigan (7 years),
Constantin Avădani (6 years),
Mihai Mircea (5 years),

Ion Marina (5 years),

Viorel Bărbos (5 years)

Most were arrested in 1953, but all were released by decree shortly after convictions, on November 13, 1957.