During torture, very few prisoners could oppose resistance. The few that refused to hit others were beaten senseless. The ones who stroke lightly were tortured for lack of determination until they gave in.

 

But the victim noticed each such small gesture. Dan Lucinescu and his colleagues were forced to scrub the floor while on all fours, while receiving blows from the monitors. One of the aggressors asked Neculai Popa to sit on Lucinescu's back. In spite of the risks, Popa made an effort and tiptoed once in a while to ease the burden of his weight. Such small gestures kept alive the prisoners' hope that there was still humanity in the world.

 

Among the few forms of resistance practiced by the inmates was the attempt to reduce the harm done once they joined the aggressors. Ştefan Davidescu recalls how he and his colleagues were annihilated right from the first general beating:

”The once clean floor mosaic was now a bloody slop, in which most of us, the fifteen, were lying unconscious, scattered every which way […] They showed signs of life when probed with a kick in the ribs. Trying to avoid another rain of blows, no one would even whimper”

The general beating was followed by scrubbing – the victims were forced to keep scrubbing the floor while being constantly kicked by the aggressors. In time, Davidescu noticed that a particular pair of boots avoided him on purpose, every time. He stole a glance and identified the man who would never hit him: Viaceslav Holdevici, one of the leaders of the aggressors.