Even if there were rare cases of resistance, it is said that from the violent actions at Pitești one could only escape either by giving up, and thus transforming oneself into an aggressor, or by death. The story of Nicolae Purcărea is proof of a third way: that of madness.

Being a very religious individual and because he was still rejecting the unmasking, Nicolae Purcărea was subjected to a pseudo-baptism in urine and feces. At that moment, something broke inside him - "I felt an all-encompassing loneliness," Nicolae Purcărea would later describe that moment. For several months he lived in a semi-alienated state, not remembering exactly what was going on with him. He was sent by the aggressors committee to the so-called corner of the dying and madmen, thus escaping the obligation to become an aggressor.