Pitesti Prison: The Inferno of Communist Experiments
Diana Condrea
Discover our Communist Romania Tour and Communist Bucharest Tour
Pitesti Prison was one of the many extermination sites used by the communist regime in its violent and total occupation of Romania. But, it’s the unimaginable physical and psychological tortures used here that single it out as a space of absolute evil. So dark that death appeared to be the best escape out of the Pitesti experiment.
While such a landmark might not be on your list of places to see in Romania, we recommend you don’t miss it. It’s a sad, yet necessary history lesson for us all.
Interrogation room
Read also Ceausescu Mansion: Visit to Understand Communist History
Pitesti experiment: the ‘most terrible act of barbarism’
As always, the victims were the ‘enemies of the state’. Their only guilt was the opposition to the forced communist regime, a vague accusation used to arrest or deport hundreds of thousands. In this particular case, the students were the ones who suffered one of the ‘most terrible acts of barbarism in the modern world’ (Alexander Solzhenitsyn).
Prison corridor
Over 600 students were the victims of the Soviet methods in Pitesti Prison alone. One of them, Eugen Turcanu, became the representation of complete dehumanization. His transformation from a prisoner into a chief torturer proved the success of this unimaginable experiment. At least one hundred students died because of the injuries, and only two could kill themselves. The complete surveillance made even this final escape from hell almost impossible.
Their suffering was only partially acknowledged at the time. Eugen Turcanu and other executioners received death sentences in 1954, but justice stopped there. The high-rank communist officials who approved the experiment were never convicted. It was just a typical case for the politics of the Romanian Communist Party.
Handcuffs on a prison bed
From prison to Memorial in a couple of decades
The former Pitesti Prison became a memorial only in 2014. The cells are now exhibition spaces where you can discover key facts about the communist regime, its means of repression, and complete control. Detailed information on the interwar elites and the outcome of WW2 present the dramatic end of the democratic era.
But, most of the space presents the different stages of the tragic ‘Pitesti phenomenon’. As a reminder, a religious service takes place weekly in the former Room 4 Hospital in memory of the victims. This was the biggest room in the former prison and the place of the worst tortures.
Exhibition space, Pitesti Memorial
Just like Sighet Memorial, Pitesti Prison shows the dark reality of political prisons during communism. This is maybe the darkest episode of the many that marked the violent communist regime in Romania.
Discover also the main communist landmarks from Bucharest: the Parliament, Ceausescu’s Mansion, and the Civic Center.
Travel tips
You can visit the Memorial every Saturday or on weekdays. Be sure to book your visit first at http://pitestiprison.org
Don’t miss the bookshop Manuscript if you want to learn more about communist prisons in Romania.
You can find more details about the Pitesti experiment on http://pitestiprison.org
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