Alexandru Ghica – “a man of imposing presence and attitude, born as if to stand above others”

Some time later[1] Professor Alexandru Mironescu was taken out of his cell and replaced by Prince Alexandru Ghica. A man in his sixties, with the presence of a real prince, he told us how he had been arrested in a commune in Bărăgan, where he had been assigned to a compulsory residence[2] and where he had been assigned to a maternity home for sows, who had to be supervised during farrowing so as not to eat their piglets.

He told us how he kept watch all night and nursed the piglets. He, Prince Ghica, descended from the ruling family of the Ghiculetis, was a pig farmer in Bărăgan.[3] From this prince we learned something about the romanticised lives of the daughters of Ferdinand I of Romania. Alexandru Ghica was a communicative, joking, friendly man, with an eventful life and historical past, a good Romanian. With a Parisian wife and a son, he settled in Brăila. A man of imposing presence and attitude, born to stand out. He told us his family history with great warmth.

(George Ungureanu – Camera zero, Alexandru Bogza Cultural Foundation Publishing House, Câmpulung Moldovenesc, 2009, p. 154)

[1] The action takes place in Aiud prison, probably during the pre-prison period of re-education, when prisoners were often moved from one cell to another in order to gather information, test the prisoners’ reactions and identify the elements of resistance.

[2] This is the period after the first imprisonment.

[3] The Communists, whose cynicism knew no bounds, were experts in humiliating “class enemies”. Nevertheless, Prince Ghica never complained about the state in which the Communists had placed him, a sign of genuine humility.