Aristide Lefa – the “doctor” of Târgu Ocna

In this room [cell room 1, Târgu Ocna prison n.n.] I met many comrades who had gone through debunkings, as well as my good friend and comrade Lefa Aristide, who had not been there. He had managed to get a job as a doctor at the Pitești clinic, and from there, in the autumn of 1949, he was miraculously taken to the prison sanatorium at Târgu Ocna, along with the tuberculosis patients, for a cold abscess.

Lefa, a fifth-year medical student, worked miracles with the tuberculosis patients in Târgu Ocna. The official doctor, fearing the spread of the disease, gave him free rein to look after the patients himself.

It was there that he met Valeriu Gafencu, under whose influence he lived. A certain pastor, Wurmbrand, who had been exposed, also contracted tuberculosis as a result of torture and was sent to Târgu Ocna, where Lefa cared for him and saved his life[1]. When he left Târgu Ocna prison, Wurmbrand said to Lefa: “Thanks to you and the care you gave me, I am alive; I will never forget you”. In this way, these young legionnaires understood how to help their fellow men, whatever they were.

While I was in that room, I was punished, together with Lefa and Stupu, for spying by being put in the cellar, which was below the level of the bed of the Someș river, so there was only water on the floor.

The regime in the cellar was very harsh, with only half a portion of food every two days. At night we slept on planks placed on A frames, which were taken out into the corridor during the day. We had planks placed on the cement of the cell to keep the water out of our boots.

(Dumitru Bordeianu – Confessions from the Swamp of Despair)

1. According to Dr. Lefa, but also to other witnesses such as Ioan Ianolide, Mihai Lungeanu and Aurelian Guță, the pastor was saved from death by the antibiotics that Valeriu Gafencu gave him, which were very rare at that time, and which he refused to take or give to a comrade, despite the insistence of friends.