Aurel Dragodan – a man who had the self-control of a saint

A few months ago someone told me that he had stayed in Aiud with a veteran of the dungeons, a man who had spent more than twenty years as a political prisoner. A man who had the self-control of a saint. And who, although a victim of the Antonine dictatorship, still had words of reconciliation with his fate and not a word of hatred against the Marshal, against his oppressors. His name was Aurel Dragodan, nicknamed “the poet of Aiud”. I know another, Octavian Popa, who also spent many years in prison, but who, like Dragodan – I was told – showed no hatred towards his oppressors. Through their civilised and Christian behaviour, they created a true philosophy of martyrdom.

(Vasile Blănaru-Flamură – Mercenaries of Hell. The curse of the files. Unbelievable stories from the Romanian Gulags, Vol. I, Elisavaros Publishing House, Bucharest, 1999, p. 47)