Aurel State – a martyred man who endured unimaginable torments

It was towards the end of December 1962, when Colonel Crăciun was preparing the offensive against the political prisoners in Aiud. (…) We were taken to the club, a large hall that held hundreds of people. After severe treatment, which ended with drastic threats, we were taken out with our wedges on our heads and taken to the bath.

The group of ghosts to which I belonged was taken to cell number 24 on the ground floor. We took off our blindfolds and faced each other. None of my friends were there. With the exception of Dr. Busoicescu, who was over 60, we were all young: two former students, a former reserve officer, a prisoner in Russia, a Macedonian peasant and myself, who was also a student. (…)

The last “young man” was State Aurelian. After graduating from high school, he went to the Infantry Reserve Officers’ School. As a young second lieutenant he was sent to the front. He was captured in Sevastopol, and that was the beginning of the drama of State’s life, first as a prisoner of war, then as a political prisoner in the Russian Gulag, and then as a prisoner in the Romanian Gulag. (…) The former prisoner and prisoner repatriated from the Russian Gulag, who fell into the hands of the Securitate, is martyred and brought to the brink of suicide.

He suffered a great deal because he took a firm stand against Ana Pauker, Valter Roman and other traitors in the prison. Because of his heroism, the KGB wanted to compromise or even liquidate him. They framed him and sentenced him to life imprisonment. As a prisoner, State was dragged through the dungeons of the Russian Gulag, where he endured unimaginable suffering.

After the German government intervened in Moscow to get the Germans back, the Romanians also benefited from the clause and were repatriated. But for most, repatriation meant entering a hell more oppressive than the Russian one.

Thus, the poor State, having arrived in the homeland for which he had shed his blood defending freedom and dignity, was seized by the Securitate and, according to the file signed by Ana Pauker and Valter Roman, investigated and tortured.

Feeling that the circle was closing and that he was in danger of naming names, he decided to commit suicide in order to save the others. But how? Security eService needed the data, and State had to live to provide it, so he was closely guarded.

But he found a solution. While he was still in the investigation, he noticed a fire escape overlooking the roof. One day, realising that the shaft was open, he punched the sergeant who was leading him hard in the face, knocked him to the floor and ran up the ladder. He went out onto the roof and threw himself headlong onto the pavement. He wasn’t going to die. Uranus Prison, where the action was taking place, wasn’t very high up.

At the Văcărești hospital, he was collected, patched up, straightened out, and after months, State was a shapeless composition, with only the bright-eyed, vulture-like head normal. One shoulder higher, the other sagging, one leg shorter and stiff, the femur tucked into the pelvis, a few broken ribs protruding. His gait was a kind of leaping, supported by two crutches. You wondered how he could still be alive. You had to help him lie down on the bed or stand up on his head; help him sit on the bedpan or pick up an object he had dropped. Any forced movement caused him excruciating pain.

And the cold tortured us… a spirit of hopelessness seemed to creep ever more insistently into our souls. (…)

We listened to State. Despite his crippled and exhausted body, his eyes were alive, his mind fresh and warm, refreshing and optimistic. I never detected a hint of pessimism or rebellion against fate.

We lived in an atmosphere of high spirits, especially as it was the beginning of April and the cold no longer tormented us. In the mornings, after work, until around noon, everyone was busy with prayers, meditation or some kind of briefing. (…)

After lunch, the time was reserved for stories and conversations. The talks with the State were a spiritual balm for me, a real tonic. (…)

But one day, it was Good Friday, the evening of 12 April 1963, the door opened and the guard ordered State to prepare for solitary confinement. I said to myself: “They want to kill him”. But I didn’t finish my thought when the guard said: “You too”. (…) I put my hand on State’s forehead, said a short prayer, kissed him and had the strength to say to him: ‘God be with you’. The guard showed humanity and did not react. Without saying a word, he opened the door and I went into another cell. (…)

Reflecting on this event, I found the reason for State’s isolation. A few days earlier, Colonel Crăciun, the prison commander, had gone from cell to cell. With harsh words and firm threats, he tried to make us understand that we would not get out of there unless we changed our attitude. Our response was silence.

As a result of the hunger strike and the state of his health, State was taken out of solitary confinement and sent to the infirmary.

Around 1967, as a student, I met State Aurelian on his way to the university on a tricycle. He was a student at the Faculty of Letters…

(Testimony of Nicolae Zârnă – From the Resistance Documents, no. 6, A.F.D.P.R., Bucharest, 1992, pp. 279-286)