“Bălan, an admirable man, kind, calm, bubbly, always ready to help”
I have heard and known many stories of extraordinary lives, but a few have been etched in my memory, where they will remain forever, along with my deep respect for people with such tragic fates. One of them is that of Iulică Bălan. He was a student at the military high school in Tg. Mureș, who had taken refuge in Timișoara after the capitulation of Transylvania in 1940. He joined a circle of the Brotherhood of the Cross, which belonged to the Legionary Youth, out of the idealistic impulses that every young man feels.
On Sundays, when they were on holiday in the city, some of them would meet in the attic of the building, where they had set up a corner with photos of Legionary leaders and sang Legionary songs. Someone noticed that they were not going out, which had never happened before, and followed them. As a result, they were discovered in their hiding place in the attic and arrested. It was after the rebellion, when Marshal Antonescu had angrily launched an attack on the legionary movement, and he was naturally very upset when he was informed of the existence of a legionary nucleus made up mainly of future officers, since by law the army was apolitical.
He also ordered the exemplary punishment of the seventh-grader Bălan, who, together with four or five others, was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment and sent to Aiud in 1942. There he worked in the Stoica workshop, then in a forestry operation 150 km from the prison, where about 200 prisoners worked under the supervision of three guards.
He saw how the communists and all the criminals and gangsters were amnestied immediately after 23 August 1944, but he and the legionnaires remained in prison. He had many opportunities to escape, but he did not, and he understood that he could not expect any leniency from the Communists, because their regime was hateful, anti-Romanian and anti-human. He then worked in the carpentry department of the prison factory. As the years went by, he heard from some legionnaires who had parachuted into the country and ended up in prison, as well as from some friends who had helped the parachutists to reach the exact place where the Securitate battalions were waiting for them, thanks to their betrayal by the very Anglo-Americans who had trained and organised them. Realising that the Americans would not release him either, he prepared himself for a long prison sentence.
He was “released” in 1957 after serving 15 years. Imprisoned at the age of 17, he was released from Aiud at the age of 32, but he was not allowed to go to his parents somewhere in the Târnave, but was sent by “delegate” to a commune in Bărăgan, with compulsory residence, like all former political prisoners from that settlement. In fact, he was still in prison, in a less severe labour camp, because he had to work to support himself on the state farm next to the settlement, especially as his old and impoverished parents were unable to help him. In addition, he was not allowed to leave the settlement except with special permission and in special cases, otherwise he risked a 5-year sentence, and his presence was often checked and controlled by the settlement militia.
In 1958 the Securitate arrested him again and put him in my cell. In the course of these arrests, they picked up all those who were in this kind of labour camp, with the DO. So we were all taken back to the prisons. Iulică Bălan was accused of listening to “Europa Liberă” radio and commenting on it. Bălan, of course, was sentenced, continued to suffer and, God willing and in good health, was released in 1964 after 22 years, during which time Antonescu disappeared from the country, the king was exiled, the communist regime was consolidated by the Soviets and so many political, social, economic and moral changes took place. Meeting him brought us both joy and sadness. The joy of meeting a fellow sufferer, because a certain emotional bond had been created between the “old” prisoners, cemented by common suffering, but also by the sadness of meeting in such places of dark memory, well known to us. We reminisced about common memories of Aiud, we talked about friends and acquaintances, we learned what had happened in Aiud after my departure in 1953. Bălan, an admirable man, kind, quiet, bubbly, always ready to help, faithful and of high moral character, was always ready to comfort, to give pieces of advice, to sew something for someone, and he impressed us all with his impeccable manners.
Bălan entered the gates of Aiud at the age of 17 and left them at the age of 39, after 22 years. For what had a man’s life been destroyed?
(Aurel Sergiu Marinescu – Prisoner in his own country, Vol. I, ed. Du Style, 1996, pp. 238-240)