“I consider this to be the true account” – Sandra de Hillerin’s letter to clarify the circumstances in which Mircea Vulcănescu fell ill in Jilava

Sandra, one of Mircea Vulcănescu’s daughters, sent the letter to Ștefan J. Fay for documentation.

Dear Ișta,

In 1952, Mircea Vulcănescu was transferred from Aiud prison to Jilava prison for an investigation (which, in fact, concerned another Vulcănescu, named Ion).

At the time, the prisoners at Jilava were subjected to relentless abuse, with the clear intention of exterminating them (daily beatings, starvation, cramming as many prisoners as possible into small, airless cells, or their total isolation in the cold, dark and damp for long periods, torture with or without investigations and non-existent medical care).

One day, Mircea Vulcănescu was taken out of his cell with six other detainees. They were taken to the courtyard, where they were made to run around in a circle with blankets over their heads while four torturers beat them savagely with bats and rubber batons.

One of the men broke one of his ribs, which pierced his pleura. Then they were stripped and thrown into cell 16, which was called the “Neagra” cell. It was a cellar room that was bitterly cold and had a wet floor. They were kept there for 26 hours without food and unable to breathe except against the wet walls.

First, they tried to keep warm by running through the dirt from corner to corner and rubbing each other’s backs until they were too exhausted to go on and had to lie down on the floor. Then Dad told them what was going on.

“If we’re going to die here, let’s save the youngest one first.” “Let’s lay him over our bodies!” And that’s what they did. Thankfully, the others managed to escape with their lives.

My father, who had a broken rib and a punctured pleura, was stuck to the wet cement and fell ill with tuberculosis.

He was brought back to Aiud, where he didn’t get any more rest and died in agony on 28 October of the same year.

I believe this account to be true, as it was told to me by Ionel Mociorniță and is similar to what Puiu Teodorescu told his mother. Both of them were among the seven prisoners who were tortured at that time, together with my father.

Camiluș Demetrescu told me that many years later, at the Brâncovenescu Hospital, he met a lab worker called Lăzărescu who had tuberculosis. He told him (in great secrecy) that he was the “young man” that Father, together with the other five prisoners, had taken in his arms to save him from death.

Take care, Sandra.

(Sandra de Hillerin, letter reproduced in Excelsior magazine, year VII, no. 11, Cluj-Napoca, 1998, p. 72 apud Ilie Rad, De amicitia. Letters sent by Ștefan J. Fay to Ilie Rad (1988-2009). Homage volume on Ștefan J. Fay’s 90th birthday, Accent Publishing House, Cluj-Napoca, 2009, pp. 199-200)