Prisoner K 9320: Mircea Vulcănescu
Mircea Vulcănescu, writer, philosopher, sociologist, economist, encyclopaedic mind and complex personality of the ’27 generation, died in Aiud prison on 29 October 1952.
Between 1940 and 1941, he held important posts in the national administration, and on 27 January 1941 he was appointed Under-Secretary of State at the Ministry of Public Finance, where he remained until 23 August 1944. In recognition of his services to the Romanian State, he was awarded honours and major national decorations and, after 23 August 1944, he became Director of the Public Debt Service, also at the Ministry of Public Finance.
Sentenced to eight years’ hard labour on 9 October 1946, he remained in prison until January 1948, when, after a lengthy appeal, the court confirmed his 1946 sentence.
In the criminal file 232, volume 23, Alexandru Marcu and others, of the ACNSAS (file with documents concerning Lot II of the government of Ion Antonescu, which included, among others, Alexandru Marcu and Mircea Vulcănescu as convicted war criminals), there is the prison file no. 64/1952 P of prisoner K9320/1948 Vulcănescu Mircea. Arrested without a warrant on 30 August 1946, sentenced on 20 October 1948, his file contains his date of birth, parents, occupation at the time of his arrest, assets at the time of his arrest (opposite: nothing), social origin, education. At the bottom of the first page is his left index fingerprint and signature.
On page 9 of the file we read a note from the surveillance authority with two contradictory statements: one is “Mircea Vulcănescu, a career civil servant, has not been involved in politics” and the other is: “Mircea Vulcănescu was part of the Antonescu government that declared war on Soviet Russia on 22 June and is considered a war criminal. His name was submitted to the People’s Tribunal in March 1945. Since then he has been suspended from his duties under the “Law for the Purification of the State Apparatus”.
As early as September 1947, Mircea Vulcănescu had contracted tuberculosis. This is evidenced by the contents of file 1 of the case file: on 22 September 1947, the Directorate of State Security submitted to the General Directorate of Prisons petition No. 29243/1947, in which Margareta Vulcănescu from Bucharest (wife) requested medical assistance and special treatment for her husband Mircea Vulcănescu, who was detained in Aiud Prison.
On page 38 of the file, the Bucharest Court, 4th Criminal Section, issued the summons dated 14.04.1948, “summoning Mircea Vulcănescu from Aiud Prison to appear before the Court on 13 May 1948 as accused of war crimes”.
File 39 contains a document dated 8 July 1947: the Aiud Main Penitentiary sends a note to the Directorate General of Penitentiaries – Guidance Service – Bucharest: “Pursuant to your order No. 29579/1947, we have the honour to enclose the report of the attending physician of this penitentiary on the state of health of the war criminal prisoner Vulcănescu Mircea in this penitentiary”. The report is missing from the file, but on the back of a note dated 20 June 1947 I have deciphered with a magnifying glass some pencil notes, probably made by the prison doctor. They record the deteriorating health of Mircea Vulcănescu, whose body would be ravaged by tuberculosis throughout his imprisonment and until his death in 1952. These medical records are: Blood pressure 17 1/2 – 10, progressive weakness – lost 40 kg, extreme weakness, trembling of the fingers, exophthalmos, tachycardia – pulse 90 at rest. Requires basal metabolic examination, appropriate diet”.
Nothing official, just these notes in the corner of a page. The prisoner Mircea Vulcănescu, who has been in pre-trial detention for a year, will have to carry his cross to the end. With all his inexorable illness.
What do the documents in the prison file of Mircea Vulcănescu in volume 23 of the criminal file 323 Alexandru Marcu et al (lot II of the convicts of the former government of Ion Antonescu) tell us next?
An address from the Directorate of Penitentiaries and Preventive Institutes – Guidance Service – to Aiud Penitentiary (dated 20 September 1947) shows that Mircea Vulcănescu is recognised as ill and is authorised to receive medicine and an additional 7 kg of food for the month of September, as well as medical care. These authorisations were mostly formal. The prisoner received nothing.
On page 44 is the verdict (one of the most important documents) in which Mircea Vulcănescu is sentenced in the same batch as Professor Alexandru Marcu, together with 15 other convicts in the trial of Ion Antonescu: ,Case no. 1921/ 1947 – Bucharest Court of Appeal, Ninth Section – Conclusion. Criminal Decision No. 27 – Public Session of 6 February 1948 – The Court, for the reasons which will be seen, after hearing the conclusions of the Public Prosecutor, decides, in the name of the law: sentences Mircea Vulcănescu, aged 44, currently remanded in custody in Văcărești Prison, former civil servant in the Ministry of Finance, to 8 (eight) years’ imprisonment for war crimes.
It also sentences the defendant to 3 years’ rigorous imprisonment and 8 years’ civic degradation.
In accordance with Article 101 of the Criminal Code, the defendant shall serve the maximum sentence of 8 years’ imprisonment”.
The preventive arrest warrant issued by the Bucharest Court of Appeal, Section IX, on 6 February 1948, unfortunately clarifies the episode of the arrest without warrant of 30 August 1946; I quote from the document on page 48: Considering that, in the same decision, the Court also ordered the preventive arrest of the accused on the basis of Article 371, according to which, in the event of a conviction, the Court may, at its discretion, order the preventive arrest of the accused if he is not being held on remand on the basis of a warrant issued in the same case. Considering that, in the present case, the accused has already been remanded in custody in the Văcărești Prison, but without a warrant having been issued against him by Section VIII of this Court, which had ordered his arrest by the criminal decision quashed under no. 160 of 9 October 1946, and considering that, in view of the sentence imposed, the preventive arrest of the accused is imposed for fear of his disappearance in order to evade the execution of the sentence in the event of his release, we order the preventive arrest of the accused Mircea Vulcănescu, aged 43.
We order all the agents of the public power, in accordance with the law, to arrest the accused and to take him to the preventive detention of the Văcărești Prison in Bucharest”.
Useless, formally, because the accused had been in preventive detention in Văcărești Prison for a long time, sick and tormented, without a warrant.
The fact that there are contradictory medical documents is outrageous. On page 32 of the file, on the back of the transfer sheet for the Aiud Penitentiary ambulance service, issued on 17 November 1947 for the purpose of “transferring judicial business”, a certificate is printed: “I, the undersigned ….., doctor of Aiud Penitentiary, certify that, having examined the prisoner Vulcănescu Mircea on his departure, I have found that he does not suffer from any infectious-contagious disease”. Another contradictory document on page 13 is a “Copy of the Medical Report – Medical Service of Jilava Prison”: “We report to you that today, 10.IV.1951, we examined the political prisoner Vulcănescu Mircea and found that he suffers from left pleurisy with a bad general condition. It is recommended that he be admitted to the Văcărești Hospital”. Signed: Doctors, Jilava Prison.
Despite being so ill, suffering from tuberculosis, he was taken from Aiud Prison by the Securitate on 20 April 1951.
On 25 April 1951, the General Directorate of Prisons of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Records Service, address no. 9947 to the General Directorate of State Security: Jilava Prison, in report 8540/1951, sent us a medical report stating that the political prisoner Vulcănescu Mircea was suffering from left pleurisy with a bad general condition, for which it was recommended that he be admitted to Văcărești Hospital. Vulcănescu Mircea Aurel File no. 12.1.1951, son of Mihail and Maria, political internee, in Jilava Prison since 13.1.1951.
In view of the above, please give us your opinion on the internment of the above prisoner at the Văcărești Penitentiary Hospital for treatment’.
The evasive reply will hasten the death of Mircea Vulcănescu: “Please provide full reports and your opinion on the transfer from Jilava Prison to Văcărești Penitentiary Hospital of the prisoner Vulcănescu Mircea Aurel, civil servant, son of Mihai and Maria, suffering from pleurisy”.
The letter of 26 May 1951 from the General Directorate of Security – Bucharest Region cuts off any possibility of monitoring lung disease: “In response to your order of 10 May 1951, we report the following: since the personal file of the above-mentioned person is in the possession of the General Directorate of State Security, without knowing the reason for his detention, we cannot authorise his transfer from Jilava Prison to Văcărești Prison Hospital”.
The inexorable decision of the General Directorate of State Security sealed the philosopher’s fate. On page 6 of the file, in an address dated 15 June 1951, we read: “We inform you that we have the honour to inform you of our unfavourable opinion on the transfer and internment of Vulcănescu Mircea Aurel to the Văcărești Penitentiary Hospital”.
The end was near. The executioners condemned him to death, as the above exchange of addresses shows. And so that everything is “by the book”, the Jilava Penitentiary issues a transfer sheet (for the use of prison carriages) which states: “Prisoner Vulcănescu Mircea Aurel with no. In the upper left corner of the completed form is printed: “Consulted and found healthy”, despite the medical findings.
On 29 October 1952, after long physical and moral suffering, the man who had given “The Romanian Dimension of Existence” died. Here are some documents related to his death.
1) Letter from the Aiud Main Penitentiary to the Supreme Court, Criminal Division, dated 8 November 1952: “We enclose the original report No. 877 of 3 November of the medical service of this penitentiary, which states that the prisoner Vulcănescu Mircea Aurel, sentenced to 8 years of hard labour on the basis of decision No. 1510 of 7 August 1948, with an arrest warrant of October 1948 issued by the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Bucharest for war crimes, died in this penitentiary on 29 October 1952”.
2) Report of the Aiud Main Prison dated 31 October 1952, sent to the General Directorate of Prisons: We inform you that on 29 October 1952 the prisoner Vulcănescu Mircea died in this penitentiary, file number 9320/48 Aiud, suffering from myocarditis and double pleurisy.
We enclose herewith an inventory of the effects which belonged to the above-named, with the request that you kindly instruct us as to what to do with these effects, and whether we may notify the family of the above-named”.
The last page of Mircea Vulcănescu’s prison file records the date of his release, as well as the manner and method of his release: Died suffering from myocarditis and double pleurisy T.B.C. Prisoner K 9320, Vulcănescu Mircea…
(Ioana Diaconescu – România literară, no. 47 of 2005)