Professor Ion Georgescu’s self-sacrifice in the Noua Culme camp

In the long, cold barracks[1], we were being given the induction cut, dressed in prison outfits; none of us looked like the ones we were one day ago. Soon the autumn wind penetrated us to the bone, especially the sick ones.

We were also given prison outfits, but they didn’t fit all of us. Among the unlucky ones was me.

Taken out for a walk now and then, I tried to replace the shirt with the blanket I put on my back, but the guard noticed me.

The order sounded curt:

– Take off the blanket! You’re not allowed to wear it.

Refusing to take it off, he threatened me with solitary confinement. Just the word “cell” made you cringe. I was in mortal danger, but I didn’t care…

The cells were set up in the wind and the punished prisoners were put in them naked and barefoot.

The conflict between me and the guard was observed by the university professor I. V. Georgescu, who was kidnapped by the Russians and thrown into the camp beyond the Arctic Circle. From Lățești he was also brought to “Noua Culme”.

Realising the danger I was in, arguing with an imbecile guard, he stripped off his prison short and gave it to me.[2] He knew how ill I was.

I tried to refuse him so as not to expose him to the cold, but he was so adamant that I could do nothing.

That’s how I escaped the threat of solitary confinement from which I would have no chance of escaping alive.

(Aurel Vișovan – My God, my God, why have you forsaken me, Vol. II)

1. The action takes place in the Noua Culme camp on the Danube-Black Sea Canal.

2. The gesture of the martyred teacher is one of self-sacrifice, of giving up one’s own health for the health of one’s neighbour. In the dungeon, an extra coat in winter could make the difference between life and death. Therefore, giving up a coat in such conditions was in fact proof of giving up one’s own life to save the life of one’s fellow sufferer.