Riot in the Celular, 1956
The years 1955 and 1956 are marked in the history of Aiud by events whose cruelty penetrated the prison walls and became known to outsiders. Tension had reached a very high level and, as there was no room for so much suffering in the pattern God had created for human beings, an explosion was imminent. The guards would burst into the cells and take one prisoner at a time without explanation. The beatings were severe and often the victim was left lying on the floor in a pool of blood.
On one occasion, one of the beaten men grabbed the bars with his hands and screamed for help for as long as his lungs would hold him:
– Help or they’ll kill me! Help, they’ll kill me!
That was the first desperate cry for help. I was somewhere in the north wing, on the first floor, and among my cellmates I remember only Constantin Paragină, from Crucea de Sus-Panciu. We approached the bars with pale faces and began to shout with all our might:
– Hooo! Hooo! Hooo, criminals! Don’t kill us!
Without thinking too much, we looked around and grabbed boots, the toilet lid, with which we hit both the bars and the wooden blinds.
– Hooo, criminals!
Costică Paragină, more practical and perhaps more indignant than the rest of us – he had passed through Pitești – dismantled the back of an iron bed, because at that time each cell had four beds, two on top of each other, and began to beat the bars bitterly. In a few seconds, the whole cell was filled with a sinister howling; from all sides the prisoners were shouting and banging on the blinds and bars, creating an infernal din.
– Hooo, criminals!
All the guards in the cell came running out into the yard. The guards on the wall raised the alarm and in a surprisingly short time, 7, 8, 10 minutes at the most, soldiers on duty came into the yard pointing their guns at us. They were from the military unit near the prison.
Beyond the walls, groups of people approached to see what was happening to us. Like caged lions, overcome by obvious nervousness and without speaking, we moved in circles or straight lines around the small free part of the cell. The deep silence lasted for about an hour, during which time the guards returned to their posts and the guards turned back. Frightened guards, frightened administration, no one said a word, as if nothing had happened, nor were we blamed afterwards for what had happened. After a while one of the guards began to beat us, not on his own initiative of course, but our retaliation was just as quick and even stronger.
(Grigore Caraza – Bloody Aiud)