Târgșor – The prison for children (en)

The autumn of 1949 heralded a storm: Nicolski and his entourage wanted to see for themselves the results of the re-education at Târgșor, and their visit was announced in advance. Swift and severe measures followed. Those considered to be leaders of the group were isolated and subjected to a harsh regime: poor food, no fresh air, slanted windows, and daily searches of their rooms. Titi Stoica, Oniga, Râmboiu, Dipșe, and others were confined to a specially prepared room accessible only through the children’s yard. About twenty others were placed in another isolation room near the gate to the inner courtyards. […]

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To our surprise, in the winter of 1948–49, nothing unfolded as we had expected. Something entirely different was at work. By spring, we could hardly understand the stagnation of the re-education efforts. First, detailed data were collected on the work of those considered spiritual mentors among the children, and files were compiled that would accompany us throughout our imprisonment. Then, the conflict between Tito and Stalin drew our attention. The administration once again employed Ibanescu; in a dining hall—also used for the town criers’ meetings—he publicly read material edited from Spark, denouncing Tito and praising Stalin. The prisoners responded with […]

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At the beginning of August, two hundred prisoners arrived, many of them unconvicted, though they had been arrested as early as May 1948. They were all legionnaires from the Prahova district and were housed in a building in the same courtyard. We met during the walk, which was not strictly supervised. Among them were engineer Constantin Slătineanu, engineer Gheorghe Dragon, Nicu Cojocaru, Tache Rodas, and many others. An attack on the “rock” was being prepared, and all the “guards” who were still free—or had recently escaped after serving their sentences—had to be neutralized first. On 15 August, the Feast of […]

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A week later, another figure from the centre appeared. A young man of about 25–30, likely recruited from among the thugs the Communists used to coerce peasants into joining the collective, his name was Burada. Two or three times a week, he would gather the students in the courtyard and, posing as a representative of the working class, lecture on communism, the USSR, Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin. His expositions were so ludicrous and over-the-top that one could almost feel the urge to slap oneself if he didn’t stop. The sessions lasted two or three hours, always ending with the […]

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The administration allowed the “chirpers” to act freely, fomenting conflicts that led to the isolation and systematic punishment of students considered representatives of various groups. This created an atmosphere of fear and selfish material ambition among the zealous. From the central authority, a communist and illegalist representative was sent to expose the children to the “truth” of the materialist-dialectical conception. “They will see for themselves the greatness of the struggle waged by the Party for our happiness, and that waged by our working class and the USSR for the establishment of the Romanian People’s Republic.” Yet, as often happens, the […]

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Those who were assigned to work were deliberately set against those who did not, as a pretext to initiate re-education, even by harsh means. Jobs, however, were limited. About twenty semi-mechanized looms, confiscated from small workshop owners during nationalization, and a similar number of manuals were available. Three hundred prisoners worked on them in two shifts. Another hundred were employed in warping, reeling, and cotton spinning, while an additional hundred worked in the kitchen, preparing meals and cleaning vegetables, bringing the total workforce to five hundred. The remaining three hundred were left idle. We petitioned the administration to either establish […]

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From autumn until spring, groups of students aged between twelve and eighteen arrived almost daily from across the country. Weak, timid, some sick, but with eyes radiating a gentle light—like fragile angels before whom one felt compelled to kneel and kiss their invisible wings, trembling as if ready to rise again to the heights from which they had descended. I felt that it was for them that God had brought me here. The largest group, numbering more than forty or fifty students, came from Cluj and Beiuș: Daniel Roman, Alexandru Panica, Ion Măduță, Gheorghe Banciu, Ion Crișan, Septimiu Râmboiu, Oprea, […]

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At the beginning of August, two hundred prisoners arrived, many of them unconvicted, despite having been arrested since May 1948. They were all legionnaires from the Prahova district and were housed in a building within the same courtyard. We met them during the walks, which were not strictly supervised. Among these newcomers were engineer Constantin Slătineanu, engineer Gheorghe Dragon, Nicu Cojocaru, Tache Rodas, and many others. An attack on the “rock” was being prepared, and all the “guards” who were still free, or had recently escaped from prison after serving their sentences, had to be neutralized first. On 15 August, […]

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The headmaster and deputy headmaster organized formal meetings at which one of the students from the Buzoi group was required to give a talk. They would work on a chapter from Marx’s Capital or Engels’ Manifesto, copying a few pages or passages. Paper and pencil—or even crayons—were provided. The warden, eager to display his conviction to the deputy headmaster rather than to convince the inmates, would ask questions to which he himself would respond with an air of superiority. I tried to evade the invitation to give an explanation. Yet I sensed the circle was closing. From time to time, […]

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The year 1949 was drawing to a close. In Târgșor Prison, nearly 800 children awaited the feast of the Nativity. The enemies of God had accomplished a unique, grim “feat” in the bloody history of communism: the construction of a prison for children. These young souls, condemned as “enemies of the people” for their dignity and tenacity, were truly the lilies of the nation. All had endured the barbaric interrogations of the Securitate and the monstrous injustices of military tribunals, receiving sentences ranging from two to twenty years. They had already experienced the hell of Jilava, suffering hunger and cold, […]

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New Year’s Eve arrived under wet and cold weather. Unlike other prisons, in Târgșor, the atmosphere of the winter holidays was preserved—not by the will of the oppressors, but by the ringing of church bells and the squealing of pigs in the nearby village, since the prison lay just a stone’s throw from its edge. Spurred on by the festive season, the jailers made a rare concession to the students, leaving the cell doors open so that prisoners not engaged in workshop duties could move freely from one room to another [1]. In the evening, during the interval between the […]

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A former monastery, a royal foundation of Vlad Țepeș, situated in a charming wooded landscape on the left bank of the river Prahova (today the surroundings have been cleared and the village has expanded to below its walls), with the church in the centre of the chapel courtyard, partly demolished by earthquakes over the years, partly transformed year by year by renovations and adjoining buildings, the prison kept the air of the places of worship of the Romanian lands. After the First World War, it became a prison for common criminals, a safety valve in case of overcrowding in the […]

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