The Communists did not bend him: Prince Alexander Ghyka, Director General of Police

Alexandru Ghyka is a model of struggle. The great-grandson of Grigore Ghica V (1807-1857), ruler of Moldavia between 1849-1853 and 1854-1856, he was director-general of the police (1940-1941). He was to suffer for a long time, imprisoned in dungeons for almost a quarter of a century, from 1941 to 1964.

Orthodox, cultured, upright, patriotic, a Romanian of rare dignity, he resisted all the attacks of re-education. He spent a total of 24 years in prison. He was detained in the prisons of Jilava, Pitești, Văcărești, Aiud, Alba, Sibiu, Brașov, Ploiești, Ghencea, Galați, Giurgiu, Suceava, Gherla and was under Securitate surveillance until the end of his life (1982).

Family and studies

Alexandru Ghyka was born in Iași on 8 February 1903. His parents were Grigoriu (1858-1912), a cavalry captain, former military attaché to the legation in Vienna, from the ruling branch of Moldavia. Alexandru Ghyka’s grandfather was Colonel Alexandru Ghyka (1831-1903). His mother was Constanța, the daughter of Constantin Câmpineanu. They had an estate of 170 hectares. He was called Alecu by his relatives.

Prince Ghyka received a good education in Romanianism, dignity and ardent patriotism. He attended the Military High School of the Dealu Monastery (1914-1926), the institution where so many strong characters of the country were formed. He then graduated from the private high school in Iași, during which time he attended meetings of the National Christian Defence League. In 1926 he entered the Faculty of Law and graduated in 1930[1]. Doctor of Law, in 1932 he entered the judiciary in Tutova County, and from 1933 he was a member of the Bucharest Bar Association. Moved by patriotism and suffering for the situation of the country, he was a legionary commander, called “the Prince” by his close friends, characterised by moral uprightness, faithfulness and dignity. As he mentioned in an interrogation, in 1937 he joined the Legionary Movement, Cloșani Nest, whose leader was Alexandru Vergatti. In the criminal records, after his conviction, he appears as a man, 6 feet tall, well proportioned, with blue eyes. He was married to Maria-Eliza Orleanu. They lived at Bd. Dacia nr. 2, in Bucharest. The house no longer exists.

The prince had been under surveillance since 1940. On 14 January 1940, Maria Eliza Ghica asked the PPC to authorise Prof. Dr. Emanoil Bacaloglu to examine her husband, who was under police surveillance and admitted to Filantropia Hospital. They lived at 4 Calea Dorobanților at the time. Commissioner Doboș, of the Social Police and Information Service, gave a favourable report, and he could be released. But on 28 March 1940, the DPS, through the General Director Strati Stratilescu and the Head of the Intelligence Service, Al. Gr. Guță, ordered the permanent surveillance of Alexandru Ghyka after his release, entrusting this task to agent Popovici[2]. How could Stratilescu – who also ended up in prison – know that their common enemy was communism?

General Director of the Police

The Prince was appointed Director General of the General Directorate of Police by “Decision” No. 66519 / 21 September 1941 of the Minister of the Internal Affairs, General Constantin Petrovicescu[3].

Alecu Ghyka was Chief of Police during the National-Legionary State, having been appointed on 16 September 1940 by the Head of State, Marshal Ion Antonescu and Horia Sima. As he stated during his interrogation by the secret police, upon his appointment, the Director General of the Police, Colonel Petre Cameniță,[4] handed him several hundred thousand lei and introduced him to the structure he remembered: R. Georman (Deputy Director General), C. Maimuca (Director of the Security Police Department), Șteflea (Director of the Judicial Police), Alimănișteanu (Director of Personnel) and Bădulescu (assistant), S. Stratilescu (Head of the Detective Corps), Ovidiu Măcelaru (Head of the Passport Service), Fl. Cernăianu (Newsletter).

Under the conditions already known, by decree no. 184/1 February 1941, Alecu Ghyka was dismissed from the post of Director General of the DGP, and Constantin Maimuca, first class police inspector “in charge of the management of the Security Police Department”, suffered the same fate.

He was arrested by General Emanoil Leoveanu on 24 January 1941, after the uprising, and sentenced by the Military Court of Cassation and Justice on 5 June 1941. During the investigation, he stated that he had met Marshal Antonescu in 1940 at the house of Lieutenant Colonel Alexandru Rioșanu[5] , who was Undersecretary of State for the Internal Affairs[6]. A file in the “Legionnaires’ Lot” mentions the date of 19 June 1941, when he was detained in Văcărești. Alecu Ghyka was sentenced by the Military Court of Cassation and Justice on 5 June 1941.

Orthodox believer

While in Aiud prison, the Prince made a request to the Head of State, Marshal Ion Antonescu. It was written during Lent and dated 14 December 1941. In it, he asked to be allowed to keep in his cell an icon of St. Michael, a Holy Cross, some letters from the deceased Corneliu Zelea Codreanu (assassinated), Ioan Moța and Vasile Marin (died in Spain) and their portraits. It is another proof of the faith professed by the Prince.

A very painful event in his life took place on 2 July 1942, when he was in the penitentiary of Aiud, Alba County. It was a military demotion. The IRP Alba Iulia informed the DGP Security Police Service that there had been “the demotion of the legionary prisoner Alexandru Ghyka and Dr. Ilie Niculescu”, the first a platoon lieutenant and the second a second lieutenant, doctor of law, commander of the Corps of Răzleți (intellectuals), who behaved like Ghyka and served 22 years in prison[7]. The two refused. To carry out the order, Captain Munteanu (director of the prison) and Lieutenant Vlăduț Pompei (commander of the prison security company) were called. The two forced them to put on their uniforms and then demoted them[8].

In the communist prisons

But the height of his suffering came during the communist regime. On 5 June 1946 he was arrested in Suceava. A criminal record was drawn up on 13 June 1950, when he was assigned to 10 Logofăt Tăutu Street, Galați. He was still listed there 5 years later. In May 1948, Ghyka was imprisoned in Suceava Prison, together with Victor Biriș, the former general secretary of MI.

On 19 October 1954, a “preventive arrest warrant” was issued by the General Prosecutor’s Office of the RPR, located at 6 Mihai Vodă Street, through Prosecutor A. Călinescu. The proposal for the arrest came from the MIA, UM 0123/0. The sentence was 30 days in the MIA prison, then extensions were granted[9]. The several hundred pages of his file contain files, statements, dispatches, extensions, requests… He was detained until 29 June 1954, when an MAfI commission determined his forced residence in the commune of Schei (formerly Stăncuța Nouă), district of Insurăței, Brăila county. He was arrested again on 29 October 1954. After several arrests, he was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1954. He was charged with “crime against humanity – inhuman treatment of Jews”.

The files in the CNSAS archive contain numerous interrogation reports. For example, “minutes of interrogation” of 2 December 1954, 17.10-19.30. They questioned him about family matters. He stated that he had three children: Grigore (16 years old)[10], Ioana (15 years old)[11] and Safta (12 years old)[12]. A sister, Olga, had died in 1920[13] and a brother, Grigore[14], a retired magistrate, lived at 12 Horia Street, Uioara commune, Uioara county. Mureș, de facto deported. The other brother, Ioan Constantin[15], a lawyer, was a communist politician and lived at 8 Crețulescu Street, Bucharest[16].

On 2 December 1954, between 5.10 pm and 7.30 pm, he was interrogated by Lieutenant Major Cristea Iordache of the Investigation Department. On 15 February 1955, while in custody, he was interrogated by the same Iordache, who had become the first investigator of the MIA Investigation Department – Bucharest, when he was informed that, according to the evidence on file, he had “given orders to repress the workers’ and communist movement”[17]. He said that he had “applied the laws of the country in the anti-communist and workers’ question”. Obviously he was right. In 1955, the prince was mentioned at 10 Logofăt Tăutu Street, in the municipality of Galati. The secretaries and public prosecutors searched everywhere for all sorts of people to declare that Ghyka had persecuted them. For example, they called as witnesses Cristian Solomon, a shopkeeper from Iași, and Letzler Penchas from Ploiești, who lived at 17 Stelea Spătaru Street in Bucharest. The latter stated that Paul Cojocaru, a legionnaire who has since been convicted, was the Superintendent of the Ploiești Police Headquarters[18]. Other testimonies were given by David A. Rosenkrantz and Bercu Feldman, 11 Dionisie Lupu Street, Bucharest.

A serious piece of evidence in the case file, which the communist investigators used extensively – because it was photocopied and appeared as a leitmotif during interrogations – was a “reward list” signed by C. Maimuca and Alecu Ghyka, in which a number of policemen who had contributed to the discovery and arrest of a large and dangerous communist underground organisation in Bucharest received various sums of money[19] . For example, Detective Nicolae Lungoci, who arrested the main perpetrators in an undercover operation, received 5000 lei. The following police officers were also rewarded: D. C. Popovici (sub-inspector), I. Tăflaru (chief inspector), Ștefan Berbecaru, Andrei Duca, Constantin Stelian, Gheorghe Ionescu, Romulus Cojocaru and Constantin Rănoiu (police secretaries), Laurențiu Bărbulescu and Haralambie Lepădatu (deputy commissioners), Dobre Belderof, Constantin Comșa, Constantin Cotorcea, Victor Vamvu, Ion Achimaș (detectives) and the driver Aurel Bozinca[20]. All these police officers and agents were sent to prison. Also convicted in this group were the policemen Petre Teodorescu, Alexandru Voinescu[21] and Flavian Wirth[22], who received sentences ranging from 8 to 25 years or hard labour for life. Wirth said that Ghyka had threatened them all at a meeting with DGP police officers “that if they did not do their duty they would be shot”.

In 1955, he admitted to appointing 49 legionary police chiefs in each district town and 10 Securitate police inspectors. The investigators claimed that he had carried out “criminal activities that are also evident in the trial of the third group of former policemen, led by Maimuca C., tried in June 1944”. On 19 December 1954, Lieutenant Constantin Oprea, an investigator in the MAfI’s Investigation Department, proposed the extension of Ghyka’s detention. This was apparently approved under the signature of the head of the service, Security Lieutenant-Colonel Matusei Andreescu (Nathan Mathusievici) and the head of the directorate, Security Colonel Francisc Butyka[23].

Asked about the problem of foreign citizens, Ghyka said that it was being monitored because it was part of his duties as head of the police. He was accused of sending ten policemen to an administrative police school in Berlin. During his time as Director, he was aware of the arrest of a Soviet citizen who, when questioned by the Security Department, turned out to be an official of the USSR Legation.

In 1954, he had M. Nicolau as his lawyer.

Florentin Cernăianu[24] , a former police sub-inspector, was also interrogated and stated, as it was recorded in 1954, that Ghyka had unleashed “a real terror against communist elements and Jews”[25]. Moreover, in all his interrogations, including that of UM 0123 on his birthday, 8 February 1955, he was asked dozens of times about his anti-communist activities. The operational fund was used to pay informers, reward policemen and pay for day-trippers. Personally, he had as informers a 60-year-old lieutenant-colonel from 4 A Parfumului Street and Elena Stoenescu, the widow of a colonel. He gave each of them 5-6,000 lei a month. He took 50,000 lei per month, representation funds at his disposal, which he chose to deposit at the Legionary Movement’s cashier. On 16 December 1954, the investigator presented him with a photocopy of a document signed by him in his capacity as General Director of Police, in which he mentioned the 4,000 lei he had given to the Bacău police chief on 31 October 1940 to reward four informers on the communist problem. The communists also rummaged through old files and attached to his file a telegram dated 21 September 1940, requesting that the Jew Stern D. Moritz, a “dangerous communist”, not be allowed to enter the country. About Victor Biriș, the investigator noted that he said: “Ghyka refused to hand over the General Police Directorate”[26].

Petru M. Teodorescu[27] , a former police chief who worked in the DPS Records Office headed by Nicolae Ștefănescu, known as “Puiu”, was also investigated. Teodorescu made his mea culpa, stating that he himself was “one of those policemen who used inhuman methods in the search for communists” and that Ghyka gave the order to put communists in camps. The torturers must have promised him that they would reduce his sentence.

On 13 November 1954, he was questioned by Lieutenant Constantin Oprea, an investigator in the MIA’s Investigation Department, who proposed extending the warrant until 19 December 1954. Signed by the satrap Gh. Pintilie, Lieutenant Matusei Andreescu, Colonel Francisc Butyka and Lieutenant Iordache Cristea. One of the papers in the file was signed on 5 May 1956 by Major Eduard Csako, the Prince’s public defender being Comrade R. Păucescu[28], i.e. only Romanian citizens[29]. Moreover, these extensions continued, although no further evidence was provided. There were professional policemen who remained in prison for years without being tried, and when the communist judiciary did so, they backdated the sentences, so the decision does not surprise us.

On 21 January 1955, the Prince was in the SSI prison in Cal. Plevnei (Malmezon). He was examined by Moise Cahan, an MIA doctor, who wrote that he did not suffer from any “illness”. He was visited once a month by his wife, his brother-in-law Mihai Orleanu, his aunt Eliza Câmpineanu and his brother-in-law, Professor Victor Slăvescu, the former Governor of the National Bank of Romania. He was still here on 17 June. On 19 October 1954, while he was under investigation by the prosecutor A. Călinescu of the RPR General Prosecutor’s Office, he received a warrant for his arrest for 30 days in the MIA prison, a warrant that was extended from month to month, as I have already mentioned[30].

On 20 June 1956, his wife was instructed to collect his few personal belongings from the Jilava prison. These included a wallet, 11 photographs, a marriage certificate, a birth certificate, a key and the enormous sum of 6.10 lei. His wedding ring, which he wore with the sacredness of a man who made his living as a married man, with the inscription ‘Maria-Eliza, 19 April 1936’, was either kept or missing. Signed by the Head of Service “C”, Lieutenant Colonel Wilhelm Einhorn[31].

Irritated by the nonsense spread by the Communists, in 1956, during an interrogation on 4 July, the Prince simply refused to answer the questions of Ion Braovici, Major of Justice at the Bucharest Military Tribunal[32]. As a result, on 17 January 1957, he was sentenced to life imprisonment. He appealed. File 116/1957 is entitled “Appeal of the accused Ghica Gr. Alexandru”[33]. The Supreme Court, through its President, Colonel of Justice Al. Apostoliu, rejected the appeal on 5 April 1957. After this stage, he was imprisoned in Jilava. The security authorities were also interested in his remaining property. Thus, on 12 September 1957, Lieutenant Gheorghe Bălan, head of the militia post in the commune of Schei, J. Brăila County, declared that the prince “had nothing left in the commune”.

In an application to the Bucharest Military Tribunal dated 20 January 1963, when he was in Aiud and recalling his ordeal, the prince stated that he had been arrested on 21 January 1941 and sentenced to 15 years’ hard labour. In 1952 he was sent from Jilava to the Ghencea camp, where he was told that the MIA had sentenced him to 5 years’ hard labour. On 29 June 1954, he was released from Pitești and sentenced to two years in the commune of Schei. He was arrested again on 29 October 1954 and sentenced to life imprisonment by the Bucharest Military Tribunal on 24 January 1957, the day of the unification of the Principalities. Ghyka requested that the sentences be combined[34]. On 29 March 1961, the MIA, through Mr. Ioan Lințu of the Secretariat Directorate, also sent him a letter.

He refused re-education

Between 1962 and 1964, he spent 75 days in solitary confinement for refusing to undergo “re-education” at Aiud. The testimonies of the prisoners here – we mean those who escaped – put Ghyka on a pedestal. He was one of the few who refused re-education and held out until the end. He prayed long and hard to God and was determined to die without compromise. His fellow sufferers included Bartolomeu Anania (future Metropolitan of Cluj), Ilie Tudor (father of the artist Tudor Gheorghe), many intellectuals, and police and army officers.

A particularly important testimony was given by the former teacher and political prisoner Grigore Caraza[35] , who shared cells in the dungeons with Alecu Ghyka and former policemen. In the autumn of 1962, there were more than 250 prisoners in the 60 cells of Aiud’s “Zarca”. The most vicious militiamen were assigned to the “Zarca”. Barabas, Ardeleanu, Vasile Marcu, Pavel Moldoveanu, Popa (a platoon sergeant turned officer), Pamfil Sas, Lazăr, Szabo, Mailat (“cruel and hateful gypsy”). Their master was Colonel Gheorghe Crăciun, in office since 1958, when he replaced the sinister Istvan Koller[36] who organised the mock executions. Sometimes, every 2-3 minutes, the guards would open the “spy” (window) to see if anyone else had died. These were the extermination cells. Among them were former policemen Ion Batovici, Cantaragiu (from Suceava), Valeriu C. Iuga, Ion Lemnaru (from Dobrogea), Constantin Maimuca, Dimitrie Mântulescu (doctor of law), Constantin “Ticu” Steriu, Vasiliu (from Piatra Neamț). According to the above-mentioned memoirist, they and the future Metropolitan Bartolomeu did not resist until the end of the re-education raid. “Only those who were determined to die rather than sell their souls resisted [re-education],” writes Caraza. In 1961, some of them were taken to Bucharest to testify in trials held after 1958. To overcome their resistance, they were isolated in 20 cells, with cement on the floor and plaster on the walls, a kind of primer mixed with salt, which kept them permanently damp. The windows were nailed shut. There was no stove in the cell, just a folding bed on which you rested between 10 and 5 in the morning, and a communal toilet seat on which you were not allowed to sit. In the summer the smell was terrible. Meals consisted of a cup of salt water in the evening. Their clothing – shirt and underwear – consisted of patches and rags, just to cover their nakedness.

The former political prisoner Caraza tried to reconstruct the names of the 56 prisoners “who resisted even the last attack, trampling on their feet and defying all the methods used to humiliate human dignity”. Among them were Prince Alecu Ghyka, Deacon Ion Grebenea[37] and the Orthodox priest Dumitru Bejan from Hârlău. On 29 July 1964, the Aiud prison administration ordered chairs to be placed in the courtyard. In the front, a few dozen uneducated prisoners; in the back, 1,000 prisoners considered to be re-educated. Colonel Crăciun shouted, conceding defeat: “You illiterate, uneducated demonstrators, you have won!” Alexander Ghyka was released from Aiud by an amnesty decree on 1 August 1964. He had days and died on 10 January 1982[38].

Hunted by the secret police all his life

Even in his so-called freedom, he had no peace. There were no prison walls. They had been transformed into other “walls”. After his escape from the communist gulag, documents in the CNSAS archives show that the Prince was monitored throughout his life. On 11 June 1965, by means of a top-secret order issued by security lieutenant colonel Vasile Lupu of the 3rd Directorate of the MAfI, “the Aiud Task Force opened an informer’s action against the former director Alexandru Ghyka, for his legionary and refractory attitude, being part of the group of those who resisted until liberation”[39]. In practice, after their release, all political prisoners were followed by the security forces and the militia until the end of their days. They were part of the “communist problem”.

When he was released, he said he would move to 5 I.C. Frimu Street with his son, the doctor Grigore Ghyka. His wife lived in Galați, at 12 Logofăt Tăutu Street. After a while, the Miliția of the capital granted him a provisional certificate for three months. Later they gave him a negative opinion and he was forced to go to Galati, where the Securitate apparently transferred the “informational action” exercised on him, as reported by Mr. Ion Burac (head of Bureau 5) and Lieutenant Colonel George Popescu, head of the I service [40].

On 4 December 1964, Lieutenant Major of Securitate Gheorghe Bunescu received information from the informer Ion Florescu, who had spoken to Iulian Cetățeanu[41]. Cetățeanu had been in prison with the prince and said that he “admired his dignified behaviour”. Eugen Niculescu from Galați, 18 Grădina Veche Street, also gave information. Another source, Munteanu, told the Securitate that Ghyka worked as a fuel distributor at the Nicolae Bălcescu garage in Bucharest. The intelligence work was entrusted to Colonel Iacob Martin[42].

After 26/27 November 1940 he played a great role in saving the lives of former ministers. See for further information A. Spânu, History of the services…, p.440. Horia Sima wrote that the Marshal had three trusted men: Ică Antonescu, Colonel Nicolae Dragomir and Colonel A. Rioșanu. According to I. Coja, Rioșanu was a Freemason, an Anglophile and wanted (at Ion Antonescu’s direction) to compromise the Legionaries, ordering the police not to intervene when Jews were killed in Bucharest and in the Dudești district gipsies were looting and burning their property. Rioșanu lived on Calea Dorobanților, in the same building as Al. Ghica, the police chief.

Confessor of the Orthodox faith

On Christmas Day 1965, the informer Ioan Georgescu said that his wife was living in Galați and the prince was living in Bucharest with his children and relatives. He tried to find a place to live, even on the outskirts of the capital or in a neighbouring village, but was unsuccessful. At the same time, Lieutenant Petre Juvină and the informant Gheorghe Gruia reported the presence of several legionnaires in the church of St. Ilie Gorgani on 8 November 1965, “worshipping icons”.

According to the informants, Ghyka “did not intend to do anything against the current state of affairs, but stood by his convictions, for which he seems to be appreciated by those who share his ideas”[43]. Left without property or means of subsistence, his wife taught the children French and English, earning 2 lei an hour. An informer, who had been his cellmate in Aiud, tried to persuade him to become more pliable. He failed.

The source Ion Danielescu said on 23 November 1965 that from his conversation with the prince it emerged that he had been to church on 8 November, the feast of the archangels Michael and Gabriel, and that he “believes in the divine because faith has worked miracles for him, because if he did not believe in the divine, he might not exist today as he has done”[44].

Another source records that Ghyka met Radu Gyr in March 1965 in Amzei Square[45], but although they knew each other, Ghyka did not turn his head and speak to Radu Gyr. Obviously, this was a measure of self-protection on the part of the prince, who knew that he was being watched at every turn.

On 27 January 1967, the informer Costică Badiu spoke to Alecu Ghyka. According to him, everyone was surprised that after 23 years in prison he was still mentally and physically healthy. “All that sustained him in prison and in life was the belief that God had not abandoned him. He would never have believed that the Communists would let him out of prison and, more importantly, give him a job. He owed his release to Dej, who expressly asked for the legionnaires to be released, not just sorted out, as the Securitate intended. He had great contempt for Nichifor Crainic. He has about 750 lei a month, a clerk at the I.T.O.[46] base in Tiglina, not much, but it’s good that he’s on his own”.

He had been a “host”, a dispatcher at the I.T.B., and then a legal adviser in an office. As his books had been taken away, he read in the V.A. Urechia library in Galați. He made do with little, without a high salary, which of course required certain compromises that he did not want to make. In a moment of honesty, his political investigator told him that security decides the years of imprisonment and the court only confirms it, and that was the case with him. He spent a quarter of a century in prison.

Alecu Ghyka went to sleep in the Lord on 10 January 1982, with the same purity of soul, patriotism and dignity with which he had lived all his life. You can light a candle at the Eternitatea cemetery in Galați (221 George Coșbuc Boulevard), where he is buried. May God forgive him!

(Florin Șinca – Martyr of the Romanian Police. The Destruction of the Police under the Communist Regime, RCR Editorial, Bucharest, 2014, pp. 351-363)

[1] ACNSAS, Fond Penal, file 14468, vol. 1, f. 11. The CNSAS has 8 volumes of the Information Fund and 4 volumes of the Penal Fund. A letterhead dated 5 May 1929 on a document concerning Alecu Ghyka reads as follows Romania – Ministry of the Interior – Directorate of Police and General State Security – Police and Security Inspectorate Iasi.

[2] ACNSAS, Fond Penal, file 14468, volume 2, page 35. On 15 June 1940, Eugen Negulescu signed for the Director of the PPC.

[3] ACNSAS, Fond Penal, file 14468, vol. 3, f. 1.

[4] General Petre Cameniță (1889-1962), graduate of the Higher War College (1921), prefect of Argeș County during the dictatorship of King Charles II (1938-1940), commander of several units, including the VI Army Corps, September 1940, retired in 1945.

[5] Alexandru Rioșanu (1892, Bucharest – 1941), from the old noble family of Rioșenilor, cavalry officer, fighter in the First World War, 1919 graduate of the Cavalry School of Samur (France), graduate of an intelligence course, teacher at the Military Cavalry School, Appointed to the reserve in 1938, he was Secretary of State from 7 September 1940 to 24 January 1941, then Governor of Bucovina, a post in which he died young, on 30 August 1941, after an unsuccessful operation.

[6] In the documents, in 1940, head of service in the DGP, DPS, appears Al. Gr. Guță. On November 12, 1940, in the communist problem IR Siguranță Timișoara, the Security Police Service, informed the DGP through the regional inspector Aurel Vlad and chief commissioner A. Lupuțiu.

Also appearing is the doctor Corneliu Preda, born in 1933, Fond Penal, Dossier 14468, Vol. 1, ff. 55-57.

[7] The report was signed by Superintendent Dr. Liviu Mărgău of the Alba Iulia Police Headquarters, Regional Police Inspector Valeriu Popoviciu and the Head of the Alba Iulia Securitate, Police Sub-Inspector Dr. I. Stoichiță.

[8] ACNSAS, Fond Penal, File 14468, Vol. 2, f. 42.

[9] Ibidem, Vol.1, f.8.

[10] Grigore Ghyka, b. 14 February 1938 – d. 9 July 1992, doctor of medicine.

[11] Ioana Maria Eliza, b. 24 January 1940 – d. 1966, was married to doctor Radu Săvulescu.

[12] Safta Maria Tudora, b. 3 December 1943 – d. 23 March 1964.

[13] Olga Ghyka, b. 1897, Iași – d. 4 August 1920, Iași.

[14] Grigore Ghyka, 26 July 1899, Iași – 2 March 1966, Bucharest. Buried at Bellu.

[15] Ioan Constantin (Dinu) Ghyka, 26 December 1900 – 4 December 1969.

[16] Alecu’s file also includes Nicolae Ștefănescu, former deputy director of the DPS, born on 18 February 1907 in Pitești, son of Nicolae and Alexandrina, residing at 6 Codrilor Street, Bucharest. ACNSAS, Fond Penal, File 14468, Vol.1, f. 28.

[17] ACNSAS, Fond Penal, Dossier 14468, Vol.1, f. 5.

[18] Paul Cojocaru, born on 26 November 1906 in the commune of Șoimari, Prahova county, parents Ioan (gendarmerie platoon) and Sofia, married Stela Dumitrescu, 2 sons, lawyer at the time of arrest, former superintendent. In 1941 he was sentenced to 10 years in prison for rebellion. He was arrested on 28 August 1948, convicted of “having slaughtered Jews”. Detained at Făgăraș, Aiud, Ploiești, Gherla and Jilava, released on 21 September 1957.

[19] Ibidem, f. 12. Questioned on 29 December 1954, Maimuca was shown a photocopy of a document from which it appeared that he (deputy director general of the DPS) had signed and Ghyka had approved the rewarding of policemen for the discovery and arrest of a communist organisation.

Also Maimuca, sentenced by the Capital Court (presided over by Octav Rotărescu) to hard labour for life on 8 July 1954, detained in Sibiu, declared on 29 December 1954 that Ghyka had given 72,000 lei as a reward for anti-communist activities.

[20] Some of these policemen are mentioned in chap. 4.

[21] Alexandru Voinescu, born 29 August 1912 in Doicești, Dâmbovița county, son of Vili and Ecaterina, police commissioner, lived at 35 Pictor Obedeanu Street, Bucharest. See chap. 4.

[22] Flavian Wirth, born 22 December 1908 in Turnu Severin, former policeman, 135 bis Mihai Eminescu Street, Bucharest. See chap. 4.

[23] ACNSAS, Fond Penal, File 14468, Vol. 4, f. 19.

[24] For further information see chapter 4.

[25] ACNSAS, Fond Penal, Dossier 14468, Vol. 1, f. 9.

[26] Victor Biriș was born on 16 September 1908 in Micăsasa, Sibiu county, parents Ion and Maria, Doctor of Law, domiciled in Bucharest, Calea Dudești no. 45, then at no. 202 and 312.

Convicted on 27 May 1941 for rebellion, sentenced by the Communists in 1951, detained in Constanța, Aiud, Jilava, Iași. He was pardoned on 16 January 1963.

[27] Petru Teodorescu, son of Marin and Maria, born on 12 June 1904 in the commune of Spătărei, Teleorman county, petty bourgeois, 8 years of high school, member of the PMR, chief commissioner at the arrest on 15 October 1948, wife Olga, domiciled in Roșiorii de Vede. In 1951 he was in Făgăraș prison, then in Jilava, Valea Neagră, Făgăraș, Poarta Albă, Timișoara. He was also sent to labour camps and was sentenced to heavy imprisonment until 1966. We don’t know when he escaped. On 19 March 1955 he was in prison in Timișoara.

[28] ACNSAS, Fond Penal, File 14468, Vol. 2, f. 5.

[29] Ibidem, Vol. 4, f. 8.

[30] Ibidem, Vol. 1, f. 81. The headquarters of the Prosecutor General’s Office and of the Special Investigations Unit 0123 of the MIA was at Mihai Voda Street no. 6, i.e. the current headquarters of the IGPR. Was there ever a consecration here?

[31] ACNSAS, Fond Penal, File 14468, Vol. 4, f. 13.

[32] Not long after this, on 13 July, Lt. Col. of Justice Emil Hirsch drew attention to the fact that Ghyka was to be detained at Gheorghe Marinescu Hospital. Consulted by doctor N. Zucma, director of the hospital, he was mentioned “without disturbance”. ACNSAS, Fond Penal, File 14468, Vol. 2, f. 18.

[33] Ibid, f. 1.

[34] Ibid, f. 5.

[35] Grigore Caraza, born 1 February 1929 in Călugăreni commune, Poiana Teiului village, Suceava county, son of Vasile and Ioana, was arrested on 31 August 1949, sentenced in 1959 to 23 years of hard labour for the crime of sedition, legionary, detained in Jilava, Aiud, Constanța, Târgu Ocna, Bacău, Văcărești, domiciled in Bucharest, 216 Sebastian Street, pardoned on 31 July 1964. He wrote “Aiud bloody” and others.

[36] Stefan Koller was director of Aiud prison in 1953-1958. The case of this satrap is emblematic of the way the “civilised West” acts. In the 1970s, George Bush (the future American president himself), intervened with the President of the FRG, Nicolae Ceaușescu, to ask him to allow Istvan Koller’s son (Coller), married to the daughter of Leonte Răutu (Lev Oigeștein), to emigrate to the USA. The beizadella no longer liked communist Romania, the country where her father had helped destroy the elite.

[37] This is probably the priest Nicolae Grebene from Rășinari.

[38] “Communism is a utopia…! It is the heaviest curse that has fallen on the Romanian people! The future will prove it. You will finish us off, but you will be cursed, from generation to generation, by your children and grandchildren, to whom you closed your eyes for the sake of an idea doomed to failure! We here forgive you, but history does not forgive!” said Al. Ghyka, according to Ilie Tudor.

[39] ACNSAS, Fond Informativ, File 185010, Vol. 1, f. 12.

[40] Ibidem, f. 31.

[41] Political prisoner, born on 15 December 1921 in Craiova, arrested in 1949-1950, released, again arrested, detained until 29 July 1964, including in Aiud and Gherla.

[42] Real name Iakab Martin, Hungarian, born on 25 March 1923 in the village of Chiteni, Cluj County, security officer from 1948 to 1972, retired with the rank of colonel, died in Bucharest in 1999.

[43] ACNSAS, Fond Informativ, File 185010, Vol. 1, f. 32.

[44] Ibid, f. 29.

[45] Ibid, f. 33.

[46] This was the City Transport Company. On August 3, 1969, the informant Aurică Păun from Galați said that Ghyka said about Nicolae Ceaușescu’s attitude: “Ceaușescu risked a lot. He has gained prestige, but there are still many philosophical Romanian communists”. ACNSAS, Fond Informativ, File 185010, Vol. 1, f. 65.