The departure of Țurcanu and Popa Țanu

Five or six months after the arrival of the students from Pitești in Gherla, during which time the demolitions and the work in the workshops continued, other categories of prisoners were brought here, with different beliefs and workers specialised in a particular trade (I have already said that everything that was made in the workshops of Gherla: carpentry, mechanics, painting, button making, etc., was for the Soviet army. The work was supervised by the organisational office, the head of which was Țurcanu).

One day, at the beginning of the summer of 1952, when I was alone in my room, Măgirescu, who was playing the barber, called me into the barber’s shop; there we were alone, and he told me that Țurcanu and his closest collaborators were there: Popa Țanu, Mărtinus, Livinschi, Caba, Dumitrescu, Pop, Popescu Aristide, Pătrăscanu, Lică Păvăloaia and the others, had left Gherla. When I asked if they would be released, he said he knew nothing.

The departure of Țurcanu and his comrades was a great day for us, those of us who experienced the debunkings, and we will never forget it.

Most of us, especially those who worked in the workshops, were convinced that the demasures would not be repeated. That’s why I felt so relieved.

Some of us believed that they had been taken to Bucharest and rewarded for their “work”. In fact, nobody knew what had happened to them. Later it was rumoured that they had been taken away in a van at night.

Some, those in the Pitești torture committees, like it: Măgirescu (legionary), Titus Leonida, Diaca and Dobre (non-legionaries), although close collaborators of Țurcanu, did not leave, a fact that confused many, especially since they had probably committed no crimes.

What had happened to Țurcanu and his collaborators was not known in Aiud until 1956.

(Dumitru Bordeianu – Confessions from the Swamp of Despair)