The diet at Zarca

Caught up in the whirlwind of spiritual life in the cell, we don’t notice enough that the food here in Zarca is terribly poor. There is nothing substantial in the various soups we are given. We only tasted cabbage, potatoes or beans, but pieces or grains of these did not appear at the bottom of our rusty scales. As for the guts or the scraps (our only proteins up to now), they have disappeared completely. And this regime is getting harder and harder. Of course, it seems obvious to us that the Zarca is different from the rest of the prison, but not really! How long can you survive on a bowl of soup juice and a piece of polenta made from hot maize flour? It’s obvious that the retaliatory offensive against us has begun.

Outside, after my release from prison, I would learn from Father Alexandru Nica the secret of our starvation regime in Zarca during re-education. On Easter Day 1972, in the parish house of Tureni (where I was then a priest), he told me what was happening in the kitchen of Aiud: the food intended for the Zarca prisoners was simply sifted in the presence of the officer on duty, so that only the liquid ended up in our canteen. By starving us for two years, Colonel Crăciun and the communist regime hoped to break our will for honour and dignity. But in most cases, the voice of conscience was louder than the voice of the stomach. We were subjected to starvation training, like Pavlov’s dogs, but the Bolsheviks forgot or didn’t believe in the power of the spirit, which eventually prevailed.

(Pr. Liviu Brânzaș – Raza din catacombă)