The modesty and patience of Professor Manu

On the occasion of the separate distribution of Balș, Gheorghiu and Chioreanu, further changes were made to our arrangement[1] so that Manu was placed in the room to my right. I regretted the proximity of Admiral Măcelaru, but I enjoyed that of my colleague, Professor of Nuclear Physics at the University of Bucharest, who introduced me to the mysteries of the structure of the atom through the common hole in the chimney of his stove and mine.

We talked for hours, sharing our knowledge. I, in turn, introduced him to the mysteries of psychology.

Manu’s father, an adviser to the Court of Cassation, was the son of General Manu, former Chief of Staff of the Romanian Army, Minister of War and, for a time, Prime Minister. The house in which he was born was a magnificent villa modelled on the Rodin Museum in Paris, which his father and mother fell in love with during their honeymoon. After the expropriation of the estate, they could no longer afford the luxury of maintaining it, so it was bought by Aușnit, who, as the country’s largest industrialist, could afford the expense. Today it is a guest house for heads of government and crowned heads. George Manu never complained that he had to go from such a splendid villa to the Aiud barracks, where he slept on half a torn mat, covered with half a blanket, also torn apart, and endured not only inhuman hunger but also terrible cold.

The intellectual excitement caused by the exchange of knowledge made us forget all the unspeakable.

(Nicolae Mărgineanu – Testimonies of a Troubled Century, p. 206)

[1] The action takes place in Aiud prison, between 1958 and 1959, during the Easter holidays.