The premeditated murder of Father Teodor Codilă

Priest Codilă, sober, in good health when he arrived at the camp, working seriously, with excellent results, felt his eyes getting weaker, asked the camp authorities to change his job because he could no longer cope: “Even in a harder position, but not where I am, because I can’t rely on my ear alone to work as a perforator”.

The officer ordered that Codilă’s request be refused.

After this report, the priest Codilă worked for another month and again asked that, if he could not be changed, the glasses he desperately needed should be bought from his salary. This request was also refused.

All the perforators were transferred to other jobs, except for Father Codilă, who was condemned to work only in the sterile, rotting place, without any explanation.

One night, Father Codilă was doing the “suturing”, pulling a crowbar on a crack in the rock. With his poor eyesight, and only by the light of a small carbide lamp, he couldn’t see another fault that threatened to break off. With the more visible fault on the surface, a second fault broke away and covered him. Alarmed, nearby crews ran in and removed the body, but did not immediately take him to hospital. They pulled him to the surface, where they kept him from 10pm until 5am the next day. He died on the way to hospital[1].

(Gabriel Bălănescu – From the Kingdom of Death. Pages from the History of the Iron Guard, Gordian Publishing House, Timisoara, 1994, p. 148)

[1] Aurel Vișovan, one of the prisoners who participated in the priest’s rescue, claims that he was already dead when he was pulled from under the rock.