The torture of witnessing the tortures of others

Apart from the physical torture caused by the position one had to hold, there was another, more terrible torture, that of witnessing the torture of others. This mental torture must have led to the downfall of many more people than the physical torture.

As we sat and thought, one by one they were taken from the rack and beaten in front of us, telling us that each one of them would come back to us.

If we had known when we would be next, we might have been calmer, but this state of waiting was terrifying and wore on our nerves. They kept coming up with new methods of torture and we didn’t know what to expect next. We wanted our turn to come as soon as possible, not to see what was happening before our eyes. One by one, overwhelmed by despair, people began to give in. As if these tortures were not enough, they began to humiliate us, trying to destroy any trace of dignity in us.

The diabolical idea of witnessing the torment of others, combined with various methods of humiliation and total depersonalisation of the victims, contributed to the downfall of most of them.

(Nicolai Popa – Descent into Hell. The Pitești Phenomenon)