Vasile Dudeanu

"I: (…) they started threatening us: „On your knees! Line up one after another!” and I don't know what else, and then chased us: „Forward, march!” They made us walk from the railway station to the prison, to Poarta Albă. R: How long did you have to walk? I: Oh! We didn't walk much, the prison was near to the railway station. We walked for about fifteen minutes! R: I see. I: Yes. So we walked for a while and then got inside an enclosure, which was surrounded by a barbed wire fence and lookout posts, where they let us go. When I found myself under the free blue sky, I thought I was half free. I was no longer locked in a cell, I was outside in the yard. After that, after forcing us inside, they lined us up in the middle of the yard and started splitting us up. They assigned me to a barracks. The barracks were marked: A, B, C... you know? They assigned me to a C barracks. I climbed into bed and went to sleep. In the morning, when the program started, they took us outside into the yard and lined us all up, all detainees who had just arrived. They started asking us questions: What is your profession? What sentence did you receive? I was wise not to say I was a student. I said: „I'm a carpenter, sir!” R: What do you mean you were wise? What would have happened, had you told them you were actually a student? I: I would have had to work on the land, pushing wheelbarrows with earth. R: So a much harder work! I: Exactly, a harder work! But as a craftsman, they needed people like this."

"We weren't given any water except for a bucket of water per day, which would of course get dirty - we would take turns: someone one day, someone else tomorrow - and when the bucket was full, we would take it outside. When you grabbed the handles, you would get dirty from all that dirt, no matter how much you tried not to shake it, it was still full, so you got dirty anyways. We were only allowed outside half an hour a day for a walk. They would take us outside in the prison yard of Jilava, make us stand in a line, one behind the other, without looking to the left or right and without talking to each other. We would walk around in circles for half an hour together with the guard. If you dared to open your mouth, the guard would swear at you and snap you, and would then get everybody back inside. We were young and we managed to cope. But there were also older people who would get tired. There were priests, ministers, officers, doctors, all kind of people of all ages."