Eugen Turcanu
Encyclopedia
Eugen Ţurcanu Romania
n political prisoner, was executed for his role in the Piteşti Experiment
. Initially sentenced to seven years' imprisonment for his membership in the Iron Guard
(to which he had in fact belonged, though he seems to have had a less important role than claimed), Ţurcanu became the leader of a group of detainees whose role was to mistreat and torture other inmates, in order to "re-educate" them in the spirit of Marxism-Leninism
and obtain information that could be used by the Communist organs of repression. Although initially, his activities were at least tolerated, if not encouraged or directed by the regime
, once information about what was happening inside Romanian prisons reached the West, he was investigated, tried and sentenced to die for his deeds.
; in any case, all three are in Suceava County
. In 1940-41, he was active in Frăţia de Cruce, part of the Iron Guard, and participated in the Legionnaires' rebellion
in Câmpulung. His links to the Legionnaires were in fact rather vague, but exploited to the hilt when he was used as the chief scapegoat for the actions at Piteşti and Gherla. After 1941, when Ţurcanu was 16 and the Iron Guard was suppressed, there is no further record of his participation in activities of the Guard or its youth wing.
Ţurcanu had five brothers. He married the daughter of a lawyer and fellow Bukovina
n; they had a son. After the King Michael Coup of 23 August 1944 he began to flirt with Communism and it seems he joined a pro-communist student association, and well as the Romanian Communist Party
.
One of his victims later remembered him as "a handsome man, out of the ordinary...with brown hair tending toward blond...when he frowned, you were terrified...his well-proportioned body seemed that of a performance athlete. When he punched or slapped you, he knocked you to the ground. When he got mad he was so crude that he destroyed everything in his path, like a ferocious killer. Moreover, he was unusually intelligent and had an extraordinary memory... But he was so Satanized you didn't know what to think of him..."
For almost three years he took courses at the University of Iaşi Faculty of Law, becoming a member of the local Communist organisation's politburo and being sent to Bucharest
to pursue a career in diplomacy. However, his past was uncovered and he was arrested on 25 June 1948; through sentence nr. 137, handed down on 5 February 1949 by the Iaşi Military Tribunal, he was sentenced to seven years' correctional imprisonment for Legionary activity.
. There, a group of prisoners detained for their past Iron Guard sympathies, led by Alexandru Bogdanovici, started various initiatives meant to win the favour of the Communist authorities. Among these was the preparation of a memorial addressed to the party leadership promising a full cessation of political activity in exchange for their release, and the founding (with Ţurcanu's involvement) at the beginning of 1949 of Organizaţia Deţinuţilor cu Convingeri Comuniste (ODCC, "Organization of Convinced Communist Detainees").
He was transferred to Piteşti prison on 22 April 1949 and, once there, tried to attract the notice of prison director Dumitrescu, with whom he only managed to speak at the beginning of June, when the latter was inspecting cells. After discussions with him, Ţurcanu was recruited as an informer to the prison management, in the process benefiting from a much more favourable treatment than that accorded to ordinary prisoners: extra food, freedom of movement inside the prison, etc. During the summer of 1949 he identified, with the help of his collaborators, those detainees who served as leaders or role models for the others; the prison administration isolated these men in a separate section.
The idea of applying violent treatments on prisoners appeared after discussions with director Dumitrescu in November 1949. Subsequently, Ţurcanu directly participated in the beatings of several hundred detainees. Many of these were nearly killed as a result of the beatings administered by Ţurcanu and his acolytes.
On 18 August 1951 he was transferred to Gherla prison, where he continued his activity as torturer on a reduced scale until that December. On 19 December he was transferred to Jilava
.
and of the Danube-Black Sea Canal
saboteurs. The indictment, drawn up by a military prosecutor, claimed that the activities of the accused came about following an initiative by Horia Sima
, whose alleged intention it was to demonstrate to the West that detainees were mistreated and killed in Communist prisons, in order to compromise the regime and the Romanian government. Ţurcanu was accused of having become head of the Câmpulung Frăţia de Cruce in 1945, then of having founded the "National Liberal Christian Youth" (Tineretul Naţional Liberal Creştin), later joining the Union of Communist Youth
. The indictment recognises that some prisoners died, including Corneliu Niţă, Eugen Gavrilescu, Gheorghe Şerban and Gheorghe Vătăşoiu, but also Bogdanovici, "who had been subjected to one of the most horrible extermination regimes".
On 10 November 1954, Ţurcanu, together with a majority of his fellow defendants, was sentenced to death. He and sixteen accomplices were shot
on 17 December, and his death was recorded at Jilava town hall on 5 October 1962. In 1957, the regime partially admitted its own involvement in the Piteşti Experiment by imprisoning lower-level officials–employees of the prison, including its director.
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
n political prisoner, was executed for his role in the Piteşti Experiment
Pitesti prison
The Pitești prison was a penal facility in Pitești, Romania, best remembered for the brainwashing experiment carried out by Communist authorities in 1949-1952...
. Initially sentenced to seven years' imprisonment for his membership in the Iron Guard
Iron Guard
The Iron Guard is the name most commonly given to a far-right movement and political party in Romania in the period from 1927 into the early part of World War II. The Iron Guard was ultra-nationalist, fascist, anti-communist, and promoted the Orthodox Christian faith...
(to which he had in fact belonged, though he seems to have had a less important role than claimed), Ţurcanu became the leader of a group of detainees whose role was to mistreat and torture other inmates, in order to "re-educate" them in the spirit of Marxism-Leninism
Marxism-Leninism
Marxism–Leninism is a communist ideology, officially based upon the theories of Marxism and Vladimir Lenin, that promotes the development and creation of a international communist society through the leadership of a vanguard party over a revolutionary socialist state that represents a dictatorship...
and obtain information that could be used by the Communist organs of repression. Although initially, his activities were at least tolerated, if not encouraged or directed by the regime
Communist Romania
Communist Romania was the period in Romanian history when that country was a Soviet-aligned communist state in the Eastern Bloc, with the dominant role of Romanian Communist Party enshrined in its successive constitutions...
, once information about what was happening inside Romanian prisons reached the West, he was investigated, tried and sentenced to die for his deeds.
Early life and first trial
Ţurcanu was born either in Păltiniş, Dârmoxa (today part of Broşteni), or, according to his own assertion, Câmpulung MoldovenescCâmpulung Moldovenesc
Câmpulung Moldovenesc is a city located in Suceava County, which is in the historical Bukovina region of Moldavia in North Eastern Romania...
; in any case, all three are in Suceava County
Suceava County
Suceava is a county of Romania, in the historical region of Moldavia and few villages in Transylvania, with the capital city at Suceava.- Demographics :...
. In 1940-41, he was active in Frăţia de Cruce, part of the Iron Guard, and participated in the Legionnaires' rebellion
Legionnaires' Rebellion and Bucharest Pogrom
The Legionnaires' rebellion and the Bucharest pogrom occurred in Bucharest, Romania, between 21 and 23 January 1941.As the privileges of the Iron Guard were being cut off by Conducător Ion Antonescu, members of the Iron Guard, also known as the Legionnaires, revolted...
in Câmpulung. His links to the Legionnaires were in fact rather vague, but exploited to the hilt when he was used as the chief scapegoat for the actions at Piteşti and Gherla. After 1941, when Ţurcanu was 16 and the Iron Guard was suppressed, there is no further record of his participation in activities of the Guard or its youth wing.
Ţurcanu had five brothers. He married the daughter of a lawyer and fellow Bukovina
Bukovina
Bukovina is a historical region on the northern slopes of the northeastern Carpathian Mountains and the adjoining plains.-Name:The name Bukovina came into official use in 1775 with the region's annexation from the Principality of Moldavia to the possessions of the Habsburg Monarchy, which became...
n; they had a son. After the King Michael Coup of 23 August 1944 he began to flirt with Communism and it seems he joined a pro-communist student association, and well as the Romanian Communist Party
Romanian Communist Party
The Romanian Communist Party was a communist political party in Romania. Successor to the Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave ideological endorsement to communist revolution and the disestablishment of Greater Romania. The PCR was a minor and illegal grouping for much of the...
.
One of his victims later remembered him as "a handsome man, out of the ordinary...with brown hair tending toward blond...when he frowned, you were terrified...his well-proportioned body seemed that of a performance athlete. When he punched or slapped you, he knocked you to the ground. When he got mad he was so crude that he destroyed everything in his path, like a ferocious killer. Moreover, he was unusually intelligent and had an extraordinary memory... But he was so Satanized you didn't know what to think of him..."
For almost three years he took courses at the University of Iaşi Faculty of Law, becoming a member of the local Communist organisation's politburo and being sent to Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
to pursue a career in diplomacy. However, his past was uncovered and he was arrested on 25 June 1948; through sentence nr. 137, handed down on 5 February 1949 by the Iaşi Military Tribunal, he was sentenced to seven years' correctional imprisonment for Legionary activity.
In prison
Ţurcanu was first imprisoned at SuceavaSuceava
Suceava is the Suceava County seat in Bukovina, Moldavia region, in north-eastern Romania. The city was the capital of the Principality of Moldavia from 1388 to 1565.-History:...
. There, a group of prisoners detained for their past Iron Guard sympathies, led by Alexandru Bogdanovici, started various initiatives meant to win the favour of the Communist authorities. Among these was the preparation of a memorial addressed to the party leadership promising a full cessation of political activity in exchange for their release, and the founding (with Ţurcanu's involvement) at the beginning of 1949 of Organizaţia Deţinuţilor cu Convingeri Comuniste (ODCC, "Organization of Convinced Communist Detainees").
He was transferred to Piteşti prison on 22 April 1949 and, once there, tried to attract the notice of prison director Dumitrescu, with whom he only managed to speak at the beginning of June, when the latter was inspecting cells. After discussions with him, Ţurcanu was recruited as an informer to the prison management, in the process benefiting from a much more favourable treatment than that accorded to ordinary prisoners: extra food, freedom of movement inside the prison, etc. During the summer of 1949 he identified, with the help of his collaborators, those detainees who served as leaders or role models for the others; the prison administration isolated these men in a separate section.
The idea of applying violent treatments on prisoners appeared after discussions with director Dumitrescu in November 1949. Subsequently, Ţurcanu directly participated in the beatings of several hundred detainees. Many of these were nearly killed as a result of the beatings administered by Ţurcanu and his acolytes.
On 18 August 1951 he was transferred to Gherla prison, where he continued his activity as torturer on a reduced scale until that December. On 19 December he was transferred to Jilava
Jilava
Jilava is a commune in Ilfov county, Romania, near Bucharest. It is composed of a single village, Jilava.The name derives from a Romanian word of Slavic origin meaning "humid place". Jilava was the location of a fort built by King Carol I of Romania, as part of the capital's defense system...
.
Second trial
Ţurcanu and the group of torturers he led were tried in September-November 1954; the head judge was Alexandru Petrescu, who had also presided at the trials of Iuliu ManiuIuliu Maniu
Iuliu Maniu was an Austro-Hungarian-born Romanian politician. A leader of the National Party of Transylvania and Banat before and after World War I, he served as Prime Minister of Romania for three terms during 1928–1933, and, with Ion Mihalache, co-founded the National Peasants'...
and of the Danube-Black Sea Canal
Danube-Black Sea Canal
The Danube – Black Sea Canal is a canal in Romania which runs from Cernavodă on the Danube to Agigea and Năvodari on the Black Sea...
saboteurs. The indictment, drawn up by a military prosecutor, claimed that the activities of the accused came about following an initiative by Horia Sima
Horia Sima
Horia Sima was a Romanian fascist politician. After 1938, he was the second and last leader of the fascist and antisemitic para-military movement known as the Iron Guard.-In Romania:...
, whose alleged intention it was to demonstrate to the West that detainees were mistreated and killed in Communist prisons, in order to compromise the regime and the Romanian government. Ţurcanu was accused of having become head of the Câmpulung Frăţia de Cruce in 1945, then of having founded the "National Liberal Christian Youth" (Tineretul Naţional Liberal Creştin), later joining the Union of Communist Youth
Union of Communist Youth
The Union of Communist Youth was the Romanian Communist Party's youth organisation, modelled after the Soviet Komsomol. It aimed to cultivate young cadres into the party, as well as to help create the "new man" envisioned by communist ideologues.-History:Founded in 1922, the UTC went underground...
. The indictment recognises that some prisoners died, including Corneliu Niţă, Eugen Gavrilescu, Gheorghe Şerban and Gheorghe Vătăşoiu, but also Bogdanovici, "who had been subjected to one of the most horrible extermination regimes".
On 10 November 1954, Ţurcanu, together with a majority of his fellow defendants, was sentenced to death. He and sixteen accomplices were shot
Execution by shooting
Execution by shooting is a form of capital punishment whereby an executed person is shot by one or more firearms. It is the most common method of execution worldwide, used in about 70 countries, with execution by firing squad being one particular form...
on 17 December, and his death was recorded at Jilava town hall on 5 October 1962. In 1957, the regime partially admitted its own involvement in the Piteşti Experiment by imprisoning lower-level officials–employees of the prison, including its director.