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Pitesti Prison: The Inferno of Communist Experiments

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• Southern Romania

Diana Condrea

Discover our Communist Romania Tour and Communist Bucharest Tour

Pitesti Prison was one of the many extermination sites used by the communist regime in its violent and total occupation of Romania . But, it’s the unimaginable physical and psychological tortures used here that single it out as a space of absolute evil . So dark that death appeared to be the best escape out of the Pitesti experiment.

While such a landmark might not be on your list of places to see in Romania, we recommend you don’t miss it. It’s a sad, yet necessary history lesson for us all.

Interrogation room

Read also  Ceausescu Mansion: Visit to Understand Communist History

Pitesti experiment: the ‘most terrible act of barbarism’

As always, the victims were the ‘enemies of the state’. Their only guilt was the opposition to the forced communist regime, a vague accusation used to arrest or deport hundreds of thousands . In this particular case, the students were the ones who suffered one of the ‘most terrible acts of barbarism in the modern world’ (Alexander Solzhenitsyn) .

Prison corridor

Over 600 students were the victims of the Soviet methods in Pitesti Prison alone. One of them, Eugen Turcanu, became the representation of complete dehumanization. His transformation from a prisoner into a chief torturer proved the success of this unimaginable experiment . At least o ne hundred students died because of the injuries, and only two could kill themselves. The complete surveillance made even this final escape from hell almost impossible.

Their suffering was only partially acknowledged at the time. Eugen Turcanu and other executioners received death sentences in 1954, but justice stopped there. T he high-rank communist officials who approved the experiment were never convicted . It was just a typical case for the politics of the Romanian Communist Party.

Handcuffs on a prison bed

From prison to Memorial in a couple of decades

The former Pitesti Prison became a memorial only in 2014. The cells are now exhibition spaces where you can discover key facts about the communist regime, its means of repression, and complete control. Detailed information on the interwar elites and the outcome of WW2 present the dramatic end of the democratic era.

But, most of the space presents the different stages of the tragic ‘Pitesti phenomenon’. As a reminder, a religious service takes place weekly in the former Room 4 Hospital in memory of the victims. This was the biggest room in the former prison and the place of the worst tortures.

Exhibition space, Pitesti Memorial

Just like Sighet Memorial ,  Pitesti Prison shows the dark reality of political prisons during communism . This is  maybe the darkest episode of the many that marked the violent communist regime in Romania .

Discover also the main communist landmarks from Bucharest : the Parliament , Ceausescu’s Mansion , and the Civic Center.

Travel tips

You can visit the Memorial every Saturday or on weekdays. Be sure to book your visit first at http://pitestiprison.org

Don’t miss the bookshop Manuscript if you want to learn more about communist prisons in Romania.

You can find more details about the Pitesti experiment on http://pitestiprison.org

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Location: 30 Negru Voda, Pitesti

Closest city: Pitesti

Nearby attractions: Bratianu Villa, Potlogi Palace

Access: A1 from Bucharest

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Beyond Torture: The Gulag of Pitesti, Romania

“Many of us died, many of us became mad, but in some of us the good triumphed.” – George Calciu

These chilling words from two survivors of a brainwashing prison in Pitesti, Romania are sad reminders of the legacy of Stalinist communism.

Beyond Torture: The Gulag of Pitesti, Romania documents the persecution of Romanians under the communist regime. Electrical shock, hallucinogenic drugs, near starvation and fatal beatings were daily rituals in the prison of Pitesti, Romania. But this sadistic story goes beyond torture: this was an attempt to totally destroy a people’s culture and faith.

In 1949, Stalinist Soviets began a systematic sweep of Romanian college campuses . Their purpose was to imprison and transform young Romanians into a communistic way of thinking. One prisoner describes this re-education as the most vile tortures imaginable. Orthodox priest Father George Calciu says, They tried to destroy our souls. But he and others survived this gulag, lived to tell their stories and even forgave their captors.

In this documentary, you’ll meet three survivors from the prison of Pitesti and see shocking paintings that capture the essence of the extreme torture. This DVD also includes an in-depth one-hour interview with Father Roman Braga: prison survivor and spiritual leader.

Outside of Romania, this film is the first major historical documentation of the Pitesti experience.

“From 1949-52 a horrific experiment was carried out by the Stalinist regime in Romania, as students, priests, intellectuals, and peasants were rounded up and sent to a gulag in the city of Pitesti in order to be brainwashed into embracing communism. In Alan Hartwick’s Beyond Torture three survivors (Nicu Ionita, Father Roman Braga, and Father George Calcui) recount the unrelenting physical and mental torture inflicted on them by their captors (and sometimes by fellow prisoners promised early release for their cooperation). Cut off from family and faith, the survivors say the Stalinists were intent on destroying their individual values — through a method called “unmasking” — in order to create a communist personality. In addition to the debilitating physical torture (which included constant beatings, being forced to sleep in fixed positions, and various humiliating activities), a barrage of mental torture was employed, as members of the Orthodox faith were forced to substitute profanities for holy words while reciting the liturgy, and use human feces as hosts for Holy Communion. The terrible memories of the former prisoners are here augmented by the work of Romanian artist Sorin Feraru, who paints gaunt, hollow-eyed figures being subjected to horrors unimaginable to most of us. Displaying remarkable grace here, the survivors say they have forgiven their tormentors. Highly recommended. ” – Video Librarian

“The topic is not pleasant, and as the DVD states, is not recommended for children. I believe that the documentary, which is the first historical documentation of Pitesti outside Romania, is appropriate for academic libraries. ” – The Christian Librarian

35 minutes on 1 disc / 2007 / DVD extras include an hour-long uncut interview with Braga

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The Anti-Humans: Student Re-education in Romanian Prisons

Dumitru bacu.

"The Anti-Humans: Student Re-education in Romanian Prisons" takes place in Romania short after the Communists came into power with the help from the Soviet Union. But the book is much more than a record of the horrible crimes committed against the Romanian people during this time. It is a warning; it is a voice from beyond the grave, from the living dead behind the Iron Curtain. The book was smuggled out of through the Iron Curtain and translated from Romanian into English. The readers will have at their disposal a complete account of the dehumanization through imprisonment and torture of many of Romania's citizens by the communist regime. The people selected by the authorities for dehumanization were part of a cleverly defined group, university students. This was because in Romania, university students were considered a highly respected elite, including youth who combined vigor with unsurpassed patriotism and a lucid rigor, both intellectually and spiritually. In a time were the communism once again are growing stronger, not least among younger people, which do not know much about the Cold War, and even less regarding the tragedies that took place behind the Iron Curtain, the publishing of The Anti-Humans is filling an important function.

First published January 1, 1963

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Article contents

Piteşti: a project in reeducation and its post-1989 interpretation in romania.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

The purpose of this article is twofold: to provide a critical account of the Piteşti experiment and its significance within the history of Romanian Communism and to examine current public disputes relative to memorializing the Piteşi experiment that concern issues of legitimacy, collective memory, and identity construction. The main argument pursued here is that within the recent postcommunist politics of memory, one major prevailing trend is to reincorporate a nationalist ideology within a postcommunist rhetoric. This leads to the conclusion that such mnemonic practices indicate a strong relationship between collective memory and political culture.

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• Volume 43, Issue 4
• Monica Ciobanu (a1)
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00905992.2014.984288

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Product Description

When you said, 'I still believe in God,' in five minutes you were full of blood. - Roman Braga

Many of us died, many of us became mad, but in some of us the good triumphed. - George Calciu

These chilling words from two survivors of a brainwashing prison in Pitesti, Romania are sad reminders of the legacy of Stalinist communism. Beyond Torture: The Gulag of Pitesti, Romania documents the persecution of Romanians under the communist regime. Electrical shock, hallucinogenic drugs, near starvation and fatal beatings were daily rituals in the prison of Pitesti, Romania. But this sadistic story goes beyond torture: this was an attempt to totally destroy a people's culture and faith.

In 1949, Stalinist Soviets began a systematic sweep of Romanian college campuses. Their purpose was to imprison and transform young Romanians into a communistic way of thinking. One prisoner describes this re-education as the most vile tortures imaginable. Orthodox priest Father George Calcui says, They tried to destroy our souls. But he and others survived this gulag, lived to tell their stories and even forgave their captors.

In this documentary, you'll meet three survivors from the prison of Pitesti and see shocking paintings that capture the essence of the extreme torture. This DVD also includes an in-depth one-hour interview with Father Roman Braga: prison survivor and spiritual leader.

Outside of Romania, this DVD is the first major historical documentation of the Pitesti experience.

Not recommended for young children

Product details

• Is Discontinued By Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ No
• Package Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.1 x 5.42 x 0.58 inches; 2.93 ounces
• Media Format ‏ : ‎ NTSC
• Run time ‏ : ‎ 35 minutes
• Release date ‏ : ‎ July 12, 2007
• Studio ‏ : ‎ Vision Video
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B000TJLGFK
• Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 1
• #12,913 in Documentary (Movies & TV)

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Materiality of the Pitești Experiment: An Archaeological Essay on the Memory of Repression and Resistance in Communist Romania [Bilingual Edition: Romanian-English; full text]

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Private Project

Pitesti: the experiment.

• Specifications Specs

The life story of Herman, a promising young man who under extreme circumstances changed into Romania's most effective torture machine in the infamous Pitesti Experiment during the Communist Regime.

• Victoria Baltag Director The Director and teacher of the highschool
• Victoria Baltag Writer script contributor (documentation, idea, part of dialogues
• Lexa Axinte Writer scriptwrite
• Victoria Baltag Producer
• Ion Caramitru Key Cast "Director"
• Project Type: Feature
• Runtime: 1 hour 20 minutes 48 seconds
• Completion Date: May 24, 2023
• Film Color: Color
• First-time Filmmaker: Yes
• Student Project: No

VICTORIA BALTAG is a filmmaker, a scholar activist, an a social entrepreneur and an artist. She graduated of the Faculty of Journalism and Communication Sciences at the University of Bucharest. She also completed a four-year degree in Sociology and Social Welfare at the University of Bucharest. In 2010, she completed an MSC in Management and International Marketing at the Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest and in 2011 she also completed her degree in Film, History and TV at the University of Birmingham, graduating with Merit. Victoria produced more than 20 short films inspired by English plays and anthropological documentaries, some of which won awards. Currently, Victoria Baltag is a PhD student in Film at Queen’s University Belfast, researching the film life of a Romanian director less known in Romania, Benjamin Fondane.

Victoria Baltag is the first independent female director to make content films. She is also the first director to make a feature film about the phenomenon of re-education in Pitesti (1949-1952), the last film with actor Ion Caramitru. She worked for this 12 year with 120 actors and more than 800 people in the team with no budget. Another project to which she devoted time and passion was a documentary about filmmaker Titus Munteanu. For the feature film about Titus Munteanu, Victoria spent more than four years researching in the TVR archives and conducting interviews with people who knew the great television producer.

Director Statement

Inspired by a true story and a failed re-education experiment, the movie “The Pitesti Experiment” looks at shattered human fabric, reversible roles, broken humanity. It depicts a possible future if we refuse to listen, watch, understand.

This movie unveils the horrors of the recent past of S-E Europe, a past which has the universal common experience worldwide in terms of cruelty,re-education, brainwash and domination. We have documented this feature film for four years. We have read the books, watched the documentary films, met the few survivors. More than 5,000 students were tortured there. Tragic stories occurred there that we can hardly imagine. We have talked with people who had their parents in the communist prisons, I have seen their tears, we have touched their wounded hearts. We believe that the truth heals and we believe that we need to know the truth, so we can build on it and from it.

This feature is a gesture of commemoration and respect to the young people who suffered through mental and physical torture, persecution, freedom deprivation. It is so important to know our recent history – as the Pitesti Experiment was – in order to learn from it and to make sure it never happens again.

We recently commemorated the 75th anniversary of the Soviet troops liberation of Auschwitz, known to most as Holocaust Day (January 27th). Soon after this liberation, the Nazi-run death camps were replaced by Soviet forced labor and re-education camps - many of them just as brutal. What do we know about communism? Too little. There is a lack of information, lack of documents maybe, lack of interest (perhaps). The communism made the highest number of victims in the humankind history, but who talks about this? Furthermore, how many Communism Crimes Memorials do we know? In Romania the communist former prisons are about to degrade. No one cares about the memory, about the history, about the fact that those places should be museums so we can remember the past, learn from it, and never allow to happen again. The Pitesti former prison where the infamous Pitesti experiment took place is being transformed into a gym and business offices. Only a quarter of the building is still a museum and can be visited. Why? In 2011 I have participated to a Summer School at Ramnicu Sarat, where the ‘Silence Prison’ was in the communist time (now this prison can’t be visited anymore as the walls are collapsing). The summer school was organized by the Institute of the Communist Crimes in Romania and through them I have found, for the first time, about the Pitesti Experiment (because in more than 25 years of education in Romania, I had no information about this part of the history). At that time, I was a student at Birmingham University and immediately after watching the ‘Demasking’ documentary film about the ‘Re-education Phenomenon’, I wanted to know if there is any feature film about the Pitesti Experiment. It was important for people to know what happened with the best students in Romania between 1948-1952. A movie would reach the wider audience easier than a book , I though. A movie would be an opportunity for the new generation to find out more about the true, unfabricated past. Alas, there was no film about The Pitesti Experiment. Hence I decided to make one just to raise awareness and give information about a such a hidden, atrocious moment in the Romanian history. My movie unveils the horrors of the communist era. I have documented this feature film for four years. I have read the books, watched the documentary films, met the few survivors. More than 5,000 students were tortured there. Tragic stories occurred there that we can hardly imagine. I have talked with people who had their parents in the communist prisons, I have seen their tears, I have touched their wounded hearts. I believe that the truth heals and I believe that we need to know the truth, so we can build on it and from it. My film about the Pitesti Experiment is a contribution to remembering the horrors and abominable moments of Romanian communism. This feature is a gesture of commemoration and respect to the young people who suffered through mental and physical torture, persecution, freedom deprivation. It is so important to know our recent history – as the Pitesti Experiment was – in order to learn from it and to make sure it never happens again. These atrocities should not be forgotten so that the suffering of these people will not be in vain. Here is what one of the film donors had to say about it: "All that is needed for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing". Don't say that "Pitesti experiment" will never happen again. It depends on us, all of us, and what we do so it will not repeat.’’ (Voicu Ciobanu)

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Witnessing Horrorism: The Piteşti Experiment

This article presents an irrational, sadistic experiment based on cruelty and complete disregard of human values, carried out between 1949 and 1952 in Romania and known under the infamous name of the Piteşti experiment. Its agenda was based on ‘re-education’, metaphorically presented as a sort of ‘healing’, supposedly performed to eliminate the ‘rot’ from prisoners. In the light of existent theories on the process of witnessing and testifying, I explore Dumitru Bacu’s, Grigore Dumitrescu’s, Paul Goma’s and Virgil Ierunca’s accounts of this despicable experiment and discuss the different roles assumed by witnesses while writing about Piteşti. Using the notions of ‘terror’ and ‘horror’ as developed in the works of Hannah Arendt and Adriana Cavarero, as well as Judith Lewis Herman’s findings from Trauma and Recovery and Anne-Marie Roviello’s work on ‘the hidden violence of totalitarianism’, the article suggests how the Piteşti experiment can be compared to the Shoah. Through this comparison, I point out the ‘unnarratability’ of the events that happened in the Piteşti penitentiary and, explaining the positions of the victims, I discuss the elements that made this experiment a uniquely tragic event in the history of communist prisons: on the one hand, that any tortured prisoner was forced to become the torturer of his fellows, on the other hand, that no one was allowed to die.

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Experimentul Pitesti

The life story of Herman, a promising young man who under extreme circumstances changed into Romania's most effective torture machine in the infamous Pitesti Experiment during the Communist ... Read all The life story of Herman, a promising young man who under extreme circumstances changed into Romania's most effective torture machine in the infamous Pitesti Experiment during the Communist Regime. The life story of Herman, a promising young man who under extreme circumstances changed into Romania's most effective torture machine in the infamous Pitesti Experiment during the Communist Regime.

• Victoria Baltag
• Alexandra Axinte
• Sonia Teodoriu
• Ion Caramitru
• Tedy Necula
• 8 User reviews
• 1 Critic review

Top cast 99+

• Otilia Roman

• Unchiul Corneliu
• Tortured prisoner 3
• Manea, The 'Securitate' Inspector
• The teacher
• Lt. maj. Corbeanu
• The Jewish daughter
• Tortured prisoner 2
• Gardian Sef
• Iron Guard team leader
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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User reviews 8

• Aug 29, 2023
• How long is Pitesti Experiment? Powered by Alexa
• March 31, 2023 (Romania)
• Pitesti Experiment
• Aroneanu, Iasi, Romania
• Victoria Baltag Production
• See more company credits at IMDbPro

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 26 minutes
• D-Cinema 48kHz 5.1

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Fenomenul Pitesti

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Uploaded by petrupistol on December 14, 2020

SIMILAR ITEMS (based on metadata)

• Moscow Oblast
•  » 
• Elektrostal

State Housing Inspectorate of the Moscow Region

Phone 8 (496) 575-02-20 8 (496) 575-02-20

Phone 8 (496) 511-20-80 8 (496) 511-20-80

Public administration near State Housing Inspectorate of the Moscow Region