70 years later - Pitesti Phenomenon
In 2019 we mark 70 years since the debut of the Pitesti Phenomenon – the most violent action of the communist regime against anti-communist students in Romania. It was described by Alexandr Solzhenitsyn, Nobel Laureate and former political prisoner, “the most terrible act of barbarism in the contemporary world”. Also in 2019, we commemorate 30 years since the fall of communism in Romania, the bloodiest in Europe, with more than 1000 people killed.
Pitesti Prison Memorial will highlight the two historical moments in a public event - 70 years later. On the 10th of December 2019, between 16:00 - 21:00, we invite the public to meet the direct witnesses of history at the former Pitesti Prison.
Pitesti Prison Memorial is a private museum located inside the former prison of Pitesti, active between 1941-1977. The Memorial offers free guided tours, cultural and educational activities and it hosts an exhibition that explores the history of the communist dictatorship in Romania. The focus of the exhibition is on the subject of Pitesti Phenomenon or Pitesti Experiment – a form of systematic, physical and psychological torture applied to the anti-communist students between 1949-1951. Other themes present in the exhibition are: the rise of communism to power in Romania, the anti-communist movements, late communism and the fall of communism in 1989.
Experimentul Pitesti // Pitesti prison Experiment // English subtitle in CC
Închisoarea de la Pitești a fost gazda odiosului Experiment Pitești, catalogat drept cel mai crunt fenomen de reeducare din lume.
Totul a început în anul 1949, cu primele loturi de studenți și elevi adusi aici. Adevăratul proces de reeducare începe in ziua de Craciun a anului 1949, când torționarul Eugen Țurcanu dezlănțuie iadul pentru cei încarcerați aici.
The prison in Pitesti hosted the monstrous Pitesti Experiment, considered as the worst re-education phenomenon in the world.
It all started in 1949, with the first groups of students and pupils brought here. The real process of re-education began on the day of Christmas Year 1949, when the tormentor Eugen Țurcanu unleashes hell for those imprisoned here.
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Muzica: Andrei Hategan (The Amsterdams) si Mihai Caluseriu
Ilustratii: Radu Oltean
Acest episod este realizat cu ajutorul Memorialului Închisorii Pitești, a Centrului de studii în Istorie Contemporanăsi a Editurii Manuscris, cărora dorim să le mulțumim și vă încurajăm să îi urmariți pe Facebook și Instagram
In acest film am preluat secvente din Portretul luptatorului la tinerete, Arhiva TVR si documentarul Demascarea, pe care ul puteti urmari aici:
Multumim si trupei de teatru Texte buna in locuri nebune
Va recomandam cartile Edoturii Manuscris, in mare parte dedicate Experimentului Pitesti, dar si sistemului concentrationar din Romania.
De asemenea o alta recomandare, este cartea lui Virgil Ierunca - Experimentul Pitesti, de la Editura Humanitas
#comunism #communism #gulag #jail #disident
Former communist prison chief goes on trial in Romania
The former chief of a notoriously brutal communist-era prison camp in Romania went on trial Wednesday for alleged crimes against humanity. Duration: 02:24
04-BEYOND TORTURE -The gulag of Pitesti ROMANIA
To order the DVD Beyond , go to visionvideo.com
Producer an director: Alan Hartwick
Un film despre tortura din inchisorile comuniste.
-despre spalrea creierelor prin metoda reeducarii
E-WORDS IN PITEŞTI PRISON!
IN THE HALL, THE STUDENTS WERE PRESENTED THE PITEŞTI PRISON!
E- WORDS in Piteşti
Monday 26th of November
Activity: Visit to Piteşti Prison/ Mateiaş Mausoleum
Type of activity: Visit/Debate
Description of the events:
The visit to Pitesti Prison, that is a memorial museum inside the former Pitesti penitentiary at this moment and which was active between 1941-1977, made us realize the most inhuman ways in which the political prisoners, who were against the communist doctrine, were tortured in order to give up their own convictions so that to follow the atheist communist ideology thus becoming reeducated.
The visit to Piteşti Prison was followed by a visit to Mateiaş Mausoleum, a monument dedicated to the resistance of the Romanian soldiers between 1916-1918 in the War of National Integration where the guide presented the students beside images and maps, an acoustic simulation of the war which was pretty amazing.
Τα μαρτύρια στις φυλακές του Pitesti 2
Δύο Ορθόδοξοι ιερείς ο π.Roman Braga και ο π.George Calciu και ένας γιατρός μιλούν για τις εμπειρίες τους στη σταλινική φυλακή του Πιτέστι κατά τη διάρκεια της κομμουνιστικής περιόδου τον 20ο αιώνα στη Ρουμανία.
Η Απόδοση στα ελληνικά έγινε από τον ιστότοπο
agiazoni.gr
In a comment on one of his recent posts, Fr. Stephen mentioned two namesholy men, priest/confessors Fr. Roman Braga and Fr. George Calciu of blessed memory. I decided to do some looking around to find out more about these men and came across this four-part video, where each of them share about their experiences in a Romanian Gulag.
Interview with movie director Victoria Baltag at Holocaust Museum Skokie
The Pitesti Experiment
Between 1949 and 1951 when, following the establishment of the Communist regime, all students were compelled to become members of the Party. Consequently, those who refused were imprisoned and 're-educated'. The re-education phenomenon, a concept borrowed from the Soviet pedagog A.S. Makarenko, relied on the assumption that every person can become a 'new entity' through 're-education', which in this instance was achieved by means of both physical and mental torture.
The subject of the Piteşti Experiment was kept out of the public eye until recently.
Pitesti Experiment, also known as Pitesti Phenomenon, was one of the most violent actions conducted by the communist regime inside a political prison. Between 1949–1951, around 600 students aged 18 to 27, were systematically and brutally tortured. They were forced to torture each other at the orders and pressures of the communist authorities, thus becoming the aggressors of their own colleagues and friends. The idea of the regime was to strip them of their human dignity, force them to compromise their principles (they were elite students, anti-communists, future “influencers” of the society) and trash their values.
This is the first and the only feature film to date on this subject, with a documentation of more than 4 years in the IICCMER's archives as well as authentic footage from the National Film Archives, featured in the beginning of the film, - a 100% independent production, the only Romanian film funded by crowdsourcing.
The shooting took place in authentic locations in Romania such as museums, memorial houses, forts in Bucharest, the former prison in Pitesti, and was completed in 2015.
Six Romanian Associations in USA facilitate the organization of private screenings with a part of the Director’s cut version of the work-in-progress film about the Pitesti Experiment. In September, Victoria Baltag, the Romanian film director will be in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Denver, Boston, Chicago and Cleveland to take part at the crowdfunding events and open meetings in order to collect funds to finish the-inspired-from-true -event- movie.
This is the first tour ever with the purpose of raising funds for an independent Romanian film
The events organized in the Romanian Diaspora (but not exclusive) in the USA intend to raise awareness and to get visibility of such important part of the hidden Romanian history as well as to raise funds for completing the last working stages of the film.
The first independent feature film about the Pitesti Experiment needs the last boost to finish its post-production. Details here:
Prison Commander Trial: Romanian court hands Stalinist-era prison chief 20 years in jail
A Romanian court has sentenced a Stalin-era political prison commander to 20 years in jail for murder, the first such ruling against a prison head since the collapse of the dictatorship of Nicolae Ceausescu in 1989. Dozens of political inmates died in a jail some 150 km east of Bucharest between 1956 and 1963, which was then commanded by Alexandru Visinescu.
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E-WORDS - Commemorating the martyrs, Pitesti penitentiary, Romania
Commemorating the martyrs, who died in the Pitesti penitentiary, through a religious service!
E- WORDS in Piteşti
Monday 26th of November
Activity: Visit to Piteşti Prison/ Mateiaş Mausoleum
Type of activity: Visit/Debate
Description of the events:
The visit to Pitesti Prison, that is a memorial museum inside the former Pitesti penitentiary at this moment and which was active between 1941-1977, made us realize the most inhuman ways in which the political prisoners, who were against the communist doctrine, were tortured in order to give up their own convictions so that to follow the atheist communist ideology thus becoming reeducated.
The visit to Piteşti Prison was followed by a visit to Mateiaş Mausoleum, a monument dedicated to the resistance of the Romanian soldiers between 1916-1918 in the War of National Integration where the guide presented the students beside images and maps, an acoustic simulation of the war which was pretty amazing.
Ioan Iosif Ficioru și ororile din închisorile comuniste (reportaj TVR1 - 2012)
Colonelul în rezervă Ioan Iosif Ficioru, în vârstă de 85 de ani, este considerat unul dintre cei mai de temuţi comandanţi din fostele închisori şi lagăre comuniste ( La doar 25 de ani, era deja la comanda coloniei de muncă Poarta Albă. În 2012, Ioan Iosif Ficior a fost subiectul unui reportaj realizat de Camelia Csiki, difuzat la TVR1
INCHISOAREA PITESTI MUZEU
Romania Mea - Memorialul Inchisorii Pitesti
Mărturii din închisoarea Pitești - episodul 7
Inside Prison Doftana Romania
THE GENOCIDE OF THE SOULS - Thomas S. Blanton 1/2
Unedited video clips from the feature-length documentary THE GENOCIDE OF THE SOULS. The Pitesti Experiment - Re-education through Torture. A film by Sorin Ilieşiu. Copyright © VideoMedia Foundation.
Thomas S. Blanton - Director of the National Security Archive at George Washington University in Washington D.C. -- about The Pitesti Experiment and about The Sighet Memorial to the Victims of Communism
Video Clip 1/2
Web site:
Despre Inchisoarea Pitesti / About Pitesti Prison
Un scurt montaj despre Închisoarea Pitești, fosta închisoare politică unde a fost închisă elita studenților din România în timpul regimurilor antonescian și comunist.
A short montage about Pitești Prison, the former political prison where the Romanian student elite was incarcerated during the Antonescu and the Communist regimes.
Toate drepturile rezervate@ Fundația Sfinții Închisorilor
The saints of the communist prisons (Romania)
Πηγή:
Lucia Hossu-Longin on The Memorial of Suffering
The Romanian Cultural Institute in New York has invited Lucia Hossu Longin to speak about the making of documentary TV series The Memorial of Suffering (Memorialul durerii) - a shocking visual archive of recent Romanian history.
The author has spent 17 years collecting testimonies of former politic detainees telling the stories of political prisons, the labor camp system, anti-communist resistance and the secret police. The total footage consists of more than 150.000 minutes of video documenting decades of repression and terror in Romania.
Gulag: Many Days, Many Lives | Days and Lives :: Labor
Prisoners performed back-breaking physical labor in inhospitable climates and received food rations that barely sustained their nutritional needs. Work defined life in the Gulag, but some prisoners occasionally found ways to avoid the hardest labor which gave them some feeling of control over their difficult situation.
THE GENOCIDE OF THE SOULS - Thomas S. Blanton 2/2
Unedited video clips from the feature-length documentary THE GENOCIDE OF THE SOULS. The Pitesti Experiment - Re-education through Torture. A film by Sorin Ilieşiu. Copyright © VideoMedia Foundation.
Thomas S. Blanton - Director of the National Security Archive at George Washington University in Washington D.C. -- about The Pitesti Experiment and about The Sighet Memorial to the Victims of Communism
Video Clip 2/2
Web site: