· On 4 December 2006, a penal notiﬁ cation was lodged by the IICCR’s representatives with the Public Prosecutor’s Ofﬁ ce attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice

THE INSTITUTE FOR THE INVESTIGATION OF COMMUNIST CRIMES

IN ROMANIA

www.crimelecomunismului.ro

The Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes in [email protected]

Foreword

The Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes in Romania was set up by the Romanian Government on 21 December 2005. The Prime Minister Cãlin Popescu Tãriceanu himself took the initiative of founding IICCR, as well as of appointing me president of this governmental institution.

I must confess that this institute is for me the embodiment of an idea I have cherished ever since 1990. At that time, there was still strong anticommunist feeling among the Romanian people and the political class promised to prosecute communism, taking steps towards its outright condemnation, which actually never happened. Instead, a coup d’etat gradually became visible, by those who had taken over the power in 1989 against the anticommunist revolution. We gradually witnessed the regrouping of the former communist leaders (nomenklatura), of the ”Securitate” – the former political police of the communist regime – , while different people from the Militia and the Prosecutor’s Offi ce secured their positions or even upgraded, despite their having made compromises during the former regime. We were witnesses to how these people reconquered their political and economic power. This political and bureaucratic class turned into a strong oligarchy, after having served a criminal regime. Under such circumstances, is a trial of communism truly conceivable? One can hardly condemn an ideology, even less a group of people, without fi nding individual fault with the people who make it and stand for it. Therefore, what we actually need is individual fault diagnosis, i.e. to attribute fault to individuals and defi ne it clearly according to each individual case. Here is what our job focuses on: investigating communism, fi nding individual culprits and intimating the penal bodies entitled to take measures. Indeed, the activity of some small party secretary in a factory department, or of some petty informer belonging to the communist political police will not often make an object of our investigation. With the Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes in Romania, the stress is more on identifying key actants, people who enjoyed paid positions in the communist party, people belonging to the leading structures, Securitate offi cers, even if sometimes we may also target small actants responsible for executing the crimes and subjecting people to torture. Furthermore, in the medium and long run we aim at taking on a series of educational programs with a scientifi c character. Our institute not only authors studies on the communist decisional system, both at central and local level, but also develops social and educational projects, undertaking to open museums of communism, to provide free access to any source of information about the communist times, and to inform the large public of the crimes and abuses committed by the communist regime.

Ultimately, education is our true long-term bet. We want to tell our children who were born in post-communist times the story of what was there before. It is not just a matter of history, it is our parents’ and grandparents’ life, our life, the life of the people who do not want this to ever happen again.

OTHER INSTITUTIONS SPECIALIZED IN THE STUDY

OF COMMUNISM

IN ROMANIA The Testimonial of the

Victims of Communism and of

the Resistance Movement in

Sighet

www.memorialsighet.ro The National Council for

Studying the Securitate

Archives

www.cnsas.ro The Presidential Commission

for Analysing the Communist

Dictatorship in Romania

www.presidency.ro The Romanian Institute for

Recent History

www.irir.ro The National Institute for

the Study of Totalitarianism

www.totalitarism.ro The Oral History Institute

www.iiocluj.ro

ABROAD House of Terror, Budapest,

Hungary

www.terrorhaza.hu The Victims of Communism

Memorial Foundation, Washington,

USA

www.victimsofcommunism.org Institute of National

Remembrance, Warsaw, Poland

www.ipn.gov.pl Czech Offi ce for the

Documentation and the

Investigation of the Crimes of

Communism

www.mvcr.cz/udv.html German Federal Commissioner for

Records of the State Security

Service of the former DDR

www.bstu.de The International Commission

for the Evaluation of the

Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet

Occupation Regimes in Lithuania

www.komisija.lt The Genocide and Resistance

Research Center of Lituania

www.genocid.lt Estonian Internationl

Commission for Investigation of

Crimes Against Humanity

www.historycommission.ee The Commission of the

Historians of Latvia

www.president.lv

Marius Oprea President of the Institute for the Investigation

of Communist Crimes in Romania

3www.crimelecomunismului.ro

The establishment of the Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes in Romania was acknowledged by the Romanian Government’s Decree No. 1724 / 21.12.2005, later amended by Governmental Decree No. 394 / 29.03.2006 and Governmental Decree No. 388 / 25. 04. 2007.”The Institute’s objective is to investigate and to identify crimes, abuses and human rights violations throughout the communist regime in Romania, as well as the intimation of the bodies entitled to take measures concerning the specifi c cases.” (Governmental Decree No. 1724 / 21.12.2005 Art.2).

MAIN TASKS OF THE INSTITUTE:

to identify the abuses and the crimes committed, ordered or inspired by the leading class; to inform the criminal investigation bodies, regardless of the period

and the circumstances these actions occurred; to provide specialized assistance using own or outsourced resources

so as to support, by lawful measures, the legal steps taken towards obtaining moral and material remedy by the victims of the communist regime and of the former ”Securitate”; to organize museum-related activities in locations offered by central

and local public institutions and authorities; to organize scientifi c research activities, conferences, informative

and educational exhibitions, seminars and workshops, and to publish the studies and documents resulted from research.

THE INSTITUTE ENVISAGES:

the establishment of a classifi ed system of crime, abuses and human rights violations; the setting up of a data base which will include the names of former

party militants from the nomenklatura; the identifi cation of the offi cial documents, secret or non-secret,

which stood at the basis of the organization and the functioning of the repressive machine.

LEGAL FRAMEWORK FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT AND

OPERATION OF THE INSTITUTE

4 www.crimelecomunismului.ro

THE ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE OF THE IICCR

THE HONORARY BOARD

The Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes in Romania is run by an Honorary Board, formed of eleven outstanding public fi gures, appointed by the Prime Minister.

Petre Mihai Băcanu

Ștefana Bianu

Doina Cornea

Dennis Deletant

Constantin Ticu Dumitrescu

Radu Filipescu

Radu Ioanid

Gabriel Liiceanu

Marius Oprea

Cristian Pîrvulescu

Andrei Pleșu


THE MANAGING COMMITTEE

The Managing Committee’s main prerogative resides in coordinating the current activity of the Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes in Romania. The Committee is formed of the Institute’s President, Director General and Secretary General.

Marius Oprea

President of the Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes in Romania

Stejărel Olaru

Director General of the Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes in Romania

Lucia Hossu Longin

Secretary General of the Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes in Romania

The Honorary

Board

The President

The Managing

Committee

Investigations

Department

Documentation and

Research Offi ce

Museum and Memory

Offi ce

Special Investigations

Offi ce

Secretarial

Department

Secretarial and

Communication Offi ce

Juridical and Human

Resources Offi ce

Financial and

Administrative Offi ce


SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS OFFICE


OBJECTIVES:

To scientifi cally investigate the abuses and human rights violations committed throughout the communist regime in Romania;

To collect incriminatory evidence against individuals who, irrespective of appointment, have committed crimes and abuses during the communist regime;

To coordinate the collecting of evidence about common graves within former penitentiaries and labour camps and take part in projects of contemporary archeology;

To draw up and submit reports which, according to the evidence obtained through personal research, contain intimations against those who are responsible for the crimes and human rights violations perpetrated during the communist regime.

Head of the Special Investigations Offi ce:

Andrei Muraru, historian


CAMPAIGNS UNDERTAKEN BY THE SPECIAL

INVESTIGATIONS OFFICE

July, September, 2006, Sighetu-Marmaţiei: two archeological exploration campaigns were carried out in the ”Cemetery of the Poor” in Sighetu-Marmaţiei Town (Maramureş County), in collaboration with The Public Prosecutor’s Offi ce attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice - the Military Prosecutor’s Offi ce.

Collateral evidence was obtained from interviews conducted with former guardians and employees of the Main Penitentiary in Sighetu-Marmaţiei.

March, 2007, Insula Mare a Brăilei/The Great Island of

Brăila: a campaign centred on identifying former labour colonies in Insula Mare a Brăilei/The Great Island of Brăila. As a result of the campaign, the probable interment places of the political prisoners deceased in the 1950s were identifi ed as well. Also, the mixed team of experts conducted interviews with local people and former guardians from the local labour camps.

April, 2007, Bistriţa Năsăud: the exhumation of the mortal remains of six males shot to death on 9 March 1950. The murders were carried out by a body of soldiers of the State Security Department. They were sent there in order to capture and punish a number of persons who refused to accept enrollment, as such a stand was considered an act of opposition against the communist system.


July, 2007, Hunedoara County: investigation regarding the circumstances of Iosif Orşa’s death. Iosif Orşa was a native of Glodghileşti, Burjuc commune, Hunedoara County. According to the gathered data, he was executed on 11 February 1950 by two Securitate offi cers.

PENAL NOTIFICATIONS

Securitate offi cers who drafted minors

On 4 December 2006, a penal notifi cation was lodged by the IICCR’s representatives with the Public Prosecutor’s Offi ce attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice - the Military Prosecutor’s Offi ce. The notifi cation refers to the abuses committed by the Securitate offi cers in Sibiu county, who recruited minors with a view to use them as informers.

Penitentiary commanders accused of genocide

The notifi cation was lodged against 210 former commanders and deputy commanders of penitentiaries, who perpetrated or inspired crimes and abuses, in the interval March 1945 - December 1989. The accusations refer to the crimes committed against the opponents of the regime who were under detention.

Securitate colonel accused of crimes against humanity

In August 2007, the IICCR lodged a penal notifi cation against reserve colonel Gheorghe Enoiu, a former Securitate offi cer, for crimes against humanity. The accusations refer to the abuses perpetrated during the inquiries conducted against the opponents of the regime.


MUSEUM AND MEMORY OFFICE


OBJECTIVES:

To organize museum-related activities in locations administered by the Institute as well as in other places to which access is granted by central and local institutions and public authorities;

To organize scientifi c research, exhibitions, informative and educational seminars, conferences;

To set up an audio-video archive containing evidence about the communist period; To publish studies, monographs and interviews from

the archive of recorded oral evidence;

To make documentary fi lms about the communist period.

Head of the Museum and Memory Offi ce: Cosmin Budeancă, historian

RESEARCH PROJECTS

Penitentiary experiences in communist Romania Penal registration forms of political prisoners


THE MUSEUM OF RÂMNICU SĂRAT

In accordance with the Governmental Decree from 6 June 2007, the Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes in Romania took on the administration of the former prison of Râmnicu Sărat, which will be turned into a Memorial of the Victims of Communism.

The Prison of Râmnicu Sărat was built at the end of 19th century and functioned up to 1963. Starting from 1947, the prison of Râmnicu Sărat became a place of inprisonment for political prisoners, among whom the peasants from the Buzău region who refused to pay their imposed quotas or support the introduction of the collective agricultural system, the members of the historical political parties (PNŢ and PNL) from the areas of Râmnicu Sărat and Buzău, the former ministers Ion Petrovici and Petre Tomescu, as well as the leaders of the National Peasants’ Party (PNŢ), namely Ion Mihalache, Corneliu Coposu, Ilie Lazăr, Ion Diaconescu, Victor Rădulescu-Pogoneanu.


DOCUMENTATION AND RESEARCH OFFICE


OBJECTIVES:

To author and publish scientifi c research studies regarding different aspects of the communist regime and their consequences on the post-1989 period;

To organize national and international symposia and scientifi c conferences;

To implement educational projects able to stimulate the young people’s interest in the communist regime; To establish external partnerships with a view

to collaborate at academic level on communism and postcommunism-related subjects.

RESEARCH DIRECTIONS FOR 2007-2008

Communist political elites The political police institution in communist

regimes Forms of political repression in communist Romania Transitional justice and memory strategies in post-

totalitarianism

Head of Documentation and Research Offi ce: Raluca Grosescu, political scientist


The fi rst yearbook of the Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes in Romania, entitled ”Why Communism Must Be Condemned”, was published by Polirom Publishing House.

The volume ”Testimonies of Suffering” - a collection of documents transcribing the series of TV documentary fi lms broadcasted between 1991 and 2007 as a TV series under the same title. The work retraces a whole network of personalities, institutions and events.

The DVD series ”Testimonies of Suffering” - a collection of TV documentary fi lms making up the TV series under the same title, produced between 1991 and 2007. The work retraces a whole network of personalities, institutions and events. The 36 episodes of the documentary, made available on 10 CD-s, tell the history of anticommunist resistance and its consequences, starting from 1945 up to December 1989.

EDUCATIONAL PROJECTS”What does Communism mean to me?”

The Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes in Romania in partnership with the Ministry of Education and Research has launched the essay and graphic arts contest entitled ”What does Communism mean to me?” which addresses pupils within middle and secondary schools.

PUBLICATIONS


The Oral History Project ”Remember for the Future -

Amintiri pentru viitor”

In the interval 12-21 December 2006, the Association of German State Universities in Bucharest in cooperation with the Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes in Romania held a series of seminars regarding the dissemination and implementation of modern approaches towards the teaching/learning of recent history. The seminars took place in Suceava, Braşov, Oradea, Craiova and Slatina as a part of a regional oral history project which encompassed the South-East of Europe between 2002 and 2006.

The Summer University of Râmnicu Sărat

The project aims to help students acquire a better knowledge of the interval 1944-1989 and thus to make them refl ect on the illegitimate and criminal nature of the communist regime in Romania. The Summer University was organized in Râmnicu Sărat in the interval 24-31 August 2007.

The Center for Communist and Post-Communist Studies

The Center for Communist and Post-Communist Studies will function under the aegis of the Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes in Romania and the Faculty of History within the ”Al. I. Cuza” University of Iaşi. The Center for Communist and Post-Communist Studies will develop research projects with similar institutions from Eastern Europe as well.


TV DOCUMENTARIES

IIICCR is a co-producer of political documentaries (titled ”Reconstructions”) with the Romanian Public Broadcaster TVR and other independent companies:

The Bad Boys. The documentary presents the genuine story of the ”Pui” operation (Timiş County), that is, the story of three young men who seized a bus so as to cross the frontier. They did not die ”under escort”, as stated at the time, but by the order of the Supreme Commander.

The Bern File. The documents within the state archives in Romania and Switzerland present the opportunity of reconstructing what the communist press called ”the attack on the Romanian legation in Bern”, in February 1955. The leader of the aggressors’ group was kidnapped and executed by the Securitate as late as February 1960, after the trial had taken place.

Culianu in Ceauşescu’s Country. Until the age of 22, Ioan Petru Culianu had been living in Romania. He completed his academic education in his native country, where his being pursuited by the Securitate began as well. The documentary retraces the destiny of a Romanian intellectual who had been pursuited and haressed by the Securitate from the days of his youth until he died.


The Ministry of Truth – A History of ”Casa Scânteii”.

The propaganda apparatus of the totalitarian regime that was located in ”Casa Scânteii” / The House of the Press attended to and validated the regime and its ideology by promoting false values, supporting offi cial events or denigration campaigns, issuing false news or creating diversions.

”Greece” Mission. From the group of eleven fi ghters in the Făgăraş Mountains, only six leaders were still alive in 1956. Caught in a trap set by the Securitate, the six believed that they were going to elope to Greece, when the bus they were travelling in took the path of the Prison of Jilava. A fi lm produced at the time presented the frame-up and the capture of the six leaders as a victory of the communist heroes against the bandits.

”Make him disappear!”. Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej’s cruelty and lust for power were apparent not only in his leadership decisions but also in his private ones. He did not hesitate to dictate the death of the persons whom he saw as undesirable. Some of the partners of his daughters, Tanţi and Lica, were taken by the Securitate, arrested and tortured to death. Such is the case of dr. Plăcinţeanu, Lica’s boyfriend, who died in the prison of Râmnicu Sărat. ”Make him disappear!” was Dej’s order, carried out by Alexandru Drăghici.

Memorial Museums of Eastern Europe. The fi lms refer to concentration sites that were transformed into memorial museums in Sighet, Râmnicu Sărat, Budapest, Warsaw, Tallinn, Riga, Vilnius, Moscow and Berlin.

Trespassing Frontiers. The tragedy of hundreds of thousands of young men who trespassed the frontier in search of a better life and who were shot dead during these attempts.

The documentaries will be completed by 30 March 2008.

Foreword

The Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes in Romania was set up by the Romanian Government on 21 December 2005. The Prime Minister Cãlin Popescu Tãriceanu himself took the initiative of founding IICCR, as well as of appointing me president of this governmental institution.

I must confess that this institute is for me the embodiment of an idea I have cherished ever since 1990. At that time, there was still strong anticommunist feeling among the Romanian people and the political class promised to prosecute communism, taking steps towards its outright condemnation, which actually never happened. Instead, a coup d’etat gradually became visible, by those who had taken over the power in 1989 against the anticommunist revolution. We gradually witnessed the regrouping of the former communist leaders (nomenklatura), of the ”Securitate” – the former political police of the communist regime – , while different people from the Militia and the Prosecutor’s Offi ce secured their positions or even upgraded, despite their having made compromises during the former regime. We were witnesses to how these people reconquered their political and economic power. This political and bureaucratic class turned into a strong oligarchy, after having served a criminal regime. Under such circumstances, is a trial of communism truly conceivable? One can hardly condemn an ideology, even less a group of people, without fi nding individual fault with the people who make it and stand for it. Therefore, what we actually need is individual fault diagnosis, i.e. to attribute fault to individuals and defi ne it clearly according to each individual case. Here is what our job focuses on: investigating communism, fi nding individual culprits and intimating the penal bodies entitled to take measures. Indeed, the activity of some small party secretary in a factory department, or of some petty informer belonging to the communist political police will not often make an object of our investigation. With the Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes in Romania, the stress is more on identifying key actants, people who enjoyed paid positions in the communist party, people belonging to the leading structures, Securitate offi cers, even if sometimes we may also target small actants responsible for executing the crimes and subjecting people to torture. Furthermore, in the medium and long run we aim at taking on a series of educational programs with a scientifi c character. Our institute not only authors studies on the communist decisional system, both at central and local level, but also develops social and educational projects, undertaking to open museums of communism, to provide free access to any source of information about the communist times, and to inform the large public of the crimes and abuses committed by the communist regime.

Ultimately, education is our true long-term bet. We want to tell our children who were born in post-communist times the story of what was there before. It is not just a matter of history, it is our parents’ and grandparents’ life, our life, the life of the people who do not want this to ever happen again.

OTHER INSTITUTIONS SPECIALIZED IN THE STUDY

OF COMMUNISM

IN ROMANIA The Testimonial of the

Victims of Communism and of

the Resistance Movement in

Sighet

www.memorialsighet.ro The National Council for

Studying the Securitate

Archives

www.cnsas.ro The Presidential Commission

for Analysing the Communist

Dictatorship in Romania

www.presidency.ro The Romanian Institute for

Recent History

www.irir.ro The National Institute for

the Study of Totalitarianism

www.totalitarism.ro The Oral History Institute

www.iiocluj.ro

ABROAD House of Terror, Budapest,

Hungary

www.terrorhaza.hu The Victims of Communism

Memorial Foundation, Washington,

USA

www.victimsofcommunism.org Institute of National

Remembrance, Warsaw, Poland

www.ipn.gov.pl Czech Offi ce for the

Documentation and the

Investigation of the Crimes of

Communism

www.mvcr.cz/udv.html German Federal Commissioner for

Records of the State Security

Service of the former DDR

www.bstu.de The International Commission

for the Evaluation of the

Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet

Occupation Regimes in Lithuania

www.komisija.lt The Genocide and Resistance

Research Center of Lituania

www.genocid.lt Estonian Internationl

Commission for Investigation of

Crimes Against Humanity

www.historycommission.ee The Commission of the

Historians of Latvia

www.president.lv

Marius Oprea President of the Institute for the Investigation

of Communist Crimes in Romania

THE INSTITUTE FOR THE INVESTIGATION OF COMMUNIST CRIMES

IN ROMANIA

www.crimelecomunismului.ro

The Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes in [email protected]

Documents

· On 4 December 2006, a penal notiﬁ cation was lodged by the IICCR’s representatives with the Public Prosecutor’s Ofﬁ ce attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice