Gherla Prison
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Gherla Prison is a penitentiary located in the
Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...
n city of
Gherla Gherla (; hu, Szamosújvár; german: Neuschloss) is a municipality in Cluj County, Romania (in the historical region of Transylvania). It is located from Cluj-Napoca on the river Someșul Mic, and has a population of 20,203. Three villages are a ...
, in
Cluj County Cluj County (; german: Kreis Klausenburg, hu, Kolozs megye) is a county ( județ) of Romania, in Transylvania. Its seat ( ro, Oraș reședință de județ) is Cluj-Napoca (german: Klausenburg). Name In Hungarian, it is known as ''Kolozs megye ...
. The prison dates from 1785; it is infamous for the treatment of its political inmates, especially during the
Communist regime A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state that is administered and governed by a communist party guided by Marxism–Leninism. Marxism–Leninism was the state ideology of the Soviet Union, the Cominte ...
. In Romanian slang the generic word for a prison is "gherlǎ", after the institution.


History


Early years

The basic structure came from the fortress of Gherla or "Szamos-uj-var" (equivalent to
transliteration Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one writing system, script to another that involves swapping Letter (alphabet), letters (thus ''wikt:trans-#Prefix, trans-'' + ''wikt:littera#Latin, liter-'') in predictable ways, such as ...
from Hungarian, meaning "New castle on the Szamos") built around 1540 by
George Martinuzzi George Martinuzzi, O.S.P. (born Juraj Utješenović, also known as György Martinuzzi, Brother György, Georg Utiessenovicz-Martinuzzi or György Fráter, hu, Fráter György; 1482 – 16 December 1551), was a Croatian nobleman, Pauline m ...
, archbishop, cardinal and Imperial Treasurer of the
Habsburg Empire The Habsburg monarchy (german: Habsburgermonarchie, ), also known as the Danubian monarchy (german: Donaumonarchie, ), or Habsburg Empire (german: Habsburgerreich, ), was the collection of empires, kingdoms, duchies, counties and other polities ...
. Through the Imperial Decree of
Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II (German: Josef Benedikt Anton Michael Adam; English: ''Joseph Benedict Anthony Michael Adam''; 13 March 1741 – 20 February 1790) was Holy Roman Emperor from August 1765 and sole ruler of the Habsburg lands from November 29, 1780 unt ...
, dated October 20, 1785 this fortress was transformed into "Carcer Magni Principatus Transilvanie" (The Major Prison of Transylvanian Principality). Throughout its history under the Austrian Empire, then Austro-Hungarian Empire, Hungary and finally Romania the penitentiary also hosted various industrial activities. Near the prison a large cemetery holds the bodies of many inmates, including
Sándor Rózsa Sándor Rózsa (born July 10, 1813, Röszke – died November 22, 1878, Szamosújvár) was a Hungarian outlaw (in Hungarian: ''betyár'') from the Great Hungarian Plain. He is the best-known Hungarian highwayman; his life inspired numerous w ...
, a well-known local "Robin Hood".


Communist era

Many Romanian military officers who had initially fought against the
Soviet Army uk, Радянська армія , image = File:Communist star with golden border and red rims.svg , alt = , caption = Emblem of the Soviet Army , start_date ...
in
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
were incarcerated in Gherla Prison by the Communist regime after the end of the war. Many of the anti-Communist opposition figures spent jail time or disappeared forever into this prison. Gherla Prison has a very large underground area. The number of inmates increased from 783 at the end of 1948 to around 4,500 in July 1959, however it then decreased to 600 by the end of 1964. According to a study done by the
International Centre for Studies into Communism The Memorial of the Victims of Communism and of the Resistance ( ro, Memorialul Victimelor Comunismului și al Rezistenței) in Romania consists of the Sighet Museum (often confused with the Memorial), located in the city of Sighetu Marmației, Mara ...
, 20.3% of all political prisoners in Communist Romania did some time at Gherla Prison. The prison (called by the locals the "Yellow House") was very imposing. To the south was a cemetery, and next to it, a smaller one, for detainees dying at the prison. The fortress was surrounded by a 4-meter high wall, topped by several watchtowers with armed soldiers on guard. Next to the wall was a 3-meter wide space, fenced with a 2-meter high barbed wire fence. At the front entrance was the one-story administration building, and from this building, through a vaulted door, one reached the two courtyards, paved with stones. The main building had two entrances, one to the inner courtyard and the other to the workshop courtyard; the inner courtyard had a gate to the south leading to the workshops. In June 1958 a group of prisoners—consisting mostly of young men who had tried to escape to
Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...
, and had either been caught or returned to Romania—rebelled, asking for a more humane treatment. The disturbance was quickly put down by the authorities, and the rebellious inmates were subjected to terrible beatings and torture. In an interview with
Adevărul ''Adevărul'' (; meaning "The Truth", formerly spelled ''Adevĕrul'') is a Romanian daily newspaper, based in Bucharest. Founded in Iași, in 1871, and reestablished in 1888, in Bucharest, it was the main left-wing press venue to be published dur ...
, an ex-detainee, Constantin Vlasie, recounts how the guards at Gherla Prison "were evil. They made us eat feces, we slept on the floor, they beat our feet until we fainted." He went on: "They wanted to break up our morale. They had evil methods to make us renounce our faith and worship them instead." Another ex-prisoner, Mihai Stăuceanu (arrested for being a border-jumper), recalls: "The detention regime at Gherla was probably very similar to the extermination regime applied in the
Nazi camps From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany operated more than a thousand concentration camps, (officially) or (more commonly). The Nazi concentration camps are distinguished from other types of Nazi camps such as forced-labor camps, as well as concen ...
: 10 to 12 hours of physical work on a construction site, which was cordoned off with double fences of barbed-wire and with guarding towers, exactly like those to be found at the border."


Current use

The penitentiary is in service today as a "Maximum Security Penitentiary". It also houses a museum, which opened in 1997. As of December 2020, there are 979 detainees at Gherla, of which 242 have retained their right to vote; at the 2020 legislative elections, 191 of those exercised that right.


Notable inmates

This is a partial list of notable inmates of Gherla Prison; the symbol † indicates those who died there.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gherla Prison Prisons in Romania Buildings and structures in Gherla Human rights abuses in Romania Political repression in Romania