Brașov Prison was a prison located in

Brașov Brașov (, , ; , also ''Brasau''; ; ; Transylvanian Saxon dialect, Transylvanian Saxon: ''Kruhnen'') is a city in Transylvania, Romania and the county seat (i.e. administrative centre) of Brașov County. According to the 2021 Romanian census, ...

, Romania. The building, like the nearby Appeals Court, dates to 1902, during the period of

Austro-Hungarian Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military and diplomatic alliance, it consist ...

rule. It is on three levels, with one wing containing the cells and the other, perpendicular and asymmetrical, originally housing the prison hospital. Prior to 1945, members of the banned

Romanian Communist Party The Romanian Communist Party ( ; PCR) was a communist party in Romania. The successor to the pro-Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave an ideological endorsement to a communist revolution that would replace the social system ...

were detained there, including

Nicolae Ceaușescu Nicolae Ceaușescu ( ; ; – 25 December 1989) was a Romanian politician who was the second and last Communism, communist leader of Socialist Romania, Romania, serving as the general secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 u ...

. Beginning that year, after the establishment of a communist-led government, a number of buildings in the city were used as centers for interrogation and torture, including one operated by the

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...

. The prison housed overflow detainees under investigation by the secret police, which became the

Securitate The Department of State Security (), commonly known as the Securitate (, ), was the secret police agency of the Socialist Republic of Romania. It was founded on 30 August 1948 from the '' Siguranța'' with help and direction from the Soviet MG ...

following the establishment of a

communist regime A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state in which the totality of the power belongs to a party adhering to some form of Marxism–Leninism, a branch of the communist ideology. Marxism–Leninism was ...

at the end of 1947. The principal targets were the political and cultural elite of the Burzenland and adjacent areas, mainly sent to the

Danube–Black Sea Canal The Danube–Black Sea Canal () is a navigable canal in Romania, which runs from Cernavodă on the Danube river, via two branches, to Constanța and Năvodari on the Black Sea. Administered from Agigea, it is an important part of the waterway li ...

once their cases were resolved.Muraru, pp. 161-64 Conditions were harsh, routinely featuring insults and beatings. Food consisted of three weak soups per day, plus a piece of ''

mămăligă Mămăligă (;) is a polenta-like dish made out of yellow maize flour, traditional in Romania, Moldova, south-west regions of Ukraine and among Poles in Ukraine (''mamałyga''), Hungary (''puliszka''), the Black Sea regions of Georgia (country), ...

'' at lunch. One 4x6-meter cell alone held 50-55 prisoners, while high school students under arrest were held in the same cell. A new student arrived every few days, quickly leading to overcrowding. The cells had a single chamber pot, while the windows were kept wide open at all times and seasons. The cold and hunger weakened detainees’ resistance. In autumn 1950, two veterans of

Pitești Prison Pitești Prison () was a penal facility in Pitești, Romania, best remembered for the reeducation experiment (also known as ''Experimentul Pitești'' – the "Pitești Experiment" or ''Fenomenul Pitești'' – the "Pitești Phenomenon") which wa ...

arrived at Brașov. Armed with orders to repeat the experiment of “ re-education” through torture, they managed to mistreat several prisoners, but were sent to the Canal several months later. Brașov Prison closed in 1953, when 286 detainees were sent to the new unit in nearby

Codlea Codlea (; ; Transylvanian Saxon dialect: ''Zäöeden''; ) is a city in Brașov County, Transylvania, Romania. Name The Romanian name "Codlea" could be a derivation from the Latin , a diminutive of Latin (edge, rearward); or it could be a deriv ...

Notes

References

* {{Communist Romania prisons Defunct prisons in Romania Buildings and structures in Brașov Historic monuments in Brașov County 1953 disestablishments in Romania