ANUARUL ACADEMIC 2003-2004 - Facultatea de Teologie "Andrei ...

“One remained there for ten days. They would not give more than ten days. Onewould stay in full darkness, in cold like in a built tomb from seven to ten days.While in the summer one would stay in a hot, fully dark room, in the winter, hewould stay in a windowless lavatory wearing only a shirt and a pair of pants.People died; they simply got frozen. When somebody was taken out, even theeyes were white” 41 .It is very clear that in these rooms, one could not distinguish the outsidetemperature from the temperature inside the room. Speaking about the sametorture, Fr. Iustin remembers: “There was a room reinforced with concrete, humid,with no place to sit, being thus forced to stand all the time. After two or three days,the tiredness forced one to sit and from that moment humidity damaged one’shealth.” 42 The aim of such a method could not be, but to weaken the victim and todiscourage him.Lack of food and terrible thirst were used as pressure against the Christianinmates. Fr. Iustin says: “At Aiud we were so weak that we had to lean against thewalls when we made some steps” 43 . .Weakness caused by lack of food is pointed out by several testimonies.Pastor Richard Wurmbrand referring to this says: “We were unimaginably hungry;we had been doped until we became as idiots. We were as weak as skeletons. TheLord’s Prayer was much too long for us. We could not concentrate enough to sayit” 44 . Thus, the implication that the conditions of the prison where he was wereextremely bad is clear. He adds that sometimes: “We were given one slice of breada week and dirty soup” 45 .Starvation was all embracing. Fr. Steinhardt mentions it besides other formsof tortures: “We are shivering with cold and we feel overwhelmed by dirt; we arealso hungry. Because of the snow, the food supply was probably stopped. We donot have water any more. The bucket is full” 46 . ”Little food”,”miserable food”,“dirty food”, “no food” are phrases one often encounters in the literature of theprisons. Referring to the soup the Christian inmates received, Fr. Oancea describes41 D. Bejan, op. cit., p. 85.42 Adrian Alui Gheorghe, Părintele Iustin Pârvu şi morala unei vieţi câştigate, Piatra Neamţ, EdituraConta, 2005, p.106.43 Ibidem, p. 79.44 Richard Wurmbrand, op. cit., p. 58.45 Ibidem, p. 45.46 N. Steinhardt, op. cit., p. 101.159