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

It is a spiritual force – a force of evil – and can only be countered by a greaterspiritual force, the Spirit of God” 67 .Everything in the prison seemed to be designed to create pain. Speakingabout the handcuffs, Pastor Richard Wurmbrand says: “Handcuffs which had sharpnails on the inside were put on our wrists. If we were totally still, they did not cutus. But in bitterly cold cells, when we shook with cold, our wrists would be torn bythe nails” 68 .Another method of torture that drove many people crazy is described byDumitru Bordeianu: the prisoner sit on a hard wooden or concrete prop without anycover on it, with his legs stretched, holding his hands on the knees, while keepingthe bust straight and his eyes looking at his toes. This position was to be obeyedfrom 06:00 till 22:00. One was allowed to move only for physiological necessitiesand to eat. However, there were many that were fed by cellmates and thus wereforced to remain in the same position. This method of torture was used for tenmonths with terrible consequences for one’s reason and will – many of them wentmad 69 .We have seen in this section several methods of physical torture. We havetalked about starvation, isolation, cold, extreme beatings of the Christian inmates.The imagination and the wickedness of the torturers played a highly significantrole. Next we are going to look at another dimension of the torture – moral,psychological torture, which sometimes was worse than the physical beatings.3. Psychological TortureThe physical torture was always doubled by the psychological torture. Sometimes,according to the testimonies, the moral torture was so unbearable that the Christianinmates preferred beatings instead. In the Romanian communist prisons there wasmuch light, but this light damaged the inmates’ eyes. Fr. Steinhardt says that thelight in the prison was aggressive, blinding the eyes of the prisoners. It was neverput off: “light and emptiness; even the light is cold and bad. There is always light,67 Ibidem.68 R. Wurmbrand, op. cit., p. 36.69 D. Bordeianu, op. cit., p. 174-176.165