Ion Ioanid (28 March 1926 – 12 October 2003) was a Romanian dissident and writer. Ioanid was a political prisoner of the communist-led regime after World War II, who spent 12 years in prison and labor camps. He is best known for taking part in the 1953 Cavnic lead mine labor camp escape and for his book "Give us each day our daily prison" (Închisoarea noastră cea de toate zilele), a reference to the verse from the Christian Lord's Prayer. The book is a comprehensive recollection of his time spent in detention. He is considered a Romanian Solzhenitsyn, as his description of the communist detention regime in Romania is the most detailed one submitted by one of its victims.
Biography Ioanid was born on 28 March 1926 at his father's estate in Ilovăț village, Mehedinți County. His godfather was Octavian Goga, a friend of his father, Tilică Ioanid. Tilică Ioanid was descended from an old and well-known Greek landlord family, a National Liberal Party member, and a secretary in the Romanian government led by Miron Cristea before World War II. Ioanid attended primary school in Ilovăț, then continued his studies in Bucharest, the first six years at Saint Sava High School, and the last two at Spiru Haret High School. He received his bachelor's degree in 1944, at the Șișești village school, where both teachers and students sought shelter from the allied bombardment. In 1945 he enrolled in law school, but was expelled in the third year because of his "unhealthy social origin", as his father was a landlord.
Ioanid was first arrested in 1949, but was released a few days later. In 1952 he was arrested again, and this time he was sentenced to 20 years of forced labour. He spent the next 12 years in several prisons and labor camps, and was released in 1964, following a pardon decree targeting political prisoners. He left Romania in 1969 and sought political asylum in West Germany. There, he worked for more than 20 years as a Romanian announcer and journalist for Radio Free Europe.
Give us each day our daily prison
1949. First arrest He was arrested for the first time for facilitating the typewriting of two letters. The first, from his cousin George Boian, containing economic, political, and military information about the situation of Romania at the time, was addressed to a friend outside of the country. The second, from his close friend Baby Ivanovici, was addressed to the Remington Company in the United States. When Boian was arrested, the letters were found upon him, and as such Ioanid was also involved. He was detained at Malmaison Prison, in Bucharest, where his investigation was held. Beaten and tortured into admitting his part in the so-called plot — the other persons involved were cross-examined in parallel, and any lie told with the intent of protecting the others was eventually revealed — he was released a few days later.
1952. Second arrest. Pitești Prison and trial Following the purge in May 1952 of the Vasile Luca, Ana Pauker, and Teohari Georgescu group, a new wave of political trials was initiated and Ioanid was again arrested. Taken with the entire Boian group to the Securitate regional headquarters in Pitești, he was part of a mock trial led by general Alexandru Petrescu, who also led the trial against Iuliu Maniu. Eventually Ioanid was sentenced to 20 years forced labor.
After the trial, regardless of its location, as it was the procedure back then, the convicts were transferred to the Jilava Prison via railroad. Days or weeks could pass before a suitable train was available. From Jilava, they were assigned to either prisons or labor camps all over the country, as the conviction stated. After the trial, the prisoners were no longer detained at a Securitate location, but moved to the local prison. For Ioanid, the Pitești Prison detention, although a short one this time, compared to future detentions, was the first contact with a communist prison. As he was only a temporary prisoner here, and the worst of the brainwashing experiments performed in this facility were terminated earlier the same year, he was not subject to them.
However, it was the first contact with the brutality of the prison guards, as "it was pouring curses and fists, generously distributed to all those who were not executing orders fast enough", with the strictness of the detention, as the inmates were not allowed to talk loud to each other, sing, look outside the window, attempt to communicate with other cells, lay down in bed during the day, or perform many other ordinary tasks.
They were tortured, either directly — beating and isolation were commonplace — or indirectly, with bad food or malnutrition, lack of hygiene, deprivation of almost all or any medical care. Opening the prison cell during the night was not allowed for guards except in the presence of a higher rank officer, and only in exceptional cases: severe injury or death, so emptying the bucket was not possible. The content was spilled over the window, which led to a pestilential odor all over the prison.
Ioanid makes vivid portrayals of the inmates he met in detention centers, from simple peasants who opposed the nationalization process, to former members of the historical parties. He describes citizens who were unfortunate enough to have an unhealthy origin, or make an out-of-place remark towards the communist leadership, to Iron Guard members, all victims of the communist purging machine.
1952. Jilava Prison In early October 1952, Ioanid was moved from Pitești to Jilava Prison. The transport train arrived once in a while, and it was many times the case that those transported were crowded in the small compartments: "When they started pushing the ninth prisoner, we were downright crushed, barely able to breathe. [...] The highest price for closing the door was paid by the ones positioned closest [...] they were savagely beaten with clubs and fists. Blood was all over their faces". On arrival in Bucharest, they spent one night in the common-law designated prison of Văcărești, before being moved to the prison in Jilava.
Ioanid's first Jilava stage lasted about six weeks. At the time of his stay "...commander in chief was captain Maromet. Of Gagauz origin, heavily stuttering, he was famous for his cruelty and sadism. Personally beating the inmates, his favourite torture was that, during summer, he had the windows of the overcrowded cells nailed closed, until, because of heat exhaustion and lack of air, people started to faint". In the middle of November, he was assigned to a batch of 150 prisoners that were to be transferred to a new labor camp at the Cavnic mine, in Maramureș County. The requirements for the lot were such that the prisoners would be capable of hard mine work: they had to be younger than 35, healthy and with convictions exceeding 15 years. However, in the end, the numbers had to be completed with men crippled and up to 60 years old.
1953. Escape from Cavnic labor camp
From Jilava, the prisoners were transferred to the Cavnic mine labor camp, in northwest Romania, close to another, older, labor camp at Baia Sprie. (See Lead mine prison camps in Communist Romania.) Before World War II, the Cavnic mine belonged to a Romanian-Belgian company, which closed down the facility because of low profitability. Subsequently, the Baia Sprie Mining Plant decided to reopen it. They provided the technical and logistic guidance, while the Ministry of Internal Affairs provided the labor force, consisting of political detainees. Aside the Jilava lot, also a group of older prisoners, from the Baia Sprie camp, was assigned to start work at this new mining facility. There were also civilian miners working there. The civilian work force was concentrated at the work front, while the labor camp force, completely isolated from the first, was concentrated at the work front.
At first, as part of the overall experiment, the prisoners were housed in brand-new huts and even overfed. They were told by the administration that the civilized behaviour towards them, detention comfort and food amount depended on the level of the performed work quota. Coming from prisons all over the country where personal space was very restricted, and where cold and famine were regular, the inmates started working hard, raising the workload on a daily basis. In time, the food quality and quantity worsened, and so did the administration's behavior towards them. They were not able to meet the high workload anymore, and this also led to conflicts with newly arrived inmates, who were accusing the old ones of Stakhanovism. Ioanid gives a detailed description of work techniques and equipment during the daily shift. However, there was always a competition between the camp administration and the prisoners. The first wanted high work output, while the latter wanted to work as little as possible, to avoid injuries and prevent overwork-related health issues. The inmates used any possible means to sabotage the work effort: intentionally damaging the equipment, reporting false – bigger – quotas or not reporting rich ore veins when discovered so that they could be slowly exploited. Working underground was difficult, depending on the exploited vein, temperatures and humidity could be very high, or freezing cold water could pour from the ceiling. Mining accidents were frequent and many died or were maimed. Mining-related diseases were also common. Those who opposed the administration were punished with cruelty:
Not being committed to a tight-security prison, Ioanid was determined to take the necessary risks and attempt an escape. Meanwhile, he befriended several other prisoners, some of whom expressed similar thoughts. Eventually they formed a group and planned to escape the following spring. The group consisted of: Ion Pantazi: captured during an attempt to illegally cross the border and sentenced to 5 years of forced labor. Part of the Baia Sprie group. Constantin Coșereanu (Titi): fought during the war with the German forces on the Baltic front line (as he was a student in a German Military School). His sister was married to an American assigned to the military mission in Bucharest, and through this route he was providing unfiltered and uncensored information about the Communist authorities' actions in the country. Captured and sentenced to more than 20 years of forced labor. Ion and Simion Cojocaru, brothers. They were given heavy sentences for taking part in the uprising that followed the nationalization of peasant property in Vrancea County. Ion and Gheorghe Brînzaru, brothers. Same as above. Colea Ungureanu George Sarry Mircea Vueric Dr. Miltiade Ionescu (Mache) Dr. Paul Iovănescu Alexandru Ciocâlteu (Ducu), sentenced to more than 20 years during the staged trial against the Vatican nunciature in Bucharest.
As they arrived at the camp in late autumn, the plan was to wait for early summer in order to escape. Escaping during winter posed several problems, such as no shelter in the leafless forest, freezing temperatures and no possibility to cover the snow tracks. This was a period, after the second world war, when Romania was completely isolated from outside information flow. At the dawn of the Cold War, people still believed that Allied forces would start a new war against the Soviet Union and this war could lead to freedom (the Vin americanii! notion). As such, after escape, almost all planned to join the guerilla forces that were still active in the mountains or attempt to flee across the border towards the West.
The group of prisoners escaped on 6 June 1953. Taking advantage of the poor security inside the mine, they managed to get out during the shift change using a tunnel destined for the civil miners. They met no resistance except one guard and a civil engineer, whom they overpowered and tied up.