Selected text
When I was a student, they carried out an extensive verification of the party members. They organized it in the ceremonial hall of the university, and they invited me as an honest non-party person to participate; back then they called somebody an honest non-party person, if that person wasn’t a class enemy, only class-alien.
Back then the Siguranta had been thrashing these former communists, and there had been two cases: either they had beaten them to death, or the communists had confessed; and what happened after that? During this assembly it turned out that those who had confessed were expelled from the party.
They took them one by one, and carried out an inquiry. There was a committee, who called up the party members, and whoever had a past, had been imprisoned and had confessed, they were qualified as traitors, expelled from the party, and they re-organized the party from those who didn’t have a past. Those who didn’t have a past became the good communists.
Gheorghiu-Dej [21] and his company had been in jail for 12 years, then they turned against those who had come home from the Soviet Union [22], so there were serious party struggles. I never got involved in this. Back then many such trials took place, they executed for example Laszlo Rajk [23] as well in Hungary. What Rakosi organized there [the Rajk trial] [24], Gheorghiu-Dej and his company did the same here.
Nobody investigated me, I was an honest non-party man, I just simply didn’t join.
Back then the Siguranta had been thrashing these former communists, and there had been two cases: either they had beaten them to death, or the communists had confessed; and what happened after that? During this assembly it turned out that those who had confessed were expelled from the party.
They took them one by one, and carried out an inquiry. There was a committee, who called up the party members, and whoever had a past, had been imprisoned and had confessed, they were qualified as traitors, expelled from the party, and they re-organized the party from those who didn’t have a past. Those who didn’t have a past became the good communists.
Gheorghiu-Dej [21] and his company had been in jail for 12 years, then they turned against those who had come home from the Soviet Union [22], so there were serious party struggles. I never got involved in this. Back then many such trials took place, they executed for example Laszlo Rajk [23] as well in Hungary. What Rakosi organized there [the Rajk trial] [24], Gheorghiu-Dej and his company did the same here.
Nobody investigated me, I was an honest non-party man, I just simply didn’t join.
Period
Location
Targu Mures
Romania
Interview
Dr. Gabor Lazar