Thread by @cosminDZS

You think you know the full horrors of communism?

Let me introduce you to the Romanian People's Republic re-education experiments at Piteșt prison (1949-1951.)

The program has been called among the worst acts of inhumanity by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

(THREAD)

Under the direction of communist Romania's secret police, the Securitate, political prisoners (mostly students) were subjected to non-stop psychological, spiritual and physical torture with the sole purpose of creating obedient slaves to the regime.

One of the key tactics involved "unmasking," which involved different but equally cruel stages. The following details are disturbing.

Re-education meant hanging 40 kg weights on the backs of prisoners, hair pulling, finger crushing, forcing students to knock heads like rams.

Often the people conducting the interrogations and torture were themselves prisoners

Humiliation was key. Prisoners would drink eachother's urine, eat their own feces or have multiple people stand on their bodies to crush them while banging their heads on the cement floor.

Others were burnt by cigarettes on every inch of their bodies until their flesh fell off from infection.

At each step of the way "demasking" would strip away the psychological defenses of victims. They would have no choice but to reveal the most intimate secrets of their life.

Inmates publicly denounced their religions, their beliefs, even their own families and loved ones.

Due to the vehemently atheist stance of the Communist party religious Christian and Jewish prisoners were forced to attend religious rites like "baptisms" (drowning) in sewage.

Brutality and violence were norms. Although many inmates committed suicide many didn't escape so easily.

Later on prisoners were prevented from committing suicide through the use of safety nets over stairwells, etc. Physical death was not allowed, only the death of the spirit.

Several movies and documentaries have been produced about this relatively unknown horror of the modern era.

This one with English subtitles is a decent start.

To all the tankies polluting my replies: how do you feel knowing I have more communist heritage than you LARPers yet I still think your ideology is garbage?

My parents were model communist citizens. Educated, respectable... the Securitate even tried to recruit my mother while she was in university.

Despite the fact that they had it good relative to others, I still recognize the evils of communism, why can't some of you?

Tankies BTFO again