Though many friendships had been formed among anti-Communist fighters in
local organizations or in political groups, many were broken in the course of
this tragedy especially those formed between students and non-students. In contrast
with normal times, when every political party was organized into groups along
social or professional lines, the "illegal" anti-Communist groups
drew from all classes. Social differences were submerged in the common fight
for liberty. That is why a kind of amalgam resulted, in which all individual
differences were melted away, leaving the only thing that mattered: the love of
country and freedom. But through the forced submission of students and workers
to the unmasking experiment, this bond was broken; so that now, when
circumstances again made it possible for men to meet again, a way had to be
found for re-establishing communication between them, even within the same
cell.
Relaxed tensions following abandonment of the policy of re-education naturally
did not bring the students back to participation in normal prison life. They
were a species apart, and conscious of the profound differences that separated
them from their fellow inmates. Thus there could be no contact between former
friends, no approach of one to the other, no means of communication. The
terrible mutation of re-education separated them as effectively as an
impenetrable wall.
Breaching the wall could be attempted only by those who had been able to
maintain their souls intact and had, furthermore, a compassion which they
wished to share with those so desperately in need of it.
In order to make an initial approach even possible, one had to study and
understand thoroughly the psychopathic phenomenon as a whole, and then try to
make some aperture through which to reach the consciousness of the submerged
personality without deepening his alienation. That was extremely difficult, and
one had to proceed with great caution. I shall outline the way several close
friends and I tried to do this.
At first, when the atmosphere was heavy with suspicion, we would approach
the re-educated persons working with us and pretend to agree with them, just to
get a conversation started. When the climate seemed ameliorated, we tried to
re-establish their self-confidence, but make no reference whatever to
unmaskings, not even through a remote hint. Gradually, slowly, the concepts and
values that had been destroyed by the re-educators were revived by a kind of
inverse process as individuals were shown an affectionate sympathy and
understanding of their suffering, and were convinced of our desire to do the
right thing. Many times such conversations had to be continued for a long time
before we could ascertain just what guilt was searing the soul of an
individual, but as soon as we were convinced that our interlocutor was prepared
to bear it, we initiated a discussion which included him as a guilty party. We
then could proceed to probe the true problem, that of determining who
was really responsible, personally responsible, not only for the crimes
committed but for the initiation of the fearsome experiment in the first place.
The majority of the students had had a faith so strong that it survived deep
within them in spite of every attempt to destroy it, and when circumstances
made it possible, it re-appeared as if from hibernation and proved to be the
determining factor in recovery. We are concerned here only with students who
were victims before becoming torturers or simple informers for the political
officers. The other persons, who were sent into the prisons as tools of the
Ministry of the Interior or the Communist Party itself, or who became willing
stooges of the regime, must be left to the justice that inflexibly punishes
crime.
The resurrection of the values which had been superseded by re-education was
not in itself too difficult a task, as frequently a simple stimulation sufficed
to impel the person back to his former equilibrium. But one real obstacle, very
hard to surmount, was the haunting fear, locked into every fiber of the
unmasked victim, that any day the re-education terror might be resumed. Life
inside the prison did nothing to dispel that fear. To be convincing, an
argument that the terror was ended had to be based on evidence from the
outside, even from the course of political events outside the country.
To encourage a feeling that events might be changing things for us in
prison, we used all kinds of information gleaned from newly-arrived prisoners,
or through the good will of prison guards innocent of "class-struggle"
theories. Under the circumstances, prisoners put their own interpretation on
the various bits of information and fitted them to their own wishful thinking.
Whether their interpretations did or did not correspond to reality did not
worry us in the least. The essential thing was that they allayed the fears not
only of the re-educated, but also our own, for we could never really dismiss
from our own minds the possibility of an instauration of the Pitesti
experiment, having observed the oscillation in prison of the various forms of
terror from maximum to minimum and back, with no apparent relationship to
political events in the country. So we cannot be blamed for thinking anything
was possible.
In addition to alleviating that fear of the re-educated, we had somehow to
destroy also their conviction that Communist Russia was invincible -- Russia
where, as indeed in any country under Communist domination, one has no means of
ascertaining what facts, if any, lie behind official claims and declarations. But
the re-educated had lost all power of discernment. Their only truth was that
which was decreed by the Communist Party's official paper, and the students had
no other source by which to judge it. So, attempts to refute with reasoning and
argument the lies that had paralyzed their ability to think were worse than
useless. (This can also be seen in the Western world, where various
co-existentialists, or "useful idiots," are products of the same
intoxication. ) We found that a well-placed joke or witticism accomplished more
good than an hour of argument.
A soul that has been submerged for years has more need for a warm word, we
found, than for logical explanation; like a plant kept in the dark, it needs
the sun more than nourishment.