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Romania: The Shadow of the Past

September 9, 2013

For the first time, Romania's judicial system is looking for those responsible for the mass murder of political prisoners during the communist era.

https://p.dw.com/p/19ePk
FILE This is a Tuesday, July 30, 2013 file photo of retired Lt. Col. Alexandru Visinescu, 87, as he looks at journalists outside his home in Bucharest. Romanian prosecutors on Tuesday Sept. 3, 2013 charged the commander of a Communist-era prison with genocide, the first Romanian to face the charge since 1989. Alexandru Visinescu, 87, appeared before prosecutors to be presented with the charges. Between 1956 and 1963, he ran the Ramnicu Sarat prison where the pre-Communist elite and intellectuals were incarcerated. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda. File)
Image: picture alliance/AP Photo

The detention center in Ramnicu Sarat in eastern Romania was a dreaded place. Under the supervision of prison commander Alexandru Visinescu, intellectuals, members of the clergy and politicians who criticized the regime were detained here between 1956 and 1963. Now Romania's highest public prosecutor has started proceedings against the 88-year-old. Visinescu is said to have excelled in the mass murders of political dissidents. For victims and their relatives, the trial is only the beginning. More than 600,000 people in Romania were imprisoned on political grounds after World War II. One in five didn't survive imprisonment.

Das Bild zeigt ein Teil des Inneren einer Zelle im Flugel der politischen Gefangenen im Gefangnis von Aiud, Rumanien.  Foto wurde von DW Mitarbeiter Laurentiu Diaconu-Colintineanu am 22 September 2011 geschossen.
Image: DW