On the following pages Mr. Ion Nicolau narrates the sufferings and deprivations of political prisoners in the infamous, high-security prison of Aiud Penitentiary in Romania.  A number of books have been published by different authors, portraying the brutality and inhumane treatment of political prisoners by the Romanian communist government with the clear intent to destroy any opposition to their absolute and diabolical rule.  His eye-witness accounts of the life of political prisoners in the Aiud Penitentiary should open the eyes of liberals and believers in the possible co-existence or compromise with the communist system.

   Mr. Ion Nicolau joined the Legionary Movement in 1935, and was imprisoned from 1939 to 1940 for his political activities by the demented and criminal king, Carol II.  During World War II he served with the Romanian Army on the Russian front.  After the invasion of Romania by the Russian hordes and the installation of a communist regime in Romania (a consequence of the Yalta Accords), he was arrested and detained in different prisons, Aiud being one of the prison centers.  He was released from prison in 1964, and in 1980 he left Romania and was reunited with his family in Toronto.  After his release from prison he became a painter, and his pictures have been presented in several expositions.  Mr. Nicolau is not a writer - he is a mechanical engineer, a graduate of the University of Timisoara (Polytechnic School).

   The assasination of Ion Popa, as described by Mr. Nicolau, is only one of the many executions of political prisoners by the Romanian communist government.  Thousands and thousands of political prisoners were physically annihilated by direct shooting or slow physical deterioration by hunger, physical exhaustion, lack of medical care, and torture.  The most severe and inhumane treatment was applied to the members of the Legion of the Archangel Michael, the only political segment most feared by the communists even to this day.

   Two great Romanian poets, Radu Gyr and Nichifor Crainic, themselves political prisoners for many years in communist jails and subjected to inhumane and cruel treatment, wrote two poems with identical themes - FAMINE AND HUNGER. What a devastating effect hunger has on the human body and mind.  Even the noble souls of these poets must have reached despair and hopelessness.  Only a strong belief and the Godly sparks in the souls of all those incarcerated for religious and political beliefs gave them the power to resist and overcome the insanity that such conditions induce.

   As mentioned in this essay, the officer in charge of the Aiud Penitentiary, during the assasination of Ion Popa, was a man named Koller (Kohler) - a Romanian Jew with the rank of colonel in the Romanian Security Police.  Today, this man lives in the United States (most likely in the state of Ohio) - a man who committed innumerable crimes, a man described on page 20 as a most ferocious, pitiless, and vile criminal.  His immigration to the United States was possible with the help of high officials in the government.  How is it possible for the immigration office to overlook these facts?  In the United States there is a large number of former political prisoners who would be willing to give testimony and eyewitness accounts of the activities of this high ranking security officer and strong arm of the Romanian communist government. The Justice Department, through its OSI office, investigates certain individuals with the assistance of the KGB and other satellite police organizations for criminal acts presumably committed during World War II.  Why doesn't the OSI pursue individuals like Koller (Kohler) and so many others presently residing in the United States?  Is this omission intentional?  Is the Immigration Department blind when it comes to former communists and members of the security police from different East European countries.  While an innocent person, like Archbishop Valerian Trifa, who never committed any of the so-called war crimes, was pressured into renouncing his citizenship and compelled to leave the United States, a criminal such as Koller and others like him are given the sanctuary of this country.  Is the news media deaf, dumb, and blind?  Have the officials in the Departments of Justice, Immigration, and State become so insensitive that they have lost their sense of fairness and justice?

It is my hope that the present administration will change its attitudes and deny asylum and immigration to any type of political criminal.  There should be no exception permitted because someone belongs to a certain ethnic group.

I, as  well as the entire Romanian-American community, nourish the hope that the present attorney general, Edwin R. Meese, will have the courage to reopen the case of  Bishop Trifa and correct the injustice committed against him.

Alexander E. Ronnett, M.D.