"One evening, back in 1950, we woke up with a bunch of civilians and the chief of the forest division. Sara. They told my husband to hand in his gun, because he had a weapon. I didn't even suspect something had happened. I knew they were coming over, but I didn't know what he had done. I only found out later about it. Since there were three rooms, he went to the room in the back, he said he was going to bring the gun. He jumped out the window facing the forest, since it was already dark outside, he took all his weapons and ran away through the window. They were waiting in the first room for my husband to come back. But my husband didn't. He was long gone when they figured out he had run away. What could they have done, go after him by night? So they took my father-in-law and me, and drove us to Câmpeni. „Tell me where your husband is hiding!" „What can I tell you, how should I know where he's hiding." I don't know where he is! But I actually knew about the Şuşman group, that they were close by. I knew he would go to them, but didn't say a single thing. How could I have said anything?They held me in custody for a couple of days."
"I: In the fall of 1951, my husband's brother, after being beaten up by the Securitate, told them where we were. The people from the Securitate in Cluj came with him to Dealu Botii - I don't know how many they were. They handcuffed him and sent him to us, to the shelter, to urge us to hand ourselves in. When they let him go, he managed to break the handcuffs of his wrist, that's how strong he was. He came to the shelter where we were, and told us: „Brother, give me your gun, we're surrounded! I will not hand myself in alive, that's what he said, they beat me up so bad!".
R: What was his name?
I: Oneţ Roman, they were brothers only on their mother's side. We went out of our hiding. He told us where there were more of them. The house was surrounded. Towards Răchiţele there was a field and a bit further away the forest. There was only the field. We sneaked under the edge of the roof into the barn, and his brother said to us: „I'll run first and support you. And when I get to the edge of the forest, I'll cover you. Then - with handcuffs on his wrist, because he could only break the handcuffs off one arm - he took my husband's weapon, a ZB rifle, and ran to the edge of the forest. When he got there, my husband and I ran away as well. I'm telling you, I could hear the hissing of the shells next to me. I didn't think it was possible not to be hit. After I got to the edge of the forest, I checked to see if I wasn't pierced."
"We knew the Securitate had spotted us and didn't want to stay there. But our belongings were there, so we went back for them. We carefully went back one night, so no one could see us, and when we got to the room and knocked at the window, the host came out and asked us inside... I can't remember exactly what we spoke to him. He told us to wait a minute until he went outside. He went outside, the people from the Securitate were in the barn, waiting for us. Then he said: „Come to the barn to get your stuff!" When we went inside the barn - I entered first -, the lights went on and I saw the wall of the barn, they were all lined up, against the wall. That's all I could see, I didn't see anything else, since I was the first one to enter the barn and the lights went on, they hit me unconscious. I didn't hear any shots, since I was unconscious, I don't know anything else. When I woke up, I found myself handcuffed, my husband's brother was hit and my husband was unconscious, he had been shot. They brought a car, an Aro or something like that, and drove us to Beiuş."
If it hadn‘t been for hope, you would have been left to die…
Lucreţia Jurj în 1964, shortly after her release
zdroj: Arhiva foto a Memorialului Victimelor Comunismului şi al Rezistenţei
zdroj: Arhiva foto a Memorialului Victimelor Comunismului şi al Rezistenţei
Stáhnout obrázek
Born on October 2, 1928, in Scărişoara Nouă, a village in Pişcolţ, Satu Mare County. As a refugee during the Second World War, Lucreţia Jurj could only finish six years of primary education.
In 1947, she married a forest ranger, Mihai Jurj.
From 1948 on, in the Western Carpathians (Apuseni), in the surroundings of Huedin, he became active in one of the longest-lived anti-communist armed resistance groups in Romania. The group had been formed by Teodor Şuşman, a wealthy peasant from Răchiţele, Cluj County, supporter of the National Liberal Party that came into conflict with the Communist Party shortly after the end of the Second World War. Having fled to the mountains, he was joined by three of his sons: Teodor Junior, Visalon and Traian.
At the beginning of the group‘s activity, Mihai Jurj, a friend of the Şuşman brothers and their father, sheltered them and helped them with food and medicine.
In August 1950, as a consequence of the treachery on the part of the chief of the forest division, Lucreţia Jurj was arrested, while her husband managed to escape and join the Şuşman brothers. After having been released a few days later, she continued to supply the partisans with food, and, in October 1950, suspecting that she would once again be arrested, joined the group herself, fighting along her husband until 1954. In August 1954, following a clash with the Securitate in Sudrigiu-Apuseni, Mihai Jurj was killed, while Lucreţia Jurj was injured and afterwards arrested. In 1955, she was sentenced to forced labour for life for „machination against the socialist order“ (under Article 209). Her sentence was later reduced to 25 years of forced labour. After spending time in different prisons, in Oradea, Mislea, Jilava, Miercurea Ciuc, Cluj and Văcăreşti, she was pardoned and released from prison on June 23, 1964.
After her release, Lucreţia Jurj settled in Turda, where her brothers were living. She remarried in 1967 with Grigorie Costescu and moved to Cluj. She managed to get a job, working as a textile worker at the knitwear factory.
Lucreţia Jurj passed away in Cluj in 2004.
