Ioan Marin

I gave all my money away for food because I thought I wouldn't have where to buy food from or the money in Yugoslavia. I wanted to have enough food supply for those 400 kilometers I would have to walk. A citizen saw us there. He was a snitch, as there used to be at the border. We got closer; we were very close, could already see into Yugoslavia. We miscalculated; we had come very close to the border. I said: "We've prepared, let's go, it's getting dark." We got into a hollow. Between Timişoara and Jimbolia there's this little corner. We wanted to cross the border there because it was less secured, since everybody was afraid of this little corner, which is the narrowest. And I said: "Here's the weakest guard!". And I got down into a pit, to wait there until it was dark. "Let's eat, get ready and when it gets dark, we'll go". One of the citizens from the store went and reported us to the militia and the border patrol. They surrounded us. The police was there first. We were hidden there. First, someone appeared on the coast. I realized something was wrong. I said: "If he ran away, he might have blown the whistle on us and we might get caught." Because of our clothes. We were wearing city school uniforms, while people in the village, in Ciuchici, had other clothing. There was also the difference of the food we had gotten... So I said: "Pack up, let's get out of here!" We hadn't started packing yet when the policeman appeared. He pulled the trigger, an automatic firearm, and told us: "Come on! Get out!" He stripped us naked and got us out of the pit. Bare-naked, we were taken to the local police station in Chiuchici.

I stayed in Jilava, where I was put under quarantine for 21 days, so 3 weeks. They put me in a cell; there were about 50 men in a tiny cell. There was only a little window, this size, it was this small. 30, 40, 50 blokes in that cell that was about 5 m long and 2 m or 2 m and a half wide. They just locked us up in there. One hour passed, then two hours and a half, let's say, and we were left without air. There wasn't any oxygen left. The elderly fell to the floor. They could no longer stand up, they started sitting down, being left short of breath. I was right next to the window, this is how it happened. One of the guys said: "Hey guys, does anybody have a match?" One would sometimes hide things under the clothes, in gloves... For example, I used to hide a sewing needle in the heel here, where the flesh is thicker, just here, in the heel - because they were performing strip searches. We had to strip naked and were searched everywhere, even in the ass. I'm using bad language, but this is the naked truth. I would stick the sewing needle in the heel, thrust it in the flesh. One of us said: "Hey guys, does anybody have a match?" And somebody did. "Strike it!", but the match didn't light up due to lack of oxygen. When I saw elderly men falling on the floor, we started pounding the doors - me and some other younger guys, who were standing near the window. When they finally opened the door, we all fell to the flour, I'm telling you. We all just hit the ground. When that fresh air came in and we could all finally breathe, we all fell down, I don't know what happened. The cell had two doors. One was thick and made of wood; the other one was made of iron and had bars. They left the wooden door open and closed the iron one.

"...they had me work on a mushroom farm. I've never worked so hard in my entire life as I did there for 6 months. I had 2 weeks to accommodate, and then worked for 6 months as I have never worked my whole life, doing hard physical work. They had us make manure, carry and unload it, as well as cultivate mushrooms. We had patterns made of long adobe bricks, about this high. The manure had to be mixed with sand, clay, formalin and lime. After that, the mixture was stacked on the alley, but these alleys or passageways were very long there, where these tunnels were. I'd say they were about 300 meters long. They wouldn't let you, you were not allowed to... the first time they would cultivate mushrooms there, they would spray everything with formalin... you weren't allowed to put anything down, you had to wash your feet with formalin and lime at the entrance; the mushrooms would otherwise get infested. You had to carry manure for 300 meters. You weren't allowed to put down the stretcher with the manure, except for where you were supposed to leave it. To make it easier for us, we made some sort of harness, and were carrying manure from morning to evening. On Sundays, I was assigned to do prison maintenance work - to mow the lawn, cut down trees, things like that. They thought I wouldn't try to escape, since I had to serve the shortest time in jail. Others had prison terms of 15, 20, 25 years, and weren't allowed to roam free."