Vintilă Weiss

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Vintilă Weiss, also Vais or Veis (c. 1920 – 19 January 1974), was a Romanian communist and colonel of the Securitate who was for a while imprisoned and tortured by the communist regime. Of Jewish origin, he joined the outlawed Romanian Communist Party in 1938, and remained its member throughout World War II. Immediately after the anti-fascist coup of August 1944, he took a law degree from the University of Bucharest, entered the General Police Directorate, and rose through its ranks to become commissioner, then Chestor. He was then assigned to the Romanian Kingdom's intelligence service, Siguranța, and tenured as a Securitate colonel upon the establishment of a communized republic. Tasked with checking and granting passports, Weiss was in contact with various diplomats, and attracted suspicion that he was feeding them classified information through one of his sisters. The Securitate apprehended him in 1950; during subsequent interrogations, most of which were held under torture, he sometimes acknowledged the existence of a spy ring, and sometimes recanted.

Weiss claimed to have been framed by his superiors because he did condone their corruption, or because he knew too much; he was openly defended by communists such as Ion Vincze, but his sentencing was ensured by the Securitate. Though afflicted by tuberculosis, he was knowingly sent to Gherla Prison in mid-1951, and subject to an experiment in "re-education"—which centered on regular and intense beatings. He would still not admit to having betrayed the party. Instead, using his insight into Securitate politics, Weiss began looking into methods for stopping the experiment and obtaining justice against its perpetrators. During interrogations, he implicated Ana Pauker and other factional leaders who were coming to be seen as dangerous by communist leader Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, while also allowing the party leadership to view the Securitate as a rogue institution. Such efforts alarmed his captors, and, in one instance, the experiment's original instigator, Eugen Țurcanu, was brought in to threaten him.

As the party reasserted its control, Major Alexandru Roșianu assisted Weiss in making his accusations known to the higher echelons. This ended the mistreatment, allowing other prisoners to regard him as a hero. Weiss himself received specialized treatment for his tuberculosis, allowing him to stand as a witness for the prosecution in Țurcanu's trial; though no official of either the Securitate or the party was tried for such acts, the hand-on torturers were swiftly executed by the state. Weiss had a second career as a lawyer, cut short in 1974 by his death in a road accident—which drew suspicion as a likely final act of the Securitate cover-up.

Early life and career

The son of Niculae and Cristina Weiss (or Vais),[1][2] Vintilă was born, and grew up, in the Bucharest suburb of Pantelimon.[3] He is known to have had several siblings,[2] including a sister, Maria-Ivona[1] or Yvonne, whose activities would play a significant part in his own downfall.[4] Archeologist Radu Ciuceanu, who befriended Vintilă when they were both political prisoners at Gherla in mid-to-late 1951, could not initially bring himself to ask if he was Christian of Jewish.[5] When their arguments turned heated (either because of ideological disagreements, or because Weiss would not listen to advice on survival), he admits to having called him a "kike", also urging him to he confess his sins to Jehovah.[6] According to Ciuceanu, the disgraced colonel had joined the Communist Party (PCR, later PMR) in 1938, during the time when it was outlawed, and as such had precious information regarding communist leaders Pauker and Teohari Georgescu.[7] Weiss himself claimed to have personally met two rival leaders of the national-communist factions, namely Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu and Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej. He regarded the former as a sure victim of the latter, since he had been betrayed by "prominent Jews" in his entourage; he saw Gheorghiu-Dej as immoral, but with various saving graces.[8]

Weiss was also proud of having preserved his membership throughout World War II, even when it seemed that Nazi Germany would conquer all of Europe.[9] At the time of his Gherla encounters, Weiss was still relatively young, and stood out among the mass of the communists for having attended or graduated university.[10] Shortly after the political upsurge of 1944, he had been fast-tracked by the University of Bucharest department of law, taking a special one-year course that had been made available to those marginalized under Ion Antonescu's regime.[11] He was recruited by the General Police Directorate,[12] and, on 27 April 1945, assigned to lead Bucharest's fifth precinct, without yet holding a rank.[13] Around that time, he is known to have fathered a son, Andrei, whom he loved greatly.[14]

In August 1945, Weiss was a commissioner of the fifth precinct, witnessing a rise of criminal activity in Moșilor ward. Here, he led the search for the perpetrators of several armed robberies.[15] He was later a Chestor in the passports service—which, as he himself noted, made him the equivalent of a general.[16] In July 1946, he organized a census of Bucharest's non-citizen population.[17] From 1 October 1947, he was assigned as liaison of the Siguranța agency within the Bucharest police prefecture.[18] In the early days of 1948, Chestor Weiss, whjo was leading the bureau for alien surveillance, captured and interrogated a group of fourteen people who had allegedly tried to escape over the Iron Curtain. According to the prosecution, they had intended to hijack Constantin Cantacuzino's plane and land it in Izmir.[19] Also then, he arrested Vincenzio Mocci, charged with forging Italian passport for Romanians who were seeking to emigrate.[20]

With the phasing out of royalist institutions during the first year of communism (1948–1949), Weiss became a Securitate colonel. His sister, employed as a typist for the Groza cabinet, was also risking her liberty by networking with French Republican diplomats, including Serge Henri Parisot. Arrested in a mass roundup on 24 May 1950, she confessed that, as early as 1948, her brother had been marginally involved, tipping Parisot about Securitate spies in the French embassy and on France's own soil.[4] As documents of the time reveal, he had also tried to recruit Charles Philippe Gyr, a former Nazi collaborator who was living in Bucharest with no papers, to become a Securitate asset. The very plan became a liability when another wing of the Securitate ordered Gyr's arrest.[4]

Arrest, conviction, and Gherla arrival

Later in 1950, Colonel Weiss lost his positions abruptly, and was arrested by his Securitate peers,[21] along with most of his family.[22] According to Ciuceanu, he was being set up: his lawyer never showed up in court until after the verdict, during an appeals procedure.[23] Weiss was still acquitted by a military court, which acted on an intervention by communist activist Ion Vincze, but the Securitate resubmitted his case, and, on review, he received a 10-year term in jail.[24] Weiss believed that Marin Jianu, the titular minister of internal affairs, was the person most responsible for this outcome, and that it was because of a personal vendetta—he claimed to have refused Jianu's demands for personal favors.[25] He later also came to believe that he was being held, and interrogated, because someone in government wanted to learn the secrets of his office.[26] Ciuceanu, who agrees, also notes that Weiss was meant to die, after an elaborate staging, once he would have revealed all of what he knew.[27] Weiss was already ill when he entered prison: afflicted with tuberculosis, he had a "dried-up lung".[28] He was for a while treated in the Văcărești ward. Still an ideological conformist, he denounced to the Securitate those doctors who reserved favors for political inmates, known to him as "bandits".[29]

The detainment came shortly after groups of prisoners in Suceava and Pitești Prisons, acting with the Securitate's blessing, had proceeded to "re-educate" themselves and others, with increasingly lethal violence. According to Ciuceanu, Weiss had heard of this experiment while still on the outside, and had shrugged it off upon learning that its perpetrators and victims had belonged to the fascist Iron Guard; he "could not have imagined" that he would end up as a target.[30] Weiss entered Gherla in June 1951. Aurel Brazdă, who was his first cellmate, recalls that, despite being Jewish, Weiss was assigned to live with actual Guardists (including participants in the rebellion of 1941), and told to imitate their rituals.[31] Unbeknownst to both of them, this was the introductory phase of the re-education process, in which victims were supposed to compromise themselves.[32] It was abruptly interrupted by a sudden invasion from the re-educators, each of whom picked up a target for their beatings. Weiss was tortured by Mihai Livinschi, arriving in from Suceava.[33] Brazdă recalls being shocked by the treatment his colleague was receiving, which included being "beat up over an entire night [until] he spit up blood". He recalls Weiss himself concluding: "Tonight, I confessed as much as entire regiment."[34]

Weiss appeared perplexed by his being transported into "Room 99", still unaware of his inclusion in the experiment being carried out there. As the mastermind of "re-education", inmate Alexandru Popa Țanu assured him that "you'll be seeing later", then instructed him to sleep "by the window, since we know you have a lung disease."[35] Weiss was afterwards woken up over several nights and bruised by Vasile Pușcașu and other supervisors sent in from Suceava. This sent him into a panic, but also made him wish to learn more about the background of "re-education", to which Ciuceanu answered with details about the goings-on at Suceava and Pitești.[36] Ciuceanu believes that Weiss was slow at integrating new information, not being able to understand why one of the tortured inmates, an elderly peasant, would not reveal to Pușcașu where he had buried his money. Ciuceanu had to explain that doing so, and forfeiting his lifelong earnings, would have shamed him in front of his entire social class.[37]

In other contexts, Weiss himself was again taken away and beaten, asked to explain why he had betrayed the PMR. He replied to his captors that he had never done such a thing, and that his party membership had never been formally revoked.[38] Ciuceanu argues that, though he complained at having gone through a "passion week", Weiss was largely spared the more extreme punishments reserved for non-communists (such as having his head banged into a wall).[39] During their dialogues, the colonel outlined his theory—namely, that the Securitate was run by an anonymous "Inspections Bureau", which kept informed on every aspect of prison life, and had tacitly approved "re-education". He suggested that the organization had links to the Soviet Union. Though he could not name these figures, he noted that a portion of the Securitate was hastily learning Russian—nominating Jianu, Nicolae Doicaru, Gavrilă Birtaș, Marin Constantinescu and Tudor Sepeanu as some of the main liaisons.[40] In one context, he reportedly stated that Soviet adviser Gheorghe Pintilie was directly supervising Birtaș and Jianu.[41]

Whistleblowing

After returning from a night-long interrogation, Weiss suffered a severe episode of hemoptysis, with the blood spilling over Ciuceanu. This alarmed Popa Țanu and the others, who sent him for emergency treatment and Ciuceanu to act as his handler.[42] The colonel and the archeologist continued to share space in Room 99, and were made to write their own detailed confessions; Pușcașu, watched over Weiss' text, encouraging him to write more neatly, and instructing him to add clearer references to the PMR's role in society.[43] In their moments alone, Ciuceanu tried to instruct his colleague on how to write "optimistically", burying mention on his conflicts with Jianu—and also told him not to eulogize the Red Army, "since not all [Securitate men] can stand their Soviet advisers." He also advised him to invent stories of conspiracies that could be neither proven nor disproved.[44] As he recounts, Weiss refused to write down anything other than information that he would have voluntary divulged to the PMR under regular circumstances.[45]

Upon realizing the scale of the experiment, and the scale of suffering, Weiss argued that its cruelties had surpassed those of the Holocaust. This stance infuriated Ciuceanu, who told him that the experiment was simply a local development in Stalinism, in line with the Great Purge and the Holodomor.[46] They also quarreled when another inmate died in his sleep. Weiss was annoyed that Ciuceanu appeared indifferent to this event, only to be told that, "to us, death is liberation."[47] As Ciucanu recounts, Weiss was ultimately aghast that most re-education subjects were peasants, rather than exploiters, and came to express admiration for those prisoners who had fought as anti-communist guerrillas.[48] The two men came to agree that Weiss was being held primarily for his direct access to files on Jewish emigration to Israel, since he had indirectly witnessed where the migrants' hastily abandoned property had ended up. Ciuceanu claims that Weiss knew of Pauker and others having enriched themselves in the process.[49]

In August 1951, the prisoners were terrorized by an inspection from Pitești's own Eugen Țurcanu, introduced to Weiss as "the father of these devils".[50] Țurcanu briefly interrogated the colonel, telling him to "cough it all up" during re-education. Weiss defied and half-threatened his visitor, telling Țurcanu that would confess directly to the PMR's highest echelons.[51] Initially unimpressed by the encounter, Weiss was "struck dumb" later that day, when Țurcanu personally oversaw a mass beating of the entire Gherla group.[52] The story of his personal brush with Țurcanu entered prison folklore—Richard Wurmbrand recalls hearing it from one of Țurcanu's men, but places it in Pitești, and remembers the name as "Virgil Weiss" (identifying him as "a friend of Ana Pauker [who] fell out of favor"). Wurmbrand recalls that, despite having fainted thrice during the re-education session, Weiss refused to talk to Țurcanu: "I have disclosures to make, but not to you. They concern traitors in high places."[53]

For the rest of the month, Weiss was regularly taken in for additional interrogations—even as his comrades were being allowed to recover.[54] In late August, he spoke to Securitate Major Alexandru Roșianu, who had arrived from Bucharest on an impromptu visit. This greatly alarmed Popa Țanu, who came in to ask what the two had talked about; Weiss told Ciuceanu and the others that Roșianu had been tipped off about re-education, and wanted to be sure that the details were genuine before following up with a formal investigation.[55] He was for a while sent to the infirmary room, where he had his final encounter with Brazdă, informing him that he was being used as a witness against Pauker and Georgescu, and happy to oblige the investigating authorities.[56] Major Coman Stoilescu, whom Roșianu had replaced, still argued that the interrogations under torture had been successful. In September, Stoilescu tried to submit a review one of Weiss' earlier statements, in which he had mentioned a "vast network of spies" that included Maria-Ivona. The authorities took notice, and sped up procedures to have Weiss called up to Bucharest for more questioning.[57]

Later that month, Lieutenant Constantin Avădanei, who had generally approved of re-education, came into Room 99. He was not accompanied by any of the re-educators, which Weiss took as a clue that the experiment would not continue for long.[58] He himself barely survived another bout of hemoptysis. During his recovery, he noted that the prison leadership, and some Securitate people sent in from Bucharest, had got him to recant his confession to Roșianu, promising him clemency in return.[59] Together with Ciucanu, Weiss came to believe that his earlier testimony was being read by the PMR general secretary, Gheorghiu-Dej, who was setting it aside in the power struggle against Pauker and the pro-Soviet wing of the Securitate (including Jianu, but also Pintilie and Alexandru Nicolschi). According to this reading, the men coming in to silence Weiss were from the Pauker faction.[60]

End of re-education and later life

Ciuceanu notes that, by October 1951, his friend was receiving high-quality medical treatment, even as other cellmates were being ignored.[61] Around 10 October, Weiss was ordered to pack his things, and quietly signaled his goodbye to Ciuceanu; a Securitate ambulance drove him to Bucharest.[62] He returned to Văcărești hospital, where it was determined that both his lungs were attacked by tuberculosis.[4] During the period, his sister's involvement in the Parisot affair was brought up by Securitate interrogators. He now denied any wrongdoing, telling them that he and Maria-Ivona had only discussed gossip regarding Nicolschi and other Securitate figures.[4] In tandem, he reiterated his accusations against the Securitate leadership, implicating them in the re-education experiments. As noted by historian Mihai Demetriade, he tried to emphasize the affair's conspiratorial aspects ("cabals involving members of the party"), knowing that he would thus receive attention from those who wished to hold on to power.[63] According to Wurmbrand, his detailed report combined revelations about Țurcanu with allegations about Pauker and the others (including that they had purchased false passports, readying to leave the country with their loot).[64] The text reached Gheorghiu-Dej; Pintilie was then ordered to investigate his own men.[4]

Wurmbrand believes that the Gheorghiu-Dej faction either had not known, or had not cared, about re-education. Weiss' treatment by re-educators signaled to them what they could all expect for themselves if ever on the losing side of a power struggle, and as such that they needed to punish those responsible, with Pauker and Georgescu "made scapegoats" in the process.[65] Re-education was abruptly ended in February 1952 by Gherla's warden, Colonel Ludovic Cseller, who reportedly feigned indignation that subjects had been deprived of sleep without Securitate approval.[66] As noted by journalist Mihai Pelin, the only people ever truly punished were those directly engaged in perpetrating the experiments, still singled out as Iron Guard affiliates. Some twelve of them where executed by firing squad.[4] At a PMR plenary session in August 1953, Alexandru Moghioroș addressed Alexandru Drăghici, who had emerged as paramount head of the Securitate, theorizing that re-education had only been possible because Securitate men "have been denying the party in its leadership role". As proposed by Demetriade, Moghioroș and, behind him, Gheorghiu-Dej were relying on the less credible portions of the Weiss report to justify their move toward reducing Drăghici's autonomy.[67] Weiss appeared as a witness for the prosecution at the Țurcanu trial, which alarmed the Securitate. In an institutional report issued on 1 September 1954, it suggested that all of Weiss' statements regarding "strictly secret aspects of the [Securitate] work" be censored out of the dossiers.[68]

Still imprisoned at various locations, Ciuceanu made a point of informing others about Weiss' actions, describing him as the Jewish hero who had ended single-handedly ended re-education.[69] Wurmbrand also credits Weiss as instrumental in curbing the violence, but only partly. In his account, the experiment was also compromised by the detainees of Târgu Ocna, who feared that the tortures were being imported there by Sepeanu. Preemptively, one of them reported that Sepeanu had not only served Antonescu's regime on the Eastern Front, but had also personally executed Soviet prisoners of war; Wurmbrand adds, that, once placed on trial for war crimes, Sepeanu "revealed much of what was going on in the prisons."[70]

In his 2006 piece, Pelin observed: "We could not find out what later happened to the prisoner Vintilă Weiss".[4] In his later years, he was a registered lawyer within the Bucharest bar association's fourth college.[71] Maria-Ivona predeceased him in October 1972.[1] His own obituary piece, on 19 January 1974, mentions his death as occurring "in a horrible accident". It also informs that his funeral was being organized at Reînvierea Cemetery by his surviving relatives (including both parents, his wife Elena, and two sons—Andrei and Cristian).[2] As recounted by Ciuceanu (who places the events "around 1960"), he was returning from a trip to the mountains in his Volkswagen when he was hit by a truck with no headlights.[72] Ciuceanu suggests that the death may have been an assassination, like Cseller's own apparent suicide, and as such parts of a cover-up attempt.[73]

Notes

  1. "Decese", in România Liberă, 10 October 1972, p. 4
  2. "Decese", in România Liberă, 19 January 1974, p. 4
  3. Ciuceanu (2015), pp. 119, 130, 135, 181
  4. (in Romanian) Mihai Pelin, "Final fără glorie — Siguranța și Securitatea versus Legația Franței (2)", in Jurnalul Național, August 31, 2006
  5. Ciuceanu (2015), p. 119
  6. Ciuceanu (2015), pp. 145, 149, 159, 233
  7. Ciuceanu (1991), p. 54 & (2015), pp. 134, 144, 153, 187–188
  8. Ciuceanu (2015), pp. 186–187
  9. Ciuceanu (2015), p. 132
  10. Ciuceanu (2015), pp. 152, 233
  11. Ciuceanu (2015), p. 233
  12. Demetriade, p. 17
  13. "Jurnale ale Consiliului de Miniștri. Ministerul Afacerilor Interne", in Monitorul Oficial, Issue 103/1945, p. 3740
  14. Ciuceanu (2015), pp. 144, 147, 169, 175–176, 181–182, 186, 245
  15. "Actualitatea. Capitala. Atacul banditesc din Str. Făinari", in Ardealul, 20 August 1945, p. 3
  16. Ciuceanu (2015), pp. 133, 142
  17. "Recensământul supușilor strǎini. Cum decurg operațiile. – Declarațiile d-lui. col. Petruc", in Era Nouă, 20 July 1946, p. 3
  18. Demetriade, p. 17
  19. "Ultima Oră. O nouă încercare de trecere frauduloasă a frontierei, cu avionul, în fața justiției militare", in Adevărul, 23 January 1948, p. 4
  20. "Știri de Ultimă Oră. Secretarul consulatului italian din Iași, a fost arestat pentru trafic de pașapoarte false", in Ultima Oră, 11 January 1948, p. 4
  21. Ciuceanu (2015), p. 233
  22. Brazdă, pp. 569–570
  23. Ciuceanu (2015), p. 143
  24. Ciuceanu (2015), pp. 140, 233
  25. Ciuceanu (2015), pp. 134–135, 138, 143, 152–154, 158, 233
  26. Ciuceanu (2015), pp. 140–146, 153
  27. Ciuceanu (2015), pp. 143–145, 186
  28. Ciuceanu (1991), p. 53
  29. Ciuceanu (2015), p. 245
  30. Ciuceanu (2015), pp. 135, 138–139
  31. Brazdă, pp. 562–564, 566
  32. Brazdă, pp. 563–564
  33. Brazdă, pp. 563–564, 566
  34. Brazdă, p. 566
  35. Ciuceanu (2015), pp. 118–119
  36. Ciuceanu (2015), pp. 119–121
  37. Ciuceanu (2015), pp. 129–131
  38. Ciuceanu (2015), pp. 132–133
  39. Ciuceanu (2015), pp. 137–139
  40. Ciuceanu (2015), pp. 133–135
  41. Ciuceanu (2015), p. 154
  42. Ciuceanu (2015), pp. 139–141, 144
  43. Ciuceanu (1991), p. 53
  44. Ciuceanu (2015), pp. 143, 145–146
  45. Ciuceanu (2015), p. 143
  46. Ciuceanu (2015), pp. 148–149
  47. Ciuceanu (2015), pp. 155–156
  48. Ciuceanu (2015), pp. 149–151
  49. Ciuceanu (2015), pp. 152–153
  50. Ciuceanu (2015), pp. 155–159
  51. Ciuceanu (2015), p. 158
  52. Ciuceanu (2015), pp. 159–163
  53. Wurmbrand, p. 93
  54. Ciuceanu (2015), p. 164
  55. Ciuceanu (2015), pp. 165–171
  56. Brazdă, pp. 569–570
  57. Demetriade, pp. 101–102
  58. Ciuceanu (2015), pp. 172–177
  59. Ciuceanu (2015), pp. 177–183
  60. Ciuceanu (2015), pp. 182–183
  61. Ciuceanu (2015), pp. 188–189
  62. Ciuceanu (2015), pp. 189–191
  63. Demetriade, pp. 17, 26–27, 134
  64. Wurmbrand, pp. 93–94
  65. Wurmbrand, p. 94
  66. Ciuceanu (1991), pp. 54–56
  67. Demetriade, pp. 133–135
  68. Andrea Doboș, "Răspunderi și responsabilități. Aspecte privind procesul grupului Țurcanu (1954)", in Analele Sighet, Vol. 8, 2000, pp. 419–420
  69. Ciuceanu (2015), pp. 231–234, 241, 243
  70. Wurmbrand, pp. 92–93
  71. "Decese", in România Liberă, 20 January 1974, p. 4
  72. Ciuceanu (1991), p. 56
  73. Ciuceanu (1991), pp. 54, 56

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