BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) 鈥� A new exhibition in capital spotlights the harsh reality of interrogations carried out by the country鈥檚 notorious communist-era secret police.
Held at the National History Museum of Romania in Bucharest, the exhibition is called 鈥淎.REST 1989.鈥� The Securitate Video Archive uses video footage to reconstruct how detentions and interrogations worked under the Securitate, the that enforced Nicolae Ceausescu鈥檚 rule, until he was overthrown and executed in December 1989.
The exhibition features original videotaped recordings of interrogations of four detainees investigated by the secret police, shown on grainy, wall-mounted monitors in the museum鈥檚 central hall. All were recorded in 1989 by the Criminal Investigations Directorate of the Securitate.
In the middle of the exhibition space is a reconstructed cell furnished with a small bed, an empty metal bowl and cup, which evokes the isolation that detainees might have felt. It also highlights the Securitate鈥檚 extensive reach and power under communism and the investigation techniques they used on suspects.
Many of the recordings reveal coercive questioning and intimidation tactics that often drift into the absurd, as detainees are ground down or left bewildered. During one such back-and-forth, a woman whose husband had allegedly defected tells her questioner: 鈥淚 no longer have the strength to fight. I need logical arguments, not this nonsense.鈥�
A memorial to the victims
鈥淚n the world of Securitate 鈥榡ustice,鈥� detainees or those under arrest were merely prisoners, captives in the operational labyrinth of manufactured guilt,鈥� the organizers say, adding that the exhibition can serve as a belated 鈥渕emorial plaque鈥� to victims. 鈥淭he victims, thus, gain a voice and a place.”
The exhibition runs until mid-September and is a collaboration between the National History Museum, 搁辞尘补苍颈补鈥檚 National Council for Studying the Securitate Archives, or CNSAS, and the Ministry of Culture.
The organizers said the 26 videotapes held by CNSAS are 鈥渁 remnant, the accidental result of the disorderly and violent end鈥� of socialist Romania, recorded by the criminal investigations technical department in 1989.
Oana Demetriade, a historian at CNSAS and exhibition curator, told The Associated Press that she initially wanted to use the videotapes to make a documentary for students and school kids, but decided to pursue an exhibition instead.
鈥淭he project grew organically through the discussions I had with architects and designers,鈥� she said. 鈥淔rom the very beginning, the first discussions I had with my husband who works at CNSAS and everything I found in these tapes made me go 鈥榳ow!鈥� 鈥� They were being watched in cells non-stop.鈥�
鈥淭hat鈥檚 what this whole archive brings new,鈥� she added. 鈥淗ow it gets here and how people, those who are arrested, in the end, are repeatedly threatened, yelled at, threatened with beatings, threatened with the family suffering, and so on.鈥�
The power of words
Also exhibited are artifacts such as a printing press that belonged to journalist Petre Mihai Bacanu, which was confiscated by the secret police in early 1989. Bacanu and several associates used the press to print an anti-Ceausescu and anti-government newspaper.
鈥淗ow could we, after 45 years of socialism, still be afraid of people鈥檚 opinions, even of their thoughts?鈥� Bacanu says during an interrogation in February 1989.
Another item exhibited is a pair of glasses that were used to stop detainees from 鈥渟eeing where they were going or identifying鈥� other persons.
The detention facility had spaces for two different types of detention, says Mihai Demetriade, also a historian at CNSAS and an exhibition curator along with his wife.
While 鈥減reventative detention鈥� was used in political cases alleging crimes against the state, 鈥渙perational detention鈥� units were used to lock people up in what he described as a form of kidnapping 鈥� to imprison and silence potential dissenters during sensitive moments like a congress or visiting foreign dignitary.
鈥淲e are not talking about the testimonies of victims after the fall of communism, nor about documents, nor about books, nor about manuscripts,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e have something not open to manipulation 鈥� a live recording of events that occur in interrogation rooms or cells. It鈥檚 hard to fight against something like that as a denialist.鈥�
鈥淭his space is important because it proves how rapacious, tough, aggressive the communist dictatorship remained even in the last moments of the communist system,” he added.
Communist nostalgia
In recent years, as , so too has a nostalgia for life under communism during the Ceausescu years, especially among young people who typically have limited or no memories of life in the country before 1989.
Cornel Constantin Ilie, manager of the National History Museum of Romania, says the new exhibition can help expose the realities of that period in 搁辞尘补苍颈补鈥檚 history and 鈥渞each the minds and, why not, the souls鈥� of visitors.
鈥淚t is an exhibition that puts you in front of facts that cannot be ignored,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 very important because we must not forget and we must not repeat. 鈥� What we see in this exhibition is an ugly face of history, it is a story in which human freedom, human dignity were suppressed.鈥�
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McGrath reported from Leamington Spa, England.
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