Franț Țandără (22 February 1930, Izbiceni,

Olt County Olt County () is a county (județ) of Romania on the border with Bulgaria, in the Historical regions of Romania, historical regions of Oltenia and Muntenia (the regions are separated by the Olt River, Olt river). The capital city is Slatina, Roma ...

– 2 May 2004,

Giurgiu Giurgiu (; ; ) is a city in southern Romania. The seat of Giurgiu County, it lies in the historical region of Muntenia. It is situated amongst mud-flats and marshes on the left bank of the Danube facing the Bulgarian city of Ruse on the op ...

) was a

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

and self-described

torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons including corporal punishment, punishment, forced confession, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimid ...

r. Țandără was born into a poor and dysfunctional family. Abandoned by both parents, he became an army ward at age 11. After the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

he led a vagrant life, before becoming in 1946 a sympathizer of the

Romanian Communist Party The Romanian Communist Party ( ; PCR) was a communist party in Romania. The successor to the pro-Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave an ideological endorsement to a communist revolution that would replace the social system ...

. According to his account from an interview, he curried favor with Pavel Ștefan, a local communist boss, who found work for him at

Căile Ferate Române Căile Ferate Române (; abbreviated as the CFR) was the state railway carrier of Romania. The company was dissolved on 1 October 1998 by splitting into several successor companies. CFR as an entity existed from 1880, even though the first ra ...

. After a dispute with his father, though, Țandără killed his father with an axe; he was apprehended and sentenced to 12 years hard labor. Țandără spent several years doing

forced labor Forced labour, or unfree labour, is any work relation, especially in modern or early modern history, in which people are employed against their will with the threat of destitution, detention, or violence, including death or other forms of ...

at the

Danube–Black Sea Canal The Danube–Black Sea Canal () is a navigable canal in Romania, which runs from Cernavodă on the Danube river, via two branches, to Constanța and Năvodari on the Black Sea. Administered from Agigea, it is an important part of the waterway li ...

, and served as an informant to the communist authorities in the re-education camps there. After being transferred to Culmea, he was sent in August 1951 to Psychiatric Hospital no. 9 in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

, where he became employed by the

Securitate The Department of State Security (), commonly known as the Securitate (, ), was the secret police agency of the Socialist Republic of Romania. It was founded on 30 August 1948 from the '' Siguranța'' with help and direction from the Soviet MG ...

to assist in the torture and killing of

political prisoner A political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention. There is no internationally recognized legal definition of the concept, although ...

s. He was released early, upon receiving a presidential pardon he said was signed by writer

Mihail Sadoveanu Mihail Sadoveanu (; occasionally referred to as Mihai Sadoveanu; 5 November 1880 – 19 October 1961) was a Romanian novelist, short story writer, journalist and political figure, who twice served as acting President of Romania, head of st ...

(the nominal

head of state A head of state is the public persona of a sovereign state.#Foakes, Foakes, pp. 110–11 "

he head of state He or HE may refer to: Language * He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads * He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English * He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana) * Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter cal ...

being an embodiment of the State itself or representative of its international persona." The name given to the office of head of sta ...

in early 1958). After his release he worked as a carpenter and a beekeeper. According to his own declarations, Țandără tortured and killed more than 100 persons, and enjoyed doing this, stating, "I hated the bourgeoisie at the maximum. I wanted to kill them all". His confessions, where he asked to be judged by a tribunal of his victims, are the subject of the 1999 book ''The Road to Damascus: Confession of a former torturer'' by Doina Jela. In a review of the book, literary critic

Virgil Ierunca Virgil Ierunca (; born Virgil Untaru ; August 16, 1920, Lădești, Vâlcea County – September 28, 2006, Paris) was a Romanian literary critic, journalist, and poet. He was married to Monica Lovinescu. Both Ierunca and Lovinescu worked for sev ...

wrote: "The torturer of the Securitate, Franț Țandără, describes the tortures in which he had specialized, takes his share of the blame, implicates the communist system in charge of the horror, and above all (here the uniqueness is indisputable), asks to be tried in a country which, after ten years of transition, has not yet found judges and a tribunal". According to ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'', out of the estimated 1,700 Romanians whose mission under the

Communist regime A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state in which the totality of the power belongs to a party adhering to some form of Marxism–Leninism, a branch of the communist ideology. Marxism–Leninism was ...

was torturing political prisoners, Țandără was the only one who felt a need to confess. He died in 2004 in Giurgiu, without ever having faced prosecution for the crimes he confessed to. His story is presented in '' The Afternoon of a Torturer'', a 2001 Romanian biography film directed by

Lucian Pintilie Lucian Pintilie (; 9 November 1933 – 16 May 2018Lucian Pi ...

based on Jela's book and starring

Gheorghe Dinică Gheorghe Dinică (; 1 January 1934 – 10 November 2009) was a Romanian actor. Career Dinică showed an early interest in acting, being part of different amateur theater troupes since he was 17. In 1957, he entered The National Institute of Thea ...

in the role of Țandără. The story was revisited in a play staged in 2022 at ''Teatrul Dramaturgilor Români'' in Bucharest, with

Răzvan Vasilescu Răzvan Vasilescu (; born 14 August 1954) is a Romanian actor. He has appeared in 40 films and television shows since 1979. He starred in ''The Oak'', which was screened out of competition at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival. Selected filmography ...

as Țandără and

Maia Morgenstern Maia Emilia Ninel Morgenstern (; born 1 May 1962) is a Romanian film and stage actress, Gabriela Dumba, ("Pure and simple, Maia Morgenstern", but with a pun, because Simplu is a Romanian musical group with whom she had done a video), ''Gardi ...

as Jela.

References

Further reading