Vintilă Weiss, also Vais or Veis (17 March or 1 April 1921 – 17 January 1974), was a Romanian communist and officer 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 by the Securitate 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 demoted him in 1948, and then arrested 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 reportedly 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. Former prisoners have claimed that 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, is said to have taken a personal interest in obtaining his submission.
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, who also survived Aiud Prison (where he was held in 1952–1953), ultimately received specialized treatment for his tuberculosis, allowing him to stand as a witness for the prosecution in Țurcanu's trial. The hand-on torturers were swiftly executed by the state. Weiss himself had his conviction overturned, and returned to public life as a lawyer. His career was cut short in 1974 by his death in a road accident, which allowed speculation that he had been killed off in a Securitate cover-up.
Early life and career The son of Niculae and Cristina Weiss (or Vais),"Decese", in România Liberă, 10 October 1972, p. 4"Decese", in România Liberă, 19 January 1974, p. 4 Vintilă was born in Pantelimon, a rural suburb of Bucharest,Buhoci, p. 253 which is also where he reportedly grew up.Ciuceanu (2015), pp. 119, 130, 135, 181 His birth year was 1921, but the day is unknown, with sources mentioning 17 March or 1 April.Buhoci, p. 253 He is known to have had several siblings, including a brother, Petre, who served for a while in the communist militia,Buhoci, p. 257 and a sister, Maria-Ivona or Yvonne, whose activities would play a significant part in his own downfall. Mihai Pelin, "Final fără glorie — Siguranța și Securitatea versus Legația Franței (2)", in Jurnalul Național, August 31, 2006 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.Ciuceanu (2015), p. 119 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.Ciuceanu (2015), pp. 145, 149, 159, 233
From 1936 to 1945, Weiss clerked at Riebler, a local automobile repair shop.Buhoci, p. 253 According to Ciuceanu, the disgraced Securitate man 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.Ciuceanu (1991), p. 54 & (2015), pp. 134, 144, 153, 187–188 As rendered in such reports, 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.Ciuceanu (2015), pp. 186–187 As Ciuceanu writes, Weiss was proud of having preserved his membership throughout World War II, even when it seemed that Nazi Germany would conquer all of Europe.Ciuceanu (2015), p. 132 Historian Puica Buhoci notes however that Weiss was only a communist sympathizer, rather than a member, during most of the war. He only formally joined the PCR through its front organization, called "Union of Patriots", and afterwards trained at a school for party cadres.Buhoci, pp. 253, 257
At the time of his Gherla encounters, Weiss stood out among the mass of the communists for having attended or graduated university.Buhoci, p. 253; Ciuceanu (2015), pp. 152, 233 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.Ciuceanu (2015), p. 233. See also Buhoci, p. 253 He was recruited by the General Police Directorate,Demetriade, p. 17 and, on 27 April 1945, assigned to lead Bucharest's fifth precinct, without yet holding a rank."Jurnale ale Consiliului de Miniștri. Ministerul Afacerilor Interne", in Monitorul Oficial, Issue 103/1945, p. 3740 Around that time, he is known to have married a woman named Alexandrina.Buhoci, p. 254 They had a son, Andrei, whom Vintilă loved greatly.Ciuceanu (2015), pp. 144, 147, 169, 175–176, 181–182, 186, 245. See also Buhoci, p. 256
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."Actualitatea. Capitala. Atacul banditesc din Str. Făinari", in Ardealul, 20 August 1945, p. 3 He was later a Chestor in the passports service—which, as he himself noted, made him the equivalent of a general (though he was casually referred to as a colonel).Ciuceanu (2015), pp. 133, 142 In July 1946, he organized a census of Bucharest's non-citizen population."Recensământul supușilor strǎini. Cum decurg operațiile. – Declarațiile d-lui. col. Petruc", in Era Nouă, 20 July 1946, p. 3 From 1 October 1947, he was assigned as liaison of the Siguranța agency within the Bucharest police prefecture.Demetriade, p. 17 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 İzmir."Ultima Oră. O nouă încercare de trecere frauduloasă a frontierei, cu avionul, în fața justiției militare", in Adevărul, 23 January 1948, p. 4 Also then, he arrested Vincenzio Mocci, charged with forging Italian passport for Romanians who were seeking to emigrate."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
With the phasing out of royalist institutions during the first year of communism (1948–1949), Weiss became a Securitate cadre. However, the new institutions regarded him with suspicion, and on 1 April 1948 accused him of having betrayed communist morality (by having sex outside of marriage) and of having improper contacts with foreign diplomats. He was demoted by Securitate chief Gheorghe Pintilie, who thus answered to reports sent in by officers such as Gavril Birtaș and Tudor Sepeanu.Buhoci, p. 253 Weiss' 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. 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.
Arrest, conviction, and Gherla arrival
Soon after, Weiss lost his remaining privileges. He was arrested by his Securitate peers, on 28 June 1950.Buhoci, p. 254 As he told his fellow inmates, most of his family was also detained in that context.Brazdă, pp. 569–570 Alexandrina was however able to contact the high-ranking communist Ion Vincze, telling him that the arresting institutions were run by her husband's personal enemies.Buhoci, p. 254 According to Ciuceanu, Vintilă himself spoke of having been set up: his lawyer never showed up in court until after the verdict, during an appeals procedure.Ciuceanu (2015), p. 143 Weiss was still acquitted by a military court on 6 April 1951.Buhoci, p. 254 As he told Ciuceanu, the judges had been pressed into clearing his name by Vincze, but the Securitate resubmitted his case, and, on review, he received a 10-year term in jail.Ciuceanu (2015), pp. 140, 233 This story is partly confirmed by Buhoci, who writes that the procedural review, carried out expediently on 7 April, was done by a colonel. She also confirms the verdict, and mentions that he received a fine of 4,000 lei. The official crime he was found guilty of was that of "assisting in illegal border crossing".Buhoci, p. 254
As Ciuceanu details, 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.Ciuceanu (2015), pp. 134–135, 138, 143, 152–154, 158, 233 Buhoci agrees with the narrative, observing that Weiss' moral rectitude prevented him from tolerating corrupt practices. She also cites another victim of the political purges, Emilian Angheliu, who testified that Weiss had been framed by Jianu and others, for having witnessed their illegal activities.Buhoci, pp. 253, 254, 256–257 Weiss may also have come to believe that he was being held, and interrogated, because someone in government wanted to learn the secrets of his office.Ciuceanu (2015), pp. 140–146, 153 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.Ciuceanu (2015), pp. 143–145, 186 Weiss was already ill when he entered prison: afflicted with tuberculosis, he had pleural thickening on the left side of his chestBuhoci, p. 254 (or, in Ciuceanu's description, a "dried-up lung").Ciuceanu (1991), p. 53 He was briefly treated for this ailment in the Văcărești ward. Still an ideological conformist, he reportedly denounced to the Securitate those doctors who reserved favors for political inmates, known to him as "bandits".Ciuceanu (2015), p. 245 After Văcărești, he was moved to Jilava Prison, then finally to Gherla, where he arrived on 31 May 1951.Buhoci, p. 254