The brutal treatment of inmates in Romanian gulags during the communist era included slamming doors on their fingers and forcing them to eat excrement, it has been reported.
They were also beaten on the soles of their feet and made to haul heavy loads in extremes of heat and cold until they collapsed.
Details of the ordeals suffered by political prisoners have come to light amid moves to bring guards now in their 80s and 90s to justice.
They face possible prosecution by a government institution tasked with investigating crimes against dissenters in the 1950s and 60s.
Guards who mistreated prisoners have long been shielded by Romania's establishment, whose ranks are filled with members of the former Securitate secret police.
An inscription translated as 'solitary confinement' at Jilava prison However, the Liberal Party - whose members were targeted by communists under Soviet occupation after World War Two - is now part of the coalition government and has led efforts for a probe into the allegations.
The names of 35 guards are to be handed to authorities starting next week.
Of Romania's 617,000 political prisoners, 120,000 died in the gulags. Inmates frequently starved to death, and many died from a lack of medical care.
The prisoners included politicians, priests, peasants, writers, diplomats and children as young as 11.
Most survivors died before seeing any chance of justice.
Caius Mutiu, 79, a former detainee who testified to the Institute for Investigating the Crimes of Communism and the Memory of the Romanian Exile, said: "It would be good for the ones who are alive to go on trial, so history will mark them down as criminals."
Emilian Mihailescu: 'Medicine didn't really exist' He said a guard once threatened to shoot him after he collapsed from hard labour.
He spent two weeks in isolation, sleeping on a damp, concrete floor and lived on a diet of cabbage, potatoes and barley soup.
Former detainee Emilian Mihailescu, an architect, said a Romanian diplomat in his cell died when a boil on his neck became infected. "Medicine didn't really exist," he said.
One of the Romanian prison guards who will be publicly named this month is Ion Ficior, dubbed by inmates "a human beast".
"Ficior beat us every day with a wooden stick," said former prisoner Ianos Mokar.
In an interview with The Associated Press, an unrepentant Ficior, 85, denied he had beaten anyone.
He said he tried to ensure inmates were fed and that the responsibility for the prison system lay with Romania's communist leaders.
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