Prior to 1945, members of the banned Romanian Communist Party were detained there, including Nicolae Ceaușescu.
Beginning that year, after the establishment of a communist-led government, a number of buildings in the city were used as centers for interrogation and torture, including one operated by the NKVD.
The prison housed overflow detainees under investigation by the secret police, which became the Securitate following the establishment of a communist regime at the end of 1947.
The principal targets were the political and cultural elite of the Burzenland and adjacent areas, mainly sent to the Danube–Black Sea Canal once their cases were resolved.
Armed with orders to repeat the experiment of “re-education” through torture, they managed to mistreat several prisoners, but were sent to the Canal several months later.