Book summary “Saving My Assassin”: summary

Introduction

You live under the crushing weight of a totalitarian regime where the secret police monitor your every move and religious faith is strictly outlawed. Nicolae Ceaușescu’s communist Romania subjects you to constant terror, arbitrary arrests, and the systematic destruction of human rights. When you seek justice in such a corrupt system, you risk imprisonment, torture, and even death.

A human rights attorney in communist Romania defends persecuted believers and ultimately faces the elite assassin sent to kill her, transforming him through the power of the gospel.

Virginia Prodan recounts her harrowing journey from an oppressed childhood under strict surveillance to becoming a fearless lawyer who utilized forgotten laws to protect underground Christians. The book details her early hardships, university vetting, intense legal battles, spiritual awakening, and the miraculous encounter with her assigned killer that led to her eventual exile.

• How do you survive brutal interrogation and relentless state harassment?
• What gives you the courage to stand against a corrupt legal system?
• How can unwavering faith transform even your deadliest enemy?

1. Childhood and Early Persecution in Romania

You face an oppressive regime when you grow up under the constant surveillance of the Securitate in Techirghiol. Six-year-old Virginia was placed on a government blacklist as church people after being questioned at a local church on Good Friday in 1961. Within her family, she was treated differently because she was the only child with red hair and freckles, enduring physical punishment and threats of adoption.

Early religious persecution and domestic isolation shape your endurance against hostile systems.

Techirghiol and Family Secrets

Techirghiol was famous for its therapeutic lake mud, attracting summer visitors who sought rooms through local recruiters at Dragalina Square. At age seven, Virginia competed against rough adults in Dragalina Square to secure tourist lodgers for her family's rental rooms. She had to compete against violent and intoxicated adult temporary workers to bring clients to her parents' house, facing severe beatings and starvation if she failed.

Coping Through Literature

You find an escape from emotional neglect and strict discipline through books that build internal strength. Reading Jane Eyre, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Uncle Tom's Cabin, and Shogun allowed the author to find imaginary friends and model her patience and perseverance. Books served as a psychological escape and an alternative source of companionship for a lonely, isolated child living under harsh domestic conditions.

2. Law School and Political Vetting

Entering university required passing strict ideological background checks while navigating intense academic competition and the vital support of Aunt Cassandra.

Admission to university law programs under the Communist system required passing strict political vetting to ensure ideological loyalty to the party. You had to pass an inspection of your political file before acceptance.

• Verify that the applicant and his or her parents had never expressed a critical attitude toward Communism.
• Verify that the applicant's parents had never been questioned or arrested by the Communist government.
• Verify that the applicant's parents were not Christians.

The author spent months meticulously studying outside in the winter cold and morning hours to ensure she met the high academic and political standards required to enter law school.

Political File Requirements

Higher education in communist Romania was extremely competitive, requiring candidates to pass rigorous multi-stage written and oral examinations. Out of the entire country, there were only 3 law schools in all of Romania, with Bucharest being the largest and offering limited openings against intense competition. More than 30 candidates competed for each open spot, fighting for the 100 places offered each year at Bucharest law school.

Experiencing unconditional love, kindness, and validation from a supportive relative can radically heal and empower a neglected young person. Aunt Cassandra provided a nurturing, safe environment in Bucharest, offering new clothing, emotional support, and quiet space for studying, which starkly contrasted with the author's upbringing.

Aunt Cassandra bought the author her first brand-new outfits—including a green dress and a red lace dress—and stood in long lines to submit university paperwork so the author could focus entirely on her exams.

Cultural Awakening in Bucharest

Exposure to arts and culture broadens horizons and provides a profound sense of dignity and joy to someone emerging from deprivation. Living with Aunt Cassandra introduced the author to operas, ballets, symphonies, and literature, deeply enriching her understanding of beauty and human expression.

During her summer in Bucharest, the author attended performances of La traviata, Swan Lake, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Carmen, and Madama Butterfly.

3. Legal Practice and Defending Dissent

As a lawyer in Bucharest, Virginia risked her life by utilizing obscure pre-communist laws to defend underground Christians against corrupt state prosecutors.

You discover that the communist regime actively persecuted Christians using obscure and constantly changing laws. The presence of foreign outlets like Radio Free Europe and the Voice of America forced the regime to allow some legal defense to avoid bad international publicity. You win your cases by leveraging obscure laws that courts assumed no one would cite.

Virginia argued and won numerous Christian defense cases in Romanian courtrooms watched by Western media reporters from Radio Free Europe and the Voice of America.

Using Forgotten Laws

An unused pre-communist law protecting religious rights and the possession of Bibles could be leveraged in court against a regime that publicly claimed tolerance. Prodan defended Martin and Liviu by citing Law 217, adopted during the pre-communist capitalist era and never rescinded because Ceaușescu wanted to maintain a tolerant image for the West. You argue that Bibles are not weapons requiring permits under the law.

During the trial in an impressive classic courthouse, Prodan presented copies of Law 217 to the judge and prosecutor Dorian Popa, surprising them and forming the basis for the defendants' release. The prosecutor demanded a twenty-five-year maximum prison sentence for carrying Bibles. The courthouse building reached four aboveground levels, sitting atop two underground levels rumored to hold holding cells for dissidents.

The Cost of Justice

Under authoritarian legal systems, defendants are presumed guilty and coerced by police into admitting false intent. Anton Sasu was accused of intentionally burning his student Communist Party ID card after throwing it into a fire with old pants, but police forced him and his parents to claim it was deliberate. You face severe retaliatory consequences for both your clients and yourself.

Virginia successfully defended Anton Sasu before Judge Michael Token by having Anton and his parents testify in court that police had coerced their original false confessions.

Follow these court preparation steps:

• keep your head up and look straight at the prosecutor as he presents his arguments without showing intimidation;
• when it is your turn, speak slowly and clearly, and always maintain eye contact with the judge.

The court demanded an initial ten-year prison sentence for burning the ID card, but Virginia secured a reduced sentence of two years of community service and mandatory reeducation after two months between court dates. Following Anton's trial, his family faced relentless police harassment that led to the father's fatal heart attack, Anton's suicide, and the ultimate disappearance of the remaining family members one year later. Anton's mother fainted in Virginia's office after reporting her husband's death and her son's suicide, and when Virginia called hospitals and checked on the remaining children, they had all vanished.

4. Spiritual Awakening and Persecution

Exhausted by lies and injustice in the legal system, you seek truth beyond worldly systems. A client named Nestor Martin handles tedious legal updates with an unshakeable smile while dealing with property confiscations by the Communist government. Drawn to his outlook, you visit his Bucharest church, realize truth comes from God rather than law books, and accept Christ.

Faced with constant state harassment, nighttime raids, and interrogation brutality, Virginia turned away from worldly systems and found unshakeable faith in God.

After accepting Christ, you receive a small leather Bible from your pastor along with a serious caution regarding the dangers of keeping it at home. The pastor warns you that the government can arrest citizens for having a Bible because the state requires citizens to worship the president instead of God. While the government permits some churches to remain open to project a tolerant image to the Western world, they place Securitate spies inside these congregations.

Search for Truth

You face systemic attempts to break your morale through intimidation tactics and fabricated charges. The Securitate conduct illegal early-morning raids looking for fabricated contraband like gold, foreign currency, and guns to incriminate you and remove your children.

At four thirty in the morning, six armed officers raided Virginia's home, ransacked rooms, and terrified her daughters while searching for illegal items. The police concluded their search at seven thirty a.m., leaving behind chaos and fear.

Interrogation and Psychological Endurance

Spiritual discipline and mental resilience remain necessary to withstand brutal physical and psychological interrogation without capitulating. You maintain composure during intense interrogations by reciting scriptural verses and praying for your captors, neutralizing terror tactics used by officers like Officer Lucescu.

When officers kicked her chair out from under her and beat her in an interrogation room at Jilava jail, Virginia refused to sign a false press release. Adina Cosma endured an interrogation lasting four hours by the secret police.

You maintain internal peace and protect your freedom through specific steps:

• Recite protective Bible verses or personal affirmations when gripped by fear
• Refuse to sign fabricated confessions or press releases under duress
• Pray for persecutors to maintain internal peace

5. International Allies and House Arrest

Foreign diplomats, media broadcasts, and divine resilience shielded Virginia and her family from ultimate destruction during intense periods of house arrest.

Diplomatic Protection

International media broadcasts and diplomatic interventions provided crucial protection for human rights defenders. Radio Free Europe and Voice of America documented abuses and forced local authorities to drop charges. American attorney Scott Edelman contacted Virginia outside the courthouse on behalf of the American embassy. Within one month of state reports being filed, her detained clients were released.

American diplomats from the embassy attended court cases and monitored safety. Susan Sutton and Ambassador Roger Kirk invited Virginia to a special embassy reception. They arranged for staff members to discreetly shadow her to protect her from Securitate agents.

You can defend religious properties by applying specific legal strategies:

• Cite constitutional guarantees of freedom of religion and property maintenance rights
• Review demolition paperwork for clerical and address errors
• Highlight bureaucratic mistakes to invalidate state actions

During the Buftea Baptist Church case, Virginia proved to the judge that the demolition paperwork listed the adjacent building by mistake. Twenty Securitate officers had been sent to damage the Buftea Baptist Church interior before she exposed the error.

Kissing the Handcuffs

Totalitarian regimes use targeted house arrest and isolation to break the spirit of dissidents. Virginia and her daughters were placed under house arrest when her husband was out of town. They endured cut phone lines, armed guards who prevented visitors like the nanny Maria, and severe food shortages.

Armed police officers blocked the exit while five fully grown, heavily armed men were deployed to guard an eighty-seven-pound woman. The family endured two weeks of house arrest before she was briefly let out for a trial. President Reagan later requested twenty-four hours for Ceaușescu to allow the family to leave Romania.

You maintain emotional stability and spiritual focus through intentional actions:

• Kiss the handcuffs that limit only your temporary freedom
• Pray for your persecutors
• Recite Matthew 5:44 to love enemies and pray for those who persecute you

Brother Neamtu spent six months in jail for his faith and taught Virginia a song about kissing handcuffs. This perspective shifted her emotional state from fear to compassion for her guards.

6. Confronting the Assassin and Exiling to America

The Ultimate Test of Faith

An elite Securitate assassin was dispatched by Nicolae Ceaușescu to murder you, but he converted to Christianity after you calmly shared the gospel and prayed for him. Spiritual conviction and scriptural truth can disarm physical hostility and transform violent persecutors through the power of the gospel.

True courage means confronting mortal danger with unwavering faith and active compassion.

Michael, a top Securitate assassin who stood in the same room with Nicolae Ceaușescu while the dictator smiled at the thought of your death, entered your office to kill you but left a born-again Christian after you shared the gospel and prayed for him.

You handle armed hostility by using specific methods:

• Ask fundamental questions about the meaning of existence when facing hostility.
• Directly share core scripture regarding human sin and judgment, such as Hebrews 9:27 and Revelation 20:15.
• Present the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ using verses like John 3:16 and Acts 16:31.
• Invite the individual to repent and accept Christ as Lord and Savior through a guided prayer.

Immigration to America

Totalitarian governments inflict maximum economic and personal loss on defectors by confiscating all property and restricting luggage. Seeking divine guidance through prayer can provide precise direction during major life transitions and relocations. Democratic legal systems based on constitutional rights provide vital protections compared to corrupt totalitarian courts.

Divine guidance and constitutional freedom replace the severe oppression of totalitarian regimes.

While looking at a world map with your daughters during prayer, you remember the city where President Kennedy was killed as Dallas, Texas, matching the embassy secretary's sealed suggestion.

You prepare for departure by following strict government rules:

• Hand over handmade cloth bags to the government a week before departure.
• Pack only a few articles of clothing and one pair of shoes each.
• Gift remaining possessions to church friends.
• Presume a defendant is innocent until proven guilty.
• Allow defendants to refuse to speak with police until an attorney is present.

Michael Taut visits your office in Dallas, Texas, in 2010, showing you his old Securitate ID card and explaining that he now brings people to life instead of killing them.

10 Key Ideas

1. Growing up under constant surveillance and religious persecution in Techirghiol placed six-year-old Virginia on a government blacklist as a church person and shaped her early endurance against hostile systems.
2. Entering university law programs required passing strict political vetting files to verify ideological loyalty, ensuring that candidates and their parents had never expressed critical attitudes toward communism or Christianity.
3. Virginia risked her life in Bucharest courtrooms by utilizing obscure, forgotten pre-communist laws like Law 217 to defend underground Christians against corrupt state prosecutors.
4. Defending clients who faced fabricated charges, such as Anton Sasu for allegedly burning his student Communist Party ID card, demonstrated the severe retaliatory consequences and tragic personal costs of seeking justice under an authoritarian system.
5. Exhausted by lies and injustice, Virginia experienced a spiritual awakening after visiting Nestor Martin's church and finding truth in God rather than worldly legal systems.
6. Virginia endured brutal early-morning raids, Jilava jail interrogations, and psychological terror from the Securitate by reciting scriptural verses and refusing to sign false confessions.
7. International media broadcasts, diplomatic interventions, and personal protections from American embassy officials like Ambassador Roger Kirk and attorney Scott Edelman shielded Virginia and her clients from ultimate destruction.
8. Placed under house arrest with cut phone lines and armed guards, Virginia maintained emotional stability by practicing brother Neamtu's lesson of kissing the handcuffs and praying for her persecutors.
9. Michael, an elite Securitate assassin dispatched by Nicolae Ceaușescu to murder Virginia, was transformed through the power of the gospel after she calmly shared scripture and prayed for him in her office.
10. Following divine guidance and government regulations that required surrendering property and packing minimal belongings, Virginia immigrated to Dallas, Texas, where a reformed Michael Taut eventually visited her in 2010 to show his old ID card.