Deportation of Sedentary Roma from Lazu – Translated

Village Name: Lazu (village in the Terpezița commune, Olt County)

Region, Country: Oltenia Region, Romania

Deportation Date: September 1942

Excerpt from Testimony:

“[…] They lived in a barn with 3-4 families. They stayed in this barn until winter, then moved to a house in Karanika. The adults and older children worked every day in the fields; those who worked received a little more food. The work tasks for the next day were communicated by the bulibașa. Sometimes a Russian would come and say that he wanted his house back. One who came hit his grandparents with a stick and forced them to leave the house. The grandparents went to speak with the bulibașa, who had them reinstated in the house.

The bodies of the deceased were burned with straw [on top] to prevent the spread of disease. A Romanian health worker came from time to time to detect typhus cases. In the second year, there were even more deaths, up to 30 per night. They moved from the house to barns and worked at the collective farm, digging trenches. They were given polenta and bread to eat. I saw how people were shot because they had stolen food. But as the number of deaths grew, the bodies were thrown into a pit at the edge of the village […]”

Romanian Archives (if available):

The interviewee and their family are listed among the Roma deportees from Lazu. This list was compiled by the Dolj Gendarmerie Legion in September 1942, including 537 deportees from across the entire Dolj County (ANI, fond IGJ, file no. 127/1942, p. 66).

Historical Note on Roma:

Lazu is a village in the Terpezița commune, which was once an independent commune in Dolj County, about 30 km from Craiova. By the end of the 19th century, it had a population of 472 (MDGR 1901, IV: 140), and by 1930, it had 730 inhabitants, including 9 Roma (RGP 1930, II: 174-175). The actual number of Roma in the commune was much higher; the 1942 census identified at least 80 sedentary Roma in Lazu (ANI, fond IFJ, file no. 201.1942, p. 86; 106). Some of these Roma worked in agriculture, laboring on the land of large local landowners.

Historical Note on Deportation:

In the May 1942 census, the Dolj Gendarmerie Legion included the interviewee’s family on a list of sedentary Roma with criminal records and lacking means of livelihood, proposed for deportation (ANI, fond IFJ, file no. 201.1942, p. 86; 106). However, in September 1942, local gendarmes deported only 11 Roma (2 families) from Lazu (ANI, fond IGJ, file no. 127/1942, p. 66). These families were transported by train to Craiova, then boarded freight cars attached to the special E8 train, which departed for Tighina on 12.09.1942 and reached its destination nearly a week later (ANI, fond IGJ no. 126/1942: p. 109; p. 213-214).

Once they arrived in Transnistria, the interviewee’s family was placed in the Varvarovka commune (Oceakov County). The deported Roma were housed in barns, then in houses near a collective farm, where they were forced to work in the surrounding fields. The minimal food rations, cold, and typhus caused many deaths among the Roma. Those who attempted to leave the collective farm in search of food or stole grains were shot by the guards. The interviewee remained in Transnistria for nearly two years, losing their grandparents, father, and a brother.

The survivors managed to return to Romania in the spring or summer of 1944, following the retreat of the Romanian-German troops from the Eastern Front. They walked to Grigorești, where they boarded a train heading toward Romania.

A Brief Note on an Aspect of the Roma:

Some of the Roma in Lazu are agricultural workers.