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Village Name: Poiana Mare (commune in Dolj County)
Region, Country: Oltenia Region, Romania
Deportation Date: September 1942
Excerpt from Testimony:
“[…] They were taken to Domaniovka, where the Russians settled them in a large field. They were allowed to keep their carts and animals to work for the Russians. My father had hidden small gold coins in the animals’ skins, which remained hidden when the Romanian] gendarmes and then the Russians confiscated the rest of the money. Many died from hunger and disease. The bodies were placed by the Roma in a large pit. None of the interviewees died during that period. They stayed in this locality all summer. They were moved to another location near the Bug, where they lived in a pit. They were told they would be moved to a better place. My mother died in this new locality […].”
Romanian Archives (if available):
Poiana Mare Commune is home to one of the largest Roma communities in Dolj County. Located approximately 86 km from Craiova, the commune had 7,734 inhabitants around 1890 (MDGR 1902, V: 26). According to the 1930 general census, the commune had 10,566 inhabitants, including 163 Roma (RGP 1930, II: 170–171). During certain periods of the year, nomadic Roma families would settle in the area, engaging in metalworking and selling household tools.
The family of the interviewee was likely listed by local gendarmes in May 1942 and included on the deportation list. The evacuation occurred during the summer of 1942 when the gendarmes gathered nomadic Roma families from the locality and moved them from post to post along the eastern border near the Dniester River. From Poiana Mare, 16 families (110 nomadic Roma) were picked up in July 1942 (ANI, IRJ file no. 259/1942, p. 133–134). As they advanced, more nomadic families were forced to join the convoy; the gendarmes promised them land, houses, and animals in Transnistria.
The interviewee mentioned that the deportees were allowed to keep their animals and carts once they arrived in Transnistria, but the guards confiscated most of their gold. However, the father managed to hide some gold coins from the guards. They were moved to a field near the village of Domaniovka (Golta County). They stayed there during the summer of 1942, working the land of local Ukrainian peasants. The mortality rate was high due to hunger and epidemics.
The interviewee’s family was moved to another location, probably in the autumn of 1942. Their carts were likely confiscated, so the family had to shelter in a pit. The conditions were much harsher, with hunger, disease, and violence from the guards (including rapes and beatings to punish those trying to escape) causing numerous victims, including the interviewee’s mother.
Repatriation occurred probably in the spring–summer of 1944, as Romanian–German troops withdrew from Transnistria before the advance of the Red Army. The deportees walked back to their homeland, having lost their carts and animals. The little money they had left was not enough to buy food, so they ate the meat of dead animals they found along the way. After a long and painful journey, they returned to the country and began to rebuild their lives. Only a quarter of the Roma deportees returned to their native village in 1944.
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