Deportare rromi Cosoveni

Name of the Village: Coșoveni (village in the homonymous commune, Dolj County)

Region, Country: Oltenia Region (Romania)

Date of Deportation: June–August 1942

Excerpt from the Testimony:
“[…] The gendarmes arrested them in Coșoveni, drawing up a list of all family members. They were escorted in their own carts, covered with goat hides, from village to village by the gendarmes, all the way to Transnistria. Sometimes along the way, the gendarmes allowed them to go into villages to buy food. The carts were confiscated near the border, but the father managed to hide a few gold coins under the animals’ skin.

The interviewee does not remember the name of the first village in Transnistria where they were relocated. At first, they stayed in a dugout on a field and were later moved to a stable, where they remained for two years. They rarely cooked in the dugout because it had no windows and they couldn’t breathe from the smoke. Many died in that stable (more than half of the deportees) […]”

Romanian Archives (if available): N/A

Historical Note on the Roma:
Coșoveni is home to one of the largest Roma communities in Dolj County. In the past, the commune was called Coșovenii de Jos and had 862 inhabitants at the end of the 19th century (MDR 1899, II: 691). According to the 1930 census, it had 1,015 residents, including 10 sedentary Roma (RGP 1930, II: 174–175). In addition to these sedentary Roma, several nomadic Roma families lived around the Coșula area during the interwar period. The interviewee recalled that they worked by crafting and producing household utensils and boilers made of copper and aluminum, which they sold in nearby villages.

Historical Note on the Deportation:
The nomadic Roma from Coșoveni were likely surveyed in May 1942 and deported later that summer by the local gendarmes. The interviewee described how the gendarmes arrested the family and escorted them, in their own carts, from village to village, until they reached the country’s eastern border. They were gathered into a convoy, and before crossing into Transnistria, their carts and money were confiscated. However, the father managed to hide some gold coins from the gendarmes’ greed.

Once in Transnistria, the deportees from Coșoveni were crammed into several dugouts. After two months, they were relocated to a stable near a kolkhoz, surrounded by a wooden fence. Forced labor, insufficient food, and disease outbreaks caused many deaths among the deportees (more than half of those housed in the stable died). The deportees occasionally received food from Ukrainian villagers, but the gendarmes guarding them severely punished any attempt to leave the stable or the kolkhoz. Some deportees who went to nearby villages in search of food were caught by the gendarmes and executed on the banks of the Bug River (the interviewee’s grandfather was executed this way).

After nearly two years of suffering, the interviewee and his family managed to leave Transnistria (likely in the spring or summer of 1944).

A Brief Note about One Aspect of the Roma, e.g., a Group:
The căldărari Roma of Coșoveni still practice their traditional crafts (such as making copper boilers).