Deportare rromi din Tâmna

Name of the Village: Tâmna (a village in the homonymous commune)

Region, Country: Mehedinți County, Oltenia Region (Romania)

Date of Deportation: September 1942 (the specific day and month are not mentioned in the interview, but official reports indicate the date as 12.09.1942)

Excerpt from the Testimony:

“The Roma remained for two days in the [Gendarmerie] courtyard, then all the Roma from the region were loaded into a train with fifteen wagons. There was one gendarme in each wagon. The Roma were told they were being evacuated to work in kolkhozes. Food: 400 grams of corn flour thrown on the floor, which we divided among ourselves. No one managed to escape. The journey lasted 15 days. The train passed through Tighina, Tiraspol, Odessa.”

“[The Roma deportees] arrived in the winter of 1942. There were 14,000 of them. By the next summer, only 4,000 were still alive. The rest died from typhus, starvation, and other diseases […]”

Romanian Archives (if available):

The deported Roma from Tâmna are mentioned in a series of official documents (reports, nominal lists of deportees, etc.) issued by the General Inspectorate of the Gendarmerie (IGJ) between 1942–1944. During the census conducted in May 1942, the local gendarmerie identified 123 “problem Roma” in the commune of Tâmna, proposed for deportation (ANIC, IGJ no. 201/1942: f. 161–162). The same gendarmes compiled nominal lists of the 116 Roma (heads of household, spouses, and children) deported from Tâmna on 12.09.1942 (ANIC, IGJ file no. 127/1942: f. 53–55). The name of the interviewee (Rafael Matei, born in 1930) does not appear on these lists, but a certain Nicolae Matei is mentioned, deported with his wife and three daughters (ANIC, IGJ file no. 201/1942: f. 161).

Historical Note on the Roma:

Tâmna is a village in the homonymous commune in Mehedinți County (Oltenia), located about 35 km from the city of Turnu-Severin. In the early 1900s, the commune had a medium size population of 740 inhabitants. Alongside Romanians, several dozen sedentary Roma families lived there. According to the 1930 general census, Tâmna had 374 inhabitants, of whom 27 were sedentary Roma who had retained their mother tongue (RGP 1930, vol. II.1: 284–285). According to the testimony, the Roma from Tâmna, including the interviewee’s father, were brickmakers by trade—a traditional occupation still practiced by the Roma brickmakers of Tâmna to this day.

Historical Note on the Deportation:

The deportation of the Roma from Tâmna was carried out by local gendarmes around 10.09.1942, when 116 Roma (14 families) were removed from their homes and escorted—either on foot or by cart—to Drobeta Turnu-Severin (ANIC IGJ file no. 127/1942, f. 53–55). According to the interviewee, the deportees were only allowed to carry hand luggage (their belongings were nationalized). After being held for two days in the Gendarmerie’s custody in Drobeta, the Roma were loaded into 15 wagons attached to the special train E8, which departed for Tighina on 12.09.1942. After a journey under inhumane conditions, train E8 reached its destination about a week later (ANIC, IGJ no. 126/1942, f. 109; 213–214v).

Once in Transnistria, the Roma were settled in several villages (Koroliovka, Mostovoi, Varvarovka, Karanika) near the Bug River and forced to work in kolkhozes or agricultural farms. The villages were guarded by gendarmes and militia composed of ethnic Germans (Selbstschutz Volksdeutsche), who treated the Roma with brutality and carried out summary executions. The interviewee witnessed Roma who tried to escape being caught and burned alive in front of the other deportees. Living conditions in Transnistria were extremely harsh, and more than ten thousand Roma perished due to disease, cold, and hunger. The interviewee escaped twice but was caught by German and Romanian troops and interned in the Trihati camp.

The return to Romania took place in the spring of 1944, when a repatriation order was issued for Romanian citizens in Transnistria. The interviewee walked back to Tiraspol, then crossed the border with his family and returned to Tâmna (his house had been nationalized).

A Brief Note about One Aspect of the Roma, e.g., a Group:

The village of Tâmna is home to a significant community of Roma brickmakers.