Deportare rromi Gârla Mare – Translated

Name of the Village: Gârla-Mare (a village in the homonymous commune, Mehedinți County)
Region, Country: Oltenia Region (Romania)
Date of Deportation: September 1942
Excerpt from the Testimony:

“[…] Once they arrived in Kovaliovka, the [Roma deportees] were housed in the stables of a kolkhoz. His brother (Nicolai) and sister (Mărioara) died of typhus and cholera. The corpses were thrown into ditches behind the stables. Young Roma were assigned the task of digging these ditches and burying the bodies. Sometimes, they poured gasoline on the bodies and burned them. From time to time, [the deportees] were given corn.

The mayor also wore an armband. The guards were made up of Russian civilians without uniforms; they wore armbands and were armed. The guards did not come too close to the stables. They made sure no one approached the village. They shot anyone who did. His uncle was killed for this reason with a carbine […].”

Romanian Archives (if available):

The interviewee appears on the deportation lists prepared by the Mehedinți Gendarmerie Legion in the summer of 1942. For the commune of Gârla-Mare, 181 Roma (43 families) were proposed for deportation, including the family of the deported person (ANI, IGJ fund, file no. 127/1942, p. 51).

Historical Note on the Roma:

Gârla-Mare commune is home to one of the largest Roma communities in Mehedinți County. Located on the left bank of the Danube, about 55 km from the city of Drobeta Turnu-Severin, the commune had a population of 2,480 at the end of the 19th century (MDGR 1900, III: 557). Around 1930, the population recorded was 2,967, including 182 sedentary Roma (RGP 1930, II: 278–279). According to the interviewee’s testimony, some of these Roma were agricultural day laborers working on the estates of large landowners in the area.

Historical Note on the Deportation:

The deportation of sedentary Roma from Gârla-Mare was carried out in several stages. Around May 25, 1942, local gendarmes conducted a census in the commune and identified 214 “problem Roma” (ANI, IGJ fund, file 201/1942, pp. 151–156). Between September 8 and 12, 1942, gendarmes removed 181 Roma from their homes in Gârla-Mare and escorted them to Maglavit, and from there to Craiova, promising them land. The convoy stayed in Craiova for two days, after which the Roma were loaded into freight wagons attached to the special train E8. The train departed on September 12, 1942, bound for Tighina. After a grueling journey (several deportees died of hunger in the wagons), they arrived at their destination about a week later (ANI, IGJ fund no. 126/1942: pp. 109; 213–214).

The deportees arrived in Transnistria at the end of September 1942 and were first placed in the commune of Kovalevka (Oceakov County). They were housed in the stables of a kolkhoz and subjected to forced labor, working the land in exchange for meager corn rations. According to the testimony, hunger, typhus, and the brutality of the guards watching the kolkhoz (including rape and summary executions) decimated the Roma population. A ray of hope appeared when the father, a mobilized soldier returning from the front, set out to find his deported family. He found them in Kovalevka, but the reunion was short-lived (he died from typhus less than three weeks after arriving in Transnistria).

Later, the interviewee’s family was relocated to other villages in Oceakov County, such as Korcinskoje and Zabrik, and forced to work in kolkhozes. His mother and grandparents died of typhus.

It is noteworthy that the interviewee encountered in Transnistria both nomadic Roma and Jewish deportees (around 400–500) who were trying to escape. In their desperate attempts to cross the frozen Bug River, they were spotted by Ukrainian guards and killed in a gruesome manner (the guards threw grenades to break the ice, causing the deportees to drown).

Repatriation likely took place in the spring of 1944, when the deportees walked back to Romania following the retreat of Romanian-German troops from Transnistria. Once they returned to Gârla-Mare, they were forced to rebuild their destroyed homes (their house had been demolished, and the authorities offered no compensation).

A brief note about one aspect of the Roma, such as a group:

Some of the Roma from Gârla-Mare are musicians (lăutari).