Village Name: Gârla–Mare (village in the commune of the same name, Mehedinți County)
Region, Country: Oltenia Region, Romania
Deportation Date: September 1942
Excerpt from Testimony:
“[…] Once they arrived at Kovaliovka, [the deported Roma] were housed in the barns of a collective farm. His brother (Nicolai) and his sister (Mărioara) died of typhus and cholera. The bodies were thrown into ditches behind the barns. The young Roma were tasked with digging these ditches and burying the bodies. Sometimes, they would pour gasoline on the bodies and burn them. They were
occasionally given corn.
The mayor also wore an armband, and the guards were ununiformed Russian civilians wearing armbands. They were armed. The guards did not approach the barns too closely. They ensured that no one came near the village. They shot those who attempted to do so. His uncle was killed for this reason with a rifle […].”
Romanian Archives (if available):
The interviewee’s name appears on the deportation lists compiled by the Mehedinți Gendarmerie in the summer of 1942. In the case of Gârla Mare, 181 Roma (43 families) were proposed for deportation, including the interviewee’s family (ANI, IGJ file no.127/1942, p. 51).
Historical Note on the Roma:
Gârla–Mare is home to one of the largest Roma communities in ehedinți County. Located on the left bank of the Danube, about 55 km from Drobeta Turnu–Severin, the commune had 2,480 inhabitants by the end of the 19th century (MDGR 1900, III: 557). By around 1930, there were 2,967
inhabitants, including 182 sedentary Roma (RGP 1930, II: 278–279). Some of these Roma were agricultural laborers working on large estates in the area, according to the interviewee.
Historical Note on Deportation:
The deportation of sedentary Roma from Gârla–Mare occurred in several stages. Around May 25,1942, local gendarmes conducted a census in the commune and identified 214 problematic Roma”(ANI, IGJ file no. 201/1942, p. 151–156). Between September 8–12, 1942, the gendarmes rounded up 181 Roma from their homes in Gârla–Mare and escorted them to Maglavit, then to Craiova, promising them that they would be granted land. The deportation convoy stayed for two days in Craiova, after which the Roma were loaded into freight wagons attached to the special E8 train. The train left on September 12, 1942, heading to Tighina, and after a harrowing journey (many deportees died from hunger in the wagons), arrived at its destination about a week later (ANI, IGJ file no. 126/1942: p. 109; p. 213–214).
The deportees arrived in Transnistria at the end of September 1942 and were first placed in the village of Kovaliovka (Oceakov district). They were housed in barns of a collective farm and subjected to forced labor, cultivating the land and receiving meager corn rations. According to the testimony, hunger, typhus, and the brutality of the guards (including rapes and summary executions) decimated the Roma population. A ray of hope appeared when the interviewee’s father, a mobilized soldier who had returned from the front, began searching for the family. He found them in Kovaliovka, but their reunion was short–lived (the typhus epidemic took him less than three weeks after his arrival in Transnistria).
Later, the interviewee’s family was moved to other locations in Oceakov district, such as Korcinskoje and Zabrik, and forced to work in collective farms. His mother and grandparents died from typhus.
It is noteworthy that the interviewee encountered nomadic Roma and Jews (about 400–500) in Transnistria, who tried to escape. In their desperate attempts to cross the frozen Bug River, they were spotted by Ukrainian guards and killed sadistically (the guards threw grenades to break the ice, causing the deportees’ deaths by drowning).
Repatriation occurred probably in the spring of 1944, when the deportees started walking back to Romania following the retreat of the Romanian–German troops from Transnistria. Upon their return to Gârla–Mare, they were forced to rebuild their destroyed homes (their house had been destroyed, and the authorities did not offer compensation).
A Brief Note on an Aspect of the Roma:
Some of the Roma from Gârla–Mare are musicians (the interviewee is an accordionist).
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