>Village Name: Ungheni (town, Ungheni district)
Region, Country: Republic of Moldova
Deportation Date: June – August 1942
Excerpt from Testimony:
“In 1942, they were taken to a camp. They were in Iași when they were arrested […] From Ungheni, they were taken to Bălți. Then, they started their journey toward Ukraine. They crossed the Dniester at Râbnița. They traveled all the way to the Bug River. They were still escorted by Romanian gendarmes. They bribed the gendarmes with valuable items, silver, or clothes to be allowed to buy things [food]. People died. They were thrown from the carts. Some Roma would put dirt on the corpses. Others would cover the faces of the dead with cloth pieces or headscarves. They had to hide money and valuables from the gendarmes. They would gather when they reached a village. The gendarmes would tell the Roma to give them money if they wanted to enter the village to buy food[…].”
Romanian Archives (if available):
A report from the Iași Gendarmerie Legion mentions that 19 nomads (4 families) were deported with their own carts from the city at the beginning of June (DJANI, fond Circa a Va de Poliție Iași, file no. 5/1942: f. 8–9). It is possible that the interviewee’s family was on this list of deportees (the list being numeric and not nominal).
Historical Note on the Roma:
The town of Ungheni is located on the eastern bank of the Prut River, near the border between the Republic of Moldova and Romania, opposite the village of the same name (formerly Bosia) on the western bank of the Prut. After the annexation of Bessarabia in 1812, the locality was elevated to the status of a town and incorporated into the Bălți volost (district). At the end of the 19th century, the town of Ungheni had 2,898 inhabitants (DGB 1904: 219). In 1930, after the incorporation of Bessarabia into Greater Romania, Bălți municipality had 30,570 inhabitants, including 33 Roma (RGP 1930, II: 48–49). According to the testimony of the interviewee, several nomadic families(called “cătunari”) lived near Ungheni. The men worked as blacksmiths (making agricultural tools and utensils), while the women were fortune tellers (“read the cards”).
Historical Note on Deportation:
The deportation of Roma from Ungheni took place in the summer of 1942. They were on the western bank of the Prut, in Iași county when they were picked up by local police and gendarmes and escorted, in convoy, from post to post by the gendarmes until they reached Transnistria. Along the way, other carts joined the convoy, following the route: Iași – Ungheni – Bălți – Râbnița. The journey was long, and food rations were insufficient. Many Roma died during the deportation, their bodies abandoned by the gendarmes by the roadside.
The interviewee mentions that their family was interned in a camp on the banks of the Bug River (still unidentified). The deported Roma were housed in several barns, separate from the Jewish deportees. The latter were executed sadistically by the guards (the barn where they were held was set on fire, and those attempting to escape were shot).
According to the testimony, the Roma were spared because it was believed that Queen Maria had sent planes to distribute flyers in Transnistria, requesting that the Roma not be killed (though Queen Maria had died in 1938; for more details about this “myth,” see Furtună 2015: 49).
The existence of the Roma from Ungheni was marked by numerous hardships during their two years in the camp. Their carts and horses were confiscated, but they were allowed to keep their tools to make household items for the farmers in the neighboring villages. The deportees did not receive food rations and had to trade the little food they had, the items they crafted, and gold coins for food (they traded with farmers from neighboring villages). Deportees who tried to leave the camp in search of food in the nearby villages were shot by the gendarmes (the interviewee lost two grandfathers and a sister in this manner). The cold and lack of food contributed to the increased mortality rate among the deported Roma. Repatriation took place after the spring of 1944, when Soviet troops reoccupied Transnistria and Bessarabia.
Brief Note on an Aspect of the Roma:
The nomadic Roma were forcibly settled by Soviet authorities in the post–war years. Some,
including the interviewee’s family, settled in the city of Soroca.
Categories
Features
Regions
Video
Location
Related Testimonies
Added By Prajakta Patankar
Please sign in to see contact details.