sign in sign up
<<
Home , Bogdanovka, Dniester, Gendarmerie (Romania), Prefect (Romania), Vapniarka

Project Education of Roma | History Roma Children Council Conseil of Europe de l´Europe in Europe Deportations 5.5 from Deportations from Romania Vasile Ionescu

The Deportation of Itinerant Roma, July-August 1942 | The Deportation of Sedentary Roma Deemed “Undesirable”, September 1942 | The Treatment of the Roma in | The Postwar Years and the Treatment of the Roma Deportations in War Crimes Trials | The Future of the Past: The Recognition of Slavery and against Roma

The fate of the Roma did not receive attention by the Romanian state for almost a hundred years after slavery had been abolished in 1856. Then, after they had come to power in 1940, it took but two years for the fascist to start with mass deportations of Roma. Like many , the Roma were brought across the river Dniester, to South-Western , then so-called Transnistria. They were deported there without even their most vital belongings and had to endure two years of hunger, illness and death. Only about half of the Roma deported managed to survive until March 1944, when Romania began to evacuate all its citizens from Transnistria.

g e n e r a l bar c u k r a i n e Introduction g o u v e r n m e n t Şargorot Peciora o f p o l a n d spikov 4 annexed by Long before the time of their liberati- hotin secureni vapniarka tulcin romania, 1941 th moglev- podolski berŞad on from slavery in the mid-19 centu- a,b,c ry, and even in the decades preceding edineti scazineŢ, rubleniŢa golta rĂŞcani bogdanovka the Second World War, Roma were not cernĂuŢi mĂrculeŞti vertuieni acmecetka taken into consideration as a subject burdujeni noi bĂŢi dumanovka Bug for public policies by the Romanian a 4 fĂlticeni Limbenii rĂuŢel Mostovoi c state. In the absence of any integrative alexandru-cel-bun berezovka measures, the abolishment of slavery 2 Dniester 1 iaŞi t r a n s n i s t r i a basically meant the remission of the b chiŞinau 4 ex-slave owners of any responsibility a,b N o r t h e r n towards their ex-slaves. In this manner, t r a n s y l v a n i a HuŞi dalnic the freedom given was transformed into 1 annexed by a new form of economic dependence, hungary, 1940 2 b even more dramatic than the previous tirgu-mureŞ one. In searching for living resources, prut b 1 a significant part of the liberated Roma doaga 2 annexed by the were forced to (re-)discover an itine- focŞani , 1940 lugoj rant life style. Others, comprising an galaŢi historical wave of migration, left for b B l a c k s e a Western Europe, despite occidental R O m a n i a states’ repressive measures. iacob Deal

PloieŞti Romania 1941 - 1942 a 1933 border Ill.1a (based upon Ioanid 2000, p. xxvi) trigu-jiu b 1941 border

c 1942 border turnu severin camps, ghettos and massacre camp cĂlĂraŞi sites in rOmania 1941 - 1942 ghetto caracal annexed by b,c Ill.1b (based upon Ioanid 2000, p. xxvi) greci 3 massacre bulgaria, 1940 3 a a,b,c b u l g a r i a The Deportation of Itinerant Roma, July-August 1942 The Deportation of Sedentary Roma Deemed “Undesirable”, September 1942 The Treatment of the Roma in Transnistria

55,073 16,711 a MUNTENIA 71,784 a b 33,525 3,530 | 37,005 c IASI b TRANSILVANIA c d g 28,430 3,764 | 32,194 t r a n s - b n i s t r i a CLUJ-NAPOCA b oradea f BACAU 17,907 4,332 | 22,239 e d e tirgu mures d OLTENIA a c 15,909 2,010 | 17,919 h b ARAD BANAT c e a ALBA JULIA a 12,736 | 782 | 13,518 TIMISOARA GALATI c BRASOV bASARABIA R O m a n i a e BRAILA 7,560 | 448 | 8,008 e d d b CRISANA BUZAU 3,228 | 591 | 3,819 pITESTI BUCHAREST e DOBROGEA c c CONSTANTA 2,002 | 162 | 2,164 oeLTENITA bucovina b GIURGIU cc a sub 0.4 % RURAL URBAN b 0.5 - 0.9 % e c 1.0 - 1.4 % The number of Roma by province d 1.5 - 1.9 % in rural and urban areas from the e 2.0 - 2.9 % Percentage of Roma as compared to the total 1930 census for the Romanian f 3.0 - 3.9 % population in Romania by region from the 1930 territory in 1942. g 4.0 - 4.9 % census. Ill. 1a (from Kelso 1999, p. 99) h 5.0 + % Ill. 1b (from Kelso 1999, p. 99)

Most of the Roma, however, continued to manian state has faced – and is still facing appropriate legislation be passed to make live on the periphery of Romanian towns – a recurrent syndrome of non-acceptance marriages between and Roma and villages, being used as labour, practi- and exclusion of the “Other”, with painful illegal and to gradually isolate the Roma cing traditional crafts, unqualified, living consequences throughout its history. into some kind of ghetto. During the same from expediency. If, until then, the preju- the situation became explosive decade the Roma became the target of Ro- dices had arisen from the medieval racism after 1940, when the country entered into manian proponents of eugenics. [Ill. 3] towards the religious “deviants”, the new the sphere of Nazi political and ideologi- in this context, the Romanian hard feelings targeted non-inclusion of cal domination. After coming to power, government decided on the deportation Roma (“old Romanians”) in competition the Iron Guard considered for the first time of the Roma to Transnistria. In the first for access to development resources (es- to adopt a racial policy toward Roma. The stage, it was decided that all the itine- pecially in the case of Jewish people, cal- legion journal, “Cuvântul”, published an rant Roma were to be deported, without led “new Romanians”). Being built on the article on January 18, 1941, that stressed exception, following the deportation of basis of an ethnic nation, similar to other the “priority of the Gypsy issue” on the sedentary Roma which was to happen Eastern European states, the modern Ro- government agenda and suggested that gradually. [Ill. 6]

ria. Marshal Antonescu, himself, gave lised within the country at the time of The deportation of itinerant the order for the deportation “of all the deportation, were expelled from the Roma, July-August 1942 nomadic Gypsies from camps all over military by order of the Army General the country.” The Roma travelled on Staff, sent back home and made to fol- The deportations began on June 1, foot or with wagons from one precinct low their families to Transnistria. Up 1942, with the itinerant Roma. That to the other, making their trip several until October 2, 1942, a total of 11,441 day, the gendarmes began to gather weeks long. Officially, the operation Roma were deported to Transnistria them in the capital cities of the coun- finished on August 15, 1942. Those (2,352 men, 2,375 women, and 6,714 ties and then send them to Transnist- Roma, who were at the front or mobi- children). [Ill. 2]

  Council of Europe Roma | History Porject Education of Roma Children in Europe

Deportations 5.5 from Romania

“The Gypsy shall be steriliSed at home”

Drawing on the ideas of Robert Rit- ter, the intellectual mastermind of the Roma tragedy in , Ro- manian “researchers” considered the Roma a plague:

“Nomadic and semi-nomadic Gypsies shall be interned into forced labour camps. There, their clothes shall be changed, their beards and hair cut, their bodies sterilised [...]. Their living ex- penses shall be covered from their own labour. After one generation, we can get rid of them. In their place, we can put ethnic Romanians from Romania or from abroad, able to do ordered and creative work. The sedentary Gypsy shall be sterilised at home [...]. In this way, the peripheries of our villages and towns shall no longer be disease-ridden sites, but an ethnic wall useful for our nation.” Ill. 2 Ill. 3 (translated from Fãcãoaru, Gheorghe A group of semi-nomadic Roma in Romania on a photograph dating from before the (1941) Câteva date în jurul familiei si statului deportation. biopolitic, Bucureşti) (from Kelso 1999, p. 102)

imprisoned in camps within Romania. plan from water to land explains why The deportation of seden- In the end, the authorities chose depor- the deportations did not begin until Sep- tary Roma tation. According to the initial plan, the tember 1942. During that month, 13,176 deemed “undesirable”, Roma were to be transported by ship to sedentary Roma were deported to Trans- September 1942 Transnistria in July, first on the Danu- nistria. At the same time, Roma were be and then via the . This plan forced from their homes without even Those selected for the initial deportation was prepared in detail but ultimately their most vital personal and household were Roma considered to be “dangerous abandoned, and they were transported belongings and were not given time to and undesirable” along with their fami- by train instead. set the sell their possessions. So, heads of the lies – a total of 12,497 individuals. The beginning of the operation for August local and stations remaining 18,941 were to be deported 1, 1942. However, the deportation of would often buy the Roma’s belongings later. At the time of the deportation of sedentary Roma did not take place until and livestock at extremely low prices. itinerant Roma, the authorities had not September. It lasted from September 12 The houses and all other goods belon- yet formed a definite plan of action con- to September 20, 1942, used nine spe- ging to the deported Roma were confis- cerning the sedentary Roma. They were cial trains, and began in different towns cated by the “National Centre for Roma- either to be deported to Transnistria or in the country. The modification of the nianisation”.

the counties of Golta, Otchakov, Bere- county. These were the so-called “Gy- The treatment of the zovka and Balta. Some Roma were ac- psy colonies” in Transnistria, consis- Roma in Transnistria commodated in huts, others in houses. ting of several hundred people (in the A few villages on the Bug were com- beginning there were even thousands The Roma were settled at the border pletely evacuated for this purpose, of people). The confiscation of their or inside villages located in Eastern with the Ukrainian population being horses and wagons, which served as Transnistria on the bank of the Bug, in relocated to the central areas of the both “mobile homes” and a means to

  The treatment of the Roma in Transnistria 2

Vasile Ionita was forty years old when ria. The constable tried to keep his pro- There were all kinds of Gypsies the constables came to announce that mise and help me. We left with a wagon there. The first to be deported were no- he must leave the village to relocate in and horses, my wife and four children. I mads and then the semi-nomads. But after Transnistria: had four brothers and a sister named Na- this also those who didn’t speak the lan- talita who left. The police and constables guage [Romani] were sent. However, we “A year before, articles started to appear accompanied me. I was sent from place to had an easier life compared to the noma- in the press, talking about this deportati- place to Transnistria. dic Gypsies, who were sent outside [of the on. I was in a pub and some Romanians On the road to Transnistria we barn]. They made earth houses and had to reading a newspaper said: ‘Listen here, were beaten, [but] beaten less by the Ro- live there. So terribly were those people man, it says that all Gypsies will be sent manian constables. On the other hand, living that they reached the point of ea- to Transnistria.’ We didn’t believe that it when we passed there everybo- ting their horses for which they cared so was going to happen. We didn’t expect dy beat us. Antonescu hated the Gypsies. much. In those days horses were so sacred, to be sent there. Before the deportation, He was the one who hated and harmed us. especially for them as they were nomads. it was perfect in the country. We lived in When we arrived there they made fun of us They had long hair, and different, more peace with the people. We accepted each and put us to hard labour, working us like colourful clothing. For semi-nomads like other. We were taken by surprise, unpre- animals. They kept us there for two years us, it was much easier to live than for the pared. People should have reacted then, without us being spared any suffering. nomads who were mistreated because they many should have woken up. There were [In Transnistria] all of us were were seen as different. people who protested, some intelligent living in the open air, except for those The deportation of the Jews star- people with book learning, but without who had wagons and they could sleep in ted a long time before [us]. The majority any effect. or under them. [It was] a place in a kind were killed. But before, they were selected I was a coppersmith, making ob- of field, which was very long and flat. It by their trade tailors, shoe-makers, and jects for home use. My father taught me. It was an open field. It was hot because it others. They were sent to Germany [sic] is a trade you learn which comes from the was springtime or summer and we could to work. Those who did not correspond to old times. We learned it from the elders. stay outside without needing a roof. We the authorities’ standards were shot. The A village constable I knew told me: ‘You didn’t have houses to stay in at that time. Jews made large graves, they were put on will have to leave, like all the others, to There were maybe 10,000 families there. the edge of the grave and shot with auto- Transnistria.’ I said: ‘Why send me? Look, We were left free by ourselves. But when matics. […] I will give you some money.’ I gave him winter came, they took us from there and Those who were guarding us im- 1,000 lei. And a copper pot that I made. brought us to a big town. They put us in a mediately shot him. They shot him with The constable told me: ‘Okay, hide until sort of house, a barn where animals stay- an automatic. The sunflower field was this wave of fury and evil passes. I’ll help ed. Hundreds of families were kept toge- like twenty or thirty meters from us. But you then.’ But it seems that a Gypsy who ther with the [Ukrainian] people: They when that person crossed [the line], he had his family sent didn’t like this, and he gave us an ear of corn and a potato per was shot. We couldn’t escape. Because if turned me in to the authorities. He told day. They gave us 200 grams of corn meal we ran away, we were caught and killed. If them where I was hiding, and they came that we couldn’t do anything with; it had they caught us on the train, they threw us and took me and my family to Transnist- sand in it. We were dying of hunger. off and killed us.

earn an income, affected the Roma them. The deportees lacked the most broke out in the middle of December very harshly. basic things, including pots for pre- 1942 in the Roma camps, stated that The Roma were not provided paring their food. Medical assistance due to typhus, the number of Roma with enough food and they were un- was almost nonexistent, and they also located in Landau decreased from able now to support themselves. The lacked medicine. [Ill. 5] around 7,500 to approximately 1,800– food ratios established by the go- Until spring 1943, the situati- 2,400. The situation in Landau was an vernment were not observed; some- on of the deportees was dramatic from exception, but the number of deceased times none would be distributed for every perspective. Many thousands was high everywhere. [Ill. 9] weeks. The Roma were not provided of Roma died. In fact, almost all of The situation of the Roma later with firewood either, so they could the deaths of the Romanian Roma de- improved somewhat. Since the concen- neither prepare their food, nor warm ported to Transnistria occurred in win- tration in large groups made it extreme- themselves. Clothing was another ma- ter 1942/1943. A report of the Landau ly difficult to provide work and food as jor problem, since the deported Roma District Preture to the Prefecture of well as supervision, and after the drama- had not been allowed to take any clo- the Berezovka county regarding the tic experience of winter 1942/1943, the thes or any personal belongings with exanthematic typhus epidemic, which authorities dissolved the colonies and

  Council of Europe Roma | History Project Education of Roma Children in Europe

Deportations 5.5 from Romania 2

I did agricultural work, har- “In general, the situation word. They had not been given any soap vested wheat, dug the ground. I would of the Gypsies is terrible” since arriving; this is why they haven‘t have rather gone to war because my fa- washed themselves or the single shirt mily would have remained at home and From a report signed by an intelligence that they own. I wouldn’t have had this daily fear. For agent, explaining the situation in the Ot- In general, the situation of the me it would have been easier to be by chakov county, December 5, 1942: Gypsies is terrible and almost incon- myself than with my family that I had to ceivable. Due to the misery, they have look after. I couldn’t bring anything for “Due to malnutrition, some of the Gyp- turned into shadows and are almost sa- my children. I was watching them die of sies – and these make up the majority – vage. This condition is due to bad ac- hunger, watching how they got sick. have lost so much weight that they have commodations and nutrition as well as Many people died of hunger. turned into living skeletons. On a dai- the cold. Because of hunger […] they Where they were lying down on the ly basis – especially in the last period have scared the Ukrainians with their earth, they died after a while of hunger, – ten to fifteen Gypsies died. They were thefts. If there had been some Gypsies in and remained where they lay. We didn´t full of parasites. They did not receive the country who were stealing […] out have cemeteries there. We made shallow any medical visits and they did not have of mere habit, here even a Gypsy who graves with a little earth. My brother any medicine. They were naked […] and used to be honest would begin stealing, died of hunger, of misery, of sickness. they didn’t have any underwear or clo- because the hunger led him to commit When we buried him we didn’t have the thing. There are women whose bodies this shameful act.” strength to make a deep grave. We made […] were naked in the true sense of the Ill. 5 it on the surface. We covered him with a little earth and put plants over him. God and my family [kept me alive]. I was thinking of the return and A survivor of the a day. If you asked, one person from the my oldest brother encouraged us all the deportations recalls family could go [into town] for an hour time. He told us we had to live. We had or two to get food. We gathered water in to live so that we could come back. Many “There were maybe over one hundred wooden bottles. people died of hunger there. Three quar- people [crowded] into the car without If some got sick, that’s how they ters. A quarter remained. We didn’t ar- seats. You stayed in groups with your stayed. Many women had babies on the gue anymore. Hunger was so great that family. It was hot, it was September. train. We made spaces for them. Gypsy the stronger one made life harder for the We slept one on top of another. [The- women became midwives for each other. weaker one. It was a fight for survival. re were] no toilet facilities. You went One would put her foot on a woman’s We didn’t know what to do to escape. to the WC when the train stopped. The back, another would cut the [umbilical] Our only hope when we saw how bad the windows had iron bars as thick as a fin- cord, another would wrap the baby up, situation became was in God. We didn’t ger so no one could escape. Where was and another would take a rag, and wipe think of people anymore. We didn’t think there to go? Constables gave us bread the mess up and throw it out of the win- that they could help us.” and salami. The train stopped in every dow. […]” Ill. 4 (from Kelso 1999, pp. 118ff.) little station and sometimes stayed for Ill. 6 (from Kelso 1999, p. 110)

distributed the Roma among the villages agricultural labour, repairing roads and in Transnistria. They found a niche in in the spring and summer of 1943. Thus, railroads, chopping down willow trees the village economy, doing some work the Roma began to live – long-term or on the bank of the Bug, chopping wood and making crafts for the natives, ex- short-term – in many villages of the in forests, and military-related tasks in actly as they had done in their villages Golta, Balta, Berezovka, and Otchakov the Nikolaev region (on the opposite side in Romania. One such group, which counties, where they used to work, either of the Bug in German-occupied territo- managed to preserve its occupation on former state farms and “kolkhozes”, ry). Through a series of measures taken and thereby was able to some extent or in workshops or other places where in summer 1943, the authorities tried to to ensure its welfare, was the Piepta- they were but marginally compensated provide the deportees with work. At the nari (comb makers) Roma. In February for their work. time these steps were referred to as “or- 1944, 1,800 Roma living in the coun- The archives created by the oc- ganisation of labour”. The work was paid ty of Berezovka earned their living by cupation authorities in Transnistria or by and the deportee and his family could so- making and selling combs. the administration of some communes mewhat earn their living. However, not all deportees and farms provide great detail about the Some of the deportees mana- could be provided with work. So, type of work done by the Roma, including ged to adapt to the adverse conditions measures were taken at county or dis-

  The Postwar Years and the Treatment of the Roma Deportations in War Crimes Trials The Future of the Past: The Recognition of Slavery and the Holocaust against Roma

“I have the honour of re- imprisoned. All of these are working and porting to you that they are forced to work until they are exhaus- are exhausted from hun- ted from hunger. Please advise.” ger. Please advise.” In another report, dated Novem- ber 22, 1943, to the Prefecture of the The situation was not the same every- Golta county, the legion states that the where. In some places, Roma were con- Roma interned in the Golta labour camp fronted with hunger and cold again in (including some who had tried unsuc- 1943. The situation was extremely se- cessfully to flee from Transnistria) were rious in the Golta county. The May 10, faced with starving to death. Likewise, in 1943, report of the Gendarmes Legion September that year, Ion Stancu, “may- Golta to the General Inspectorate of the or of the Gypsies” in Kamina Balka in Gendarmerie describes the exterminati- Golta, denounced the fact that the Roma on regime applied to Jews and Roma: were not given sufficient food: “During the day we work at the “I have the honour of reporting kolkhoz, but at night we patrol the pre- to you that from the information I have cinct; they give us very little food: 300 verified throughout the entire county, the grams of [corn] flour, 500 grams of following is the result: The Jews have not potatoes and 10 grams of salt per per- been given food for months. The same is son, without any other kind of food; we true for the Gypsies and prisoners in the haven’t been given oil for 8 months.” Golta camp, where 40 individuals are Ill. 8

“We were destroyed” I noticed that when only one person re- mained alive, out of a family composed of Ion Neagu, who spent winter 1942/43 in seven, he willed his own death. We were Ill. 7 a camp in the Landau district: destroyed. I can’t say how many Gypsies Ion Antonescu and Horia Sima take the oath died, how many children died, how many following the establishment of the National “They put us in a big school with two or mothers and fathers did not care about their Legionary State with General Antonescu three floors. We were eating here, there was children anymore. They were trying to get as its leader and Sima, Commander of the a toilet. From each Gypsy family, two or out alive. Here my sister-in-law, my sister, Legionary Movement, as Vice-Premier, Sep- three [people] died. They didn’t have wa- and my little brother died [from typhus].” tember 1940. gons, money, they didn’t have anything. Ill. 9 (from Kelso 1999, p. 116) (from Ioanid 2000, p. 194b)

trict level to provide them with food. The gendarmerie appealed to the coun- possible. However, the runaways were The various departments of the go- ty prefectures to guarantee the Roma’s usually caught and brought back. The vernment of Transnistria – particular- living. [Ill. 5] authorities in Transnistria discovered ly the Department of Labour, which At the same time, authori- that it was impossible to put a stop to dealt with Jews and Roma deported to ties often criticised the fact that this. Punishment camps were planned Transnistria – did not always share a Roma tried to avoid work when it for such situations, but were never re- good working relationship. In summer was available. According to the do- alised. Only in the fall of 1943, when 1943, in the county of Balta, Roma cuments, some Roma began to travel the exodus of Roma had grown consi- were removed from their houses, mo- around the villages and beg. In order derably and the number of those who ved into huts and given land to work to procure food, Roma started to ste- had fled and been caught exceeded for food. Other colonies were dissol- al; there were Roma gangs of thieves. 2,000, was the measure taken to cre- ved and the Roma were distributed These deportees caused difficulties for ate such a camp in Golta, where 475 among Ukrainian villages, thus ma- the Romanian authorities. At the same Roma were interned. king them easier to feed and use for time, the Roma started to flee from The situation of the Roma va- work. There were even proposals to the “colonies” on the Bug. Either indi- ried from county to county, district create Roma agricultural colonies with vidually or in groups, they attempted to district, and even farm to farm. It farmland and agricultural equipment. to return to Romania by any means depended on many factors, including

  Council of Europe Roma | History project Education of Roma Children in Europe

Deportations 5.5 from Romania

Number of Roma deported and victims

The exact number of the Roma who were deported and died in Trans- nistria is not yet known. In 1946, Romanian Commission of War re- cognised 36,000 Roma who died in Transnistria’s camps, but other sta- tistics show much higher numbers. Both Romanian archives and Odessa and Nikolaev archives (now in Uk- raine) have not been researched yet. According to current sources, the number of Roma deported to Trans- nistria from June 1942 to December 1943 reached slightly over 25,000. On March 14, 1944, when Roma- nian citizens – regardless of origin – were to be evacuated from Trans- nistria, the General Gendarmes Sub- Inspectorate Odessa reported that it had on its territory 12,083 Roma. To this number the number of Roma who escaped from Transnistria be- fore the above-mentioned date must be added, the number being appro- ximately 2,000. The 6,439 Roma recorded by the gendarmerie in the second half of July 1944, when it be- gan to register those who returned to Ill. 10 Romania, make up only one part of Summary of the 24,686 itinerant and sedentary Roma deported to Transnistria by the end the survivors, a significant number of September 1942. The list is divided into the two categories, and further broken down into being children. men, women and children. Ill. 11 (from Kelso 1999, p. 109)

the Romanian official at the head of ties often had to force the Ukrainian group to which they belonged to. In the administrative unit (county of dis- communes and communities to give some places, Roma communities ma- trict). Food provision depended heavi- the Roma food according to the dis- naged to secure their subsistence and ly on local communities, but the local positions mandated by the government survive almost two years of deporta- Ukrainians considered the Roma to be of Transnistria. The Roma’s situation tion. Elsewhere, though, only a small a burden. County and district authori- also depended on the group or sub- number was able to survive. [Ill. 11]

August 1944, the “Gypsy issue” no quence, the policies adopted vis-à-vis The postwar years and longer figured on the political agen- the Roma included such measures as the treatment of the da in Romania and the reinstatement the creation of incentives to make the Roma deportations in war of the Roma’s rights went smoothly. itinerant Roma sedentary and the re- crimes trials For the new government, the Roma establishment of former limitations on became once again what they were the same Roma groups in relation to After the return of the surviving Roma before Antonescu came to power: a the freedom of movement. There is no from Transnistria in spring and sum- marginalised social category, rather evidence indicating that the deportees mer 1944 and the regime change of than an ethnic minority. As a conse- received reparations, and the Roma’s

  Council of Europe Roma | History Project Education of Roma Children in Europe

Deportations 5.5 from Romania

problems did not make it onto the po- the plight of the Roma was mentioned In the early postwar years the litical parties’ agendas. only four times: in the indictment, in fate of the Romanian Roma during the Although the fate of the Roma the formal reading of the charges, and war did not seem to interest anyone. during the war – the deportations to in statements taken from Antonescu The only initiative to support the ex- Transnistria and the killings – were no and General Vasiliu. The indictment deportees in Transnistria came in ear- longer of interest to either the govern- notes in passing that “thousands of ly 1945 from the “General Union of ment or the public, the postwar trials unfortunate families were taken out Roma in Romania”. Its central commit- of war criminals temporarily brought of their huts and shanty houses and tee announced that the organisation’s these events back into discussion. Yet, deported beyond the Dniester; tens main objective was “to give moral and the fate of the Roma was fairly mar- of thousands of men, women and material support to all the Roma, and ginal in relation to topics of interest. children died due to starvation, cold in particular to all the Roma deported When the first group of war criminals and diseases.” The indictment re- to Transnistria”. However, after this was tried in 1945, only one indictment fers to 26,000 deported Roma, while organisation began to function effec- document mentions the Roma depor- General Vasiliu acknowledged only tively again, on August 15, 1947, its tations (in the case of Colonel Isope- 24,000. In the statement he gave du- activities no longer concerned the for- scu, of the Golta county), and ring the interrogation, Ion Antonescu mer Roma deportees. even then the offences concerned only argued that the deportations were mo- Finally, in 1948 the Roma were the confiscation of Roma wagons and tivated by considerations of law and close to obtaining the status of ethnic horses. The remainder of the indict- order: the Roma, he said, committed minority (“co-inhabitant nationali- ment was dedicated exclusively to the many thefts, robberies and murders in ty”). The December Resolution on the murders of Jews. Bucharest and other cities during the issue of ethnic minorities of the Poli- The situation was similar when wartime curfew. He made the same tical Bureau of the Central Commit- Ion Antonescu and his main collabora- argument in his memorandum of May tee of the Romanian Workers’ Party tors were tried in 1946. While charges 15, 1946, to the Peoples’ Court. At the – a key document of Communist-era were formally brought against Anto- time, press coverage of the fate of the minority policies – denied the Roma nescu for the deportation of the Roma, Roma during the war was scant, even this status. The situation remained the prosecutor did not dwell on the de- as the details of the trials were syste- unchanged until the collapse of the tails. Thus, during Antonescu’s trial, matically presented to the public. communist regime in 1989.

Ion Iliescu, the Romanian President, cities had happened, for the first time The future of the past: supported by the expertise of the Ho- in history an Eastern European state The recognition of slav- locaust Museum from Washington is to include into public and political ery and the Holocaust and the Yad Vashem Museum from debate the question of recognition of against Roma Jerusalem. The Commission’s mem- the fact that thousands of Roma were bers elaborated a study on the com- murdered in the Holocaust. A start In October 2003, the Romanian go- mon destiny of the Jews and Roma in which is worthy of being followed by vernment created the International the Holocaust in Romania, which was other European states and, at the same Commission on the Holocaust in Ro- published in November 2004. After time, a chance for Roma to recuperate mania, chaired by Elie Wiesel and more than 60 years since these atro- their past.

Bibliography

Achim, Viorel (1998) Ţiganii în istoria României. Bucureşti: Editura Enciclopedicǎ | Ioanid, Radu (2000) The Holocaust in Romania: The Destruction of Jews and Gypsies Under the Antonescu Regime, 1940-1944. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee | Ionescu, Vasile (2000) Deportarea rromilor in Transnistria. Bucureşti: Aven Amentza | Kelso, Michelle (1999) Gypsy deportations from Romania to Transnistria 1942-44. In: Kenrick, Donald (ed.) In the Shadow of the Swastika. The Gypsies during the Second World War - 2. Hatfield: University of Hertfordshire Press, pp. 95-130

© Council of Europe. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be project Education of translated, reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic Roma Children in Europe (CD-Rom, Internet, etc.) or mechanical, including photocopying, recording http://www.coe.int/education/roma or any information storage or retrieval system, without the prior permis- Council Conseil sion in writing from the Publishing Division, Directorate of Communica- of Europe de l´Europe http://romani.uni-graz.at/romani tion (F-67075, Strasbourg cedex or [email protected]) http://www.coe.int