Yahad-In Unum (YIU) is the world’s leading research organization investigating the mass executions of Jews and Roma in Eastern Europe between 1941 and 1944. YIU is led by Father Patrick Desbois, a Catholic priest and author of “The Holocaust by Bullets.”

To combat the prejudice that contributes to perpetuating the vicious cycle of ostracism, hopelessness and despair of the Roma people, we need to reveal to their fellow European citizens who the Roma really are. This includes shining a light on their past to show the totality of the Roma experience, in order to provide context to their present day existence. To contribute to a better understanding of this past, YIU conducts research on the extermination and deportation of Roma by Nazis and their collaborators by interviewing local witnesses and Roma survivors of the executions and forced deportations and by locating the sites of mass graves where Roma victims are buried.

Within the framework of the investigation on Roma, YIU led the forth investigation trip to Romania, in the districts of Galaţi, Iași, Vaslui, Vrancea (Region of Moldova) and Brȃila, by visiting 20 towns and villages YIU continued interviewing different groups of nomadic and sedentary Roma (visited communities: Gefu, Munteni, Toflea, Frumuşiţa, Murgeni, Brȃila, Lieşti, Iveşti, Marașesti, Odaia Manolache, Galaţi, Ciurea, Grajduri, Pădureni, Băcești, Iași, Șcheia, Hȃrlău,Tȃrgu Frumos, Podu Iloaiei).

Historical Introduction

As a result of the policy of Antonescu’s regime, from the 1st June till the end of September 1942, about 25,000 Roma being considered as “unsocial” and “trouble-makers” were deported from Romania to so-called Transnistria, part of Soviet Ukraine, which was occupied by the Germans and Romanians armies in the summer of 1941 and remained under the Romanian authority till 1944. As the number of deportees is approximate, some historians say that almost half of them died in Transnistria or on the way back. Those who survived the deportation returned to Romania in the spring of 1944.

The interviews of survivors of the deportation as well as the interview of people who were not deported brought new information about the conditions, the process and the mechanism of persecution of Roma during the Second World War. While working in the field, YIU could find more information about the functioning of different subgroups of Roma, for instance Kalderash, Linguari, Ursari or Rudari.

Different ethnic subgroups of Roma

Most of Kalderash, nomadic Roma who make steel items, were deported with all their belongings and roulettes by the Romanian authorities. The distinctive characteristic of this group is the colorful bright clothes, decorated with coins braids for women and painted houses.

In Ciurea, YIU met Istrate, a Kalderash, whose father was a group leader, called Bulibash. Born in 1924, being married at that time, Istate was his “right hand”. He told that Bulibash made a special register of the Roma from his group with names and number of children in each family. Every time they changed the village Bulibash had to submit this register to the local administration and police. As soon as the local authorities signed it, the Roma could settle down in the village. While living in a village Kalderash worked for local Romanians. The orders for steel items they wrote down in the same register.

Another nomadic group that was deported were Ursari, Roma who identified themselves as descendants of bear trainers. Ion, born in 1934, an Ursari, whom YIU met in Băcești, told that their family had 10 bears before they were deported to Moldovka. His family didn’t have a house and they were travelling from one village to another. They earned for life by working for blacksmiths or making shows with dancing bears.

In Marașesti, YIU interviewed a representative of Ligurari, spoon makers, who were considered as non-Roma by Romanian authorities. Nicolae, born in 1931, is a sedentary Roma who speaks Romanian. As a child he went to the local school. Once the war broke out, all the men of the village having received convocations joined the Romanian army. His family was not deported but he knew that nomadic Roma were deported.

Deportation to Transnistria

The results of the forth YIU’s investigation trip confirm the information about not deported Roma. As it was sad some sedentary Roma, for instance Rudari and Lingurari, were not deported because they spoke Romanian and didn’t identified themselves as Roma. Others Roma were not deported thanks to administrative steps taken on the initiative of the Roma themselve or of the local authorities and villagers.

In such way, Constantina, born in 1924, as all the Roma from Odaia Manolache, were not deported because the mayor protected them. Working as cleaning lady in the town hall, Constantina’s mother showed the paper informing that the Roma had been put in the list for the future deportation to the mayor. “I will not let my Gypsy people be taken away,” he stated. Despite these words of the mayor, however, the family lived in fear during all the war.

In Frumuşiţa, YIU interviewed Gheorghe, a musician, born in 1930, whose family lived in a house. He told us that his uncle went by train to Bucharest with an official list of Roma to ask for the permission to stay. The list was drawn up by his uncle who passing from one Roma’s house to another put down parents’ names and the number of children in the family. Having received the official permission, all the Roma were not deported and they could easily circulate out of the village, for example in order to go to the market in Galaţi. Gheorghe witnessed hundred of columns of deported Kalderash plodded along the roads in the direction of Oancea as there was a bridge for crossing the river Prut. “There were about ten or more carts in each column. Some of them were walking on foot.” YIU’s research team found Roma survivors deported by the Romanian authorities.

Gogu, a Kalderash from Brȃila, was deported with all his family to Domaniovka, south of Ukraine. “We were rounded up near the Danube River by the Romanian gendarmes who came in trucks. They spoke only to our Bulibash who after made as speech to others Roma. All our group of twenty or twenty five roulettes was deported. We went in the direction of Galati, then, to Oancea where we stayed few weeks. While being in Oancea I saw others groups of Roma coming from different directions. Having money with us we went to the village to buy something to eat from local people”.

On the way to Transnistria, Gogu witnessed the mass shooting of about 300 or 500 Jews. The column with Roma passed the one with Jews, so the Roma had to wait while all the Jews were killed in order to continue the way. “The Romains gendarmes who guarded our column ordered to stop our roulettes and to get out and sit down to watch. I saw the Jews, women, children, men, the elderly among them, being shot by little groups at the edge of the big pit. There were about four or five Romanian shooters. After the shooting, the pit was covered by Moldovans wearing armbands. I could understand that they were Jews because they were well dressed.”

From the testimonies, collected during this trip, YIU found out that some Kalderash were glad to be deported as one promised them to give plots of land, houses and work at the new place, but they could not anticipate what was expecting for them in Transnistria.

Investigating life of deportees behind the Bug

YIU focused its research on the interviews of Roma who had been deported and could find more information about the conditions and their life during the deportation.

What emerges from these researches is that there were three types of camps: the Roma were settled down rather in bunkers, holes dug in the ground, or in kolkhoz buildings, or in a wild field under the open sky. Once there, most of Roma’s belongings as well as official register were taken away.

In Lieşti, YIU found three Roma survivors. Diamanta and Ile, a Kalderash couple deported to Tiraspol recalled: “We were placed in bunkers prepared in advance, but there was not enough place for all Roma deportees that is why about a thousand of sedentary Roma was put in a building.”

Gheorghe Caroi, born in 1928, spent two years and two months in Triduby as he was deported from Romania with all his family. “Once there, the Ukrainian policemen showed us in which bunker we should go. There were no doors or windows, just a hole dug in the ground. My Mom had to cook outside because of the smoke. I know that the Jews were place in the camp nearby. We could not go out because it was forbidden for us to talk to local villagers. Nevertheless, at the beginning my mother could walk around the village and tell fortune. Our camp was guarded by Romanians and Ukrainian policemen”.

The deportees received weekly or monthly food intakes according to the lists drawn up at arrival. Gheorghe’s parents went once per month, on the day defined by Ukrainian guards, to the Primaria (the to receive the rations. “The quantity of the rations, depended on the number of family members”, he said.

Another Roma survivor Ion, an Ursari, interviewed in Băcești, told that in their camp different groups of Roma received the rations different days of the week. As there was not enough food there were lots of fights for food between the Roma. “Every four months we changed the place, but all the time it was the same. We stayed by little groups in different villages. I was always with my family, we were about 15 people”.

The conditions of the deportees were inhuman: shortage of food and clean water, cold bunkers, diseases. Some Roma left their settlements on the sly in order to go find some food. Ostroveanca, born in 1926, a Kalderash interviewed in Munteni, told that near their settlement there was a market where Roma people could go and buy food from local women. “Sometimes local women came directly to our settlement for barter”, she added.

Thousands of deportees died from hunger, diseases and cold. There were more victims within sedentary Roma then within nomadic because the last were deported with all their belongings and valuable things while the sedentary could take only few bundles with them. Rarely the dead bodies were thrown down in mass graves by Ukrainian policemen, most of the time the bodies lay around and were devoured by dogs. Iancu, from Iveşti, recalled the moment when he lost his grandfather: “In the morning as we got up, my grandfather lay dead near the fire. He stayed there forever because we could not bury him”.

Moreover, money played an important role. In Hȃrlău, YIU’s team interviewed Istrate, a Kalderash, who was deported with all his family to Domaniovka. He told us that on their way back his father had to pay the Germans in order to cross the river.

Ukrainian or Romanian guards requisitioned the Roma for different types of work: farm work, cutting off the forest and others. While working the Ukrainian policemen or Romanians watched on them. “I was selected by Ukrainian policemen to weed the corn. If I worked badly, an Ukrainian policeman, who kept an eye on us, gave me blows with a stick”, said Ostroveanca, a Roma survivor interviewed in Munteni.

Ile, a Kalderash met in Lieşti summoned up: “We had to work in the forest 3 km away from our settlement in order to prepare the wood. We worked during the day and in the evening we came back sleeping in the bunkers. Once the logs were cut, the Ukrainians policemen came to pick them up. Each time the Romanian gendarmes called the roll according to the list, based on register, drawn up from the beginning. ”

Besides all the inhuman conditions of life, the situation of Roma women was awful. The Ukrainian policemen and the Germans were very cruel with them. Some of the survivors found during this trip confessed that their sisters, mothers, aunts were humiliated and raped, sometimes even killed. Gheorghe from Lieşti recalled: “It is not very easy to talk about it. But I will say that lots of women were raped. My elder sister, Natalisya, who was 16, was killed because she refused to go with the Germans. We buried her behind the bunker. The same happened to my Mom on the way back to Romania at the end of the war. The Germans, who spoke Ukrainian, wanted to rape her but my father protected her. So, they shot them both on the spot. I came back home by myself with my siblings.”

As a result of this forth investigation trip to Romania, YIU video recorded 26 witnesses, 20 of them are Roma survivors, and identified 4 execution sites of Jews all with memorials.

This project was made possible by the support of the Cummunigs Foundation, the IHRA and the Foundation Remembrance, Responsibility and Future (EVZ).