After the first deportations of Jews, in 1942 Romanian authorities started with the deportation of Roma, under the personal order of Marshall Ion Antonescu.[1]<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201ePe noi ne-a urm\u0103rit \u00eenainte cu un an de zile, \u00een \u201941, s\u0103 ne duc\u0103 \u00een Rusia.\u201d (Mihai Istrate<\/i><\/b>, deported as nomad Roma, deceased)<\/p>\n \u201cA\u015fa a dat ordin Antonescu s\u0103 str\u00e2ng\u0103 toat\u0103 na\u0163ia \u0163ig\u0103neasc\u0103. \u015ei ne-a str\u00e2ns pe to\u0163i. N-a r\u0103mas niciunul niciunul. Dar ei ne-au p\u0103c\u0103lit pe noi c\u00e2nd ne-au dus: c\u0103 ne d\u0103, c\u0103 ne face case, c\u0103 ne instaleaz\u0103 ca lumea…dar de unde! Ne-au b\u0103gat \u00een p\u0103m\u00e2nt!\u201d (Mihai Bimbai<\/i><\/b>, nomad Roma)<\/p>\n \u201eA venit poli\u0163ia \u015fi ne-a luat, s\u0103 ne duc\u0103 pe jos. Ne-am luat catrafusele \u00een umeri. Care a putut. Care nu, le-a l\u0103sat acolo. Au l\u0103sat \u015fi copila\u015fi mici acolo, pl\u00e2ngeau… [mai t\u00e2rziu unele transporturi au primit c\u0103ru\u0163e de la jandarmi]\u201d (Margareta Adam<\/i><\/b>, nomad Roma)<\/p>\n \u201eLa fiecare vagon era mili\u0163ianul. Nu da voie s\u0103 ie\u015fim, nici lumin\u0103 n-aveam. P\u00e2n\u0103 c\u00e2nd am trecut \u00een Tiraspol. C\u00e2nd am trecut hotarul din Rom\u00e2nia, \u00een Tiraspol ne-au dat lumin\u0103. P\u00e2n\u0103 acolo am mers \u00een negur\u0103. \u015ei mili\u0163ia era la u\u015f\u0103 [u\u015fa vagonului].\u201d (Marcel Dumitru<\/i><\/b>, sedentary Roma, deceased)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In 2 years over 25.000 nomadic and sedentary Roma were deported, on foot or wagons; 12,923 were children. The houses and all other goods belonging to the deportees were confiscated by the \u201cNational Centre for Romanianisation\u201d.<\/p>\n Most of the deported Roma were settled in eastern Transnistria on the bank of the Bug River in the counties of Balta, Berezovka, Golta and Otchakov. The situation in these regions was very harsh. The first Roma had to set up their huts by themselves.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201eAcolo c\u00e2nd am oprit la Moldovka, pe o vale mare a\u015fa, vara a fost, n-a fost iarn\u0103. \u015ei c\u00e2nd am ajuns acolo, am f\u0103cut corturile, am a\u015fezat, am stat ca o lun\u0103 jumate. \u015ei au venit \u015fi ne-au luat caii, ne-au luat c\u0103ru\u0163ele \u015fi ne-au l\u0103sat pe c\u00e2mpuri. […] La Moldovka acolo, pe valea aia, au murit acolo…ca \u015foarecii. […] Acolo am stat la bordeie, f\u0103r\u0103 co\u015f, f\u0103r\u0103 lumin\u0103, f\u0103r\u0103 ap\u0103. Mi-a murit o sor\u0103 mai mare ca mine, a avut o feti\u0163\u0103 de vreo 12-13 ani \u015fi s-au luat \u00een bra\u0163e…\u00eemi vine s\u0103 pl\u00e2ng…s-a luat a\u015fa \u00een bra\u0163e cu ea \u015fi a murit pe c\u00e2mp acolo.\u201d (Margareta Adam<\/i><\/b>)<\/p>\n \u201eAm stat acolo [satul Moldovka \u00een Transnistria] vreo lun\u0103 de zile. Ei ne f\u0103ceau bordeie \u00een timpul \u0103sta, c\u00e2t am stat noi acolo, mai departe, la o sut\u0103 \u015fi ceva de kilometri de la Valea Pl\u00e2ngerii. Ne-au b\u0103gat acolo \u00een bordeie. \u0102ia care au r\u0103mas afar\u0103…s-a terminat, au murit. Mor\u0163i! De viscol, de frig, de foame.\u201d (Mihai Istrate<\/i><\/b>)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n During the deportation, the Roma were not allowed to carry personal belongings and the concentration camps at the end of the journey were set up in the plain fields, lacking firewood, beds, food and water.<\/p>\n \u201cPrim\u0103vara au r\u0103mas mor\u0163ii…cei care au murit…arunca\u0163i pe c\u00e2mp, ca dovlecii. A\u015fa erau capete lor, oasele lor. \u015ei se m\u00e2ncau. Erau \u0163igani de-ai no\u015ftri care luau carne de acolo \u015fi m\u00e2ncau. Carne din mor\u0163i.\u201d (Mihai Istrate<\/i><\/b>)<\/p>\n \u201eAm fost da\u0163i la moarte. Dac\u0103 eram c\u00e2te o mie \u2013 dou\u0103 \u00eentr-un loc…nu m\u00e2ncare, nu foc, nu…nimic…cum era s\u0103 mai tr\u0103im? A murit frate-miu \u015fi l-am m\u00e2ncat. De foame. Eram unul pe altul, dezbr\u0103ca\u0163i, fl\u0103m\u00e2nzi \u015fi pl\u00e2ngeam unul pe altul. Care murea…pe frati-miu l-am m\u00e2ncat…de foame m\u00e2ncam, nu se mai \u015ftia.\u201d (Maria Achim<\/i><\/b>)<\/p>\n \u201eEram mititic\u0103, eram cu mama, 10 ani am avut. \u015ei a luat c\u0103ma\u015fa de pe mine, m-a l\u0103sat \u00een pielea goal\u0103, \u00eentr-o fusti\u0163\u0103 rupt\u0103. \u015ei mi-a luat-o \u015fi s-au \u00eembr\u0103cat pe ele \u00een ea. A\u015fa f\u0103ceau rusoaicele. Dar erau miloase unele, ne d\u0103deau m\u00e2ncare, lapte mai mult.\u201d (Ileana Ardelean<\/i><\/b>)<\/p>\n Ileana Ardelean. Credit foto: Triba Film<\/p><\/div>\n Between the 12th and the 20th of September 1942, 13176 sedentary Roma were deported with 9 freight trains. The final destinations in Transnistria were reached in December: often (partially) evacuated villages, where 25-40 people were crammed in one house, with no beds, doors or windows. Imprisoned in the houses, without food or heating, most people died of hunger, typhos or shot while trying to escape.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201eNu f\u0103ceam nimic, c\u0103 nu aveam ce s\u0103 facem. Stam b\u0103ga\u0163i \u00een cas\u0103, c\u0103 dac\u0103 ie\u015feam afar\u0103 ne omorau ru\u015fii, ne \u00eempu\u015fcau.\u201d (Marcel Dumitru<\/i><\/b>)<\/p>\n \u201eEram mititic\u0103, eram cu mama, 10 ani am avut. \u015ei a luat c\u0103ma\u015fa de pe mine, m-a l\u0103sat \u00een pielea goal\u0103, \u00eentr-o fusti\u0163\u0103 rupt\u0103. \u015ei mi-a luat-o \u015fi s-au \u00eembr\u0103cat pe ele \u00een ea. A\u015fa f\u0103ceau rusoaicele. Dar erau miloase unele, ne d\u0103deau m\u00e2ncare, lapte mai mult.\u201d (Ileana Ardelean<\/i><\/b>)<\/p>\n \u201e\u015ei mama c\u00e2nd a murit, a murit uite a\u015fa [cu spatele sprijinit de perete]. \u015ei eu eram aici \u015fi sugeam \u0163\u00e2\u0163\u0103 de la ea \u015fi nu \u015ftiam c\u0103 mama e moart\u0103. \u015ei au luat-o, au b\u0103gat furca \u00een ea \u015fi s-au dus cu ea la groap\u0103. \u015ei bunicul, \u015fi mama, \u015fi unchiul, \u015fi sora…trei fra\u0163i am avut \u015fi to\u0163i au murit acolo.\u201d (Maria Manole<\/i><\/b>)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Many deportees died because of starvation, typhus or acts of violence from 1942 till 1944; their exact number is not known. From the 25.000 deported Roma around 14.000 survived and 11.000 died.[2]<\/a> In addition to facilitating their starvation and freezing to death, acts of direct cruelty and violence towards the Roma were common among the military and the police (jandarmi):<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201eTrei ani de zile nu puteam s\u0103 ie\u015fim din lag\u0103r. Eram \u00eenchi\u015fi. N-aveam cum s\u0103 ie\u015fim. Dac\u0103 noi plecam, ie\u015feam din lag\u0103r, ne b\u0103teau, ne omorau \u0103\u015ftia, jandarmii \u0103\u015ftia.\u201d (Mihai Bimbai<\/i><\/b>)<\/p>\n \u201eAcolo mai cuno\u015fteai c\u0103 e neam\u0163, c\u0103 e rom\u00e2n? Care venea, d\u0103dea \u00een noi, ne b\u0103tea, ne strica cu b\u0103taia \u015fi gata. Aia era omenia. […] Au fost mul\u0163i pe care jandarmii \u00eei puneau s\u0103 \u201eiubeasc\u0103\u201d pe maic\u0103-sa. […] n-a mai \u0163inut lege, n-a mai \u0163inut cinste, n-a mai \u0163inut putin\u0163\u0103 omeneasc\u0103 \u00een capul lor. \u0102\u015ftia [jandarmii] a\u015fa f\u0103ceau de r\u0103u cu noi.\u201d (Mihai Istrate<\/i><\/b>)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Moreover, the traces of Roman existence and deportation were being covered in mass graves and by burning the corpses, the concentration camps huts and houses:<\/p>\n \u201e\u00cei str\u00e2ngeau \u0163iganii \u015fi poli\u0163ia de diminea\u0163\u0103…mor\u0163i…de pe l\u00e2ng\u0103 bordeie, de pe l\u00e2ng\u0103 drumuri. \u015ei le f\u0103cea o groap\u0103 mare, mare, ad\u00e2nc\u0103 ca f\u00e2nt\u00e2na. \u015ei \u00eei arunca acolo ca pe c\u00e2ini, unul peste altul.\u201d (Margareta Adam<\/i><\/b>)<\/p>\n \u201earunca motorin\u0103, gaz, peste ei \u015fi da cu focul. Ardea. Ardea, f\u0103cea cenu\u015f\u0103. Cenu\u015f\u0103 le f\u0103cea.\u201d (Marcel Dumitru<\/i><\/b>)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In the last years the Romanian authorities have officially recognised Roma as victims of the Holocaust, especially after the International Commission on the Holocaust in Romania published a Final Report in 2004 and substantiated the Romanian responsibility on the crimes against Jews and Roma. But despite this fact, a lot of Roma survivors did not received compensation for their suffering and loss until know. The project \u201cHelping Roma Survivors of Deportations to Transnistria\u201d from the Community Resource Centre Association<\/i> and its partners tries to identify Roma survivors to inform and support them to get compensation and to establish a database of Roma survivor interviews for scientific and educational work. Petre Matei, project manager, mentioned in his talk at the workshop \u201cNationalism, fascism and the Holocaust in Romanian History \u2013 a critical approach\u201d the work of the project is also a \u201cway to understand more about the Holocaust in a scientific way (\u2026); to give some information to what happened then not using only the dry language provided by the authorities of the perpetrators but also to give the voice of the victims.\u201d <\/i><\/p>\n Based on the law 189\/2000, \u201cvictims of the oppressive regimes in Romania from 6 September 1940\u00a0 to 6 March 1945, victims on ethnic grounds\u201d are able to apply for reparation such as monthly alimony of 150-250 lei for each year of detention\/ deportation, medical assistance, free transportation, tax exemption for radio, TV and telephone, free resting place etc. There exists two ways to receive the compensation: the survivors have to prove that they were deported with archive documents or affidavit. The affidavit must come from other survivors in front of a notary.<\/p>\n For a lot of Roma survivors it is not easy to prove their status as deportees. Some of them do not know about this law, some are old and sick, and some illiterate, others live far away from the cities and archives. The project informs the survivors and offers assistance to get in contact with the archives. But the archive work and the discovery of the documents are facing a lot of problems. In his archive work, Petre Matei found that in 1942 the police didn\u2019t registered all the deportees but rather just the father\u2019s name and than only the number of family members; at the same time only the mother\u2019s name was mentioned in birth certificates of a lot of Roma survivors. Moreover, some archives lack organized inventories of significant documents such as those produced by the authorities when deporting the Roma; a reason for this could be the lack of interest of the authorities to make such sources accessible. In those cases, the project team tries to help the archives deal with the problems, in order to identify the needed documents. But as nowadays anti-Roma attitudes are anchored deep in the society, and thus among lawyers and civil servants, the work becomes even more difficult.<\/p>\n In the last months Petre Matei and his team interviewed more than 100 survivors, collected pictures and archive documents and worked on the creation of a database; the team hopes that the database will be used for research as well as educational projects to contribute to a better understanding of Roma and their history, and also to decrease intolerance towards Roma. The historian Petre Matei was the scientific advisor of the film \u201cValley of Sighs\u201d produced by Mihai Andrei Leaha, who also volunteers in the project \u201cHelping Roma Survivors of Deportations to Transnistria\u201d.<\/p>\n The directors Mihai Andrei Leaha, Andrei Crisan and Iulia Elena Hossu went to Transnistria and Ukraine for their documentary. In their multilayered film, they show interviews with survivors who were children at the time and also interviews with eye-witnesses from surrounding villages.<\/p>\n In the frame of the workshop \u201cNationalism, fascism and the Holocaust in Romanian History \u2013 a critical approach\u201d the movie was screened and the following interview with Mihai Andrei Leaha was taken.<\/p>\n Mihai, what was your motivation of doing this film?<\/b><\/p>\n Before speaking about my motivation, which came honestly on the way, I first have to say that I did not know about this subject. My generation was not taught about the Holocaust in school. Antonescu was like a national hero \u2013 who struggled for the national unity ideal. We had no clue about that ugly part of history. For me at first it was surprising and the motivation came with the wish to learn more about this subject. So, basically when the Institute for Studying the Problems of National Minorities (ISPMN)\u201c launched the program I was very happy that my colleague Iulia said, we should do a film about it. So we went to do fieldwork in the southern part of Romania in Dolj County and started to do interviews. And then we got really hooked into the issue. We wanted to explore more and to make a film that everybody in Romania should watch.<\/p>\n How did you get to the interview partners? Where did you find the survivors?<\/b><\/p>\n In some cases we just went to the city hall and the mayors got us the Roma representatives and then they took us to the persons who were old enough to have had that experience. So, not even themselves knew exactly who had been in Transnistria and who had not. In some cases we just stopped in the village, get off the car and asked where the Roma community is settled and then randomly asked people on the streets. They took us to the survivors and we went straight to their homes and introduced ourselves. There was one example, where we just went to a house of an old woman together with a Roma representative or a social worker and when we started putting the cameras and explained who we are the poor woman, who was alone and scared, said: \u201cI am not saying anything, because you might take me back to Transnistria.\u201d So in that moment we decided to leave and had to let it go. But in other cases people were really keen to tell their story.<\/p>\n Were there criteria according to which you choose the interview partner? What did you ask them?<\/b><\/p>\n The only criterion was to get people of the two different specific communities – the nomads and the sedentary people. The order of Antonescu was that all nomads had to be deported and from the sedentary only those who had a criminal record. But there were exceptions from that rule. Many were taken, also if they had a home and no criminal record, because the local authorities reinforced the order in order to take their Gold, for instance. The film is divided in these two groups, because the stories were quite similar in that context<\/p>\n In your documentary you work with three narrative layers: Interviews of survivors and eye-witnesses from surrounding villages; perpetrator sources such as reports and letters; the landscape – the places of the former camps which are shaped by nature. How did you develop this narrative? \u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n The idea of using plain landscapes in the film came while we were filming in the South. Because we knew that is really difficult to get archive material and we thought about what should we add to these wonderful interviews? First of all we wanted to give the voice to the survivors \u2013 a voice that was not very much shared in films. Our main concept was just to keep the voice, to make an interview film.<\/p>\n But then that leaves out the context, so how do you focus on the context? Then we said, we do not have to focus on that so much because this is not what it is the film about. The film is about personal narratives. So we decided to just briefly tackle on the context in the first written introduction in the beginning of the film. We said the historical context has been discussed in other films about the Holocaust which deal with the same issue. And we do not want to do that again, although it is necessary to know, but let\u2019s leave this part a bit ambiguous and let\u2019s just use the specific military orders. And that is how the second layer came up: we emphasised the historical context via this cold military voices and tried to interconnect them with the very humane interviews discourse.<\/p>\n The 3rd<\/sup> layer was the empty landscapes. First it was just that we wanted to have a break in all this interviews. The viewer will have the time to think about what he just heard and then your imagination can built up upon the memories of the people you heard \u2013 I think it was a good counterpoint in the whole discourse. Some of the people find these images beautiful. Some are \u2013 some are not that beautiful, you have like this broken and burned houses. But still it makes a nice image. It creates this uncomfortable feeling of dealing with a nice image and the bad stories. But there is another thing to it. For me it was very important when we decided to do this. We kind of wanted to go explicitly to those places where these people were killed and buried back then and in our days you just find nothing. It\u2019s like history has left no traces at all. And this is the problem in Romania these days; it is an un-assumed chapter of history. It is like history can go away and we do not learn anything from it and now everything is beautiful again. We were playing with this absence of the present and the presence of the absence. The image refers back to a moment of time, when you had the present person standing but that was back then, so this is why I think this poetics of the image of the present and the absence going both ways is really relevant.<\/p>\n In the film you cannot actually see the evil, you cannot see somebody who is guilty and it is kind of uncomfortable in the end to have nobody to blame. Did you intend this impression?<\/b><\/p>\n Yes we intended it to be like that. You know the voices of the guilty ones you cannot hear, but you see the orders, that specific part of these military reports that coordinated the whole tragedy. You can see the military thinking behind it. So we are not trying to say that Antonescu [alone] was guilty – we were trying to say that everybody was guilty and everybody knew about it. No one did anything to prevent these actions.<\/p>\n But, at the end the message we were trying to transmit through the film is a humanist message. We were not trying to stress about who is the guilty one and who is the victim. But how these people had solidarity with each other during WW II and then afterwards.<\/p>\n At the end of the film we showed a commemoration at a monument made by the local community in Krasnenkoe, Ukraine. And one main reason why we choose to end the film like this is that it becomes an example for the Romanians. We were in the position of doing all this crimes but we do not have any monuments about the Roma Holocaust\u2013 only one together with the Jewish Holocaust memorial [in Bucharest]. We need more memorials, let\u2019s put monuments in some villages for instances, let\u2019s put places of memory in many more parts just to remember this and let\u2019s then reconcile. Reconcile with everybody because that\u2019s the whole message of the film. It is not just pointing the finger to the guilty ones \u2013 let\u2019s do something for those who had to suffer this.<\/p>\n You are doing a new film at the moment. What is this film about?<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n The new project is called ,\u201d85 grams\u201d it is a film directed by Ion Gnatiuc and produced by me and Triba Film. It is a continuation of Valley of Sighs but this time a film about what happens today with the survivors of the Roma Holocaust.<\/p>\n It will be a film about the whole process of compensations. Petre Matei, our historical scientific advisor for the Valley of Sighs is working on a project made by the Center for Community Resources (CRC) in which he tries to help the victims of the Holocaust to get their monthly allowance. At a certain point in the project he called us and said you must be here with me, because it\u2019s terrible. He went with some survivors to a notary to legalize his statements, because there were no papers in the archive to proof that they were in Transnistria. And the notary was yelling: \u201cYou came with all these gypsies into my office, now everything will stink here\u201d and \u201cWhy should we help these bastards?\u201d and so on. And then we decided that we have to do a film about it, because this is not possible. So the film is about the very big gap – the official big discourse about the Holocaust on the one hand and what is really happening.<\/p>\n Is it a big discourse in Romania? <\/b><\/p>\n It is not. I was just referring to the big event in 2007, when president Basescu actually honoured all the victims of the Holocaust and admitted the Romanian Holocaust in the Romanian Parliament, so this is the highest part of this discourse you can get. But the fact is that the gap between official statements and the reality started at that point. Basically we will be exploring at one point the gap between this specific event and how all of this works \u2013 with the pensions and the institutional state that are kind of again not working very well. You have this racist notary and the society still is very racist in many ways. There are still many more stories to say about this project.<\/p>\n The film is free for screening in no commercial use. If you are interested to see or screen the film please contact: http:\/\/www.ispmn.gov.ro\/contact<\/a> or contact@triba.ro<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n![\"Ileana](\"https:\/\/artapolitica.ro\/gazetapolitica\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Ileana-Ardelean-1024x764.png\")
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