Memories of the black period of the Stalinist deportations of June 13, 1941 brought together dozens of people at the Train of Pain Monument in the Square of the Chisinau Railway Terminal. Those who came to celebrate the 78th anniversary of the mass deportations laid flowers and related recollections, IPN reports.
Attending the event, president of the National Association of War Veterans of the Romanian Army Mihai Postovan told about the sufferings experienced by him and his family during the Stalinist deportations. “My father rushed to help when our neighbors told us that my elder brother was being deported. He took the child in his arms and tried to help him, but this didn’t want to get onto the train car. He was crying and there were many cries in the station in Drochia. Meanwhile, a Russian soldier hit my father on his back with the gun, took the child and threw him into the car,” stated Mihai Postovan.
The man also said that his father, after four years of service in the Romanian Army, also endured five years in concentration camps in Siberia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
Vera Vieru related that her husband was deported in July 1949 together with his mother-in-law, who died in Irkutsk Region near Lake Baikal. Vera Vârlan is also a successor of deportees. “My grandparents were deported on June 13, 1941 together with their two children. My godfather was eliminated, while my grandmother and the children were taken to Kazakhstan. One of the two children is my farther. I was born there,” stated Vera Vârlan.
The event also involved representatives of the Liberal Party. The party’s leader Dorin Chirtoacă said that in this black period of Bessarabia’s history they commemorate also the occupation of June 28, 1940 and the second wave of deportations of July 1949. “Almost 80 years have passed since we started to look for dignity, freedom and prosperity,” stated the politician.
More than 22,000 people were deported on the night of June 13, 1941. There were three waves of deportations in Moldova - in June 1941, in July 1949 and in April 1951 - and about 58,000 people were deported in all.
