Thousands of Bessarabians were deported on June 13, 1941

The Chisinau City Hall will organize activities to commemorate the victims of the first deportation wave of June 13, 1941. The Culture Division head Lucia Culev said the celebration of the 69th anniversary of the first deportation wave will start with a service and a meeting in the Great National Assembly Square. A march will follow to the Railway Terminal, from where thousands of people were taken to a life of suffering, Info-Prim Neo reports. Not even today can the historians say exactly how many people were deported that night. According to plans, 6,250 people were to be arrested, while 26,173 were to be deported. Teodora Severin from Straseni was 15 in the summer of 1941. She remembers how she hid in the ravine together with her family. From there, they heard how several armed military men and a security officer knocked on the windows of the houses of the most industrious persons and ordered that they be ready to depart in a quarter. Dogs were barking and people were crying. None of the residents of Straseni taken away that night returned home and their families do not know what happened to them, Teodora Severin said. Those persons were taken to railway stations by trucks and carts. There, the men were separated from the women with children and the elderly persons. The freight trains going to Siberia had by 70-100 persons in a car who had no water and food. The trains had the following inscriptions on them: “Romanian workers who ran away from the Romanian landowners and came to live in the Soviet heaven. Meet them with flowers!” and “Voluntary workers”.