The MPs observed a moment of silence in memory of the victims of Stalinist deportations given that July 6 marks the 75th anniversary of the second wave of deportations – the largest wave of Stalinist deportations organized in Bessarabia in 1949, IPN reports.
“In total, over 11,000 families, which is around 36,000 people, were dispossessed of their homes and taken in cattle wagons thousands of kilometers away in inhumane conditions that are difficult to imagine. I invite you on Saturday, July 6, at 8:00 a.m., to come to the Monument to Deportees in the Railway Station Alley, and at 9:00 a.m., in the Great National Assembly Square, where, as last year, two wagons similar to those by which the deportees were transported in 1949 will be placed,” said Parliament Speaker Igor Grosu.
In the two wagons, there will be exhibited objects used by victims of deportations, photographs, life stories and set up a library with 60 books. Each visitor will be able to find their deported relatives and the guides will give them recommendations to find their files. The exhibition in the Great National Assembly Square will be open until July 31.
“Let’s honor their memory and their names, know our past and do everything in our power so that our nation is never be subject to such terror again,” stated the head of the legislature.
MP Valentina Ghețu told the story of her family, which is multiethnic – her father is German and her mother is Moldovan. On July 6, 1949, at 2:00 a.m., her grandparents, along with her mother, were woken up by soldiers to be put on the train and deported as enemies of the people. Along with other relatives and neighbors, her grandparents were embarked on cattle wagons at the Donduseni station, 60-80 people in a wagon. They travelled for a month, being transported to the Chita region in Russia. There, her mother met her father of German origin, who had been deported from the Soviet Union. Together with three other brothers and sisters they were born in Siberia, and one of the sisters did not survive.
“A lifetime is not enough for me to tell about the hardships, sufferings, torments I and my brothers, parents, grandparents, relatives, neighbors and our entire nation went through... I want to ask a few questions: Would any of you want to be deported by cattle wagons in the heat, without water and food? Would anyone want to go where no one is waiting for them? Would anyone want to endure the cold of -30..-50 degrees Celsius when cutting down trees while hungry and naked? Would anyone want to be stigmatized as a fascist or a kulak?,” asked Valentina Ghețu.
In total, there were three waves of mass deportations from Moldova: in June 1941, July 1949, and April 1951.
