Blondina Gobjilă (en)

27th June 1940. A beautiful, serene, peaceful, joyful day came to an end. 5 o’clock in the evening. I was staying with my 13-year-old son with my relatives, my husband’s brother, a priest, in a village 25 km from the town where we lived and where we were spending our holidays. We turned on the radio as usual to listen to the news, but we were terrified. We heard the trembling voice of King Charles: “Dear Bessarabians, a great calamity has struck our country. The Russians are demanding the surrender of Bessarabia. We have no power to resist them. I […]

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A few days later, my husband went to Chișinău to see what was left, because trains of repatriates were leaving from there. I, who was at home, started to pack things into bales. My husband returned from Chișinău a week later, happy that two trains of repatriates had left for Romania. On 15 January we were called to the militia to get our Soviet identity cards. We both went. I, being the braver one, said to them: “Why should we bother with Soviet citizenship if we are going to Romania legally with Romanian citizenship?” Then the militiaman just gave her […]

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After they had taken us down one by one, all the women who had been brought from the station, those who had been brought forward, sat down without the right to move, surrounded by dogs and guards. They ordered us to get up and stand straight and still. A few dozen men, probably convicts, came into the yard and, on the orders of the Security Service officers, we stripped completely naked and took off our clothes. These men took our clothes, our dresses and underwear, because that’s all we had on and with us. They took our clothes to the […]

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The next morning at 5 o’clock I reported to my post. I was greeted with brotherly love by the staff, who were all prisoners who had experienced the same hardships as me. The doctor came in and told me that my job was to wash the doctors’ coats. Of course, this situation was a blessing compared to the other colleagues who came with me. Those who were in the death barracks lay there without anyone coming to give them anything, I don’t say food, because they couldn’t eat, but at least a glass of water. They stayed there until they […]

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The 21st of June was a beautiful day. It was sunny in the morning and the earth shook in the night. We prepared to leave. It was 9 a.m., my boy was harnessing the horses to the carriage, my sister-in-law was tidying up and I was closing the door. As I was about to get into the carriage, the security woman came and gave me a note signed by the head of the Security Service, DARDOR, which said: “Dear comrade, please come to the Security Service office after lunch at 4 o’clock to receive reports about your husband and grandson”. […]

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