The deportation of the Romanian Roma was the result of a series of decisions taken by the Romanian government authorities in the spring of 1942. Guidelines were drawn up on the basis of which the administration was to carry out the deportations to Transnistria. The procedure, which involved categorising the Roma intended for deportation, was first implemented in connection with the classified census carried out on 25 May 1942.
Categories
On 1 May 1942, the Military Cabinet of the Presidency of the Council asked the Ministry of the Interior to draw up a plan for the implementation of the deportation of ‘țiganii nomazi‘ [‘nomadic Gypsies‘]. On 17 May, the Cabinet of the Ministry of the Interior ordered the General Inspectorate of the Gendarmerie to undertake a detailed census of the ‘Gypsy’ population, applying two categories: (1) ‘țiganii nomazi’, (2) ‘țiganii stabili’ [‘settled Gypsies’], specifically those who in the terms of the order were ‘non-migratory’ and who had no means of subsistence or permanent employment or were considered a threat to public order. It was emphasised that all family members were to be registered.1Letter No. 33.911 of 21 May 1942 from the Ministry of Internal Affairs Cabinet to the General Inspectorate of the Gendarmerie. Arhivele Naționale Istorice Centrale [Central National Historical Archives of Romania] (ANIC), fond Inspectoratul Regional de Jandarmi [Regional Inspectorate of the Gendarmerie] (IRJ), dosar 258, 6–6v, published in: Viorel, Documente privind deportarea ţiganilor în Transnistria, Vol. I, 5 f.
The authorities responsible for the deportations to Transnistria used these two categories in June and September 1942 to select the people to be deported and to plan the implementation in terms of time and space. In the later stage of the registration process, the term ‘țiganii nenomazi’ [‘non-nomadic Gypsies’] replaced ‘țiganii stabili’.
Furthermore, the order of 17 May stipulated that the police authorities had to draw up tables of names in duplicate according to the two categories. The tables were to include the following information: sălaș [travelling group], surname and first name (implying the name and first name of the head of the family), men / women / children, animals, wagons, occupations. The count originally planned for 31 May was brought forward to 25 May.2Letter No. 1020 of 21 May 1942 from Cabinet of the Undersecretary of State of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to the Directorate General of Police, ANIC, Direcţia Generală a Poliţiei [Directorate General of Police] (DGP), dosar 187/1942, f. 10, published in Ibid., 8 f.
Implementation
Considerable police resources were mobilised for the census. In Băcau, for example, the municipal police put together 27 teams of two or three officers each, who carried out the census simultaneously in the various districts during the day on 25 May. Following the census, the Roma registered as ‘țiganii nomazi’ were kept under police supervision and on 1 June they were deported on foot towards Transnistria.
The results of the census were compiled by the General Inspectorate of the Gendarmerie. A total of 8,905 people were recorded in the first category of ‘nomads’ and 31,438 people in the second category of ‘non-nomads’. The census lists were not forwarded to the central administration and only a few have survived in the archives. The lists of names of the Roma categorised as ‘non-nomadic’ were used by the gendarmerie regions in July 1942 to select the people who were to be deported in September 1942.
The Problem of Ethnicity
The records do not explicitly show how the administration understood the ethnicity of the people who were registered and then deported. The ethnicity ‘țigan’ was regarded by the administration as a given and self-explanatory. It was therefore not defined, explained or even questioned in any document, even though no official information on ethnicity or ‘race’ existed for the persons concerned, for example in the civil status registers.
The notion of a ‘țigan’ ethnicity was already the subject of scholarly debate at the time of the census. For example, in an article published in 1943,3Chelcea, Les “Rudari” de Muscel. Ion Chelcea (1902–1991) outlined the academic controversy over whether Rudari belonged to the ‘țigan’ ethnic group and argued that they should not be considered ‘Gypsies’. However, this did not prevent the deportation of people who had been identified as Rudari during the registration process.
The Romanian administration also did not carry out any form of racial assessment to select the people to be deported, as was the case in Germany, for example. Rather, the local authorities were given wide discretionary powers to place those they considered undesirable on the gendarmerie lists. In numerous cases, deportees protested their categorisation as ‘tigan’ and emphasised in their petitions that they were Romanians.
Categorisation as ‘Nomad’
The second operational basis for the deportations was the categorisation as ‘nomad’ or ‘non-nomad’. How were the ‘țiganii nomazi’, to whom the orders issued by the central administration referred, defined? It seems that the alternative criteria of not owning a home or land,4United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM), RG 25.050M, Reel 16, 117, Telegram of 28 June 1942 from the Commander of the Arges Gendarmerie Legion to the Sibiu Gendarmerie Legion. or not having a permanent residence were determining factors for most municipalities and gendarmerie legions. As the arrest of individuals took place within a few days of their selection, however, their property status was not formally investigated. Thus, some deportees were able to prove that they were property owners even though they had been on the deportation route for several weeks.5Ibid., RG-25.050M, Reel 56, f. 421, Letter of 12 August 1942 from Constantin G. Manea Caldarar to Marechal Antonescu.
In addition, the Ministry of the Interior’s order of 17 May clarified the term ‘țiganii nomazi’ with a note in parentheses that listed ‘Caldarari, Lingurari…’ as examples. These ethnic-occupational classifications caused confusion in the local administrations in cases where those categories clashed with the criterion of permanent residence. For example, when drawing up the lists in July and September 1942 to prepare for the deportation of ‘non-nomads’, the Vâlcea gendarmerie region envisaged the inclusion of ‘nomazi [Rudari]’ or ‘nomazi of cat. II [stabilii]’,6Ibid., f. 286–87, Tabel Nominal of Rudari Gypsies (nomads) not mobilised or mobilisable within the radius of the Rezoiu post [before 29 July 1942]. which was clearly a confusion of labels as thought by national authorities. Conversely, the same gendarmerie expressed doubts about the inclusion of a boilermaker [Caldarar] who owned a farm with orchards.7Ibid., f. 421, Letter of 12 August 1942 from Constantin G. Manea Caldarar to Marechal Antonescu.
The question of the definition of the category ‘țiganii nomazi’ was ultimately also addressed in a circular dated 16 September 1942, which called for the registration of ‘țiganii’ who lived in huts [bordei] or in conditions of ‘unacceptable overcrowding’ and were described as ‘semi-nomads’, so that they could be deported as well.8Ibid., RG-25.004M, reel 66, Circular Order No. 41.703 of 16 September 1942 of the General Inspectorate of the Gendarmerie; Arhiva Serviciului Român de Informații [Archive of the Romanian Intelligence Service] (ASRI), FD, dosar 18844, vol. 4, f. 172, published in Achim, Documente privind deportarea ţiganilor în Transnistria, vol. I, 210. The circular states that these people had not been included in the two categories used hitherto. The new categorisation now made it possible to deport people who had a permanent residence but were not property owners. This shows that the gendarmerie’s yardstick for determining who was considered a ‘țiganii nomazi’ and who was not was essentially based on whether someone owned property.
The Deportations
The deportation of the Roma categorised as ‘nomazi’ began immediately after the secret census. From 25 May to 1 June, the individuals concerned were kept under police supervision; thereafter, the various groups were deported on foot and with their carts. The secret census recorded 8,905 individuals; ultimately, however, 11,441 people were deported under this classification.9ANIC, fond Inspectoratul General al Jandarmeriei [General Inspectorate of the Gendarmerie] (IGJ), file 126/1942, f. 204–05, Report No. 43.074 of 9 October 1942 from the General Inspectorate of the Gendarmerie to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Office of the Undersecretary of State, published in Ibid., 268–71. The groups were led eastwards from gendarmerie post to gendarmerie post. The last of them arrived in Transnistria on 15 August 1942. These Roma were taken to camps in Golta county, where they remained until February–March 1944.
The deportation of the 31,438 ‘țiganii stabili’ enumerated did not take place immediately after the census. On 22 July 1942, Ion Antonescu (1882–1946) ordered their deportation. The national authorities ordered the gendarmerie and the police to carry out nominal registrations. After several back and forth between the national authorities and the local police and gendarmeries, the deportation lists were drawn up during the month of August. They totalled 12,947 people. The deportation took place by Special Trains from 12 to 20 September 1942. Around 14,000 people were sent to the camps and ghettos of the county of Oceacov before being distributed to the counties of Oceacov and Berezovca, where they likewise remained until February–March 1944.
Conclusion
The terms used in the deportation instructions of May 1942—such as ‘țigani’, ‘nomazi’, ‘stabili’, ‘Caldarari’, and ‘Lingurari’—constituted ascriptive labels that changed over time and according to perspective. Even from the viewpoint of the contemporary actors themselves, these terms were imprecise, as is demonstrated by an analysis of how the administrations implemented the orders. It is precisely this lack of precision that left the local authorities and the gendarmerie a great deal of leeway in the local implementation of the orders, as shown by Petre Matei (born 1978).10Matei, “Roma Deportations”.
The secret census of 25 May 1942 was the first systematic Romanian census conducted with a view to the deportation of Roma. The central authorities allowed the local administrations a degree of discretion regarding the form of the documents to be used and provided only cursory feedback. In the subsequent surveys carried out in July and August 1942 in preparation for the deportation of Roma categorised as ‘țiganii nenomazi’, however, the central authorities supplied templates for the tables and required the local administrations to submit the lists fully completed.
Ultimately, the secret census of 25 May 1942 led to two different procedures of persecution. The arrest of the ‘țiganii nomazi’ took place during the census itself; the registration therefore had immediate operational consequences and almost all 9,471 people registered under this status were deported. For the 31,438 people who were recorded in the category ‘țiganii nenomazi’, however, it initially only marked the beginning of a selection process that was carried out between local and national authorities and led to the creation of lists of over 12,947 people to be arrested by the end of August 1942. Not all of those listed were later deported, while others who had not been registered in May 1942 ultimately became victims of the deportations.
