Our project aims at re-introducing the topic of deportation into public space debates. It aims to to slow down the movement of oblivion through a documentary, a book, an internet site, a conference and many debats dedicated to deportation. Our project addresses the problem of the communist deportation, a “second Gulag” as Nicolas Werth called it, through witness memories. We envisage revealing the dark side of that repressive enterprise that deprived human beings of satisfying their basic needs. Furthermore, our project aimed at lending a voice to the silent people, victims of communist Manichean perspective of the world. It is concerned with the individual responses to the official politics and policies of remembrance.
Our project has the following components:
- The documentary, Baragan Stories: Memories from the Romanian Siberia. In one single day, or rather night, on the 18/19th of June 1951, 44 000 people were deported into what are the today counties of Braila, Calarasi and Ialomita, in the south-east of Romania. Among them there were numerous children, women, and elderly, sick persons. During the 5 years of deportation, hundreds of these deportees lost their lives. All of them lost their sense of belonging, becoming second class citizens: aliens to their native homes, foreign visitors to their new neighbours. The communist regime labelled all these persons as “enemies of people”. Actually, these “enemies” were rightful citizens of Romania, who lived near the border of Yugoslavia: Serbs, Bulgarians, Jews, Germans, Bassarabians, Megleno-Romanians and Vlachos. Deportation had not only a political component, but also a clear ethnic aspect, as the Serbians, the Bessarabians and the Aromanians are mentioned as distinctive groups among deportees. Victims of communist regime repressive politics, the former deportees perish one by one, taking with them the heavy burden of their memories.
- Memorialuldeportarii.ro, a site to gather informations about deportations, interviews with witnesses, pictures of that period, articles, debates, etc.
- A book of memoirs and analysis of deportation phenomenon.
- Debates and a conference on deportation.