During 1942, over 25,000 Roma were deported to Transnistria by the Romanian authorities due to the racial policy of the Antonescu regime. More than 11,000 Roma lost their lives in Transnistria.
In April 1943, Mihalcea Florea, a Roma from Pitesti, a soldier in the 4th Dorobanti Regiment Pitesti, addressed a petition to the authorities complaining that his family had been deported to Transnistria even though it was well integrated, with properties, trades, and no criminal record. His father was disabled in the First World War.
"My father, Mihalcea Ilie, owns two houses built from his work and earnings - he being a bassist musician, he worked all his life to earn and build a shelter for his family. Besides, he was retired as a disabled man from the war of 1916. And throughout his life, he was a fair and exemplary honorable man. Today he is deported to Transnistria without any guilt, together with my mother, Rada Ilie Mihalcea, and three other children, the eldest of whom was in the 1944 Contingent, as well as an 18-year-old daughter."
This is just one of many cases of abusive deportations to which Roma have fallen victim.