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After the signing of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact in 1939, the USSR occupied Bessarabia, northern Bukovina and Herta Land in 1940. Many Bukovina Romanians were arrested, killed, and deported, churches began to be closed, so many families began to cross the new border and come to Romania.
One such group was made of the thousands massacred at Fântâna Albă on April 1, 1941.
At the time, about (3,000) Romanians from Bukovinan villages along the Siret Valley left for Romania: from Pătrăuții de Sus, Pătrăuții de Jos, Igești, Crasna, Ciudei, Budineț, Cireșul, Crăsnișoara Veche, Crăsnișoara Nouă, Bănila Moldovenească, Dăvideni, Carapciu, Cupca, Trestiana, Suceveni, Iordănești. They had decided that they would rather die than live in the Soviet Union.
Those at the head of the group carried three crosses, icons and white flags, showing that they meant no harm, but wanted freedom. They told the Soviet authorities that they wanted to leave without taking anything with them, leaving all their possessions behind. When they reached the border they were met with machine-gun fire.
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