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In 1940, Lunca, Cernăuți County, and the rest of Northern Bucovina were seized from Romania by the Soviet Union. Northern Bucovina became part of the Ukrainian SSR, and this later became modern-day Ukraine. Photo caption: "On Sunday, February 5, 2023, in the (community) of Mahala in the Cernăuți region, (there was) a memorial service for Romanians killed by the Soviet border guards ... on the night of February 6 to 7, 1941." "The (ceremony) was officiated by Father Nicolae Moroz."
[2] On the night of February 6 to 7, 1941, in the town of Lunca in Herţa County, hundreds of peasants were killed by Soviet border guards together with their children. They were headed for Romania on the frozen Prut River. They were from the following villages: Mahala, Boian, Ostriţa Hertte, Horecea Monastery, Horecea Urbană, Plaiul Cosmunului, Ceahor and Corovia. The dead "were thrown into several common pits, of which only one was discovered. The peasants had made the decision to leave the territories occupied by the Russians (not only) because of their terror, but also the fact that they had relatives on the other side of the border, in the Kingdom of Romania."
"Of the approximately 600 Romanians on whom the Soviets' weapons were directed, only 57 survived who finally managed to (cross) the new border imposed by Moscow and (report) the tragedy. Another 44 fugitives were caught by the Soviet troops, and 23 of them were sentenced to death, the others being sentenced to various prison sentences and sent to Siberia."
Notes:
- [1] The original news story was written entirely in Romanian. I processed the article with Google Translate so as to produce an English version of the article.
- [2] In the first part of this paragraph, I have quoted / paraphrased the English version of the article text, so that it is easier to read for English-speakers. To the same end, I have made inserted words or made word substitutions in various quotations throughout the post.
- [3] All of the quotations were taken from the English version of the news article.
Full story (in Romanian) at BucPress
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