1. Migrant Deaths Along Romanian Border During Communism And The STASI's Hand In Them Authors: Marina Constantinoiu and Istvan Deak Media campaign in Romania, at

2. Now we take our ID cards, a GPS, we book a room at booking
Now we take our ID cards, a GPS, we book a room at booking.com and we’re abroad, for a vacation.

3. Only 28 years ago things were completely different for a large part of Europe, in the Communist countries and also a part of Gemany: German Democratic Republic (GDR).

4. The Communist dictatorship lead to a large and dangerous movement of population from East to West, which involved thousands of migrants and several countries.
Romanian borders became an attraction point for both Romanians and foreign citizens from Communist countries.
They were all trying to illegally cross the Romanian borders, in order to reach Yugoslavia, from where to go to Western countries, where to live in freedom.

5. Ten years ago, a three-months long media campaign about the topic was published by Jurnalul National daily

6. But Romania suddenly became the bloodiest border of Europe during Communism.

8. A new media campaign about the killings at the border and about the silent migration from East to West is presented now to the Romanian public, thanks to a Robert Bosch program, “Reporters in the field” at miscareaderezistenta.ro news multimedia website.

9. Daily life in communist Romania
An acute exacerbation of the problems that the Communist regime bought to our country: drop in the standard of living, restraint of civic liberties, international isolation of the country, everyday abuses, permanent surveillance of the population by the secret service called Securitate.

11. Freedom, to Romanians, meant only defecting to the West.
by crossing the Danube River,
by crossing the land border,
hidden in trains cars or ships,
by crossing the seas.

13. Age had nothing to do with this need for freedom
Age had nothing to do with this need for freedom. This may explain why many of the border jumpers were minors.
More than Romanians crossed the borders illegally between 1969 and We call them FRONTIERISTII, the “border jumpers”. The phenomenon started in 1948.

14. The Danube River was in the same time an opportunity and a cemetery for many of the border jumpers. Many succeeded to cross, but also many lost their lives in the Danube. And some of them, probably hundreds, were killed by the Romanian border guards.

15. Their number and fate is still unknown and this is the main aim of our media campaign, which brings for the first time to the Romanian public documents about the crimes committed at the borders.

16. The number and fate of those killed is still unknown and this is the main aim of our media campaign.
We have Romanians buried in the Serbian cemeteries and we have to bring them at home

18. Our media campaign at miscareaderezistenta
Our media campaign at miscareaderezistenta.ro brings for the first time to the Romanian public exclusive documents about the crimes committed at our borders

19. Documents from the ex-East German secret service, STASI

20. Romanian Securitate files regarding the situation at the border

21. The communist regime called the refugees something like dirty persons and traitors.
This attitude was typical for the communist leadership, not only in Romania, but in other countries like East Germany and Bulgaria as well.

24. After crossing the borders, some other steps were waiting for the border jumpers in Yugoslavia: prison in Pozarevac, Kladovo or Negotin between 10 and 30 days, decision to return them to the Romanian authorities or to send them to Padinska Skela, a selection camp supervised by the United Nations.

26. 800 Germans came to Romania and tried to cross the border, but only 250 succeeded to cross it, the others were arrested and some were killed or lost their lives in the Danube River or on the land border.

27. Padinska Skela, in Yugoslavia, Trieste and Latina in Italy, camps in Debrecen and Bicske in Hungary and Traiskirchen in Austria were the hotspots of this refugee phenomenon between 69 and 89. Thousands of people were in those camps, waiting to be accepted by the Western countries where they wanted to go and live.

29. Still some of the Army’s archives are secret, which makes our work more difficult.
We have got a very slow access to the Securitate’s files, which are less organized and documented than STASIs.
Even today many people are scared to speak about this topic, especially those border jumpers who used some human smugglers in order to help them cross the border.

30. Only two monuments were erected in Romania, reminding about the border-jumpers
One, in a village, tells the public about a cemetery where many of those who died were buried.

31. The other is a statue in Orșova city, at the border, called DANUBIA, dedicated to those who dared to cross the Danube river

32. This is not the end.
This research has to continue, in the name of the victims and their relatives.
The cross-border nature of the investigation and the financial support for it are crucial.
We thank you for your attention. Marina Constantinoiu and Istvan Deak - authors, Bogdan Constantinoiu - photographer