When they took us to Baragan, the people in the cattle cars knocked out a hole in the floor
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František Nedvěd (Francisc Nedvet) was born on 3 October 1948 in the miner’s colony of Nové Doly (Baia Nouă) in Romania. His father was called Dominik Nedvěd and during the second world war, when Romania signed the Tripartite Pact, he and several other local boys were recruited into the ranks of the German Army. In June of 1951, the Communist Party deported the Nedvěd family from Eibenthal to the region of Baragan, where the authorities dropped them off in inhospitable plains. The family was later allowed to leave to work in the mining town of Comănești, from where they were only allowed to return home after 1955. Meanwhile, all their property was stolen. After 1958, his parents bought a house in Orșova, except they lost their farm, because between 1966–1976 the entire historical town had to make way for the construction of the Iron Gates reservoir. Neither one of them lived to see the fall of the Communist regime in Romania. The witness learned a trade in Orșova, where he later worked in the shipyard and entered the Communist Party. After 1990, he was financially compensated for his deportation to Baragan and is also a member of the organisation that brings together deportation victims. He worked in North Bohemia for a few years in the 1990s. He currently resides permanently in Orșova (September 2022).
