Approximately 20,000 people visited the “Train of Pain” exhibition mounted in the Great National Assembly Square in Chisinau in July. The second edition of the exhibition marked 75 years since the largest Stalinist deportations, IPN reports.

The exhibition consisted of two wagons in which visitors could see objects, photographs and books illustrating the experience of deported people, but also could access, for the first time, digital content.

The exhibition presented the testimonies of 27 deportees, the animations “Țigănești - Kurgan – Țigănești”, “Story of Vasile Vieru” and “The Nameless Cat” by Ghenadie Popescu, and the audio books “Stalin stole my childhood” by Boris Vasiliev, and “Children in the handcuffs of Siberia” by Spiridon Vangheli, read by Andrei Sochircă. Also, there were two outdoor screenings of the film “Siberia made of bones”, directed by Leontina Vatamanu.

The visitors were helped by guides to better understand the horrors that the deportees went through.

About 36,000 people or over 11,000 families suffered as a result of the Stalinist deportations of July 6-9, 1949.