The victims of the first wave of Stalinist deportations on the night of June 13, 1941 were commemorated by members and sympathizers of the Liberal Party, who laid flowers at the Pain Train monument in the square of the Railway Terminal in Chisinau, IPN reports.

The party’s first deputy chairman Dorin Chirtoaca said June 13 is a day of remembrance, consciousness and dignity. June 13, 1941 was a black day, a day of suffering, pain and separation from the family. “The trace of a lot of deported people was lost. Nothing is known about them,” he stated.

According to the ex-mayor of Chisinau, the deportees are now wronged as the central authorities delay the process of giving them the same rights as those from which the war veterans benefit. “The war veterans and deportees went through the same sufferings and should thus enjoy equal rights,” noted Dorin Chirtoaca.

More than 22,000 persons were deported on the night of June 13, 1941. There were three mass deportation waves: in June 1941, July 1949 and April 1951. The deportees numbered about 58,000.