Story 3: Rade and Maria

Rade and his wife Maria were interviewed and screened as they were accused of carrying out ant repatriation activity in the camp. 

Rade, born in Leningrad, claimed he was Rumanian by nationality.  He was mobilized in the Soviet Army in May 1941. At the end of 1942 he deserted and joined partisans. In August 45 he was arrested by the Soviet Military Authorities and sentence to death for his activity during the war. He escaped and succeeded in finding his way to Italy. He was referred to Cinecittà by Cremona Camp. He was deemed not eligible for UNRRA assistance because he was ex Allied Military, ex POW. Furthermore, he was suspected of being war criminal.

Maria P. I., Rade’s wife, was a stateless person of Russian antecedency, originally from Bulgaria. She left Bulgaria for France in 1924. She claimed that during the war she was arrested and deported to Dachau and then Auschwitz (the interviewer noted that there was no camp tattoo on her body). At the end of 1944 she escaped to Italy where she was detailed by the Germans at Udine. When liberated in May 1945 she came to a displaced persons office and was referred to the Cinecittà camp. She gave birth to a baby boy in 1946, she named him Carlo Valentino. 

She was deemed ineligible for UNRRA assistance because, as a stateless person, she cannot show any evidence of being deported by the enemy “because of race, religion or activity in favour of the UN”. The authorities decided to remove her from the camp. 

Based on the interview on the eligibility in Via Toscana Field DP Office by Welfare Services, United Nations Archives