{"id":1214,"date":"2023-02-23T16:57:44","date_gmt":"2023-02-23T14:57:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.povestiromantice.ro\/?p=1214"},"modified":"2023-02-23T17:04:45","modified_gmt":"2023-02-23T15:04:45","slug":"targu-neamt-inceputurile-cartierului-tabacari-humulesti-si-familia-copot-partea-a-2-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.povestiromantice.ro\/en\/targu-neamt-inceputurile-cartierului-tabacari-humulesti-si-familia-copot-partea-a-2-a\/","title":{"rendered":"T\u00e2rgu Neamt-the beginnings of the T\u0103b\u0103cari-Humulesti neighborhood and the Copo\u021b family-part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

Epis.43-T\u00e2rgu Neamt-the beginnings of the T\u0103b\u0103cari-Humulesti neighborhood and the Copo\u021b family-part 2. <\/strong><\/p>\n

If in the first part of this episode I presented general data about the gypsies in the Tg.Neamt area, in this 2nd part I continue with the presentation of a family representative of our city. It is possible that some of those who will read these episodes about the gypsies will have resentment towards them. I ask you to read the information in the text carefully, patiently and with interest. My approach aims to get to know a family that created an entire neighborhood in our city.<\/p>\n

I want you to understand that my approach to writing about the Copo\u021b family is part of the line of knowledge, rapprochement and respect between all the inhabitants of T\u00e2rgul. Just as the city is and was inhabited by various ethnic groups, the gypsies must also be presented and treated with respect. I assure you that the education of each of us is also manifested in the way we manage to understand them, even if their way of life is still unpleasant to many. Slowly, slowly they are also becoming an ethnic group that will give value to our city. I will use the names gypsies and \u021batra to respect the traditional terms. Between the two wars, nomadic gypsies came to the city area, settling in the extra-urban space from V\u00e2natori, the Cetate park area or Islaz-P\u00e2raul Ursului.<\/p>\n

The first tent that settled in T\u00e2rgu Neamt, giving up nomadism, was that of Demeter Kopotz. Who was Demeter Kopotz who came to be known in the city as Dumitru Copot? He was born in 1899 in the Austro-Hungarian Harghita County. He was the son of some Caldarari gypsies of Hungarian origin, the son of Janos and Mariva. He spent his entire childhood and youth in nomadism, often crossing the border into the Kingdom of Romania. He married Anica, a gypsy from Onesti, where his family had to pass, when he was young, and together they had 7 children. Dumitru Copot's children were Milos, the eldest, whom he would have liked to designate as the future buliba\u015f, Sofia, Rupunka, Racovina (3 girls) and Birau, Dumitru and Ghi\u021ba. I don't think there is a T\u00e2rgu Neamt resident who hasn't heard of at least some of them. them, even if he did not know details about the members of this large family. In 1942, Dumitru's camp was captured by the Romanian army while stationed on the outskirts of T\u00e2rgul towards V\u00e2n\u0103tori.<\/p>\n

They were lined up without carts, without tents, without gold, without tools... without anything and taken to the Transnistrian Bug. The fascist regime already believed itself victorious in Russia, and the gypsies evacuated from Romania would have populated the Russian desert areas, of course after exterminating a large part of them. Dumitru, together with his first 4 children, with some grandchildren he had in the camp, was deported. Until 1945, they suffered in Transnistria, went hungry and suffered from diseases. Due to hunger, the gypsy camps ate meat taken from the bodies of young gypsies who died in the collective farms transformed into camps. After 1945, he managed to return to Romania, being helped by the locomotive engineer Grumazescu from Tg. Neamt. He worked at CFR Pa\u0219cani and helped Dumitru reach Mara\u0219esti.<\/p>\n

Here the Red Cross helped him to survive, taking him to work for a family of Romanian boyars. Another gypsy family, the Kalo\u0219 family, determined him to return to T\u00e2rgu Neamt and continue his life. It was said at that time that the gypsies "went to the Bug like crows (meaning in large groups like flocks of crows) \/ and came like sparrows (meaning scattered ... few and one at a time). Arriving in T\u00e2rgu Neamt, Dumitru began to rebuild his savings for his camp. He made a cart, a tent, and bought some tools to be able to work as a blacksmith. Slowly he regained a minimum of material wealth. From what the descendants of the Sorea shepherd family said, Dumitru Copot had managed to hide some gold in their animal stable, which he had after the war.<\/p>\n

Dumitru Copot's relations with the shepherds of T\u00e2rgul were solid, especially since it is known that the family of the baciu Vasile Sorea was a major buyer and donor of gold to the churches in the area. After 1947-1948, the cart continued to circulate through the T\u00e2rgul area, having the appreciation of the shepherds and millers for whom he worked. Dumitru received money in advance in the fall, and in the spring he delivered the goods to each person as ordered. Even now he is appreciated by the descendants of the former shepherds and millers, for the quality of the objects he made or for the metal repairs. Dumitru's craftsman's hand fed the entire cart. Being of Hungarian origin, Demeter Kopotz was not well regarded by the state authorities (he spoke Hungarian, knew German and Russian), so in 1954 Demeter officially became Dumitru in documents, and Kopotz became Copotz.<\/p>\n

With some money saved up, Dumitru, who was 54 years old, started building his own house. He built his house right next to the bridge as you enter Humulesti, on the right side as you cross the bridge. He built a wooden house, and next to it he erected a traditional tent made of hemp canvas, following the model in which he had lived his whole life. He could not get used to the idea of giving up the tent even though he had built his home. He was the first nomadic gypsy in Romania to build a house (according to his descendants) and sent his children to school. Although he had a good job and was appreciated, one summer when the writer Mihail Sadoveanu passed by the rest house in M.rea Neamt, around 1956-1958, trouble befell him again. Sadoveanu, seeing the house with the tent next to it, realized that it was a gypsy house and protested from the height of the his position, that it was not appropriate for a gypsy place to be established at the entrance to Creaga's village. The Mayor of T\u00e2rgul, Covrig(?)...according to Copot's descendants, sent 2 carts with workers and demolished his wooden house. Dumitru Copot's anger was great, leaving with his 2 eldest sons to "DOMN DEJ" to complain about the way he was treated by the people of the Romanian Workers' Party-Tg.Neamt. He got on the train to Pascani, and in Roman he was arrested for 2 days by the militia together with his accompanying sons. The First Secretary of the PCR region, comrade.<\/p>\n

Rosu from Bacau settled the conflict, compensating Dumitru Copot with 25 thousand lei (? or 2500) and gave him a place to live, also in Humulesti, but outside the habitat inhabited by Romanians. Thus began the establishment of the T\u0103b\u0103cari neighborhood near the current obor on the edge of the Ozana river. Slowly, slowly Dumitru Copot's personality grew. He sent his children to school, had a house and a good job, had relations with the city... with the Jews, the officials... reaching the point where they addressed him as "comrade Copot" when meetings were held at the Popular Council. Slowly Dumitru grew older, the Romanians from T\u00e2rgu Neamt called him Copot the old man, his children married and continued the tradition of being good craftsmen. He grew up in his village and a Romanian child, Ion on who made him his son-in-law, integrated into the official rules of the state and made new documents and an identity card. Dumitru Copot, coming from a family of Hungarian potters, knew how important documents, school and good relations with the state authorities were. He died in 1983 at the age of 84. He lived a long life for the gypsy life and the sufferings of deportation. In 1981 his eldest son Milo\u0219 (Mihai) died, being in fact designated as the successor buliba\u0219 by Dumitru.<\/p>\n

After the death of Milo\u0219, the designated successor bulibas, after the death of the elder Dumitru, became the youngest son Ghi\u021ba Copo\u021b. I will write about the other descendants of the elder Dumitru (elder because there were several more Dumitrus in his family, nephews, great-grandsons..) in the 3rd part of this episode. After Dumitru Copo\u021b, over 1000 people remained, blood relatives or alliances, scattered throughout the country. The source of this information - the current bulibas Ghi\u021ba Copo\u021b.<\/p>\n

Lucian Georgescu.<\/p>\n