244BRIEF GUIDE

OF TIMIŞ COUNTY

IECEA MARE

Local Council Office: Iecea Mare no. 127 A, telephone0256/365713, fax 0256/365885;Coordinates:45°50′58″ N lat.;20°53′09″ E long.;Historical landmarks:-1317 - the documents of the time recordthe name “ad terram Vsche vocatam“;- 1332-1337- the papal records mention thename Juske, Uske or Vche; -1479 - a Hungarian document speaksabout the village Ewche, under the admin-istration of Ce nad district;-1761 - the official map of imperial Bana trecords Iesca “prediu” (deserted villageland area), located on the carriage routebetween Timişoara and Comloşu Mare; -1767 - the Austrian counsellor Hildebrandfounds a village and starts the building of202 houses, as well as the first school; -the German settlers based in the villagecame from Lorraine, Bavaria, Luxembourg,Trier etc.;- 1767 - the event was recorded in theMonograph of the village of Ionel, written in1906 by the teachers Marschall Mihaly,Weigerber Ferencz and Zappe Ferencz, inHungarian and German;-1778 - the settlement falls under the admin-istration of Timiş-Torontal county;-1836 - a cholera epidemic devastates thevillage and around 100 inhabitants die;-1848-1849 - a violent encounter betweenthe Austrian army and the Hungarian hon-véd (homeland defence army) during thebourgeois revolution results in the death of20 locals;-1855-1856 - the cadastral register of thevillage is compiled;-1330 - the village’s name is Iecia Mare;-1936 - Iecia Mare has three people’sbanks, a primary school, a steam mill, twomechanical weaving and cotton stiffeningmills (a tradition which got lost was Spin -nstube: the women in the neighbourhoodwould gather to spin the cotton or the wool,

for further knitting orweaving); - the village also hasa German women’sassociation and asmall Swabian muse-um; - the commune has571 houses and2,294 inhabitants, ; - 1938-1940 - the firstRomanian teacher who taught in the villageschool was Ion Ciurca from Bucharest;- the local authorities intended to changethe name of Iecea into Orzul-Mare, but withno result;-1954 - the village’s name is Iecea Mare; -1968 - the commune Iecea Mare is dissol -ved and is transferred to Cărpiniş;-2004 - the commune Iecea Mare is reins -tated by separation from Cărpiniş;-2010 - over 200 locals work in Italy, Irelandand Spain;- 2011 - the Beizser Francisc family fromGermany obtained two fire interventionvehicles for the community of the native vil-lage, a necessary donation for the fire fight-ing unit of the locality;Total population on 1 January 2010:2,482 persons, of which:- male = 1,246 persons- female = 1,236 personsTotal number of households: 867 Educational institutions: Primary andElementary School (I-VIII); Kindergartenswith normal hours;Health facilities: Medical practices: (two);Human pharmacy;Cultural institutions: Community center;Library (2005);Churches: Roman-Catholic church (1770-1880); Ro ma nian Orthodox church (1946);Seventh Day Adventist Churches (two -1993 and 1997); Pentecostal church (2003);Annual Church Festival: the RomanianOrthodox Church festival (last Sunday ofAugust).

Codrescu Ovidiu - Ioan Mayor

Jorza Ioan Vice Mayor

Andrei Gheorghe, LC Member DLPColţiş Dănuţ, LC Member DLPDrăgan Sorin, LC Member NLPFeleagă Ioan, LC Member DLP

Felecan Vasile, LC Member DLPIftinchi Gheorghe, LC Member DLPMarc Gabriela, LC Member DLPNicola Francisc, LC Member SDPPop Valer, LC Member DLPSîrca Ioan, LC Member DLP

CITY HALL AND LOCAL COUNCIL OF IECEA MARE

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245BRIEF GUIDE

OF TIMIŞ COUNTY

IECEA MARE

At the middle of the XXth century, the col-lectivization process was enforced upon thepeasants from Iecea Mare, too. The com-munists from the Party Regional Directoratenamed the local Agricultural Institution “IliePintilie”, after the name of an undergroundmilitant close to Gh. Gheorghiu - Dej (theCommunist leader of Romania from 1948until 1965) who died in Doftana prison in1940. The militant’s bust was displayed infront of Iecea Mare GAC (Collective Agri cul -tural In sti tu tion), and a brass band waspresent for the statueunveiling. An im pres sivece lebration was organ-ized on the foot ball field,on the ex pense of GAC.

The fate of the statueof Ilie Pintilie was decidedby a villager, Mihai Bo -boc, after the Revolutionfrom December 1989.Boboc came from a re fu -gee family from the Qua -drangle (Cadrilater) whichsettled there in 1945.Mihai’s father was arrest-

ed by the Securitate, and sentenced toforced labour at the Canal, released in1955, arrested again, and released in 1964,together with many other political prisoners.Mi hai Boboc found one way to take revengeon the communist regime which terrorizedhis family: he beheaded the statue of IliePintilie in March 1990. He took a sledgeham mer from the GAC’s storage andapplied several blows on the granite bust.The head of Ilie Pintile fell to the ground andBoboc took it home. He intended to flee in

Aus tralia, but ultimatelyde ci ded not to. Nowadays,the headless bust of IliePin tilie is in the sameplace it was 50 years ago,and the head is in the“personal collection” of therebel Mihai Bo boc.

While the bust of IliePintilie still stands in IeceaMare, the memorial muse-um “Ilie Pintilie” from Iasiwas demolished immedi-ately after 1989...

Near the Parliament of Israel (Knesset), in1953 an Official Memorial was raised, dedi-cated to the Holocaust victims, “YadVashem”. The memorial honors the Non-Jews who saved Jews and their names islisted on the "Righteous Among the Nations"list. The Holocaust Memorial awarded 60titles to Romanian citizens. The first Ro ma -nian to be referred to as “Righteous Amongthe Nations" was the mayor of Cernăuţi dur-ing the World War II, the one who savedthousands of Jews who were to be deportedin Transnistria. The 60 “Righteous Among theNations" included a man from Banat, too:Iosif Zaharia (Zacharias), a Swabian fromIecea Mare. He was the son of a wealthyfarmer (bauer). In 1941, after Ro maniaentered the war joining the nazi Germanaxis, and the anti-Jew legislation becameeven more rigid, Iosif met a 13 years old boyone day, wandering through his village, Ie cea

Mare. The boy was lost, hungry and tired,looking for food and shelter.

The child’s name was Benjamin Weissand belonged to the Jewish community fromArad, led by rabbin Brisk. Nobody knew howthe boy managed to get to Iecea Mare.Regardless of the boy’s Jewish origin, IosifZacharias took care of him, provided fakeidentification documents, taught him to raisethe cattle and Iosif’s father hired him on hisfarm. The young Swabian’s attitude towardsthe Jewish adolescent from Arad broughtIosif Zaharia (Zacharias) the title “RighteousAmong the Nations”, the only man fromBanat known to have received it so far.

ILIE PINTILIE, THE HEADLESS UNDERGROUND MILITANT

“Yad Vashem” Memorial - Jerusalem

SWABIAN IOSIF ZAHARIA, ”Righteous Among the Nations”!

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