Black ambulance
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The black ambulance (Czech: černá sanitka, Romanian: ambulanța neagră) is an urban legend found in the former Czechoslovakia and in Romania, directly related to the Black Volga legend found in Poland, Hungary, Mongolia and the former USSR. It refers to an ambulance operating outside those countries' national health systems, which is used to abduct children and teenagers for either organ harvesting or for their blood to be used on other persons, the same story as the Black Volga. The myth still persists even today, despite it having been proven to be an example of social panic.[1]
Background[edit]
As mentioned, the legend is directly related to the Black Volga, but its first alteration reportedly appeared in the 1970s in SR Romania. During Ceaușescu's rule, in an attempt to encourage the usage of locally-made products, the state officials in the lower hierarchy of the party system were supplied with modified Dacia 1300s, known as the 1301, which were painted in black and featured several features that weren't found on cars supplied to the mass population at the time. They eventually replaced the GAZ-21 Volgas in service at the time.
In the former ČSSR, the story appeared after 1979, when copies of the West German movie Spare Parts appeared, primarily in the present day Czech Republic. The story eventually spread out and was adapted to local circumstances. In this case, the story made the use of the ambulance as the vehicle of choice from the start, based on the movie plot, unlike in Romania.
During the communist era, especially in the 1980s, the stories gained traction among the general population of both countries, where people were told stories of how healthy young people were being kidnapped in order to collect blood to cure leukemia (and even AIDS at times) in rich Westerners and Arabs; additionally, the organ harvesting theory also existed, on the same motive. According to sociologists, the stories might have not only gained traction due to the fear of the state security services of the Eastern Bloc countries and their methods of dealing with the undesired, but it was also fueled by the state security services themselves, who were willing to introduce panic-inducing stories to gain trust in themselves. Additionally, it is believed that anti-Western and anti-Church sentiment played a part in these stories, as some of the drivers were described belonging to a unknown sect; the state security services used these sentiments fully.
The stories persisted even after the downfall of communism: in Romania for instance, as the black Dacias were losing relevance due to them being removed from government duties, they were finally replaced by ambulances, often described as (primarily) used black vans with ambulance markings, either with or without registration plates, operated by an international crime syndicate which was responsible for global organ trafficking, ran by a group of people that were described as the "global elites", or various descriptions of the sort. They would bring back the dead bodies in plastic body bags, with a sum of money that was designated to be used on the funeral of the victim, and a letter from a unknown person. Sometimes, the rotting bodies were found under bridges, or outside large cities, in scrapyards or garbage dumps, or on uncultivated fields. In the Czech Republic, the story began involving IKEA stores as well, where children would disappear without a trace, but it is unknown if other store chains were involved in these urban legends. In the former case, it is likely that The Ambulance, an American movie from 1990 contributed to this panic.
With the appearance of the Internet in both Czechia and Romania in the 2000s, the stories began to be covered (and eventually exploited) by the mass media, and began to be discussed openly on online forums and social networks. The legend is still popular among several in Romania, while in the Czech Republic, several books were written about it by Petr Janeček, a sociologist who also wrote books about various urban legends that were popular during the Husák era in Czechoslovakia.[2]
Real life incidents[edit]
Although no official incident involving the black ambulance took place, several instances of false sightings and population panic have been noted. As early as the 1980s, it was assumed that long haired, bearded individuals were behind the supposed kidnappings of children by the black Dacias in Romania, and some eventually beaten on the street.[citation needed]
From the 1990s well into the early 2010s, there were cases in Romania where "phantom" ambulances kidnapped children roaming through empty streets and alleys, or teenagers sitting outside nightclubs, and bringing back body bags with money for funerals, as described previously. Eventually they turned out to be hoaxes exploited by newspapers and news programs of various TV networks, but some people took these hoaxes for granted, and in some cases, people attacked actual ambulance crews who were responding to emergencies.[3]
On the 26 September 2016, a black first generation Citroen Jumper van was spotted in a park in Drumul Taberei in Bucharest, and its picture was posted on Facebook, where it created a large debate. The private owner of the ambulance clarified that the vehicle was an official ambulance used on state duties, and that it wasn't black, but rather, dark blue, and had been relegated to civilian service not long before the photo was taken. It is worth mentioning that the vehicle in question had valid registration plates, markings and emergency lights.[4] In the months leading to the appearance of this ambulance, reports circulated that in Berceni, a black van driven by armed Bulgarians was hunting for children to be kidnapped for organ trafficking.
In July 2018, a writer using a van painted similar as an ambulance was assaulted by a group of people outside of the Gara de Nord railway station in Bucharest; she was running a campaign called "The Ambulance for Literature". The incident was eventually solved with the help of the police, and the writer was treated for injuries in the yard of a police station with the help of several medics, after refusing being taken to the hospital.[5]
In all these cases, the Romanian Police said that there are no recorded cases of these so-called "ambulances of death", and that this is the result of a collective panic.
On 26 March 2019, a group of French Roma people (some of them with Romanian or Bulgarian citizenships) were attacked by armed mobs in several parts of France, mainly Paris, over rumors that they were driving around white (and not black) vans, kidnapping young people for prostitution or organ trafficking rings. This is possibly related to the white van abductions legend, a widely circulated urban myth that has been found in Germany, Belgium, Sweden, The Netherlands and France in the late 1990s and 2000s.[6] Eventually, the Paris police tweeted that these accusations are unfounded and urged people not to pass on false information or to incite violence.[7]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ↑ "Ambulanța neagră care fură copii, o legendă urbană veche de jumătate de veac". March 16, 2018.
- ↑ "Děti krade supermarket, ne černá sanitka | Aktuálně.cz". Aktuálně.cz - Víte, co se právě děje. January 8, 2007.
- ↑ "Ambulanta Neagra | Legenda Urbana Din Romania" – via www.youtube.com.
- ↑ ""Ambulanța neagră" sau cum o legendă urbană a inflamat online-ul românesc". September 28, 2016.
- ↑ "România fără carte a dat peste „ambulanța neagră" și s-a lăsat cu violență". July 5, 2018.
- ↑ "French Roma attacked over false 'man in van' kidnap rumours". March 27, 2019 – via www.bbc.com.
- ↑ https://twitter.com/prefpolice/status/1110518853879193600
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