Roma communities today Historical background, culture and current issues

Roma communities todayHistorical background, culture and

current issues

Week 4 Class 2:

The Romani Holocaust

ANTH 4020/5020

Today‘s outline

1. Discussion Questions - last class2. Gypsy Holocaust Song3. Text by Huttenbach & discussion4. How many victims? 4. Exercise: Reading Oral History –

Statements of survivors

Discussion questions (Barany text)

• What were the main differences in Romani marginality in the two major East European Empires: Ottoman Empire & Habsburg Empire?

• Why did the (economic) role of the Roma slowly decline at the beginning of the 20th cent.?

• What were the consequences for their socioeconomic status?

• How were the new government‘s approaches to the „Gypsy problem“ in the interwar period?

• Why is the Romani Holocaust so little documented – compared to the Jewish Holocaust or other periods in Romani history

„Gypsy Auschwitz Song“

A scene from the movie Latcho Drom.Singer is Romani holocaust survivor Margita Makulová (Slovakia).

“O the black bird went into my heart and stole it. Here I live in auschtwitz here in auschtwitz I'm hungry, there isn't a piece of bread to eat. there isn't nothing to eat here its all my bad luck. at one time I had my home. I'm so hungry I could kill. oh oh Jesus. Oh, Oh.”

Text:

• Huttenbach, Henry H. 1991. ‘The Romani Pořajmos. The Nazi Genocide of Gypsies in Germany and Eastern Europe’, in Crowe D. And Kolsti J. (eds.) The Gypsies of Eastern Europe, New York: M.E. Sharpe, pp. 31-49.

Short presentation by Margo

Text (optional):

Zimmermann, Michael. 2006. ‘The National Socialist Persecution of Jews and Gypsies: Is a comparison possible?’, in Kenrick (ed.) The Gypsies during the Second World War. 3 – The Final Chapter, Hatfield: University of Hertfordshire press, pp. 135-149.

Comparing Nazi persecution of Roma and Jews

Discussion:

• What’s the point in comparing?

• But also: Why is comparison problematical?

What we should avoid:

• To utilize the crime investigations for generating schematic analogies

• To seek to equate the fate suffered by the Gypsies under Nazi rule with the mass murder of the Jews in every respect

• To conclude that Roma always and everywhere comprised the less endangered group

• On the basis of the problematic equation (with Jews) delegitimize the commemoration of murdered Roma

Shared features of persecution (Zimmermann 2006)

1. Both Jews and Gypsies did not declare themselves as a “nation” or “race” or even as unitary people

image rather than identity of those persecuted mattared

2. Classification of persons according to portion of Jewish/Gypsy blood Nuremberg Laws

3. Racist view of social questions

“Popular racism coupled with variants of racial anthropology and race hygiene provided a discourse that transported the traditional behaviour of distancing and differentiation” (Zimmerman 2006, p. 137)

Shared features of persecution (Zimmermann 2006)

4. Policy of extermination was not planned over the longer term but would unfold under the conditions of the war

5. Mental strategies to deny and legitimize the murder (deportations labelled as “resettlement” or “journey”)

6. Responsible bodies were “only” carrying out official instructions, orders, denial of own responsibility

7. Effort to dehumanize the victims (mass murder as act of mercy, more humane solution)

8. Justification of killing with anti-Semitic and anti-Gypsy cliches (“useless mouths to feed, enemy spies, partisans)

Differences in persecution (Zimmermann 2006)

1. National Socialist racial policy had a hierarchical structure:

Jews were the central threat, an arch-enemy to the Aryans vs. Gypsies were a “nuisance”, thiefs, could not endanger the German people as a whole

2. Different images of the enemy due to different history

Jews were formerly financially useful vs. Gypsies have always been repressed and marginalized

Gypsies were not viewed as religious competitors (Christians and heathens)

3. Part-Gypsy perceived as primary threat (close contact with Non-Gypsies

Differences in persecution (Zimmermann 2006)

4. Fixation on negative image of “Gypsies of mixed race”

dual stigma as persons of alien race and asocial

ethnically pure Gypsies should be protected

5. Gestapo persecuted Jews (extreme threat) vs. Criminal police persecuted Gypsies (menace)

6. Strict definition of who was a Jew according to Nuremberg Laws vs. no precise definition of “Gypsies of mixed blood”

7. Imprecise definition of Gypsies made it possible for local persecutors to interpret instructions on their own

8. Jews were persecuted in a more radical way vs. Gypsies were not threatened with murder in all occupied states

How many victims?• Statistical inconsistencies & impossibilities

characteristical for Gypsy studies• Core of the „numbers problem“: insufficient &

unreliable census information regarding Gypsies „From a scholary point of view there is simplyy no way to safely estimate the number of the Holocaust‘s Romani victims“ (Barany 2002, p. 107)

• Barany critisizes that „Authors who provide „exact“ numbers often base these on second- or third-hand sources, hearsay, and unreliable estimates“. (p. 108).

United States Holocaust Memorial Museumhttp://www.ushmm.org/wlc/media_nm.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005219&MediaId=359

United States Holocaust Memorial Museumhttp://www.ushmm.org/wlc/media_nm.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005219&MediaId=359

(Barany 2002, p. 109)

Estimates 1.-5. partially documented & explain methodology: 6.-12. lack evidence.

Oral HistoryPersonal statement of a survivor

•Please read the statement of Mrs. Janos Rostas• Answer the discussion questions together with your neighbor• Write down some notes (to share with the class)• After 35 minutes we‘ll discuss the answers in the plenum