Italy: "The shameful history of anti -Gypsism is forgotten - and repeated ”

[Harold Schiffman]

"The shameful history of anti-Gypsism is forgotten - and repeated"
18//08/08

Thomas Hammarberg, Human Rights Commissioner, Council of Europe

Only a few thousand Roma in Germany survived the Holocaust and the
concentration camps. They faced enormous difficulties when trying to
build up their lives again, having lost so many of their family
members and relatives, and having had their properties destroyed or
confiscated. Many of them had their health ruined. When some of them
tried to obtain compensation, their claims were rejected for years.
http://www.coe.int/t/commissioner/Viewpoints/Default_en.asp

For these survivors no justice came with the post-Hitler era.
Significantly, the mass killing of the Roma people was not an issue at
the Nürnberg trial. The genocide of the Roma – Samudaripe or Porrajmos
– was hardly recognised in the public discourse. This passive denial
of the grim facts could not have been surprising to the Roma
themselves, as for generations they had been treated as a people
without history. The violations they had suffered were quickly
forgotten, if even recognised.  Sadly, this same pattern is repeated
even today.

That is why it is particularly valuable that the Council of Europe has
produced a series of fact sheets on Roma History. These are intended
for teachers, pupils, political and other decision makers and every
one else interested in knowing the facts about what this people have
gone through. Readers of these fact sheets may learn about 500 years
of shameful repression in Europe of the various Roma groups since
their arrival following the long migration from India. The methods
have varied between enslavement, enforced assimilation, expulsion,
internment and mass killings.

The 'reasons' for these policies have, however, been similar. The Roma
were seen as unreliable, dangerous, criminal, and undesirable. They
were the outsiders who could easily be used as scapegoats when things
went wrong and the locals did not want to take responsibility. In
Wallachia and Moldavia (today's Romania) the Roma lived in slavery and
bondage for centuries up to 1855 when the last Roma slaves were
finally emancipated.
In Spain more than ten thousand Roma were rounded up in a well planned
military-police action one day in 1749. The purpose according to a
leading clergyman who advised the government was to 'root out this bad
race, which is hateful to God and pernicious to man'. The result was
devastating to the Roma community – the deportations, detentions,
forced labour and killings destroyed much of the original Roma
culture.

In the Austro-Hungarian Empire during the 18th century the rulers
applied a policy of enforced assimilation. Roma children were taken
from their parents and instructions went out that no Roma was allowed
to marry another Roma. Furthermore, the Romani language was banned.
This policy was brutally enforced. For instance, the use of the
'Gypsy' language was to be punishable by flogging. Fascists in the
20th century turned also against the Roma. In Italy a circular went
out in 1926 which ordered the expulsion of all foreign Roma in order
to 'cleanse the country of Gypsy caravans which needless to recall,
constitute a risk to safety and public health by virtue of the
characteristic Gypsy lifestyle'.

The order made clear that the aim was to 'strike at the heart of the
Gypsy organism'. What followed in fascist Italy for the Roma was
discrimination and persecution. Many were detained in special camps;
others were sent to Germany or Austria and later exterminated. The
fascist 'Iron Guard' regime in Romania started deportations in 1942.
Like many Jews, about 30.00 Roma were brought across the river
Dniester where they suffered hunger, disease and death. Only about
half of them managed to survive the two years of extreme hardship
before the policy changed. In France about 6,000 Roma were interned
during the war, the majority of them in the occupied zone. Unlike
other victims, the Roma were not systematically released upon the
German retreat. The new French authorities saw internment as a means
of forcing them to settle.
.
In the Baltic States a large number of the Roma inhabitants were
killed by the German invasion forces and their local supporters within
the police. Only 5-10 per cent of the Roma in Estonia survived. In
Latvia about half of the Roma were shot while it is estimated that a
vast majority of those in Lithuania were also killed. In fact, all
countries in Europe were affected by the racist ideas of the time. In
the neutral Sweden the authorities had encouraged a sterilisation
program already in the twenties which primarily targeted the Roma (and
which continued up to the seventies). Also in Norway pressure was
exerted on Roma to sterilise.

The Nazi regime defined the Roma (including the Sinti) as 'racially
inferior' with an 'asocial behaviour' which was deemed hereditary.
This, in fact, was a development of old and widespread prejudices in
both Germany and Austria. The so-called Nürnberg race laws of 1935
deprived the Roma of their nationality and citizen's rights. It was
demanded that they should be interned into labour camps and sterilised
by force. An earlier plan of Nazi racists to keep some of the
'racially pure' Roma in a sort of anthropological museum was
forgotten, while some Roma, not least children, were singled out for
Josef Mengele's cruel medical experiments. A policy of forced
sterilisation was implemented, often without anaesthesia.

The systematic murder of Roma started in the summer 1941 when German
troops attacked the Soviet Union. They were seen as spies (like many
Jews) for the 'Jewish Bolshevism' and were shot by the German army and
the SS in mass executions. Indeed, in all areas occupied by the Nazis
there were executions of Roma people. Figures are uncertain, but it is
estimated that far more than hundred thousand were executed in those
situations, including in the Balkans where the killings were supported
by local fascists. The Ustascha militia in Croatia ran camps but also
organised deportations and carried out mass executions.

In December 1942, the Nazi regime decided that all Roma in the 'German
Reich' should be deported to Auschwitz. There they had to wear a dark
triangle and a Z was tattooed to their arm. Of all camp inmates they
had the highest death rate: 19,300 lost their lives there. Of them
5,600 were gassed and 13,700 died from hunger, disease or following
medical experiments. It is still not known how many Roma in total fell
victim to the Nazi persecution. Not all Roma were registered as Roma
and the records are incomplete. The fact that there was no reliable
statistics about the number of Roma in these areas before the mass
killings makes it even more difficult to estimate the actual number of
casualties. The Council of Europe fact sheets state that it is highly
probable that the number was at least 250,000. Other credible studies
indicate that more than 500,000 Roma lost their lives, perhaps many
more.

The fact sheets underline that there is a need of further research on
the Roma history. The Roma themselves have had little possibility of
recording events and the authorities have had little interest in doing
so. Still there are Roma and other scholars whose work should be
encouraged (several of them have been drawn upon by the authors of the
fact sheets, for instance Ian Hancock and Grattan Puxon).

However, already the published fact sheets do make a difference. My
hope is that many people will read them and that governments in Europe
will support and facilitate this through translating these texts into
national languages and disseminating them to teachers, politicians and
others. Roma organisations should be assisted in circulating them
widely within their communities. There are a number of conclusions
that will have to be drawn by a serious reader. One is that it is not
surprising that there is a lack of trust amongst many Roma towards the
majority society and that some of them see the authorities as a
threat. When told to register or to be fingerprinted they fear the
worst.

Indeed, there has still not been any recognition in several countries
that this minority has been repressed in the past and no official
apology has been given. One good example to the contrary was the
decision by the government Bucharest in 2003 to establish a commission
on the Holocaust which later published an important report on the
repression and killings in Romania during the fascist period. The fact
sheets illustrate that the Roma have not migrated for devious reasons
or because travelling is "in their blood". When it has been possible
they have indeed settled but for long they have had to move between or
within countries to avoid repression or simply because they were not
allowed to stay. The other main reason was that the kind of employment
or jobs which were open to them required their moving.

There are lessons from history on how to handle the present spread of
anti-Gypsism in some countries. The rhetoric from some politicians and
xenophobic media has revived age-old stereotypes about the Roma and
this in turn has 'legitimised' actions, sometimes violent, against
Roma individuals. Again, they are made scapegoats. Today's rhetoric
against the Roma is very similar to the one used by Nazis and fascists
before the mass killings started in the thirties and forties. Once
more, it is argued that the Roma is a threat to safety and public
health. No distinction is made between a few criminals and the
overwhelming majority of the Roma population. This is shameful and
dangerous.

http://theromaniway.wordpress.com/2008/08/21/the-shameful-history-of-anti-gypsism-is-forgotten-and-repeated/

-- 
**************************************
N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to
its members
and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner
or sponsor of
the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who
disagree with a
message are encouraged to post a rebuttal. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)
*******************************************