Roma history and counter-history

Roma with population “estimated at 10 to 12 million”, are the most numerous ethnic group in Europe without a state. As such they have experienced perennial discrimination and according the European Commission still remain “victims of prejudice and social exclusion, despite the discrimination ban across EU Member States”.[1] Various initiatives have been undertaken with the intention to recognize and end the perpetual discrimination against Roma, and to recognize their historical and cultural contribution to European societies. To that end, inquiry into the Roma Holocaust was launched, with efforts to recognize and commemorate Roma persecution and victims.

In line with that, in 2015 the European Parliament decided to recognize 2 August as Romani Holocaust Memorial Day. While finally after 71 years Europe has acknowledged systematic Roma extermination, the historical persecution of Roma living across the continent is still often overlooked. The Council of Europe aptly called it the “time to cure amnesia about the history of Roma in Europe”[2]. An excerpt from this timely reminder is an apt way to situate the topic of this module:
 

“Knowledge of Roma history in Europe is crucial to understanding their current situation. …  Most people do not know, for instance, that Roma were banned from the Holy Roman Empire in 1501 and, as of this date, could be caught and killed by any citizen. In France, Louis XIV decreed in 1666 that all Gypsy males should be sent for life to galleys without trial, that women should be sterilised and children put into poorhouses. In Spain, it was decided in 1749 to detain all Roma in an operation known as the “Great Gypsy Round-Up”. In part of what is now Romania (Wallachia and Moldova), Roma were enslaved between the 14th century and 1856. The Austro-Hungarian Empress Maria Theresia imposed a fierce assimilation policy involving the removal of children from the care of their parents….

The Roma “Pharrajimos” – the Roma Holocaust – carried out during the Second World War was a culmination of these policies of exclusion, elimination and forced assimilation. About 90% of the Roma population of some countries disappeared as a result of massacres and deportations to concentration camps. However, 70 years after the end of the Second World War, memory work regarding the fate of the Roma is still incomplete.”

In other words, persecution of Roma began centuries before Nazis came to power, but from the 1930s their treatment worsened drastically, and extermination reached systemic levels. It is impossible to provide accurate statistics on the number of victims, as many Roma were killed on the spot or buried in mass graves. The Council of Europe commented on the scope of the destruction as follows: “While exact figures or percentages cannot be ascertained, historians estimate that around 25 per cent of all European Roma were killed, and over 90% in several European countries.”[3] There are some visual resources on this topic; an original footage and general statistics of the Roma Holocaust may be accessed in the movie at the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust.
 

Nazi Persecution of Roma and Sinti People, Holocaust Memorial Day Trust

Roma were also victims of forced sterilization and medical experiments, mass killings and deportation during the Holocaust. In a recent study on sterilization of Roma, Andrew Wisely (2020) stressed that “sterilization became a means to tighten the borders of the German ethnic community against outsiders, including Sinti and Roma”, especially after passage of the “Law for the Prevention of Offspring with Genetic Diseases” in July 1933.

Oral history, as a “modern technique for historical documentation” is an excellent way of “accessing subjugated voices.”[4] The importance of oral history research —incorporation of witness testimonies and narratives of Roma Holocaust survivors — in positioning the experience of Roma grew from the 1960s. Its rise is partially explained by the prominence of the pro-Roma civil society and Roma organizations:
 

“Since the 1960s, biographical narratives focusing on an individual life story have featured more prominently. Autobiographies were written in which NS persecution also played a role. The very experience of persecution was often the motivation to speak out. As civil rights movements grew stronger, interest in these personal histories increased; and in the 1980s, the number of biographies grew, particularly those based on interviews with survivors. The first audio documents were recorded in the 1960s; the most notable is the unique Sammlung Heinschink (‘Heinschink Collection’) in Vienna. The late 1980s marked the beginning of an ‘era of the contemporary witness’, and there was growing interest in audio-visual documentation that included the testimonies of Sinti and Roma. Particularly extensive is the collection of the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, established by film director Steven Spielberg. This collection contains 407 video interviews with Romani survivors from 18 countries, which were recorded between 1995 and 1999.”[5]

Incorporating Roma voices into a collective historical narrative is necessary for de-constructing biases in our understanding of history, such as exclusion of minority experiences. As part of this process, more attention is given to various ways of expression through which the Roma narrative is constructed, such as art, plays, films, songs, poems, and other creative forms of expression. For example, Ceija Stojka, a Roma artist, recounts her experience during the Holocaust through paintings. Her life and work are featured in RomArchive, the most comprehensive international online project that informs about Roma history, arts and cultures.