North German Roma and Sinte have been recognised as a national minority [Lenta.ru] →
NDR states that Schleswig-Holstein has become the first federal state in Germany including the number of Roma and Sinte demanding state support of national minorities. Wednesday, 14 November, the local Landtag unanimously made the appropriate changes in the state’s constitution.
Now Roma and Sinte living in Schleswig-Holstein have the same rights to protection and support as the Danish and Frisian minorities. There are currently around five thousand Roma and Sinte on the federal territory. The first written documentation of them in this region appeared in 1417.
The chairman of the central council of German Roma and Sinte, Romani Rose, announced the Landtag’s historical decision. In his words, this should serve as an example to the entire European Union, where there live around seven million Roma [and Sinte, and other sub-groups].
At the end of the October, the first German memorial to Roma and Sinte victims of the Naxi dictatorship opened in Berlin. The memorial is a black granite bowl filled with water, and in the centre of the bowl is a stele on which a caretaker places fresh flowers. During WWII, the Nazis killed around 500 thousand Roma and Sinte.
Germany and Remembering →
Thanks Germany, but no thanks…
my feelings on the Holocaust memorial opened today
Merkel to open Berlin Holocaust memorial for Roma →
German Chancellor Angela Merkel will inaugurate a memorial to murdered Roma and Sinti victims of the Nazis on Wednesday, as Europe’s largest minority grapples with ongoing discrimination. Historians say the Nazis exterminated nearly 500,000 Roma men, women and children in Europe during World War II, decimating a population with roots in Germany dating back six centuries. The memorial, given pride of place in Berlin’s central Tiergarten park between the Reichstag parliament building and the Brandenburg Gate, will be unveiled after years of delays and bitter disputes over its design and cost.
Traditional Romani Dress: The Picture Guide
Kalderash
Ruska Romani (Kalderash of Russia)
Then:
Now:
Polska Romani (Kalderash of Poland)
Then:
Now:
Căldărari (Kalderash of Romania)
Then:
Now:
Kalderash of Ukraine
Then:
Now:
Kale Romani
Manouche (Kale Romani of France)
Then:
Now:
Iberian Kale (Kale Romani of Spain)
Then:
Now:
Romanichal (Kale of the British Isles & America)
Then:
(The group that popularized the “Gypsy” Vanner & the Romani vardo)
Now:
(She is very light in complexion. The Romanichal vary in skin complexion & hair color, just like every other Romani sub-group)
Kàlo (Romani Kale of Finland & Sweden)
Then:
Now:
Sinti
(Romani of Austria & Germany)
Then:
Now:
Xoraxane (Romani of Turkey)
Then:
Now:
Lovari (Romani of Hungary & Slavic countries)
Then:
Now:
Machvaya (Romani of the Balkans & Southern Hungary)
Then:
Now:
Gurbeti (Romani of the former Yugoslavia)
Then:
Now:
Romani of Macedonia
Then:
Now:
Rroma (Romani sub-group dispersed from Northern Italy to the Balkans)
Then:
Now:
The Romani are separated into various nations, sub-groups, tribes & family groups. The division & self-identification among Romani is rather complex. In short, we are divided into four categories: Vlax, Sinti, Kale & Rroma.
The Kalderash are the largest Vlax nation. The Ruska & Polska Romani, as well as some Eastern European Romani groups who self-identify by their country are part of the Kalderash Nation.
The Lovari are another sub-group of the Vlax Nation. The Machvaya of Serbia & other small Balkan groups are essentially branches of the Lovari. Over time, separation occurred between Romani of the Balkans & their Lovari parent group. Some Romani still self identify as Lovari-Machvaya, or Balkan Lovari, others self identify only as Machvaya or their respective Balkan group.
The Gurbeti are also considered part of the Vlax nation, though they do not always self identify as such.
The Xoraxane, the Romani of Turkey, are generally lumped under the Vlax nation, though they no longer self identify as Vlax. The Xoraxane are the Romani who settled in Turkey, while splinter groups continued to migrate north into the Balkans & other parts of Europe. Their settlements are some of the oldest Romani communities in the world, though many young Xoraxane Romani no longer speak the Romani language.
The Rroma are dipsersed throughout Central & Southeastern Europe. They are generally identified by the region in which they live; Carpathian, Burgenland, Balkan, or Greek. They contain sub-groups such as the Ungrika of Hungary, the Lucani & Calabresi of Italy, and the Aškalija & Yerlii of the Balkans.
The Sinti are a Romani group who settled in the region of Austria, Germany & the former Czechoslovakia. There is sometimes contention as to whether the Sinti are a Romani sub-group as they often self-identify ethnically as Sinti, not Romani. However, their language, though influenced by German, is considered a dialect of the Romanes language, and is most closely related to the Kale dialect family.
The Kale are Romani who settled in regions of Western Europe. They consist of the Manouche of France, the Romanichal of the British Isles, the Kalo of the Nordic countries & the Kale of Spain, sometimes called the Gitanos.
As stated previously, self identification varies greatly amongst Romani. This explanation is a general overview & not in any way definitive of how certain Romani sub-groups may identify themselves. For example, my family self-identifies as Lovari-Machvaya, while many Machvaya no longer identify with this parent group. Also, Romanichal often simply identify as Romanichal, without mention of their Kale parent nation. Much of our self-identification depends on where a particular Romani sub-group has settled & from where they migrated and when. There are few Machvaya in Serbia who acknowledge their filial relationship with the Lovari, but there are Machvaya in America who continue to do so because they left this region before the groups become more geographically & linguistically separated.
There are also many Romani groups that have come about through different sub-groups continually inter-marrying with one another. We are not, at least not at the moment, in any way capable of tracing & identifying every single sub-ethnic population of the Romani. What is shown & discussed is of the most well known & documented Romani groups. There are over 80 identified dialects of our language, at the moment. There are likely far more than 80 self-identified Romani sub-ethnic groups.
The pictures above show general dress of these various nations & groups. Notably, the Sinti have managed to assimilate more in to mainstream society, and are perhaps the most assimilated of the various Romani groups. However, Germany & Austria had long forced assimilation through radical laws that went so far as to take the children of Sinti families & place them in families of non-Romani to be “civilized”.
The situation of each Romani nation & our various groups differs from country to country, even from family to family. Though, one can see the cohesive nature of this traditional dress. Given that we began our diaspora over one thousand years ago, relatively speaking, little has changed of our culture & language since we first entered Europe.
The young Romanichal girl that is depicted, though her population as been separated from the Vlax for over five hundred years, and many miles, still traditionally braids her hair the same way as the Vlax Romani who remained in Eastern Europe. It is rather remarkable that we have managed to maintain our culture & language in this ever-changing world.
Porrajmos: Remembering Dark Times [Open Society Foundations] →
At the commemoration ceremony for the Romani victims of the Holocaust in Budapest yesterday, Rita Izsák, United Nations Independent Expert on minority issues, herself of Hungarian Roma origin, reminded those in attendance that it was three years ago to the day since Maria Balogh was murdered in her bed, and her 13-year-old daughter seriously wounded, in a gun attack by neo-Nazis in the village of Kisléta. Izsák called on states to do more to challenge “a rising tide of hostility and discrimination against Roma in Europe that shames societies.”
This theme was echoed in commemorations right across Europe paying tribute to victims such as Maria Settele Steinbach. The haunting image of nine-year-old Settele, as she peered out of the cattle car of a train bound for Aushwitz-Birkenau, moments before the doors were locked and bolted, was captured on film in May 1944. This became one of the most reproduced, tragic iconic images of the Holocaust. For decades, Settele was described in the literature as the unnamed Jewish girl in a headscarf.
In a manner that was emblematic of a wider amnesia concerning the Roma victims of the Holocaust,Settele’s identity was only established some 50 years later. Settele was one of a group of 245 Dutch Sinti crammed aboard that train. She was killed, along with her mother, aunt and four siblings sometime between July 31 and August 2, 1944, when the Germans began the liquidation of the Zigeunerlager (“Gypsy camp”) at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Almost 3,000 Roma men, women, and children were put to death in this operation.
For too long the fate of the Roma, who perished at the hands of the Nazis, their allies and collaborators, had been neglected. In too many accounts, the Baro Porrajmos (Great Devouring) of Europe’s Romani people, which claimed the lives of more than 500,000 victims, was relegated to the footnotes, if indeed mentioned at all. This year’s commemorations in Budapest were attended by ambassadors and diplomats, members of government and opposition parties, religious leaders and hundreds of Roma and non-Roma citizens. All were reminded of the chaotic and brutal ferocity of the persecution carried out by the Arrow Cross and Hungarian Gendarmerie; reminded of the fate of those who perished in transit camps, in forced labour brigades, and local massacres.
Much of this detail would have been lost without the painstaking research carried out by Janos Bársony and Ágnes Daróczi who have striven to ensure the dead do not remain unnamed and unremembered. Atrocities such as the massacre in the cemetery in Doboz, a village in South-East Hungary, were painfully brought to light in the oral testimony of survivors such as Karoly Komaromi who lost his grandparents, his father and his 14-year-old sister Zsuzsanna. He recalled that as news of the Russian advance created alarm, gendarmes marched their victims on foot from the town of Kötegyán towards the village of Doboz:
“The gendarmes, they were taking them along main-street in pouring rain, so this gendarme says to my father … you will die here, fuck you! … At dawn they took them to the cemetery in Doboz and the gendarmes were already there waiting and blew them apart with a machine gun and hand grenades. As I heard from the cemetery warden’s wife, one child was trying to escape but couldn’t because the gendarmes noticed him. When they finished them off, they went down to the Gypsies of Doboz. They had them dig graves and put the bodies in there…”
Komaromi’s oral testimony to Bársony was confirmed by the trial records of the murderers by the People’s Court in 1956: “All 20 Gypsies were taken into the cemetery, ordered to lie down on the ground … the escort personnel withdrew a few paces, formed an firing line and when the order was issued, fired a volley at the 20 persons lying on the ground, then withdrew even further and lobbed an indeterminate number of hand grenades at the unfortunate victims. Those who were still alive were shot dead by the military gendarme … the dead included at least two or three children, 15 men and two women.”
The testimonies and records gathered by dedicated scholars such as Bársony and Daróczi to preserve the memory of what unfolded in dark times—times in which wisdom and goodness came fatally apart from each other—and social conditions Brecht likened to “a flood in which we have all gone under.” For the survivors of the Nazi-orchestrated Baro Porrajmos, there were to be more dark times. The condition of uprootedness, described by Hannah Arendt as one of “having no place in the world, recognised and guaranteed by others”, meant that the Roma became not only the forgotten victims of this most ferocious of historical moments, but continued to be regarded as superfluous, as not belonging to the world at all.
In 1950, German judges hearing restitution claims were advised by the Württemburg Ministry for the Interior that “Gypsies were persecuted under the National Socialistic Regime not for any racial reason, but because of an asocial and criminal record.” It is chilling to note that we hear similar sentiments today. We are asked to believe that Roma are not discriminated against because of their ethnicity, but because they pose a threat to “public order”, because they are criminally inclined, and refuse to assimilate and abide by societal norms. Anti-Roma racist rhetoric, previously confined to the fringes of the far-right, is increasingly seeping into mainstream populist agendas.
The gravity of the current situation was highlighted recently in research conducted by Political Capital which placed Hungary fifth out of 33 countries on a ‘radicalism’ index, with sympathy with far-right ideas and politics among the over 15s surging from 10 percent to 21 percent: “a practically unprecedented rise by international standards.” A survey question on “Gypsy crime” found that 63 percent of Hungarians view “the Roma inclination to commit crime” as genetically pre-determined; while approximately two-thirds of respondents would not allow their children to befriend a Roma.
It is encouraging to hear György Hölvényi, Minister of State for Church, Minority and Non-governmental Relations in Hungary declare in his speech at the Holocaust Memorial Center yesterday, that the government is determined that there will be no place for hatred among Hungarian citizens. The commemoration of the Porrajmos serves as a reminder that it’s time for the righteous among this nation and those who govern it to take a forthright and unambiguous stance to counter the prejudices that fuel contemporary racism.
Roma and Sinte extras for the movie Tiefland, scripted and produced by Leni Riefenstahl and filmed during WWII, are transported under armed guard.
In 1940, shooting of the movie was moved from Spain to Germany and Italy. For extras with a specific “Spanish look”, Riefenstahl picked children and adults of Roma and Sinti background who were held in Nazi collection camps, so-called “Zigeunerlager”. Fifty-one Roma and Sinti prisoners were chosen from the Maxglan-Leopoldskron camp (near Salzburg) for filming in the Alps in 1940, and, in 1942, at least 66 Roma and Sinti prisoners were taken from the Marzahn camp for scenes at Babelsberg. These extras are seen, for instance, in the dancing sequence in the tavern, and Sinti children run alongside Pedro when he comes down from the mountain to marry Martha.
In three denazification trials after the war, Riefenstahl was accused of Nazi collaboration and eventually termed a “fellow traveler”; however, none of the Sinti was asked to testify. The issue surfaced after the German magazine Revue published the use of these extras in 1949 and indicated that they were forced labor and sent later to Auschwitz where many of them perished in the holocaust. While some of the surviving Sinti claimed that they were mistreated, others dissented. Riefenstahl claimed that she treated these extras well, and that she was not aware that they were going to be sent to Auschwitz. At one point she even insisted that, after the war, she had seen “all the gypsies” who had worked on the film.
In 1982, Nina Gladitz produced a documentary Zeit des Schweigens und der Dunkelheit (Time of Darkness and Silence) and examined the use of these Sinti in the making of Tiefland. Riefenstahl subsequently sued Gladitz for defamation and while it was shown that she visited camps and selected Sinti for extras, Gladitz’ claim that Riefenstahl knew that they would be sent to Auschwitz had to be stricken from the documentary. Gladitz, however, refused to do so, and thus her film has not been shown since.
The issue surfaced again in 2002, when Riefenstahl was one hundred years old. She was taken to court by a Roma group for denial of the extermination of the gypsies. As a consequence of the case Riefensthal made the following apology, “I regret that Sinti & Roma had to suffer during the period of National Socialism. It is known today that many of them were murdered in concentration camps”.
[SOURCE: Tegel, Susan. Historical Journal of Film, Radio & Television, Mar2006, Vol. 26 Issue 1, p21-43, 23p, 7 Black and White Photographs; Abstract: This article reviews the Gypsy documentary film “Tiefland,” directed by Leni Riefenstahl.; DOI: 10.1080/01439680500533375; (AN 20350219)]
