Discrimination in Holocaust Remembrance: The Ultimate Irony [Romea.cz] →
How much more time will pass before Roma and Sinti (“Gypsies”) are sufficiently, publicly and regularly recognized as one of two ethnic groups slated for complete extermination in the Holocaust? What will it take for Holocaust education to include Romani persecution in a way that teaches not only who Romani people are, but also the very relevant continuities in European Nazi ideology?
As a Romani descendant of Holocaust victims and survivors, I was an audience member at the United Nations Holocaust Remembrance events, located in the New York City UN headquarters, in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012. In 2009, during the Remembrance week in January, there was an exhibit and event on Hungarian Roma in the Holocaust at the Hungarian mission to the UN. It was attended almost exclusively by Hungarian dignitaries and people connected to them. (See http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_1155) The effort’s significance in the Hungarian context must not be discounted, but its educational value to the larger public was virtually nonexistent. The UN Remembrance ceremony proper subsequently failed to include Romani victims by the name of their ethnic group, with the exception of a brief mention. It is important to note that these annual ceremonies are 1.5 to 2 hours long. They have included as speakers or performers not only key UN figures and Jewish representatives, but also scores of people from other ethnic groups. At least some of these time slots could have been – and should be – given to Romani participants.
Indeed, following written protests from Romani people and supporters, as well as a meeting between myself and Ms. Kimberly Mann of the UN Holocaust Outreach Programme, the Polish Romani representative Andrzej Mirga was flown over to give a full-length speech at the main New York City event in 2010. The Romani community and survivors were very grateful for this. However, we must ask why such representation stopped again as quickly as it started. The substantive inclusion of Romanies has not been replicated in the UN lobby exhibits or in any other UN-sponsored program during or since that time. We need to see not a one-time token gesture but rather a permanent change in approach.
In 2011, the Remembrance event included a brief video testimony from a Romani survivor. However, once again no Roma or Sinti had been invited to participate, and as usual the Holocaust and its aftermath were implicitly defined as an exclusively Jewish matter. More often than not, the world’s media reify this inaccurate definition, a practice that is unlikely to change until a different tone is set in the most publicized official commemorations.
In 2012, for a minute or so out of the entire program, a Sinti person was featured, again only on the screen. It was Setella Steinbach, whose story was recounted as part of a string of portrayals of child victims. Setella had long been shown in Holocaust-related materials as a Jewish victim, so it was most appropriate and appreciated that her true identity was recognized at this time. Unfortunately, several other mentions of child victims in the program, which as a whole centered around children of the Holocaust, referred to young victims as if only Jewish children had been involved. Later in the program, a parallel on-screen display was shown, honoring specific Jewish Holocaust survivors and their contributions to society. The absence of a single Romani survivor was a stark reminder of the widespread idea that Roma and Sinti have few cultural merits, in addition to being unworthy of participation in Holocaust remembrance planning. Had any of us been asked, at the very least, for a suggestion, a prominent Romani/Sinti Holocaust survivor easily could have been included in that part of the event.
As just one example of Holocaust commemoration utterances that ring painfully hollow to Romani survivors, their families and communities, many of whom are endangered by neo-Nazi activity daily, I will mention the speech made by Prof. Robert Krell. Overall, it was a moving talk in which he spoke not only of wartime atrocities but also, quite astutely, of post-war reverberations in survivor families. He spoke of the need to keep memory alive, to educate, and to be aware of the present-day effects of racist ideologies. Similar speeches are given each year (not only at the UN), and yet it is very rare that the author thinks to mention the very obvious, very real and very destructive link between the ideology that led to the Holocaust and the neo-Nazi and other racist dogmas that continue to keep Romani people segregated, poorly educated, and frequently unemployed. Rampant discrimination, not to mention the deportation of Romani refugees, is endemic to the same countries where anyone of even one-eighth Romany blood was legally singled out for extermination in the events being commemorated. Because of anti-Gypsyism, Roma and Sinti are at constant risk of physical attack in Europe, not to mention interethnic tensions in certain parts of New York City and other places. And beyond the risk of physical harm, they face a kind of constant discrimination that can easily slip into more dangerous hatreds, and which proper commemoration of the Holocaust ought to discuss. Neither the United Nations nor the annual United States Days of Remembrance in Washington, D.C. have succeeded in this regard.
How can these speakers, one after the other, call for effective Holocaust education without so much as mentioning that the Romani population, currently Europe’s largest ethnic minority, was decimated during the war – exterminated in proportions similar to the Jews according to Simon Wiesenthal and many other historians – and presently subjected to experiences such as “Gypsies to the gas!” graffiti (even on playgrounds) on a regular basis? How can teachers and professors call themselves Holocaust educators when most of their students, when informally polled, still have virtually or absolutely no idea who “Gypsies” or Romanies actually are? These issues, so absurd and ironic that the lack of logic surrounding them should be patently obvious, were once again brought up for the Romani audience members listening to Prof. Krell’s speech. One sentence, however, stood out in particular: when speaking of Einsatzkommandos in Lithuania, Prof. Krell referred to over 100,000 Jewish victims “and a few others.” According to Martin Weiser, Lithuania was one of the countries in which “almost all Gypsies were killed.” Their ethnic group has a name, and it is not “some others.” Their families have suffered as much as Jewish families have. However, what really caused the Romani audience members (and at least one Jewish attendee we know of) to look at each other, stunned, was the flippant tone in which Prof. Krell pronounced “and a few others.” What could have been a highly effective speech was thus tainted with hypocrisy.
In this most recent commemoration, any mentions of Romani victims were once again so minor that a Jewish woman, who had just attended the entire event and whom we met afterward, had no idea who Roma were and what they had to do with the Holocaust. She came up to one of our group’s members and asked what her sign meant. We were each wearing a large brown triangle with the inscription “Gypsy” (with quotes) in front, and a large Z with the word Zigeuner on our backs. The woman was upset that she had never been told about the other group slated for extermination in the Holocaust, and wondered aloud about the Holocaust education she had received, as well as about the program she had just seen. She called the situation “disgusting.” Eventually, she introduced us to a gentleman who was identified as one of the event’s organizers, and she briefly explained why we were standing there with signs. I did not catch the man’s name, as there was a bit of a commotion and he then quickly disappeared. He was eager to point out that a Romani speaker (meaning Andrzej Mirga) had been invited two years ago. I calmly countered that we expect to be included every year, and to have a Romani speaker, musician, or both, for at least five minutes out of the lengthy program. His reply was negative. At this point I said, “This is untenable. It’s morally untenable. It’s academically untenable. And it’s historically untenable.”
This is what I and many, many other Romani community members firmly believe. We are asking not only for a token mention but for inclusion in the organization of commemorative events and the preparation of educational material for schools. Right here on the East Coast, there are Romani academics, musicians, community leaders, survivors and/or relatives of survivors who have never been asked, but who very much want to be involved. Even if we accept the most conservative estimates for Roma and Sinti murdered in the Holocaust (in the hundreds of thousands), allowing Romani representatives a real five minutes each year in a ceremony that lasts up to two hours would hardly be disproportionate. These same people might be consulted to assure that new materials released into schools and media outlets actually explain enough about who Romanies are and what happened to them – a level of awareness with the potential to mean that the Romani victims of the Holocaust did not die entirely in vain. Again, to deny us such input and participation, in an effort that is aimed at learning lessons, at telling the hard truths about history, and at guaranteeing “never again,” would be morally, academically, and historically bankrupt
Petra Gelbart, Ph.D., New York University
Postscript, November 2012: The UN Holocaust Outreach Programme recently held an event discussing both Jewish and Romani mass graves in Eastern Europe. Four panelists were invited; none of them was Romani. Two of them stated, inexplicably, that the Romani experience was separate from the Holocaust. When questioned about the inclusion of Romani people, the head of the Programme claimed that Romani representatives are being invited and consulted, adding in the same breath that “a Roma expert” is being flown in for teacher training. This person is indeed an expert and I welcome his input, but, contrary to what the audience at this event was led to believe, he is not Romani. Many letters of protest have once again been sent by Roma/Sinti, Jews, and others, but we have yet to receive any real response regarding plans for the regular inclusion of voices coming from Roma and Sinti themselves.
Romea: KristallNacht and its connection to Europe Today →
During the late night hours of 9 November and the early morning hours of 10 November 1938, the Nazis in occupied Austria, the occupied border region of the Czech lands, and Germany murdered Jewish people and captured them for the concentration camps. A total of 267 synagogues were burned down or otherwise demolished, 7 500 Jewish apartments and shops were ransacked, 91 Jewish people were directly murdered during the pogrom, and 30 000 ended up in death camps.
This violent action was performed by Hitler’s adherents in the NSDAP at the instigation of his Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels. The pogrom was a predecessor to the so-called “Final Solution” - the mass murder of millions of Jewish people.
Kristallnacht anniversary has sad connotations today as well
The Roma: Forgotten Nazi Genocide →
How many of you know that this week Canada remembers the victims of the Holocaust (O Porrajmos) during their Holocaust Education Week? And how many know the true devastation of the Roma and Sinte at the hands of the Nazis?
Germany's Hypocrisy →
This article shocked and disgusted me. Seriously, read the whole bloody thing!
Recently, if one listened carefully, the long plaintiff sounds of a violin could be heard coming from a small park near the Brandenburg Gate . Refugees had set up a camp and begun a hunger strike protesting their persecution and demanding the right to stay and work in Germany. On the eve of the unveiling of the (Holocaust) monument, police forcibly dismantled and closed down the camp.
Germany and Remembering →
Thanks Germany, but no thanks…
my feelings on the Holocaust memorial opened today
Romani activist: Holocaust remembrance should not perpetuate divisions [ROMEA]
Speaking at the former concentration camp in Hodonín by Kunštát (Czech Republic) this past Sunday to dozens of people paying their respects to the victims of the Romani Holocaust there, activist Karel Holomek warned in his remarks against the constant division of society into “us” and “them”. In his view, it is a good thing that the Czechs are starting to administer Romani matters.
“This is exactly what we need. We must get rid of the obsession with ‘our’ victims here and ‘your’ victims over there,” Holomek said. Video of his remarks (in Czech only) can be seen at http://www.romea.cz/cz/zpravodajstvi/domaci/karel-holomek-zbavme-se-obsese-ze-tyto-obeti-jsou-nase-a-tamhle-vase.
Dozens of people paid tribute to the victims of the Roma Holocaust in Hodonin u Kunštátu - Exactly 69 years ago yesterday, the largest transportation from Hodonin u Kunštátu to the extermination camp at Auschwitz took place. Originally a “disciplinary” camp for people who could not prove a legal source of livelihood, which of course included most Romani people, it became a transit camp - a stopover on the way to the “death” camps. However, in August 1942, a “Gypsy” camp was opened here and all other prisoners were released. Thousands of Romani were forced into overcrowded barracks without electricity or water. Typhus and other diseases quickly spread, killing more than 200 people. The survivors of these diseases awaited an even worse fate - transportation to Auschwitz. On 21 August, 1943 the largest of these occurred with over 730 Romani being taken to the death camp. One third of all inmates of Hodonin u Kunštátu were children.
In the years of communism following the war, Hodonin u Kunštátu was a labour camp for “those avoiding work” (again, the majority were Romani) and it was not completely cleared until recently.
Цыганский Холокост (Romani Holocaust) — Russian language Broadcast
Цыганский Холокост—тема прямого эфира на Израильском радиo “РЭКА”
ведущий-Цви Зильбер
Live broadcast on Israeli radio “REKA”
host-Tsvi Zilber
London memorial service for 500,000 Roma victims of Holocaust [Ekklesia] →
A commemoration service will take place at the Hyde Park Holocaust Memorial in London, at 12 noon on 3 August for the 500,000 Roma who died as victims of the Nazi genocide during the Second World War.
Those attending will wear replicas of the badges worn by death-camp inmates, yellow stars and white triangles embossed with ‘Z’ for Zigeuner. White and yellow flowers will be laid, a black-edged flag lowered and a minute’s silence observed, followed by the singing of the Romani national anthem, which includes the line “The Black Legion murdered them.”
This commemoration is linked with the observance beside the Holocaust Memorial stone in front of the Palais de l’Europe, Council of Europe, which is held by the European Roma and Travellers Forum.
On the night of 2/3 August 1944, the SS carried out the final liquidation of what was known as the Zigeunerlager at the Auschwitz death-camp. Witnesses say the last 3000 inmates, mostly women, children and old men, fought back with their bare hands as they were forced into the lorries taking them to the gas-chambers.
In a statement the Roma said: “We are concerned that today we ‘Gypsies’ are again being made scapegoats, often in the media. We are seeing all over Europe the re-emergence of anti-Roma racism and violence on a growing scale. Witness the acts of wanton home-destruction, forced move-ons, evictions and deportations, vigilante attacks and arson, and racially motivated murders.
“Therefore in remembering the Holocaust, we urge all to help combat racism and halt the downward spiral that could in another dark epoch result in a second genocide.”
Settela Steinbach, a nearly-forgotten Sinti-Roma story from WWII [ROMEDIA FOUNDATION] →
Anna Maria – known as Settela – Steinbach was born on 23 December 1934 in Buchten in Limburg and grew up in a wagon. She came from a large family. Her father was a trader and a violinist, her mother ran the household in their wagon. Searching for work, they moved from village to village. The local authorities did nothing to improve the miserable conditions at the sites where the wagon dwellers stayed. They would rather be rid of them.
Settela and her family were regarded by the authorities as ”Dutch gypsies”, however they originally came from Germany. Settela had probably heard a lot from her family members about the worsening situation there. After 1933, a number of Sinti and Roma were forcibly sterilised under the „Law for the prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring”. In 1935 they were even stripped of their German citizenship. From the mid-1930s, the German Sinti and Roma were locked up in camps. A series of discriminatory measures soon followed.
Political parties mark Roma Holocaust anniversary [Politics.hu] →
Parliamentary opposition parties of Hungary paid tribute to victims of the Roma Holocaust in statements sent to MTI on Thursday.
Racism must not become an objective nor can it be used as a tool by politicians, the main opposition Socialist Party wrote in a statement.
The document warned that “the anti-minority, far-right rhetorics which has once swept across the Carpathian Basin leaving inconceivable destruction behind is again part of our present”.
The statement, signed by party chair Attila Mesterhazy and board member Laszlo Teleki, called on the government to take appropriate measures to fight sentiments against the Roma and other groups of society.
In its statement, the small LMP party also condemned all expressions of hatred and called for solidarity and cooperation to ease tension within society. Lawmaker Timea Szabo, who signed the document, said that Roma and non-Roma were equally responsible for Hungary’s future.
Leftist group Democratic Coalition voiced sympathy over the 3,000 Hungarian Roma who were killed in Auschwitz Birkenau on the night of August 3, 1944. The statement also said that “hatred and discrimination against the Roma has again become legitimate” and referred to the radical nationalist Jobbik party as one embracing racism.
Commemorations for the Roma victims of the Holocaust are held across Hungary on Thursday, marking the last day of executing several thousands of Roma in the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp during the WWII.
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.
Romani prisoners line up for roll call in the Dachau concentration camp. Germany, June 20, 1938.
My Ethnicity is Not a Commodity
The New York Times published an article on 11 July 2012 titled, “Joining the Gypsy Caravan”.
One can only imagine what this article may be about, or how offensive it may possibly be. Ruth La Ferla, the author, writes as if she is an expert about Romani culture, as if she has unlocked the secrets to appropriating Romani traditional dress and now, finally, we can be represented accurately as a fashion and media trend.
Barring the obvious, that non-Romani do not understand our cultural dress, that the way we dress, what adornments we use, and even how we do our hair varies among the many sub-groups, or vitsas, of our ethnic population. With little knowledge of what a “gypsy” even is, high fashion deems it entirely acceptable to alter, and quite frankly, dessimate our traditional dress purely for the satisfaction of a consumer base largely comprised of wealthy, white, young adult women.
Would it be alright if I designed plain, stereotypical “white” clothing, then advertised under the phrase “Joining the cracker suburbs”? Would they come in droves to buy “cracker” inspired polo shirts? Doubtfully.
I don’t put on “kraut” lederhosen and start referring to my newly found style as Bavarian-tribal and pretend to identify with or know anything about culture in Germany. If high end fashionistas began mixing their polka dots and stripes, deeming it “Polack”-chic, they would certainly get a rise from many Polish individuals.
How is it not acceptable to use an ethnic slur and commodify the dress of your fellow white people, but for some reason, culture of those who fall under the category of “tribal”, “exotic”, or “gypsy”, is never afforded accurate and respectful representation in the art and fashion of those who are not members of these ethnic groups? Would you feel comfortable marketing clothes with an African “inspiration” under the label of “tar-baby” trends? It would be just super racist, right.
” […] ‘wore rings on every finger, and I had a stack of bracelets crawling up my arm.’ The changeup was expressive, she said, ‘of a palpable shift to a more personal, chaotic look,’ a festive nod to full-on Gypsy chic.”
No, Vogue Magazine, I have never worn rings on every finger. I have never had bracelets crawling up my arms. I have never met a Romani person dressed in the manner that you are describing; never in my life.
The idea that “gypsy” fashion is individualistic, or chaotic, is not only outright wrong, but extremely insulting. If you want to get technical, our traditional dress is far from “individualistic”. Every article of clothing, every adornment we wear, even how we fix our hair, is symbolic of the Romani group to which we belong, our marital status, and the passing of various other life events. Assuming that we just throw on anything we please both neglects that we have any set customs inherent in our traditional dress, but also trivializes the meaning of what we chose to wear.
“Surprisingly, its flames are being fanned by Gypsies themselves, a youthful cohort intent on exploring the heritage and, often as not, complicit in spinning that heritage into a commodity.”
I will not be buying your clothes, and neither will any other young Romani women. The suggestion that I, an ethnic Romani, know less about my heritage than wealthy, white fashion designers is demeaning. Pardon me, since the white women of high fashion obviously know far more about my own culture than I do, let me step aside so you can show me. Clearly, these Romani “gypsies”, your “tribal” plebians who are the source of your infallible fashion ideology are far too uneducated & far too ignorant to ever understand their own heritage, let alone their very own customs. Please, oh supreme white fashionistas, save of us from our own incomprehension of our culture.
Romani are not “complicit in spinning that heritage into a commodity”. Had you taken a few precious moments from your all important task of infantilizing my people, and typed the word Romani in to your Google search instead of “gypsy”, you may have immediately come across the mountains of petitions and websites dedicated to fighting this commodification and media trendiness of our culture. Of course, I know nothing of my heritage, so how could I ever accurately advise such artistic white genius.
God forbid. God forbid, even for a second, you take time to step outside your upper-crust white-bred neighborhood and ask these “gypsies” what they like to wear, or why they dress a certain way. God forbid you ever admit that you may be wrong, or that for the sake of respect, you forego the silly millions to be made by marketing my dessimated culture to wealthy, white young adult women. God forbid.
“Frequently obsessed with outsider cultures, they are paying homage by festooning dresses in coins and chains, combining madly clashing patterns or adding flounces and fringe […]”
So, I’m an outsider. Forget that our children attend school with yours, that we live in the same neighborhoods as you. No, we are foreign. You must insist that we are not like you, we are somehow different, less than. We have not lived in your countries for over one thousand years, we never learned your languages. Your attempts to take our children from us, to “assimilate” us, to kill us off as a people have failed, because to you, we are still outsiders.
What is a “festooning” dress, anyway? I do not believe that I have any dresses that fall under the category of “festooning”. I do not adorn my clothing with chains, or gold coins. I have no clothes that have a fringe, nor do I clash patterns. Perhaps the pattern clashing is better suited to that “Polack”-chic, because I do believe you are using the wrong ethnic slur here.
You know nothing of our traditional dress. Some Romani women who belong to particular vitsas in specific countries do wear printed skirts, often floral patterns. These skirts also have a special hem, they have a pocket sewn in certain way on the inside, they have ties sewn on in a certain place, and are accompanied by an apron of the same cloth. None of your ultra “gypsified” models have anything remotely resembling this traditional skirt.
Why do we wear such long skirts, anyway? Oh, right. My silly ignorant Romani self would not know the answer to this because white designers know my culture better than I ever could. I must be absolutely incorrect that Romani women, more often than not, cover their legs. I could not possibly be accurate in saying that a Romani woman would not be allowed to wear short skirts, or cropped tops, no matter how “gypsy” they appear to be.“You sense about the Gypsy style something very sensual, very ornate and very precious,” he said, “but also very free.”
You brought it up, so don’t blame me for the response, Mr. Altuzarra. There is nothing sensual about a middle-aged woman in an ankle-length skirt, a blouse about two sizes too big, and scarf atop her head. The goal of our traditional methods of dressing is actually to de-sexualize women. That is precisely why our skirts are so long, and our blouses so loose. The purpose of our headscarves, called a diklo, is to actually cover our hair. We do not wear these scarves like a headband, but they are tied a very specific way over our hair, which is almost always in a bun or a braid, and often tightened with a special ring. Is your next trend Arab-chic. Are you going to misappropriate the hijab and subsequently refer to the look as sexy?
We’re precious. Okay. Go ahead, white man, infantilize me some more. I do not know about my heritage, and now I am “precious”. You call children precious, not an entire race of people.
Let’s talk about freedom. How about we discuss these regions of Europe from where your “gypsy” fashions materialized to this so-called art of yours. Let’s talk about the Romani of some Central European countries, in particular, since you chose to refer to them, specifically.
These Balkan “gypsies” were slaughtered during the Balkan wars and Armenian genocide. Not only were they the forgotten victims of various genocides in the region, but they remain oppressed and marginalized. After the wars, and in the relative peace, their neighborhoods were torched; they were killed and exiled in their own countries. Some are denied access to birth records and other government documents. This has caused a situation, in some countries, where they cannot leave. They remain trapped, in poverty, with no way to receive health care, send their children to school, or get jobs. Indirect genocide, is what I call it. In the decades to come, many “gypsy” communities will slowly, but surely, die out.
This is personal.
My family, on my father’s side, is from a region of Europe called Mačva. Now a part of Serbia, Mačva was once owned by Hungary. The region once had a relatively sizeable Romani population. They are a branch of the Romani tribe called the Lovari. We are so identified by this region that we named ourselves for having lived there; the Lovari- Mačvaya. We were slaves in Mačva; we fell into the same period of enslavement as Romani of Romania. After nearly five hundred years of slavery, when our people were liberated, many, such as my own family, fled to South America & the United States. Those who remained were subjected to the genocidal policies of Hitler during the Second World War. The survivors of the Holocaust, what we call the Porrajmos, were then subject to further genocide during the break-up of the former Yugoslavia. The Mačvaya are a dying people. My flesh and blood, my very own “gypsy” tribe is on the cusp of extinction.
How about these “boho” Romani? You so assuredly state, “[…] ‘Gypsy’ is a catchall term for everything bohemian”.
Bohemia is a region of the Czech Republic. My family has tread this land, too. I am from a family called the Turcsiks. They mostly resided in Hungary, but my particular ancestors settled in Mačva. Even so, this family of mine lived for hundreds of years in this region of Europe; Hungary, Serbia, and the Czech Republic. When Hitler rose to power in Germany, he herded my family like animals into cattle cars and sent them to Auschwitz, Sobibor, Hodonin and Lety, that is, those who were not the victims of the mass murders in the killing fields. Many of these massacres were committed by Czech people, by Bohemians.
No, Bohemian is not “gypsy”. The Bohemians killed my family.
There were once Lovari in the Czech Republic. There were once great and large Romani vitsas that no longer exist. Just like in Serbia, much of my own “tribe” was killed in this region. There are no more Turcsiks in the Czech Republic. There are no Turcsiks left in Mačva. There are very few Turcsiks alive in Hungary. This family, my family, continues to suffer from oppression, racism, even violence that has taken the lives of innocent children.
Then there is my mother’s side. The Polska Romani, much like the “gypsies” of Russia, they are the epitome of this stereotypical “gypsy” fashion you know nothing about. My mother’s family happened to live in Vilnius, Lithuania. They likely never made it to Auschwitz, Dachau, Marzahn or any of the other concentration or extermination camps. Most were killed in the forests outside Vilnius. Denial. Lithuanians deny the number of Jews they killed. They deny the number of Romani they killed. The extermination of Romani in Lithuania & Poland receives little attention. There are no numbers to be found. We only know the extent of the massacres because the Romani populations in this region have never recovered. These “gypsies” of Lithuania, my very own extended family, number less than five thousand now.
Perhaps the dress that should be appropriated for Romani of Europe consists of black and white stripes ornately adorned with a black triangle. But, this free and precious little “gypsy” of yours certainly knows nothing of her own heritage.
Tear out my still beating heart, white man. Shred it into pieces. Just make certain when you bury me, I am standing.
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