Hidden History: Perceptions of the Romani Holocaust in Romania Viewed Through Contemporary Race Relations
Year: 2007
Type: article
Abstract: Romanian authorities stirred up international outrage in 2003, when they denied that the Holocaust took place in Romania, despite the deportation by the pro-Nazi regime led by Ion Antonescu of hundreds of thousands of Jews and tens of thousands of Roma to Axis-occupied Soviet territories.In the wake of this scandal, then-President Ion Iliescu bowed to international pressures and created the International Commission for Studying the Holocaust in Romania, headed by Nobel Prize laureate Elie Wiesel.In November 2004, the!Commission presented its conclusions to Iliescu, stating that the Antonescu regime was responsible for the deaths of at least 280,000 Jews and over 11,000 Roma.! Noting that its report came after six decades of Holocaust denial, the panel urged authorities to disseminate materials on the Holocaust and to organize public debates to raise awareness of this hidden history.As Romania was grappling with these wartime atrocities, it was also trying to solidify its Euro-Atlantic ties through admission into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and had entered accession talks with the European Union.Decades of omission and denial had passed, forcing the country to re-assess its memory of the Holocaust.Communist-era dominance of the Soviet-informed narrative had allowed Romania to shape its collective memory of the Holocaust so that solely Nazi Germany bore the burden of genocide, while Romanian involvement in atrocities was minimally covered.As was Poland, Romania was forced into what Genevieve Zubryzcki calls narrative shock that accompanied the repositioning of the national narrative about the Holocaust (Zubryzcki 2006). 1 Instead of Volume 25, No. 2 Page 45 contemporary perceptions of Roma as asocial victimizers of Romanians.4 In this article, I examine Romanians' perception of their past to better understand how its conceptualization influences the present.While a few studies depict Romanian perceptions of the Holocaust, none focus specifically on the fate of Roma. 5 First and foremost, I want to know what recollections of the Romani Holocaust reveal about the collective memory of Nazi persecution.Have these narratives entered the collective memory of Romanians?If so, what do Romanians think about Roma and the Holocaust, and are their views subject to transformation?How have these stories reconfigured the relationship between Romani survivors and dominant members of contemporary Romanian society?To apprehend Romanians' perceptions of Roma as victims of the Antonescu government, I use audience reactions to a documentary film entitled Hidden Sorrows: The Persecution of Romanian Gypsies During WWII, 6 which I produced and directed.7 While it is not the only 4 According to a study, World Bank Final Report: Qualitative Survey (Focus Groups) Attitudes Towards the Roma in Romania July 2005, most Romanians believe that Roma are social deviants (criminals) who seek advantage at the expense of Romanians.5 See: Viorel Achim si Constantin Iordachi, Romania si Transnistria: Problema Holocaustului.Perspectiva istorice comparative (2005) Editura Curte Veche.See also: "Survey of opinions regarding the Holocaust in Romania and perceptions of inter-ethnic relations," National Institute for the Study of the Holocaust in Romania, May 2007.6 I use the word Gypsy in the title because my respondents declared a preference for !igan over rom (Gypsy over Rom) in interviews.On the necessity of situating the term "igan in the Romanian context and the difficulties that inhere in attempts to translate it into English, see Woodcock, this issue.7 I use Romanian to refer to viewer citizenship, as audience members' ethnicity was not recorded.The majority of Romanian nationals are ethnic Romanians (89.5%), followed by ethnic Hungarians (6.6%), Roma (2.5%), ethnic Ukrainians (0.3%), ethnic Germans (0.3%), etc. Roma are considered to be underrepresented in the film on this topic, it was the first distributed through the Romanian educational system, which meant it was the first exposure many viewers had to the subject.The film stands as a proxy for the Holocaust history of Romanian Roma, and viewers' reactions to it in surveys and discussions provide insight into their prior knowledge of the genocide while revealing present attitudes!toward the Holocaust and toward Roma.Understanding Romanian interpretations of Romani Holocaust history is essential since Roma, unlike other victim groups in recent Romanian history, continue to be the main target of prejudice and racism in Romania today.8
Author: Michelle Kelso
Institution: University of Michigan
Language: English
Topic: Romani and Gypsy Studies
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W1510959844