jpr
/ policy paper No.
3 1996
The Roma/Gypsies of Europe:
a persecuted people
'The treatment of Roma/Gypsies has become a
litmus test for a humane society. Their widespread suffering is now one of
Europe's most pressing-but most neglected-human rights issues.'
Margaret Brearley
Summary
Second to the Jews, the Roma are Europe's oldest
non-Christian minority. In many European coun-tries which now have a minimal
Jewish presence, Roma have taken over the role of principal scapegoat. Their
treatment has become a litmus test for a humane society. Today they suffer
serious and increasing persecution. Since the collapse of com-munism in Central
and Eastern Europe in 1989, their plight has significantly worsened in that
region. Roma face new forms of discrimination and legal harassment in several
West European countries, including Britain. The widespread suffer-ing of Roma is
now one of Europe's most pressing-but most neglected-human rights issues.
This Policy Paper outlines the tragic history of persecution of the Roma in
Europe from their arrival in the fourteenth century to barbaric measures against
them in the sixteenth-eighteenth centuries-including forced labour or expulsion,
enslavement, forcible and permanent removal of children, hunts to the death, the
imposition of the death penalty on the sole grounds that the individual was a
Gypsy-and their genocidal suffering during the Second World War. Numerous
parallels are drawn between the history of anti-gypsyism and the history of
antisemitism.
Above all, the paper focuses on the contemporary situation of Roma in various
European countries. Persecution of Roma today takes many forms. Grassroots
prejudice, deriving from centuries of official outlawry, runs deep and often
results in public hostility and discrimination, lynchings, house-burnings and
murder. Roma are a prime target for skinhead and ultra-nationalist violence, and
are sometimes victims of police brutality. They are virtually always on the
bottom rung of society: the severity of their health, educational and housing
problems approximates that in the developing world and is more acute than in any
other sector of the population. In some Central and East European countries most
Roma are destitute.
Since 1989 many impoverished or persecuted Roma in Central and Eastern Europe
have been able to extend their nomadism (their traditional survival mechanism)
across borders and seek asylum in the West. This in turn has triggered
hostility, violence, repressive government legislation and forced repatriation.
Although it concentrates on the urgent humanitarian needs of today's Roma, this
paper also records the new measures being introduced at national and European
levels, both by newly formed Roma organizations and by governmental and
voluntary bodies. Concern at the unique and growing problems faced by Roma has
resulted in important initiatives within the Council of Europe and the
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. The paper also makes a
number of recommendations for further policy initiatives on behalf of Roma.
Preface
In devoting this Policy Paper to the persecution of Roma
in Europe, the Institute for Jewish Policy Research (JPR) is continuing the
tradition of commitment to general human rights issues followed by its
predecessor, the Institute of Jewish Affairs.
Moreover, Jewish scholars have for many years been involved in Romany issues,
both at an academic level and in political activism on behalf of Roma. It is
hoped that this Policy Paper will contribute at both levels by outlining the
tragic history of the oppression of Gypsies in Europe, highlighting the factual
details of their current situation and proposing policy recommendations.
The preparation of this paper has been long and complicated, partly because
there are no Roma archives in Britain. Many of the materials used were drawn
from the private libraries and document collections of two academic specialists
and political activists working on behalf of Gypsies, the linguist Dr Donald
Kenrick and the sociologist Dr Thomas Acton, to both of whom I am deeply
indebted.
I am especially grateful to Dr Paul Iganski, social researcher and a member of
the JPR Research Board, for writing the policy recommendations and to Dr Donald
Kenrick for providing material enabling me to update the current developments
section.
While there may well be ethnic and cultural overlap between Roma and other
travellers (e.g. Irish travellers and the Swiss Jenisch), who also experience
hostility and persecution, this paper focuses solely on Roma. For reasons of
space, it cannot be comprehensive. There is no discussion of Romany communities
outside Europe. Regrettably, certain countries with sizeable Gypsy populations
have had to be omitted, primarily due to of lack of space or of sufficient
readily available material, but also because there is normally less active
harassment in those countries.(1)
Readers familiar with JPR's Antisemitism World Report and its standardized
format for coverage of individual countries should not expect similar
standardization in this paper. With some exceptions, such as Spain, the length
of an entry reflects the relative numbers of Roma resident within that country
and the acuteness of their situation. Data relating to Roma are often sparse and
contradictory. Information is easier to obtain for Central and Eastern Europe
than for Western Europe, with the major exceptions of Albania and the former
Soviet republics. It is known that harassment of Roma is currently an increasing
problem in some of the Baltic states, Belarus, Moldava and the Ukraine, but no
details appear in this paper due to lack of verifiable sources.
Within Europe as a whole, the history and present situation of Gypsies within a
given country is often highly distinctive. Each country is therefore treated as
a discrete entity and, where appropriate, a brief history of Gypsies in that
country is included. Nevertheless, key common factors in the treatment of Roma
do emerge. Both historical and contemporary factors have been summarized.
The paper cannot claim to be an adequate reflection of the complex economic and
social burdens experienced by Roma today. But it will, I hope, transmit
something of their past and present suffering and alert its readers to the
urgency of their plight and to the importance of protecting both the Gypsies and
their unique identity.
1 All statistics of Roma populations (unless derived from
government census figures, which are invariably unreliable) are
taken from the Minority Rights Group report byJcan-Pierre
Liegeois and Nicolae Gheorghe, Roma/Gypsies: A European
Minority (London 1995), 7 (hereafter MRGJ. Countries/areas
omitted include: Turkey (300,000-500,000), Greece (160,000-
200,000), Scandinavia (24,000-32,000), Portugal (40,000-50,000),
Belgium (10,000-15,000), the Netherlands (35,000-40,000),
Switzerland (30,000-35,000) and Ukraine (50,000-60,000).
Introduction
A land without Gypsies is a land without
freedom.(2)
Living scattered all over Europe, not having a
country to call their own, Gypsies are a true
European minority, but one that does not fit in the
definitions of national or linguistic minorities.
Council of Europe recommendation, January 1994
The Roma are the most vilified and harassed
minority in Europe today. Exact population figures
are not available: in censuses many Roma conceal
their identity due to the internalized racism and
shame borne of persecution and/or as a survival
mechanism. Numbering between 7 and 8.5 million,
including over 5.2 million in Central and Eastern
Europe, Roma are more despised than any other
ethnic group. In opinion surveys of attitudes
towards various nationalities/ethnic groups
sponsored by the American Jewish Committee in a
number of European countries between 1991 and
1996, respondents almost consistently voiced the
greatest degree of hostility towards Gypsy communities.(3) Referring to Roma in Central and
Eastern Europe, Tom Gross wrote in 1994: 'No
other group in this region ... is currently exposed
to such widespread racial hatred and prejudice—
and there are signs that the situation is worsening.'(4)
Dominant cultures tend to mistrust nomadism and
autonomous, non-conformist communities.
Throughout 600 years as non-Europeans in
Europe, Gypsies have been consistently persecuted
solely for being Gypsy. French sociologist Jean-
Pierre Elegeois stated: 'The Gypsies, moving about
in their nomadic groups, were seen as physically
threatening and ideologically disruptive. Their very
existence constituted dissidence.'(5) Myths
contributing to the cycle of Gypsy persecution and
deprivation have abounded. Some still have wide
currency—e.g. that Gypsies are thieves, abduct
children and are parasites on the host community. Long-extant negative stereotypes of Gypsies have
gained new force in the European media, for most
people their only encounter with Gypsies.
Post-1989
The persecution of Roma has intensified during the
past seven years. As the break-up of Russia's
communist empire removed inhibitors of ultra-
nationalist and racist sentiments and far-right
movements have grown, anti-gypsyism has
flourished. While no government has proposed
expelling all Gypsies, some right-wing parties have
made such a proposal—with popular support.
Several governments, including those of Germany,
France and Britain, do not want Gypsy refugees.
The worsening economic and social climate in both
Western and Central and Eastern Europe has
reduced m-any Gypsies to destitution. The reaction
of European Union countries to the mass migration
of refugees, including many Roma, has led to
increased hostility towards indigenous Gypsies, a
tightening of legal controls on them and forced
repatriation of most Roma refugees. Their one
traditional means of fleeing persecution—escape
across national borders—is now virtually closed.
Largely unprotected by local authorities and the
police, European Roma communities have endured
much since the major political upheavals of 1989—
forced evictions from homes; expulsions from
villages and towns (often with the support of local
mayors); physical assault and murder by skinheads,
policemen and neighbours; exclusion from public
places; widespread legal discrimination; unduly
harsh prison sentences and extortionate fines for
petty offences; and endemic racial abuse. With
reason, a Polish Rom leader, Stamslaw Stankiewicz,
remarked at a Council of Europe conference on
Roma in 1991: 'Today we are witnessing the new
changes which are sweeping through Europe. What
we see causes us great fears . . . We Roma must ask:
is there room for us?'(6)
Contemporary problems
Roma have become the pariahs of Europe, sharing a
collective fate of rejection. Nicolae Gheorghe,
sometime vice-president of the International Roma
Union, has said: 'To be a Gypsy is not just an ethnic
identity, but is also a stigma.'(7) The 1995 Minority
Rights Group report on Roma/Gvpsies stressed
that they 'are uniquely subject to measures of
control, and expulsion, among others, which affect
the group as a whole, rather than a given individual
under suspicion for a precise reason.'(8)
Most Roma are poor; each year their poverty
increases and their plight deteriorates. Their life
expectancy is up to a third lower than that of non-
Gypsies. Roma throughout Europe have high birth
and death rates, high infant mortality, early
marriage and large families; many suffer from
malnutrition and diseases now rare in the general
population. They thus experience many of the
hardships associated with populations in
developing countries.(9) Their situation is one of
'powerlessness in the face of oppression and violence'.(10)
Ways forward
Yet there are signs of hope.(11) A new generation of
Rom intellectuals and activists has created an
infrastructure of Gypsy organizations which work
together with EU and governmental bodies to
ameliorate conditions for Roma. Gypsies are now
recognized as an ethnic minority or nationality in
Britain, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary and Slovakia;
museums of Gypsy life have been established in the
Czech Republic and Poland; Macedonia and
Slovakia now have broadcasts for Roma on radio
and television. Some governments (notably that of
Hungary) help to fund Gypsy clubs and societies.
Projects to increase awareness among police and
teachers of the special needs of Gypsy communities
are being undertaken in several countries.
This paper will explore the historical background to
the contemporary situation of Roma, their present
persecution and current projects and proposals to
alleviate their suffering.
Terminology(12)
Gypsy A term used to denote ethnic groups formed
by the dispersal of commercial, nomadic and other
groups from within India from the tenth century
onwards, and their mixing with European and other
groups throughout their diasporic history. The term
is not intrinsically derogatory and is now used
widely by Romany leaders and writers.
Roma/Rom A broad term used to signify
(a) ethnic groups (e.g. Kalderash, Eovari) who
speak the 'Vlach', 'Xoraxane' or 'Rom' varieties of
the Romani dialect; (b) any person identified to
others as 'Tsigane' in Central and Eastern Europe
and Turkey, plus those outside the region of East
European extraction; (c) Romany people in general.
Sinti Long-established Gypsies in Germany.
2 A prayer in Divesò a Gvpsy newsletter in Albania.
3 See Renae Cohen and Jennifer Golub, Attitudes Toward Jews in
Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia: A Comparative Survey
(1991); Lev Gudkov and Alex Levinson, Attitudes Toward jell's
in the Soviet Union (1992); Fntz Karmasm, Austrian Attitudes
Toward Jews, Israel, and the Holocaust (1992); Zora Butorova
and Martin Butora, Attitudes Toward Jews in Independent
Slovakia (1995); Jennifer Golub, British Attitudes Toward Jews
and Other Minorities (1993); Jennifer Golub, Current German
Attitudes Toward Jews and Other Minorities (1994); Renac
Cohen and Jennifer Golub, Current Austrian Attitudes Toward
Jews and the Holocaust (1995); Renae Cohen and Jennifer Golub, Knowledge and Remembrance of the Holocaust m
Poland (1995); Current Russian Attitudes Toward Jews and the
Holocaust: A Public-Opinion Survey (1996).
4 Tom Gross, Jewish Chronicle, 25 February 1994.
5 Jean-Pierre Liegeoi.s, Gypsies: An Illustrated History, trans.
Tony Berrett (London 1985), 104.
6 'The Gypsy people and Europe: continuation of the tradition in
a changing Europe', Council of Europe (CE) Conference
Report, July 1991,30.
7 The Times, 30 September 1992.
8 MKG,13.
9 'The .situation of Gypsies (Roma and Smti) in Europe',
European Committee on Migration (CDMG), CE, May 1995, 4.
10 Diane Tong, Gypsies: A Multi-disciplinary Annotated Bibliography (New York 1995), 171.
11 See especially section 6 of this paper.
12 Taken from MRG, 6. Except in certain specific contexts, the
terms 'Gypsy', 'Romany' and 'Roma/Rom' are used more or
less interchangeably in this paper.
List of abbreviations
CDMG European Committee on Migration (of the Council of Europe)
CE Council of Europe
CERA European Centre for Research and Action on Racism and Antisemitism
CSCE Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe
EC European Community
EU European Union
IRR Institute of Race Relations, London
MRG Minority Rights Group
NGO Non-governmental organization
ODIHR Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (of OSCE)
OECD Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
OSCE Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
UNHCR Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
1/
Historical outline
It is certain that the Gypsies have at all times been
godless, wicked people who are harried with
complete justification.(13)
Origins
The Roma are, like the Jews, one of the oldest
surviving minority groups in Europe. It is assumed,
on linguistic and ethnic grounds, that they descend
from several tribes or castes which left northern
India between 500-1000 CE, perhaps following
Muslim invasions. The Roma comprise many
diverse tribal groupings, distinct but linguistically
and ethnically related. Although culturally
heterogeneous, they are linked as one people by the
Romani language, which has more than 100 dialects
but a common core vocabulary, two-thirds deriving
from Sanskrit or Hindi. Other uniting factors
include: a strong core culture and value system,
cleanliness/pollution taboos, autonomous systems
of justice, traditions of purposeful nomadism and a
shared history of persecution and group solidarity.
Roma who were long settled in Central and
Western Europe were often given derogatory names
by non-Gypsies {gaje, gadze), reflecting their
presumed origins ('Gypsies' from 'Little Egypt',
claimed by some Roma as their country of origin
and perhaps referring to Rom settlements in the
eastern Mediterranean) and presumed heresy
('Heiden' in German; 'Cigane', 'Tsigane' and
'Zigeuner' out of confusion with the heretical
Byzantine sect from Asia Minor of 'Atsinganos',
'untouchables'). But long-established Roma groups
developed other names for themselves—Cale
('blacks') in Spain and southern France,
Romanichals in England, Sinti in Germany and
Manouches in France. Later nineteenth-century
arrivals from the Balkans, following the abolition of
Roma slavery in 1855-6, included tribes named
from traditional skills (Kalderash, or copper-smiths;
Lovari, or horse-dealers; Ursari, or bear-leaders).
Roma in medieval Europe
After their departure from India, Roma migrated
slowly westwards in family or tribal groups
through Iran and Armenia, reaching
Constantinople in the eleventh century. By the late
fourteenth century they were widely established in
the Balkans and beyond. By 1427 they were
travelling throughout Western Europe in groups of
100-300 or more and had reached Saragossa, Augsburg, Eeipzig, Zurich, Hamburg, Brussels and
Rostock.
In pre-Reformation Europe, paganism had been
extinguished. Marginal groups—including heretics,
early proto-Protestants and Jews—were at best
tolerated, at worst harshly persecuted and killed or,
in the case of Jews in numerous states, banished.
Europe meant Christendom—Roman Catholic in
the West, Orthodox in the East. Although
essentially animist, Roma were not immediately
persecuted. Claiming to be penitent pilgrims under
papal or imperial protection, they initially inspired
a warm reception by ecclesiastical and secular
authorities and local populations, despite their
exotic dress and outlandish appearance. Official
gifts of alms, food and clothing were the norm. But
although Roma leaders—frequently non-Gypsy
and called 'dukes' or 'counts' in contemporary
chronicles—produced often authentic documents of
safe conduct from emperors, nobility or the Pope,
hospitality soon gave way to hostility.
Beginnings of repression
As constantly shifting groups of 'pilgrims'
returned, benevolence waned. Some local
populations were alienated by incidents of petty
theft; the Church opposed fortune-telling and
healing; racism triggered by a dark skin, oriental
dress and presumed Islamic provenance
increasingly provoked contempt. More
importantly, as increasingly centralized nation-
states grappled, during the sixteenth century, with
the massive social upheavals caused by early
agrarian capitalism (including unemployment,
destitution and increased vagrancy due to field
enclosures and abandoned villages), harsh
legislative measures were introduced to curb
begging and all itinerants.
Linked to these harsh measures, and perhaps to
new theological intolerance and fear of popular
uprisings (such as the German Peasants' Revolt in
1523) inspired partly by the incipient Reformation,
were 'the sustained genocidal persecution and
enslavement [of Roma] which appeared in the third
and fourth decades of the sixteenth century'.(14) In
this more repressive climate Gypsies proved a
ready-made scapegoat. Banishment, refusals of safe
conduct passes and repressive legislation designed
to outlaw nomadic Gypsies replaced charity
virtually everywhere by the end of the sixteenth
century.
Roma in Eastern Europe
The fate of Roma in Eastern Europe varied widely
(cf. sections on individual countries); they became
predominantly sedentary, as opposed to West
European Gypsies, who remained predominantly
nomadic. In the north they experienced expulsion,
forced assimilation and extermination in turn.
Under the Ottoman Empire (Albania, Bulgaria and
other parts of the Balkans), Roma generally fared
better than in Christendom, although taxation
could be harsh. Roma occupied separate quarters of
towns and villages. They were free to remain
nomadic and not specifically subject to repressive
laws. In Wallachia and Moldavia, however, they
were perpetual slaves from the fourteenth to the
mid-nineteenth century, and bear the scars of
slavery even today.'(15) Without rights and as the
property of secular princes or monasteries, they
were in the absolute power of their masters, who
could dispose of them at will, and torture and kill
them without penalty. Mihail Kogalmceanu, a
campaigner for the emancipation of Roma slaves,
wrote in 1837: 'The Europeans are organizing
philanthropic societies for the abolition of slavery
in America, yet in the bosom of their own
continent of Europe, there are 400,000 Gypsies
who are slaves, and 200,000 more equally victim to
barbarousness.'(16)
Roma in Western Europe
In Western Europe the fate of Roma varied in detail
from country to country and from decade to
decade, but most states sought at some stage to
annihilate the Gypsy presence within their borders,
particularly if it was nomadic. In various countries
at various times, organized Gypsy hunts became a
fashionable sport. To be a Rom was a crime; if
apprehended, the penalty could be torture,
flogging, branding and banishment. The penalty for
a second offence was death by hanging for men and
drowning for women. To deter Romanies from
entering a particular territory, public warning signs
showing the flogging and branding of a Romany
were often displayed near borders.
Male Roma were often sent to the royal galleys,
serving as chained oarsmen for many years. Women
and children could be forcibly banished. In
Hungary, Germany, Spain and elsewhere, children
as young as two or four could be forcibly removed
from their mothers and given to non-Romanies to
rear. (The fact that Gypsy children often sought to
escape and their parents attempted to rescue them
may have led to the myth that Gypsies steal non-Gypsy children. In fact, non-Gypsies stole Gypsy
children for forced assimilation.)
France
The most difficult period for Roma in France was
the late seventeenth century. Laws enacted in 1666
decreed that all Roma males were to be sent to the
galleys for life. Louis XIV strengthened these laws
in 1682: boys too young for the galleys were to be
placed in hospices, women and girls branded and
: banished. Nobility and magistrates were forbidden
to shelter Romanies on pain of losing both office
and domains. Such laws were enforced as
rigorously as small police forces permitted.
Romany bands were hunted down, many were sent
to the galleys and clan groups were dispersed. Small
family units became sedentary or sought shelter in
isolated mountain or border regions.
Germany
In some German states, all adult Romanies faced
torture, flogging, branding and banishment, while
males could be sentenced to life imprisonment with
hard labour. If banished Romanies reappeared, they
were liable to hanging without trial. The
Netherlands pursued an equally repressive policy:
harsh measures, bordering in the eighteenth century
on genocide, included organized large-scale Gypsy
hunts, hard labour and the gallows.
England
In England, specific legislation adopted against
Gypsies was designed to expel all who chose not to
become sedentary, on pain of forfeiture of life and
property. Wandering Romanies "were hanged for
nomadism until the 1650s in England and 1714 in
Scotland. Lesser penalties for being apprehended as
Gypsies remained, including whipping, hard labour
or perpetual banishment. Children between the
ages of five and fourteen could be taken into unpaid
bonded service until the age of eighteen for girls
and twenty-four for boys (such legislation also
applied to non-Gypsy beggars). Laws attacking
vagabondage continued to name 'Gypsies'
specifically as late as the Vagrant Act of 1824.
Roma and the Church
Although, from early on, Roma had often sought to
baptize their children and have Church marriages
and funerals, the Church was largely hostile
towards them until nineteenth-century Protestant
revival movements encouraged active proselytizing
among them. In Central and Eastern Europe, slaves
belonging to churches and monasteries were treated
even more cruelly than those of the nobility. In
1568 Pope Pius V sought to expel all Gypsies from
the domain of the Roman Catholic Church,
prompting Spain, Portugal and France to begin
shipping Roma as slaves to colonies in Africa and
the Americas.
Forced assimilation in the eighteenth
century
By the eighteenth century, the forcible sedentarization and assimilation of Roma had
replaced the aims of total exclusion and death. The
ultimate aim was the annihilation of Romany
identity and language (and even, in Hungary and
Spam, their very name) rather than of the Roma
themselves. The measures designed to achieve this
could be brutal, and Roma sought to evade them
wherever possible. Forced settlement with
prohibition on travel was common; children
remained vulnerable to forcible seizure by the state
until recently (between 1926 and 1973 Switzerland's Pro Juventute organization took hundreds of
Jenisch children to be reared by non-Gypsy
families); in some countries Romanies were
forbidden to marry one another. In Spain all male
Roma were rounded up in June 1749 and sent to
penal establishments and mercury mines; many
died of exhaustion and disease, and some were not
released for sixteen years.
Strategies for Roma survival
It is remarkable that the Roma have survived, given
the harshness with which they have been treated
throughout Europe. They subsisted on the
geographical margins (border lands, remote or
mountainous regions) and the economic margins of
society, working among rural peasants or the urban
poor as skilled craftsmen, itinerant smiths,
musicians, peddlers, casual labourers and seasonal
farm -workers. From the sixteenth century onwards,
army commanders valued Rom smiths as makers
and menders of weapons. Gypsies were illiterate
and without books. But they possessed a rich
heritage—valuable crafts and technical skills
acquired in India or Byzantium (including weaving,
smelting, making shot and basket-making); facility
in music, dance and entertainment; a profound
knowledge of the natural world and its free
products to sell or transform for their own use.
Roma learned to adapt quickly and with versatility
to changed laws or circumstances, rapidly acquiring
new crafts and means of earning an independent
livelihood. Their widely attested love of children,
close kinship bonds and social solidarity forged
strong ties of loyalty and identity within their
particular Roma grouping. Moreover, they could
frequently count on support among the nobility
and gentry, as well as among some elements of the
local peasantry and urban working class, among
whom they lived often harmoniously in 'cultural osmosis',(17) providing valued peripatetic services to
settled populations. Indeed, it is known that
numbers of gadze joined the Gypsies permanently.
Survival mechanisms included: developing a
financially independent 'culture of invisibility';
patterns of migrating and emigrating in search of
work; flexible habits of seasonal nomadism; and
temporary or longer-term settlement according to
opportunities for employment.
Roma in European culture
From the late eighteenth century onwards there
was some amelioration in attitudes towards Roma.
Scholars, particularly philologists, began to
appreciate the antiquity and rich provenance of
Romani language and customs. The Romantic
interest in the Volk awakened interest in Gypsies as
a distinct 'people'. Romany instrumental music,
song and dance became popular from Spain to
Hungary; leading Rom musicians entertained
aristocrats in Hungary and Russia, a few even
marrying into the aristocracy. Numerous non-
Gypsy composers, including Liszt, Bizet, Brahms,
Rachmaninov and Bartok, were inspired by Gypsy
music. Artists frequently painted romanticized
portraits of Gypsies.
Whereas earlier literature, particularly drama and
clerical writing, had treated Roma with contempt,
casting them in an entirely negative light, Goethe
was one of the first to characterize a Romany chief
as a 'noble savage'. While the semi-autobiographical
novels of George Borrow, including Lavengro
(1851) and Romany Rye (1857), drew on prolonged
though ambiguous first-hand experience of
Romanies as 'real' people, many nineteenth-century
writers like Sir Walter Scott romanticized Gypsies
or, conversely, portrayed them as lawless outcasts.
In nineteenth-century France and elsewhere Roma
were still banished or imprisoned simply for being
Gypsies; in Germany children were forcibly
removed to orphanages until the end of the century.
Negative stereotypes abounded. (And still do:
Gypsiologist Diane Tong recently wrote: 'Gypsies
are often devalued as people at the same time that
their arts are valued and imitated world-wide.'(18))
Yet during the nineteenth century some churches
and humanitarian bodies began to grow aware of
the increasing poverty of many Roma communities.
Nineteenth-century developments
While deep-seated prejudice remained widespread,
some persecution from official sources lessened.
Emancipation of Romany serfs and slaves in
Wallachia and Moldavia was completed in 1864 and
coincided with large migrations of diverse Romany
tribes from the Balkans and Hungary. Exotic in
appearance, speaking strongly Romanian-
influenced dialects, the Kalderash and other
occupation-based tribes emigrated to the Americas and settled widely throughout Europe, providing a
marked contrast to the long-settled 'Gypsies' and
today forming important subgroups of the Romany
people.
Yet in the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries the influx of Rom into Europe triggered
new outbreaks of anti-Gypsy legislation and
prejudice, particularly within the German state,
Switzerland and France, and led to widespread
attempts to control Gypsy nomadism prior to the
First World War.
13 Universal-Lexicon alter Wissenschaften und Künste (Eeipzig
1735), quoted in Angus Eraser, The Gypsies (Oxford and
Cambridge, MA 1992), 190. For the historical section I am
indebted to Fraser and to David M. Crowe, A History of the
Gypsies of Eastern Europe and Russia (Eondon 1995); cf. also Ian Hancock,
The Pariah Syndrome: An Account of Gypsy
Slavery and Persecution (Ann Arbor, MI 1987).
14 Nicolae Gheorghe and Thomas Acton, 'Dealing with
multiculturality: minority, ethnic, national and human rights',
OSCE ODIHR Bulletin, vol. 3, no. 1, 1995, 31.
15 Marcel Courtiade, 'Quelques reperes psvch(olog)iques dans l'histoire des Roms de
l'Est', in Claire Auzias, Les Families
Roms d'Europe de l'Est (Paris 1995), 15-23.
16 Quoted m Hancock, 33.
17 Jcan-Pierre Liégeois, Gypsies and Travellers: Soeio-cultural
Data, Socio-political Data (Strasbourg: CE 1987), 17.
18 Tong,33.
2/
The forgotten holocaust
Anti-Gypsy racism prior to the Jewish
Holocaust
The social Darwinism deriving from theories of
Aryan racial superiority propagated by Richard
Wagner, Count Gobineau (L'Essai sur l'inégalité des
races humaines, 1853-5) and Houston Stewart
Chamberlain led to increased contempt for Roma.
In 1876 Cesare Lombroso, in L'uomo delinquente,
typified Roma as atavistic and criminal.(19) Decrees to
deport or exclude foreign Roma and pressurize
nomadic Roma to settle were passed in Germany at
Bismarck's instigation. In 1899 research on Roma
began in a Munich institute, later named the
Central Office for Fighting the Gypsy Nuisance.
The institute was created by the Bavarian police and
was closed only in 1970.(20)
In 1906 the Prussian government issued a directive,
'Zur Bekampfung des Zigeunerunwesens'
('Combating the Gypsy nuisance'), listing bilateral
agreements with nine neighbouring states on
forcible expulsion of Roma from Prussia. A 1926
law aimed at 'Gypsies and the work-shy', described
by Joachim Hohmann as 'a legally encoded
requirement to destroy specific Gypsy culture',(21)
forbade nomadism for families with school-age
children, outlawed travelling in groups and curbed
Gypsy ownership of animals. Further measures
forbade the carrying of weapons and made
fingerprinting and close police supervision of all
Gypsies compulsory.
Nazism and Roma
The Nazi Party encouraged research into Roma
genealogy. Dr Robert Ritter, who in 1936 founded
what became the Racial Hygiene and Population
Biology Research Unit of the Department of
Health in Berlin, had by 1942 created files on
30,000 Sinti, Roma and part-Sinti in German
territories. Nazi researchers regarded Roma, although 'Aryan' in origin, as asocial, -with 'a
criminal element in their whole make-up',(22) and
redefined them as 'non-Aryan'. Intermarriage with
pure- or part-Roma was seen as a threat to the
German nation; so too were their high birth-rate
and alleged welfare costs. Ritter regarded Roma as
primitive and mentally backward.(23) He
recommended sterilization for all part-Sinti; his
colleague, the racial scientist Eva Justin,
recommended it for all Roma.
Persecution during the 1930s
From 1934 onwards some German Gypsies were
forced into policed settlements. In 1936 400 were
sent to Dachau. In June 1936 a decree naming
nomadic Gypsies 'a plague' required the
compulsory expulsion of foreign Gypsies and
intense controls over those with German
citizenship. Late in 1938 the first racial law against
Roma and Sinti, 'Fight against the Gypsy Menace',
was enacted and in March 1939 passes were issued.
These were grey for non-Gypsies, brown for pure
Roma, brown with blue stripes for part-Roma
(those with two or more Rom or Sinti great-great-
grandparents—a stricter classification than for part-
Jews). The 1938 law aimed explicitly at the 'racial
separation' of Roma and Sinti from Germans, the
prevention of miscegenation and tight control of all
pure- and part-Roma and Sinti.
Measures in the early 1940s
In 1940, 3,000 German and Austrian Roma and
Sinti were deported to Polish camps or ghettos; the
remaining 27,000 continued to be forced into
holding camps. Following the German occupation
of Austria in 1938, Austrian Roma were sent to
work camps, concentration camps (e.g.
Ravensbruck, Mauthausen and Buchenwald) or to a
special Roma camp in Lackenbach. Roma in
territories annexed or conquered by Germany were
subject to similar treatment. Some fascist
governments allied to Germany (particularly
Croatia, Slovakia and Romania) initiated
persecution of Roma without apparent pressure
from Germany.(24)
Roma in concentration camps and death
camps
The decision to annihilate all Roma was probably
taken in mid-1942, after the Wannsee conference.
But already by January 1942 several thousand Roma had been gassed in closed vans at
Chelmno.(25)
Because records are incomplete and the statistics
disputed, estimates of the total number of Sinti,
Roma and part-Sinti murdered in the Holocaust
vary from 200,000-500,000. Auschwitz-Birkenau
contained a special Roma camp, where families
were kept together, probably in order to forestall
revolt. At least 19,000 were murdered or died there.(26) Many Roma not allocated to the special
camp also died in Auschwitz. Thousands of
Romanies were killed in Belscn and Buchenwald
and in extermination camps, including Belzec,
Sobibor, Majdanek and Treblinka. Many were
subjected to inhumane experimentation at Dachau
(salt injections), Natzweiler (typhus injections),
Sachsenhausen (mustard gas) and elsewhere. In
Auschwitz Dr Mengele selected many Romanies,
including children, for experimentation. Many Rom
men, women and teenagers underwent forced
sterilization.
While over half of all German, Czech, Austrian,
Latvian and Polish Roma died, some communities
suffered even heavier losses. Virtually all Roma in
Belgium, Holland, Estonia and Lithuania were
annihilated, as were those in Croatia, where the
Catholic-supported fascist Ustasa perpetrated mass
atrocities against the Roma. Rom communities in
the USSR, Romania, Serbia and Hungary each lost
thousands, massacred by the Nazis. Donald
Kenrick and other scholars point to documentation
showing that the ultimate aim of the Nazis was the
'"complete extermination" of the Roma people'.(27)
Long-term consequences on Roma of the
Second World War
These bald statements mask the prolonged anguish
of Gypsy suffering—starvation, separation from
loved ones, brutal treatment and inhumane
degradation before an agonizing death. Those who
survived the concentration camps were often
physically maimed, always destitute, and usually
bereft of all family. Even those who escaped the
worst horrors of persecution endured years of
terror followed by the large-scale forced migrations
after the war. Pre-war patterns of relative
integration had been shattered. Roma remained
outcasts, often stateless and without papers, their
suffering unacknowledged and without
compensation from the German state. Many of
today's problems faced by Europe's Roma are a
direct long-term consequence of the war-time
destruction of life, community and way of life.
Moreover, it should be remembered that 'the Nazis' well-publicized persecution of Gypsies followed
centuries of historical precedent by virtually all
peoples of Europe'.(28)
While there are recorded war-time incidents of
'righteous non-Gypsies' helping persecuted Roma,(29) no European government spoke out on
behalf of the Roma, either before or during the war.
The Catholic Church ignored their plight
completely, although many Roma were Catholic.
While a few Rom survivors began collecting their
memories after the war, there was little
documentation of the collective Gypsy fate until
the mid-1960s when Jewish scholars committed
themselves to gathering it. Only in September 1994,
in Vienna, did the first international conference on
the Nazi genocide of Roma take place.(30)
19 Fraser, 249.
20 Hancock,61.
21 Joachim Hohmann, Geschichte der ZigcHnerverfolgnng in
Deutschland (Frankfurt and New York 1988), 81.
22 Quoted in Donald Kenrick and Gratton Puxon, The Destiny of
Europe's Gypsies (Eondon and Brighton 1972), 63 n33. A new
edition of this book was published as Gypsies under the
Swastika (Hatfield, Elertfordshire 1995).
23 Fraser, 260.
24 Donald Kenrick, 'The Nazis and the Gypsies: a fresh look',
Jewish Quarterly, no. 156, winter 1994/5, 46.
25 Martin Gilbert, The Holocaust: The Jewish Tragedy
(Glasgow
1987), 254-67.
26 See Kenrick and Puxon for a full account of Rom suffering
during the Holocaust, esp. 140ft. on Auschwitz.
27 Donald Kenrick, 'Fetter to the editor', Holocaust and Genocide
Studies, vol. 4, no. 2, 1989, 251-4.
28 William A. Duna, Gypsies. A Persecuted Race (Minneapolis
1984), quoted in long, 174.
29 Kenrick, 'The Nazis and the Gypsies', 47; see also Kcnrick and Puxon.
30 Mirella Karpati, 'L'altro Olocausto', in Lacio Drom (Rome),
vol. 30, no. 6, November-December 1994, 17-20.
3/
Parallels with and contrasts to the Jewish experience
Historical parallels with antisemitism
Roma have much in common with Jews in their
experience of persecution within Christian Europe.
(There are, incidentally, Jewish Gypsies in Belarus
and Sofia.) For both Roma and Jews, their suffering
and annihilation in the twentieth century are the
culmination of centuries of oppression, partly
motivated by religious intolerance and racism.
Some Rom leaders have noted the parallel. Nicolae
Gheorghe recently commented: 'Gypsies are now
the scapegoats as the Jews were before.'(31) Kurt Holl
of Cologne stated in 1993: 'The East European
Roma have today the same role as the Ostjuden
early in this century.'(32)
There are many historical parallels. Hostility
towards Roma and Jews has similar roots—fear of
the unknown, of religious difference; envy (of the
Romanies' apparent freedom); hatred of 'the
outsider'; mistrust of possible 'spies'; simple
chauvinism and racism. Roma, like Jews, were
attacked in sermons, books, drama and popular art,
and thus demonized in the popular mind.
(Stereotypes of the Gypsy woman or the Jewess as
a dangerous seductress and of the male Gypsy or
Jew as a dark sinister threat featured widely inliterature.) The spread of the Black Death in the
fourteenth century was attributed by at least one
nineteenth-century writer to both Gypsies and Jews.(33) Roma had their own 'blood libel', the myth
that Gypsies abduct non-Gypsy children. Like
Jews, Roma were subject to harsh fines and taxation
and barred from numerous trades and legitimate
economic practices. Historically, Jews migrated for
similarly complex motives as Roma today—to
escape persecution and improve their economic
situation. Both Jews and Roma coped with
suffering by distancing themselves inwardly from
the oppressor, through jokes, songs and stories
expressing ridicule. With significent exceptions,
neither Jews nor Roma resorted as a people to
armed struggle in defence of their cause.
Contemporary parallels with antisemitism
Like Jews of old, migrating or nomadic Roma are
now herded into marginal ghettos and regarded as
pariahs. In Western Europe exotic newcomers from
Eastern Europe are often resented by long-
established Gypsies, just as late nineteenth-century
immigrant 'Ostjuden' were often resented by
assimilated German and Austrian Jews. (Moreover,
non-Jews who publicly opposed Jewish
immigration into Britain also opposed that of
Lovari Gypsies in the early twentieth century at the
time of the first Aliens Act.(34))
Like Jews, Roma function as a litmus test of
democratic society. Both Jews and Roma were
without significant support from the churches
before and during the Holocaust. Both are
vulnerable in post-communist countries to the
resurgence of pre-war stereotypes and myths,
dormant under communism. Like Jews, Roma are
victims of neo-fascism and ultra-nationalism. Both
Jews and Roma have been targeted by skinheads
and verbally attacked by ultra-nationalists.
In some countries the 'Gypsy problem' is perceived
as the dominant question, much like the pre-war
'Jewish problem'. Proposed 'solutions' to the
'Gypsy problem' echo earlier fascist 'solutions'.
They include: segregation in public places;
proposals to lower the birth rate; forced evictions
from homes; forced expulsion from some countries;
police curfews; discriminatory legislation.
Contrasts to the Jewish experience
There are, however, major differences between the
victimization of Jews and that of Roma. The most
evident of these is the existence of Israel. Prominent Romany leaders have stressed the vulnerability of
Romanies in this regard. Rajko Djunc of
Yugoslavia has said: '[Unlike Jews] we have no
country and no powerful lobbies and politicians see
no political capital in defending us.'(35) The German
Rom leader, Romani Rose, lamented at the fiftieth
anniversary commemoration of Kristallnacht: 'For
Sinti and Rom there is no State of Israel. . . All
Gypsies are in diaspora; but there is no ... national
home, nor even any wide recognition of the
nationhood of Romanies.'(36) There is no parallel
today to Zionism. Pan-Gypsy visions of shared
peoplehood or 'Romanistan' pale before the urgent,
practical needs of European Roma.
Other differences are internal—for example, Rom
attitudes to education. Many Roma mistrust state
education, following centuries of exclusion from
school, rejection within school, state persecution
and necessary reliance on their own
resourcefulness. Roma educate their children
thoroughly, on gender-based lines, within the
family. From early on, fathers teach sons and
mothers daughters, passing on skills, crafts and
experience, encouraging the ability to take
initiatives and decisions at an early age. Children
aged eleven and twelve become part of the
economic unit, contributing to the family's income.
Meeting immediate needs through informally
acquired skills and a flexible combination of trades
has to take precedence over long-term investment
in formal education. Freedom from dependence on
wage labour is highly prized, facilitating mobility
and a communal lifestyle. Children who do attend
school face rejection by teachers and other pupils
and often receive little encouragement from parents
deeply suspicious—with good historical reason—of
non-Gypsy society: 'The legacy of centuries of
vilification and persecution . . . informs the living
memory of Gypsies everywhere. The passionately
held view of most Gypsies today is still that gadje
are dangerous, not to be trusted, and, except for
business dealings, to be avoided.'(37)
Traditional antisemitic rhetoric has shifted on to the
Gypsy, who is widely—and wrongly—perceived as
a parasite, a criminal, a threat to stable society. Few
positive images of the Romany now remain to
counteract negative ones; in most of Europe,
nineteenth-century romantic images of the Gypsy
as a fancy-free rover or passionate performer of
music or dance have long since evaporated, except
in the theatre. The many strengths in Romany
life—intense family love, loyalty and hospitality;
courage in adversity; friendship and generosity; the
constant warm presence of other Roma, including in sickness and old age (a Rom is rarelv alone);
stringent cleanliness; collective joie de vivre—are
simply unknown to the outsider. Despite the
persistence of antisemitism, therefore, Roma are
today considerably more unpopular in Europe than
Jews.
Until recently, Roma have been relatively
disorganized. The many new Rom organizations
were, and are, quite disunited, with little
international co-ordination. Roma are without
internationally known spokespeople, though
national leaders are increasingly emerging on to the
international scene. Whereas Jewish communities
contain a disproportionate number of professionals
and intellectuals, most Romanies remain illiterate.
The few who become professionals often abandon
their Romany identity. Moreover, there may be
some correlation between the mass immigration of
Roma into some regions and a rise in petty theft
and burglary (directly related to high
unemployment, reduced opportunities for self-
employment, high birth rates and extreme poverty
among Roma).
Some of the main champions of Roma are
prominent Jews. Former German Chancellor
Helmut
Schmidt for the first time publicly
acknowledged the Romany holocaust in 1982 only
after a Romany conference in Gottingen in the
previous year, at which Jewish personalities,
including Simon Wiesenthal, Heinz Galinski,
Miriam Novitch and Donald Kenrick, had
highlighted the war-time persecution of Roma.(38)
The Slovakian Council of Christians and Jews has
strongly supported local Roma.(39) In 1986 the
Cologne branch of the Council of Jewish-Christian
Understanding supported 100 destitute Romanies,
including seventy children, forcibly evicted from
Holland. Ignatz Bubis, leader of Germany's Jewish
community, has spoken out strongly on behalf of
Roma, as have Serge Klarsfeld and the organization
Fils et filles de deportes de France. In the United
States the new Romani-Jewish Alliance publishes
regular newsletters. High-level Jewish-Roma
contacts are increasing and bode well for the future.
31 The Times, 30 September 1992.
32 Regards, June-August 1993; cf. Gilad Margalit, 'Antigvpsyism
in the political culture of the Federal Republic of Germany:
a parallel with antisemitism?'. Analysis of Current Trends in
Antisemitism no. 9 (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem: Vidal
Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism,
1996).
33 Theodor Tetzncr, Geschichte dcr Zigeuner, ihre Herkunft,
Natur und Art (Weimar and Ilmenau 1835), quoted in Hohmann, 50.
34 Colin Holmes, 'The German Gypsy question in Britain, 1904-
6', Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, vol. 1, no. 4, 1978, 248-67
(quoted in Tong, 177).
35 International Herald Tribune, 31 July 1990.
36 Regards, June-August 1993.
37 Isabel Fonseca, 'Among the Gypsies', New Yorker,
25 September 1995,95.
38 Regards, June-August 1993, 38; Donald Kenrick, 'The Romany
Gypsies of hurope', 1.
39 Tablet, 9 October 1993.
4/
Roma experience since the Second World War
Under communism
'People at all points of the political spectrum have
wanted to change the Gypsies.'(40) This has been true
of fascist, free-market capitalist, social democratic and communist governments. The Roma had at one
time been free to enjoy a certain cosmopolitanism
due to their peripatetic life-style (often in a radius
of hundreds of miles) and disregard for national
boundaries. This brought them under some
suspicion m the new monolithic communist nation-
states whose early sympathy and cultural and
economic assistance to Roma as 'victims of
capitalism' soon evaporated. Post-war communist
governments compelled Roma to abandon
nomadism. Use of the Romani language was
discouraged. Forced assimilation caused a virtually
complete sedentarization as well as the widespread
loss of identity and traditional cultural values.
Viable life-styles, developed over many decades and
based on self-sufficiency and prized skills, were
destroyed. Projects funded in some countries to
improve educational standards and provide better
housing, and compulsory employment in state
factories and farms in Eastern Europe, which
provided a safety net against destitution, could not
compensate for the loss. A few Roma became
leading communists, though they did not function
as representatives of their people.
Former communist regimes post-1989
Lacking both education and land, Romanies were at
a considerable disadvantage once communist
structures began to disintegrate. While some who
possessed entrepreneurial skills could grasp new
opportunities for free trading, the majority found
that their situation worsened in the infant market
economy. Most Roma housing remains wretched,
often isolated and without water, electricity or
sanitation. Unemployment among Roma has risen
dramatically (to 60 per cent for adult Roma in
urban Bulgarian ghettos),(41) while those in
employment often earn wages below subsistence
level. The lifting of oppressive restrictions
encouraged non-Gypsies, themselves prey to
economic distress, to express open animosity
towards Roma. Nicolae Gheorghe has stated:
'Before the revolution, only the police were violent
to Romanies. Now the whole population can be.'(42)
Unemployment has encouraged some young Roma
to engage m petty crime, which in turn has
increased anti-Gypsy sentiment. Unprecedented
open nationalism, moreover, has focused latent
racism sharply on Roma, kindling an irrational,
centuries-old hatred, while Roma feel unprotected
in the face of persistent skinhead intimidation and
violence.
In the area of criminality, Romanies paradoxically
act as scapegoats for populations facing political uncertainty, a sharp decline in their national
economies and unprecedented financial insecurity.
Since 1989 large-scale crime and fraud have
increased massively. Former members of the
nomenclatura and security forces, indigenous mafia
gangs and international crime syndicates appear to
be involved. Existing juridical systems are largely
powerless to investigate and prosecute. Yet the
alleged disproportionate increase in petty crime
attributable to Roma is often tackled by mob
violence with impunity and by draconian measures
by police and local authorities. (Police commonly
attribute assaults against Roma to local feuds rather
than to their root cause—racism.) Anger against
Roma can thus serve to deflect widespread popular
anger and frustration at less visible—and far more
powerful—non-Gypsy criminals.(43)
Post-war Western Europe
In Western Europe nomadism, although permitted
by law and remaining considerably more
widespread than in Central and Eastern Europe,
grew progressively more difficult following the
Second World War as central governments
increased control over marginal groups. Legislation
was enacted in several countries to settle nomadic
Gypsies permanently on authorized sites,
particularly during the 1960s (at a time,
paradoxically, when many non-Gypsies were
buying caravans and becoming seasonally
peripatetic, holidaying at municipal and private
sites specifically closed to Gypsies). 'Steps taken
without consulting the Gypsy populations often
proved unsuitable, and failed to solve the problems
of cohabitation with the majority population.'(44)
Gypsies wishing to remain nomadic or semi-
nomadic, or unable to find space on official sites,
face harassment and often violent eviction from
temporary and unauthorized sites. (The
burgomaster of Ghent became involved in a
campaign to evict twenty Gypsy families from the city.(45)) Many still endure unsanitary living
conditions, often on 'discarded land' close to
motorways or industrial areas or under power-
generating pylons.(46) Roma have little access to
health care, and only 30 per cent of Romany
children in the EU attend school regularly. Drug
abuse is a new but pressing problem among young
Roma in Spain and elsewhere.(47)
Economic changes following the Second World
War affected the traditional livelihoods of Gypsies.
In rural economies they had enjoyed financial
independence and a modest living in a variety of
peripatetic occupations (including fairground and
circus work, basket weaving, tinkering, peddling
and horse trading). Rapid industrialization,
agricultural mechanization, rural decline and the
increasing difficulty of remaining nomadic resulted '
in the loss of long-standing seasonal occupations.
Mounting bureaucracy rendered some traditional
areas of economic activity impossible for illiterate
Roma. Many were therefore forced to seek
unskilled or semi-skilled work in towns and cities.
Technological advances in industry and recessions
during the 1980s reduced the availability of such
work, forcing some sedentary Gypsies for the first
time into unemployment and social welfare
benefits. (Nomadic Gypsies are commonly unable
to draw welfare benefits, due to their peripatetic
life-style.) This has underpinned widespread anti-
Gypsy slurs in the media which perpetuate public
negative stereotypes. Anti-Gypsy racism, far from
being restricted to a lunatic fringe or the far right, is
almost universal.
Ecological and community values within
Romany life
Gypsy culture and history are little known among
the general public. This has led to a remarkable
paradox. Romany values and life-styles, when
associated with ethnic groups outside Europe, were
idealized during the 1970s and 1980s—'small is
beautiful'; community life; 'sustainable living in
ecological balance with nature'; the use of herbal
healing; the recycling of waste materials; owning
minimal material possessions; 'learning from the
ancient wisdom' of indigenous and illiterate
peoples; non-individualistic and interdependent
group living in extended, multi-generational
families; profound knowledge of animals and the
natural world.
Yet the one ethnic people within Europe who had
actually lived such values and life-styles for
centuries, with dignity despite intense suffering,
was ignored. Roma remained despised outcasts,
regarded contemptuously as deviants or paupers,
increasingly forced from rural areas into urban
shanty-towns, from self-sufficiency into
dependency, from traditional crafts and occupations
into the most arduous menial jobs and
unemployment. Throughout Europe, the social
fabric of Gypsy life has been damaged, as large
family groups, cohesive and mutually supportive,
have been broken apart by dispersal into small
housing units, often far from possible sources of
work.
Roma nomadism and migration
Today, as Western Europe's internal borders
dissolve, some long-settled Roma are reviving
purposeful nomadism, often in large family groups.
As many as one in ten of Europe's Romanies may
cross national borders each year. (One Rom leader,
Rudko Kawczinsky, has recently argued: 'Romanies
are, after all, the only true Europeans.')(48) While
there is some migration northwards among Spain's
400,000 Roma, migration within mainland Europe
is generally westwards. Jean-Pierre Liegcois has
estimated that, although they rarely use caravans,
some 30 per cent of Europe's Roma are internally
nomadic within their own countries, while 30 per
cent are semi-nomadic (travelling for only part of
the year) and 40 per cent more or less permanently settled.(49)
Renewed nomadism, both within and between
states, stems partly from fear of persecution and
growing anti-Gypsy hostility and violence,
particularly from neo-Nazis, skinheads and police.
Other causes include the need to search for work
and to escape endemic poverty and ill-health and
fear of increasing nationalism. But the migrations
themselves have led to intensified hostility to
Roma, forced repatriation and the new media myth
of a possible 'Gypsy invasion'. The reality is that
proportionately fewer Roma than non-Gypsies
migrated from Central and Eastern Europe between
1946 and the late 1980s; since 1960 about 250,000
Roma have emigrated to Western Europe.(50)
Religious revivalism among Roma
Partly as a survival tactic, most Roma have
traditionally subscribed to the locally dominant
religion, whether Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox or
Muslim. Within this outer framework, animist
beliefs and practices have subsisted hand-in-hand
with informal elements of Christian or Muslim
piety and observance. But, since 1952,
unprecedented religious enthusiasm has swept
through Rom communities. The Light and Life
evangelical Gypsy pentecostal movement claims
8,000 members in Britain and 150,000 in France,(51)
where there are 500 Rom preachers, 60 places of
worship and a Rom Bible school. Thirty per cent of
all Spanish Gypsies have become 'alleluyas',
members of a similarly charismatic pentecostal
form of Christianity, dubbed by Spanish Romanies
the Church of Philadelphia.(52)
This new, strongly Bible-based Romany
pentecostalism fosters Gypsy culture and political
solidarity. 'It is a new type of movement which unites across traditional divisions . . . sustains
resistance to pressure from the environment. . .
through its Gypsy dynamism . . . [and] is a source
of originality and a mainspring of change.'(53)
Thomas Acton wrote that the Gypsy evangelical
church 'does not teach its converts to be ashamed
of being Romani ... [It is] instrumental in turning
the different Gypsy ethnic groups from an atavistic
tribalism towards a general Romani nationalism.'(54)
The new Roma churches also bring more intangible
benefits, paralleling the Methodist revival in terms
of fervent spirituality and puritanism (e.g. their
opposition to drugs and fortune-telling).(55) The
Roma religious revival is already having a major
impact on encouraging literacy and the acquisition
of education, and developing leadership. Perhaps,
too, at long last, the mainstream churches may
become active on behalf of Roma (Pope John Paul
II symbolically used Romani in his Christmas
message in 1994).
Urgent needs of the Roma people today
Rom intellectuals have recently emerged as activists
and articulate spokespeople, both nationally and
internationally. Roma organizations have been
developed in both Western and Eastern Europe.
Some governments and several international
agencies have recently undertaken programmes to
address the dire social and educational problems
faced by Europe's Gypsies (cf. Roma, European
institutions and NGOs, pp. 36-9). Some state
finance for Romani newspapers, language teaching
and theatre is now available in Slovakia and
elsewhere.
Yet, despite being archetypal 'free marketeers',
Roma remain a powerless minority, the most
vulnerable and poorest of Europe's peoples within
the new market economy. Because Roma are largely
unprotected by international law, most countries
still have no national laws to protect them. They are
in urgent need of measures, drawn up in
consultation with Roma representatives, to protect
them from violence and to improve their living
conditions, health, education and housing in ways
which will enable them to retain as much of their
independence, rich social organization and
distinctive culture as possible. But any measures
that are taken must be sensitive to the historically
rooted suspicion among Gypsies of non-Gypsy
intervention and to the need to establish mutual
understanding between local Gypsies and non-
Gypsies.
A leading expert who has travelled widely in
Europe summed up the situation thus:
The Gypsies are on a powder keg which may explode
at any time. But the situation is not as clear-cut as it
was in the 1930s for the Jews. On the surface all seems
well. The Queen of Spain attended the first European
Romany Congress in Barcelona. The Slovak
government has upgraded the Romanics to a national
minority. A Gypsy folk group is invited to perform at
the National Folk Festival in the main stadium in
Budapest. No one is asking the Gypsies to wear the
sign or banning them from buses.
Yet not so far below the surface there is prejudice and
hate, fanned by government ministers, right-wing
leaders and local politicians. A high percentage of the
population in every country place Gypsies as their
most disliked group, the ones they would like to expel
(if another country would take them). Within living
memory not just the Germans but Croats, Slovaks,
Hungarians and Romanians killed Romanics in wired
camps and the forests. It is not surprising that in many
towns and villages Gypsies live in fear of attack from
their neighbours as they are made the scapegoat for
the economic crises.(56)
40 Tong,251.
41 A. Reynlers, OECD, 1993, quoted in "The situation of Gypsies
(Roma and Sinti) in Europe', CDMG, CE, May 1995, 7.
42 The Times, 30 September 1992.
43 See Toni Sonneman, secretary of the Romani-Jewish Alliance:
'The media portray the Romanies as generic "suspects" in the
rising tide of crime and black marketecring', quoted by Donald
Kenrick in Report for Association of Gypsy Organizations
(privately circulated), June 1995.
44 "The situation of Gypsies (Roma and Sinti) in huropc', 5.
45 IRR European Race Audit, November 1995.
46 Europe, October 1989.
47 Gitanos v Drogas (Madrid: Secretariado General Gitano 1978).
48 Die Zeit, 7 September 1990.
49 Liegeois, Gypsies and Travellers, 24.
50 CDMG (Strasbourg 1995), 19.
51 Guardian, 3 May 1995.
52 Independent on Sunday Magazine, 11 February 1995.
53 Liégeois, Gypsies and Travellers, 62-3.
54 Thomas Acton, 'The Gypsy evangelical church', Ecumenical Review, vol. 31, no.
1, July 1979, 289-95 (quoted Tong, 256).
55 Olivier Lucazeau, 'Unc foi à soulever les Tziganes', Le Monde,
22 August 1990.
56 Donald Kenrick, private communication, 13 November 1995.
5/
The position of Roma in various European countries
Albania
Total population: 3.2 million
Roma population: 90,000-100,000 (MRG (see
footnote 1))
Although under communism Roma lived virtually
segregated from other Albanians and faced major
economic problems, many had employment and
there was no special discrimination against them.
Albanian leader Enver Hoxha spoke of Roma positively.(57)
Since 1989 their situation has worsened relative to
the rest of the population. Land where they had
traditionally lived for decades on the outskirts of
towns and villages has been reclaimed under
privatization. Many live in hovels made of
corrugated iron or in tents. The majority are
unemployed, even in the capital Tirana. Those who
do have work are commonly employed in heavy
labour, such as street cleaning, or on municipal
rubbish dumps, at below subsistence wages.(58)
Poverty among Roma can be extreme, exacerbated
by the large average number of dependants (many
families have eight or more children). The
government has done little to ease Roma suffering.
In Gjirokastra primitive homes were built for 300 Roma, without access to telephone or medical
facilities; yet these were preferable to hovels or
tents, and the Roma were apparently content.
Hostility towards Roma has intensified since 1989.
Peasants, especially those who have again become
landowners, regard them with contempt. Many
Roma are now charged exorbitant rent for land
given to them long ago and become indigent as a
result. There has been sporadic anti-Gypsy
violence. In 1991 many Roma families in Berati
were flooded out twice, losing their shacks and all
their possessions. The entire community is
unemployed. The government provided a small
amount of aid—but non-Roma residents demanded
that it be withdrawn. Some Roma were robbed and
injured, a few threatened with death.(59) Elsewhere,
two young Roma were shot by police in separate
incidents in 1993 and 1994.(60)
Austria
Total population: 7.9 million
Roma population: 20,000-25,000 (MRG)
The contemporary scene
Some Austrian Roma, including Kalderash and
Beash, immigrated from 1965 onwards; long-
established groups, including Hungarian Roma,
have been sedentary since Empress Maria-Theresa's
1762 edict; and Sinti and Lovari remained semi-
nomadic until the 1960s.(61) Long-established Roma
and Sinti have been regarded as Austrian citizens
since 1945, while citizenship can be acquired by
newer arrivals only by marriage to an Austrian.
Only 5,000 of Austria's Roma population have been
included in the new category of 'official minority'
since 1983. Many Romanian Roma have passed
through Austria en route to Germany and the
United States. In addition, over 30,000 Roma
refugees from Serbia, Bosnia and Macedonia have
migrant worker status; those without work can
stay for three-month periods on tourist visas. Roma
refugees are still arriving in Austria.
Legal recognition
Austria recognized Roma and Sinti as an ethnic
minority group only in 1994, following increased
political activity by three Roma organizations
formed in 1991. Since December 1993 Roma and
Sinti have been entitled to set up their own
councils.
Socio-economic problems
The standard of living for Roma is low, life
expectancy shorter than average, and birth rate high
(3-7 children per family). Only 10 per cent complete compulsory education, while girls
normally leave school at the age of eleven or twelve.(62) The majority are very poor, demoralized
and isolated because of the wide gap in standard of
living between Roma and most Austrians, and
because anti-Gypsy sentiment is particularly strong
in Austria. A scheme to pay students a small
stipend to teach Gypsy children in small groups has
been in operation in several centres, but its funding
is insecure.(63)
Recent violence
Although media portrayals of Roma are largely
favourable, anti-Gypsy prejudice is growing and
can be violent. On 3-4 February 1995 a mock
gravestone urging Gypsies to return to India was
placed at the entrance to an underpass leading to a
Roma encampment at Oberwart, Burgenland.
(Obcrwart, home to Austrian Roma who survived
the Nazi period, is near Lackenbach, the former
concentration camp for Roma en route to
Auschwitz.) When four Roma attempted to remove
it, a huge explosion occurred; all were killed.
(Police were later criticized for initially claiming
that the men had blown themselves up or killed one
another in a blood feud.) The so-called Bavarian
Liberation Army claimed responsibility for the
murders. Later vigils at the site of the deaths and
elsewhere were disrupted by skinhead violence;
again police were criticized for having failed to
protect the vigils.(64)
Bulgaria
Total population: 8.9 million
Roma population: 576,927
(official statistics 1989)
700,000-800,000 (MGR)(65)
History
Roma have had a stable and significant presence in
Bulgaria since the fourteenth century. Divided by
the Turks into mainly nomadic Muslims and mainly
settled Christians, they were 'relegated ... to the
lowest rung of the Ottoman social ladder'.(66) They
were subject to special taxes but had some
autonomy. While Muslims may have regarded
Muslim Roma as schismatics, Orthodox Christian
Bulgarians held strong prejudices against Roma. In
the 1860s some bishops declared alms-giving to
them to be a 'great sin'.(67) Laws were passed after Bulgaria's reunification in 1886 to combat Roma
nomadism and to prevent Rom immigration.(68)
Discrimination against Bulgaria's Roma (134,844 in
the 1926 census) existed under the monarchy (1878-
1946) and Roma were traditionally assigned
'lowest-status occupations', such as road- sweeping.(69) Literacy increased to 8 per cent due to
the provision of two or three primary schools.
Roma publications and societies, founded in the
1920s, flourished until the rise of fascism in 1934.
Despite fascist press attacks on them, Roma
remained relatively unscathed by the Second World
War, due partly to support from King Boris and to
Bulgaria's long-standing multi-ethnicity.
(Germany's war-time ambassador in Sofia
commented on Bulgaria's refusal to deport Jews:
'The Bulgarians have lived for too long with
peoples like Armenians, Greeks and Gypsies to
appreciate the Jewish problem.(70)
Under communism
Following a brief post-war renaissance of Roma
culture and organization after the Soviet occupation
of Bulgaria, the increasingly Stalinist government
adopted a policy in the 1950s of expelling Muslim
Roma to Turkey and assimilating all other Roma,
suppressing their distinctive ethnic and cultural
identity. The Gypsy Theatre Roma was closed in
1953. Between 1953 and 1959 the government
forced nomadic Roma to settle permanently. New
segregated Gypsy ghettos were created for these
Roma. Measures were taken in the early 1960s to
assimilate the far larger number of sedentary Roma.
All Roma with Turkish or Muslim names were
required to take Bulgarian names. Gypsy music was
banned from radio and television and its public
performance discouraged by fines. Attempts were
made to disperse compact Roma communities by
placing families in Bulgarian quarters. Roma were
forbidden to speak Romani in public and to create
distinctively Roma organizations. Roma serving in
the military were commonly assigned to labour
brigades and allocated the most menial tasks.
The assimilation campaign under President Todor
Zhivkov achieved some positive results. Living
conditions and housing improved for many Roma,
and educational opportunities rose, though still
remaining substantially lower than for Bulgarians.
But 'the practical implication of these policies was
the destruction of Roma self-identity through
continued forced integration and Bulgarization'.(71)
Post-1989: Rom organizations
Since 1989 several Rom political organizations have
been created, notably ROMA, the Democratic
Union of Roma, founded in 1990. Roma remain
politically weak, however, having been denied the
right to create a political party prior to the 1990
election. Factors hindering Roma from becoming a
strong political force include the division between
Muslim and Christian Roma, the fifty or more
Romani dialects and various clan and tribal
allegiances. A national lobby, the United Roma
Federation (URF), was created in October 1992. In
December 1993 the URF, ROMA and Rom
intellectuals complained to the government about
the activities of Father Gelemenov and his
Vazrazhdane organization and media coverage
given to their pro-Nazi views. Gelemenov has
publicly advocated that Bulgaria should
'subordinate' its Gypsy and Turkish minorities.(72)
Discrimination
According to Helsinki Watch, 'Gypsies in Bulgaria
continue to be discriminated against by the
government, and are denied some of the most basic
human rights'.(73) Vassil Chaprazov, chairman of the
URF, has said: 'We are at the bottom of Bulgarian
society . . . the most disadvantaged people are Gypsies.'(74) Main areas of discrimination include
housing, education and employment.
Housing
Most Roma live in squalid areas of larger towns and
cities such as Sliven, which may house up to 50,000 Roma.(75) Many roads in Gypsy quarters are
unpaved, with infrequent refuse collection.
Dwellings often have no access to running water or
adequate sanitation. The birth rate is substantially
higher than that of the Bulgarian population. Most
Roma quarters are severely overcrowded, with
three or four families sharing one house and five or
six sleeping in each room. Current land
privatization schemes seem likely to exacerbate
these problems.
Education and socio-economic problems
Many Roma children are educated in segregated
technical schools which produce goods
commissioned by local industry. Educational
opportunities and attainments are low, and few
Roma children complete secondary school,
although the reasons for this include the fact that
Bulgarian is their second language, early marriage
and the failure of illiterate Roma parents to support
adequate schooling.
Poverty among Roma is growing. Gypsies queue at
soup kitchens in Sofia, and there are many Gypsy
beggars. Unemployment is high, though lower than
in some East European states. Some traditional
crafts have disappeared because of the assimilation
campaign, while access to many jobs is limited by
low educational levels and work-place prejudice
(fuelled by the state media which stereotype Roma
as criminals and black marketeers). No political
party defends the interests of Roma, and they are
prohibited from forming their own parties. In 1993,
however, the Confederation of Roma in Bulgaria
was established, to 'assist the legislative and
executive powers in solving Gypsy problems'.(76)
There is now at least one declared Rom in
parliament.
Anti-gypsyism
Public hostility to Roma has been increasing since
1989. Racist articles now appear in the press. Some
are aimed at Gypsies; 'Sofia News', for example,
claimed that all Gypsies are thieves and, sometimes,
murderers. A 1992 survey showed that 89.5 per cent
of Bulgarians, 71.8 per cent of Turks and 74 per
cent of Bulgarian Muslims did not want their
children to attend a class with Roma children; 81.7
per cent of Bulgarians, 54.2 per cent of Turks and
57.2 per cent of Muslims said they would not vote
for a Rom.(77) Bulgarian sociologists have suggested
that antipathy to Roma in Bulgaria is comparable to
hostility among Americans to blacks in the 1960s.
Surveys have shown that Roma are far more
disliked than other minorities. They are widely, and
unfairly, blamed for Bulgaria's marked increase in
crime. Legal moves to criminalize the black market,
in which Roma are prominent, are partly
responsible for the fact 80 per cent of Bulgaria's
prison population are Roma.(78)
Violence
Recently anti-Gypsy violence has erupted, possibly
orchestrated by the far right. In 1993 there were
many attacks on Gypsies, including one in
Cherganova led by the mayor. In Pleven local
skinheads announced that they would 'cleanse the
town of communists, Jews, Gypsies and the rich'.
Skinheads held a rally in Sofia; banners read 'Turn
the Gypsies into soap'.(79) In December 1993 an
attack on Roma in Malorad left seven wounded and
one dead. In February 1994 villagers in Doino
Belotintsi demanded the expulsion of all Roma after
a Rom deserter murdered a villager. Seventeen of the twenty families were expelled. One Rom died
and fifteen were injured in an arson attack on a
market district of Sofia in April 1995.(80)
Police have been implicated in anti-Gypsy violence,
and Roma held in custody are often ill treated.(81)
Four died in police custody, including one in Pleven
after alleged torture, and another in Sliven in March 1995.(82)
Ill-treatment and torture of Roma at police
hands have allegedly occurred in Dubova, Stara
Zagora, Glushnik and Pazardzhik.(83)
Roma in Rakitova (Plovdiv) were attacked in
January 1995 by non-Roma residents and police.
Four Roma were badly wounded by gunfire, and
fifteen were severely beaten by police. In an open
letter the Roma of Plovdiv complained: 'We are
treated worse than dogs, deprived of human rights.'(84) An arson attack on a Roma house near
Sofia on April 1995 left one dead and fifteen
injured. Shortly afterwards, the interior ministry
officially condemned attacks on Roma by
skinheads, as well as xenophobia and antisemitism.(85)
Romani was taught in Bulgarian schools from 1991.
However, according to the press. Education
Minister Dr Ilcho Dimitrov announced in April
1995 that teaching of Romani would henceforth be
discouraged, being 'an obstacle to the acquisition of
the Bulgarian language'.(86) After protests by Roma
organizations, he retracted this statement.
Czech Republic
Total population: 10.4 million
Roma population: 145,738
(local authority statistics 1989)
250,000-300,000 (MRG)
Romany population statistics in the Czecho-Slovak
region are confused. Estimates vary from 400,000 to
800,000 in total. At least 150,000-300,000 Roma are
in the Czech Republic, forming the second largest minority.(87) Czechoslovak Romanies speak one of
three Romani dialects; most also speak Slovak or
Hungarian. Before 1991 Roma had been allowed to
register on censuses only as Czechs, Slovaks or Hungarians.(88) In the 1991 census Roma could for
the first time declare themselves as Romany. Only 114,116 chose to do so.(89) However, even local
authority statistics suggest a considerably higher
figure.
History
Anti-Gypsy legislation began in 1541 and
intensified under Leopold I (1657-1705), who
expelled all Roma from Habsburg lands on pain of
death. Emperor Charles VI (1711-40) ordered the
execution of all Romanies. In 1740 any Roma
entering Bohemia were to be executed. Empress
Maria Theresa (1740-80) sought compulsory
assimilation: Romani was forbidden; so were
nomadic travel, horse-trading, Romany dress and
the institution of the vajda, the Rom leader.
Children aged from seven to twelve were placed
with non-Gypsy farmers. Emperor Joseph II (1780-
90) ordered the settlement of Romanies in rural
ghettos. Some nomadism returned after his death.
Repressive legislation and close control by the
authorities persisted into the twentieth century.(90)
Of 13,000 Roma in Bohemia and Moravia, 90 per
cent were killed during the Nazi period. In Slovak
territories Romanies fared better; of approximately
80,000, 1,000 perished.(91) Most survived in harsh
conditions. Nomadic Roma were forcibly settled,
and settled Romanies forcibly evicted from homes
near frequented roads. Following the war, the
Czechoslovak government relocated large numbers
of Slovak Roma to northern Czech territories to
work as unskilled labourers in heavy industry,
following the mass expulsion of ethnic Germans.(92)
Under communism
Once communists had seized power in February
1948 they 'did not recognize the Roma as a
nationality and pursued a policy meant to destroy
Romany identity through social integration'.(93)
Roma were to be compulsorily assimilated.
Nomadism was forbidden in 1958, punishable by
six to thirty-six months' imprisonment. Travel for
Roma was severely restricted. Romani language and
traditions were suppressed. Rom organizations
established during the 'Prague Spring' of 1968 were
closed in 1973. From the mid-1970s many Rom
women were paid to be, or tricked into being, sterilized.(94) Unemployment was high, although
relatively generous welfare benefits brought some security.(95) Many children were forcibly placed in
government children's homes.
Post-1989
Following the 'velvet revolution' of November
1989, anti-Gypsy discrimination in laws and
policies ceased at a national level. Rom culture and
language revived; Roman; newspapers and a theatre
were established; cultural centres and six Rom
political organizations were created. Roma can now
openly declare their Rom identity. Rom parties and
organizations such as the Romany Democratic
Congress were founded and have openly criticized
government policies towards Roma. They suffered
electoral defeat in the 1992 elections due to political
apathy and lack of a united front; no Rom
representatives were elected to the Czech or Slovak
parliaments.
The Bill of Fundamental Rights and Liberties
(January 1991) outlawed discrimination and
granted all nationalities the right to use ethnic
languages in official business and education. Yet
discrimination remains widespread at local level.
Roma do not have equal access to housing,
education or public and private services.(96)
Crime and unemployment
A major source of public hostility stems from the
soaring crime rate, for which Roma are partly
responsible. Although only 2 per cent of the
population, they account for 11 per cent of all crime
and over 50 per cent of burglary and pick- pocketing.(97) Gypsy crime has increased because of
massive unemployment. Unskilled and untrained,
Roma were predominantly manual labourers under
the communist regime. Economic reforms forced
many enterprises to lay off workers. Roma became
unemployed in disproportionate numbers,
especially in Slovakia. From 1990 many Slovak
Roma migrated in search of work to Bohemia and
Moravia, Czech industrial regions, staying either in
overcrowded apartments with relatives or empty
state-owned flats.(98) Unemployment among Roma
now reaches 40-50 per cent.(99)
Demography
Rom birth-rates are very high—5.8 children per
woman in 1971-80, dropping to 4 per woman in
1986-90. Four-fifths of Roma are under 34,
compared to 55 per cent of Czechoslovaks. Life
expectancy is low, comparable to that of Czechs in the 1930s.(100) It has been estimated that by 2000-
2005 Roma could number nearly 8 per cent of the
population of the Czech and Slovak republics.(101)
Violence
The sudden influx of Slovak Roma has triggered
serious anti-Gypsy violence by skinheads since
early 1990, particularly in northern Bohemia. The
killings of four young Roma in separate incidents
(three involving skinhead aggression) in August am
September 1993 led to the formation of HOST, the
Citizens' Solidarity and Tolerance Movement.
In 1994 racist attacks tripled from the previous
year, and nearly all acts of racial violence recorded
were against Roma. Attacks by skinheads on Roma
occurred in Prague, Prerov, Ostrava, Brno (one
Rom was stabbed to death) andjablonec nad Nisou
(a young girl and her mother were burnt by a
Molotov cocktail). Skinheads held a rally at
Jablonec nad Nisou to oppose 'Gypsy terror', and
at Karlovy Vary shouted 'Gypsies to the gas
chambers'. Between 1990-94 skinheads murdered at
least sixteen Roma; the best organized skinhead
group of streetfighters, the Naziskins, demand the
expulsion of all Roma and Jews from Czech soil.(102)
One Rom died in police custody. In 1995 at least
nine acts of racial violence against Roma occurred,
including several stabbings and one murder;
skinheads were involved in some of the attacks.(103)
Housing
In Most (Bohemia) some 600 non-rent-paying Rom
families are being moved to a new low-grade
settlement of small concrete houses, with only 3
square metres allocated per person, and multiple
families sharing a bath and toilet. (They had been
forcibly moved to Most in the 1980s to provide
labour for local industry. Unused to modern
facilities, some had damaged their houses.) Other
authorities are considering copying the Most
project. In Karvina near Ostrava 200 Rom families
have been homeless for several months, having lost
their Czech citizenship in June 1994 and thus their
right to state benefits. Many live by rummaging in
dustbins for food and clothing.
Education
At least 30 per cent of Roma are illiterate. Only 15
per cent complete primary school. Twenty per cent
of Rom children are transferred to special schools
for the mentally handicapped.(104) Recently new projects have been developed to train teachers of
Roma children and to create preparatory classes in
nursery, primary and special schools.(105)
Politics
The extremist Association for the Republic-
Czechoslovak Republican Party, which won nearly
7 per cent of votes in the 1992 elections, campaigns
against Roma and attracts skinheads to its ranks. It
has 40,000 members in northern Bohemia alone.
Miroslav Sladek, its founder and leader, called on all
Czech mayors, in February 1993, to expel all Roma
from their territories, offering a new car to the most
successful. The party claims that Czech Roma
operate a mafia. Party spokesman Jan Vik has
stated: 'We will simply liquidate the [Gypsy] mafia.
It is necessary to strike very forcefully.'(106)
Roma are politically isolated, with few notable
Czech supporters. Most who work on their behalf
are not themselves Czech. President Havel has
condemned racism in general, but has not recently
specifically named Roma as victims; nor has the
Catholic Church spoken on their behalf.(107)
Discrimination
Whereas there is widespread sympathy for non-
Romany ethnic minorities (Kazakhs, Volhynian
Czechs etc.), 65 per cent of Czechs are hostile to Roma.(108) Magdalena Babicha, a beauty contest
finalist in April 1993, caused a public outcry when
she expressed a widely shared wish to cleanse
Czechoslovakia of Gypsies.
Roma are commonly forbidden access to pubs,
restaurants and other public places. In northern
regions signs saying 'Gypsies forbidden' are widespread.(109) In the June 1992 elections a far-right
anti-Gypsy campaigner won 15 per cent of the
votes. In October 1992 'death squadrons'
threatened 'reprisals' against Roma unless the
authorities acted against them.(110) Subsidies to Rom
organizations were suspended by the ministry of
.culture in August 1993. There are unconfirmed
rumours that in Prague a play called 'Romanies and
Juliet', showing Roma as pimps and prostitutes, had
a brief run in October 1994.
Legal discrimination
In October 1992 the northern Bohemian town of
Jirkov passed a decree intended to curb the growing
crime rate. It ordered heavy fines for actions
endangering the morals, health and security of others, immediate eviction without judicial
approval and other penalties. This law was
criticized as discriminating particularly against
Roma.
The Law on Extraordinary Measures was proposed
on 30 December 1992 by the prosecutor-general as
a means of curbing 'undisciplined groups of
migrants', identified as predominantly Roma. The
law was intended to prevent proliferation of local
ordinances such as thejirkov decree. But Rom
leaders argue that skinheads who break the law are
prosecuted less vigorously than Roma, while the
Republican Party has called for the chief prosecutor
to be sacked on the grounds that she thinks only 'of
the protection and privilege of Gypsies'.(111)
Citizenship laws
Between 80 and 90 per cent of Roma on Czech soil
in early 1994 had Slovak nationality, due to their
forced mass migration from Slovakia into Czech
regions after the Second World War and under
communism, and to the voluntary migration for
economic reasons of thousands, mostly from
impoverished rural areas to Czech areas, in 1992
and early 1993.(112)
In 1994 the Czech government introduced a new
citizenship law which was heavily criticized by the
Conference on Security and Co-operation in
Europe (CSCE), US senators and the international
media. It met with little internal opposition,
however, apart from that of the Citizens' Solidarity
and Tolerance Movement (HOST) and Rom
leaders, who condemned it as discriminatory
against Roma. In November 1994, HOST held a
candle-lit commemoration of Kristallnacht in
Prague; invited Rom speakers condemned the
citizenship law.
To obtain Czech nationality by 1 July 1994, Roma
and other ethnic minorities had to prove that they
had spent the last two years on Czech soil, that
they could speak Czech and that they had no
criminal record for the previous five years. They
also had to renounce their Slovak status. Moreover,
whereas Czechs could gain citizenship without
problems, even native-born Roma faced barriers,
including the need to produce expensive legal
documents. These conditions have proved
insurmountable for many Roma. Many cannot
prove residence because they have stayed with
relatives. Some have a criminal record simply
because of the harsh penalties imposed on Roma.
Those who fail to acquire Czech nationality will
receive no permanent residence permit, and
therefore no entitlement to medical care or social security, housing or education. They will be
regarded as illegal aliens, subject to forcible
deportation to Slovakia. (The Czech government
already intends to deport Rom children in Czech
orphanages to Slovakia.) But many of those
deported would already have renounced their
Slovak citizenship in their bid to become Czech
citizens, or would in any case not be entitled to
Slovak citizenship, resulting, according to British
lawyer Tom Gross, in Roma becoming stateless.(113)
Moreover, a November 1994 report by the
Tolerance Foundation based on interviews with
ninety-nine individual Slovaks and Roma living in
the Czech Republic showed that nearly 50 per cent
of Roma without Czech citizenship were born in
the Czech Republic and were life-long residents.
Ninety-three were de facto stateless, having neither
Czech citizenship nor Slovak identification papers
or citizenship. All ninety-nine were without
permanent residence permits.(114) In Karvina 186
people, nearly all Roma, were stripped of their
legally acquired Czech citizenship because they
were accused of bribing a Czech official; their
welfare benefits were withdrawn.(115)
Hopeful signs
Individual projects launched in 1994-5 included
local council summer camps for children
(Pardubice, Kourím); adapted school curricula for
primary children (Ostrava); a summer seminar for
teachers on Romany education (Dobrichovice); and
a theatre exchange programme with a group in'
Boston, Massachusetts, comparing Black and
Romany experience. Across the country MENT, an
educational organization, is running seminars on
Romani language and culture for teachers of
Romany children. Pardubice has opened a nursery
to teach pre-school Romany children Czech and '
has established a fund to support the best Romany
secondary school pupils. With Ústí nad Labem,
Pardubice has formed an institute for the study of
Romany culture. Prague University now runs a
Romani course, and a Romany museum has opened
in Brno.
In May 1995 the first memorial to Czech Roma
interned in Nazi transit camps was unveiled at Lety.
The ceremony was attended by President Havel,
who admitted for the first time Czech complicity in
the extermination of thousands of Roma in
Auschwitz and other camps.(116) In September 1995
an international Rom festival was held in Stráznice
with 300 performers and an audience of over 1,000.
Outlook
Future economic difficulties are likely to increase
attacks on Romanies. In 1995 train fares rose
steeply, state-controlled property rents rose by
between 17 and 32 per cent, and other predicted
problems include rising unemployment and
widespread corruption. If public discontent
increases, Romanies are a ready scapegoat,
particularly if, due to withdrawal of benefits, more
Roma turn to petty crime.
France
Total population: 57.9 million
Roma population: 280,000-340,000 (MRG)
Due to France's traditions of cultural unity, mono-
lingualism and centralized politics, Manouches and
other Gypsies (Tsiganes') are not treated as an
ethnic minority. As in Britain, identity is
determined by nomadic life-style, not cultural or
ethnic bonds. Although nomadism is a legally
recognized right, successive French governments
have favoured sedentarization as the best way to
reduce marginalization of Gypsies. Thus the main
law affecting nomads, the act of 3 January 1969,
was rigorous, requiring all itinerant and non-
sedentary people to carry a carnet, a circulation
pass-book, at all times. This had to be regularly
stamped by municipalities, and can still be a source
of bureaucratic discrimination against Gypsies. As
in other countries, nomadic Gypsies are virtually
unable to vote.
Gypsies engage in a far wider spectrum of
professions, trades and activities than in most
European states. The vast majority, including
sedentary Tsiganes, are self-employed. Press
coverage is largely negative, reflecting public
disquiet at periodic 'invasions' by nomadic Tsiganes.(117)
A government policy of decentralization, adopted
in 1982-3, has devolved on to local authorities wide
powers of decision-making. This can have negative
consequences for Gypsies.(118) Local municipalities
with over 5,000 inhabitants, for example, are
obliged by the Besson Act of 1990 to provide short-
term and long-term sites for nomadic Gypsies. But,
due to local opposition, it is increasingly difficult
for French Roma to find sites on which to stay. All
sites are stringently regulated, thus limiting social
and economic activity (few allow scrap iron or
gatherings around a fire).
In March 1993 a National Consultative Committee
on Travellers was set up, comprising ten elected officials, ten representatives of Gypsy organizations
and ten ministerial representatives.(119)
Six refugee Roma were deported in January 1995
from Carneres-sur-Seine, where Gypsies live
without electricity or water.(120) In June and July
1995 seventy-three Romanians, chiefly Roma, were
repatriated to Bucharest on chartered aircraft with
Romanian police aboard. The French office for the
protection of refugees and stateless persons has
recently placed Romania on the list of 'safe'
countries; very few refugees from Romania will
therefore be granted asylum, and existing
Romanian refugees in France will lose their status.(121)
In May 1995 the Socialist mayor and nearly all the
councillors of Saint-Priest (where Jean-Maric Le
Pen's Front National had polled 27 per cent of the
vote) resigned over the government's decision to
accommodate hundreds of Gypsies from Romania
and South Craiova.(122)
Municipalities in south-west France have been
accused by Gypsy associations of discrimination
for refusing them access to private camp sites,
electricity, education and medical care, amounting
to a policy of 'systematic expulsion'.(123)
Germany
Total population: 81.5 million
Roma population: 110,000-130,000 (MRG)
History
From the fifteenth century onwards German cities
and states sought to expel Gypsies, using harsh
legislation, banishment, torture and hanging, Gypsy
hunts and shipment to Pennsylvania. While the first
research on Gypsies, including pioneering
scholarship on the Romani language, was
undertaken by Germans, it often reflected deep-
seated prejudice. Heinrich Grellmann, who wrote
the first ethnographic treatise on Gypsies in 1783,
described his 'evident repugnance, like a biologist
dissecting some nauseating, crawling thing in the
interests of science'.(124) Many German scholars
expressed similar 'revulsion' (Widerwille) towards
Gypsies.
Post-Holocaust 'revisionism'
The porajmos, the Roma holocaust, has remained
widely unknown and ignored outside Germany.
Within Germany, it was never officially admitted
prior to a statement by Chancellor Helmut Schmidt in 1982. Until recently, Gypsy victims of Nazism
were neither commemorated on official
remembrance days nor mentioned by politicians.(125)
Moreover, the porajmos, in which between 200,000
and 500,000 Roma died, has been subject to
'revisionism', as has, to an even greater extent, the
Jewish Holocaust. Some authors have claimed
either that concrete data are not available or that
most deaths of Sinti and Roma in concentration
camps were caused by typhus due partly to the
Gypsies' lack of hygiene. Numerous criminologists
argued in the 1950s that Nazi measures against
Gypsies were taken not on racial grounds but on
the grounds of the Romanies' supposedly asocial,
criminal tendencies.(126) Nazi racist vocabulary
(Zigeunermischling) and stereotypes of Gypsies as
primitive, corrupting and criminal were used
repeatedly to justify Nazi actions against them.
Until 1982 Hermann Arnold, a leading expert on
Roma, used Dr Ritter's materials from the Berlin
Institute to publish books justifying Ritter's pro-
Nazi work and perpetuating anti-Gypsy attitudes;(127) as late as 1961 he published (in the
Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society) an article entitled
'The Gypsy gene'.
Similar anti-Gypsy prejudice is reflected in the
matter of German reparations, particularly in
Munich. Whereas Jewish victims of Nazism
commonly won reparations, Romanies—with no
state or lobby behind them—did not. German Sinti
survivors (descendants of Roma who first entered
Germany in the early fifteenth century), initially
refused reinstatement of their German citizenship,
eventually regained it. But the vast majority, like all
Roma of other nationalities, received no
reparations. Not until December 1963 did the
supreme court reverse its view that Nazi
deportations of Gypsies had occurred not for racial
reasons but out of military and criminological
considerations. Even then, forcibly sterilized Sinti
and Roma receive no compensation unless they are
demonstrably at least 25 per cent incapacitated for work.(128)
Official prejudice
Many of the Gypsies who remained in post-war
Germany live in bleak, isolated settlements for the
homeless and so-called Asozialen on the outskirts
of cities. Most of their children are in schools for
the mentally handicapped. As surviving Sinti, they
are marginalized. Since the 1970s, and particularly
since the mid-1980s, tens of thousands of Roma
from Poland, the former Yugoslavia and Romania, fleeing racist persecution and often destitution,
have entered Germany. (Between 50-60 per cent of
the 103,787 Romanian asylum-seekers who entered
Germany in 1992 were thought to be Romanies.)(129)
Unlike the Sinti, they were highly conspicuous,
wearing different clothing and speaking Romani or
other languages. The latent German dislike of
Gypsies, never fully confronted after the war, re-
emerged even among liberals. In 1990 Herr
Schmidt, a member of the Bremen state parliament,
said in parliament with reference to the Gypsy
holocaust: 'It's a pity that not more of them were
murdered.' In the same month Herr Heck, the chief
of Bremen city council and a member of the Green
Party, compared the Nazi holocaust of Roma with
the disappearance of the dinosaur: 'The Romany
culture is not worth protecting.'(130) In 1992 the
Nordrhein-Westfalen minister of social affairs
accused Roma from Romania and Yugoslavia of
'poisoning our social climate'.(131)
Pressure on Roma asylum-seekers
Local authorities exerted pressure on Roma to leave
by refusing to meet their elementary needs, placing
children in homes, imposing strict police controls
and making arrests. Following pressure from non-
Roma human rights groups (including the Lutheran
Church), less harsh policies were adopted in some
major cities, where programmes to integrate the
immigrants were developed. But among the half-
million asylum-seekers in Germany the Roma have
been singled out as prime targets of government
stringency and public hostility. For example, some
Roma seeking asylum were forced to live rough
outside the Rostock asylum centre without
sanitation. In August 1992 local protests quickly
grew into organized violence and riots, in which
neo-fascist skinheads played a major part.
Repatriation
A new policy of forcible return replaced that of
integration. In December 1990 the government of
Nordrhein-Westfalen withdrew a regulation
allowing stateless Roma to settle there, instead
offering Macedonia over DM 20 million to resettle
Yugoslav Roma near Skopje.(132) On 5 March
Germany was the only one of forty-three
participants to vote against Resolution 62 of the
United Nations Commission on Human Rights,
entitled 'Protection of Roma', the German
delegation arguing that Roma did not constitute a
minority in Germany, that they should not be the
subject of positive discrimination and that Germany wished to retain its right to expel
Romany refugees.(133) In September 1992 a formal
agreement between Germany and Romania,
becoming effective in November 1992, stated that
all Romanians ineligible for asylum (mostly Roma)
would be liable to forcible deportation to Romania.
Since then Germany may have repatriated at least
40,000-50,000 Roma. Over DM 30 million were
paid to the Romanian government.(134) Some
monitoring has occurred of the fate of those
forcibly returned. Thousands of Roma immigrants
remain in Germany, and many still arrive. Even
those -without identity papers are likely to be
repatriated.
By early 1993 no Roma had ever been granted
refugee status in Germany. The Federal Office for
Recognition of Foreign Refugees stated in January
1993 concerning Roma refugees from Romania: 'As
a result of the alien character of the Roma, their
stubborn retention of alien traditions, an intensive
rejection of Roma as well as deep prejudices have
emerged [in Romania]. This is normal. It is also
understandable that such feelings are now expressed
in a violent manner.' Since persecution of Roma in
Romania is not officially regarded as political, no
Roma would be eligible for political asylum.(135)
Germany concluded a re-admission agreement with
Poland in May 1993 which will affect many Roma.
Moreover, a new refugee law came into effect in
1994, rendering it virtually impossible for any Rom
to acquire a residence permit. Roma from Yugoslav
territories, rendered stateless following the break-
up of Yugoslavia, continued to be forcibly
repatriated from Schleswig-Holstein and Baden- Württemberg.(136)
Harassment
Police actions against Roma have sometimes been
harsh. In April 1990 1,200 officials and police
raided an impoverished Romany settlement and
claimed to have found money and goods worth
DM 500,000. Rom leaders and supporters claimed
that all belonged rightfully to the Roma.(137)
Few attempts have been made to ameliorate the
lives of Roma in Germany. The Hamburg city
council established a project in 1993 with the Roma
and Sinti Union to help Romany child beggars. The
project's caravan was destroyed by arson in March
1994. Following the arrest of a Rom woman in
Hamburg, press rumours began circulating in July
1994 that a ring of Gypsy child thieves was
operating in Germany.(138)
Anti-Roma racism
Roma in Germany are the object of intense racial
hostility. On 28 August 1992 they were described in
the Badische Zeitung as 'a pure disease', and in the
Hamburger Morgenpost as a 'serious plague'. In
1994 Joachim Siegerist, who has dual Latvian/
German citizenship and leads the second strongest
political party in Latvia, the People's Movement for
Latvia, was convicted in Hamburg of incitement to
racial hatred after distributing over 17,000 circulars
in which he claimed that 'Gypsies produce children
like rabbits' and were 'a seedy criminal pack who
should be driven out of the country'.(139) A poll of
1,342 German university students in late 1994,
conducted by the University of Wuppertal, showed
that 60.4 per cent of East German and 37.7 per cent
of West German students admitted disliking
Gypsies, much higher than prejudice towards any
other group.(140) In an arson attack on a prefabricated
building housing refugees, mostly Roma, a Rom
brother and sister were killed in Herford,
Nordrhein-Westfalen in early 1995. Both Herford
municipal council and the ministry of the interior
denied that the victims were Roma.(141)
Gypsies are subject to harassment from police and
civic authorities. In December 1994 Frankfurt
police strip-searched a Roma woman who had
reported the theft of DM 700 from her purse.(142) In
January 1995 the president of the Roma National
Congress, Rudko Kawczynski, was fined for
organizing at the former Neuengamme
concentration camp a commemoration of Roma
victims of the Holocaust. The peaceful event was
held to contravene the 'law on green recreation
areas' which prohibits protests in state parks.(143)
Pro-Rom campaigners who protested against the
deportation of forty-five Roma families from
Erkelenz (Nordrhein-Westfalen) to Macedonia in
May 1995 were threatened with prosecution on the
grounds that their banner, 'Gassed yesterday—
deported today', was an 'insult to the state'.(144)
Following a dawn raid by 150 police in April 1995,
thirty-nine Roma women, some as young as twelve,
were taken into custody in Cologne and compelled
to submit to fingerprinting and blood tests (and
some to gynaecological searches) after an
anonymous tip-off to police that one might be the
mother of an abandoned baby.(145)
Thus, fifty years after the Romany holocaust, Roma
and Sinti living within Germany remain subject to
intense public hostility, official harassment and murder. But there is a growing Gypsy civil rights
movement, in which Roma and Sinti activists and
performing artists are prominent. Today the federal
government funds a staff of five people in the
Central Council of German Sinti and Roma and
(since 1981) a staff of eight people in the Cultural
and Documentary Centre for German Sinti and
Roma, both in Heidelberg. Financial support is,
however, granted on the basis of a categorization of
Roma as a 'socially marginalized group' and not as
a 'national minority', which Roman! Rose,
chairman of the Central Council, describes as a
'stigmatizing practice'.(146)
Hungary
Total population: 10.3 million
Roma population: 400,000
(1990 census) (147)
550,000-600,000 (MRG)
About 10 per cent of Roma in Hungary derive from
Romania and speak archaic Romanian; 20 per cent
are Romani-speaking and became sedentary under
communism; about 70 per cent speak mainly
Hungarian, their ancestors having arrived in the
fifteenth century.
History
Established in Hungary by the late Middle Ages,
nomadic Roma became prized metal smiths, gun
smiths, soldiers and 'castle musicians', playing even
before royalty. Following the Ottoman success at Mohács in 1526, their situation deteriorated.
Immigrant Roma fleeing devastation due to the
Thirty Years' War (1618-48) triggered anti-Gypsy
legislation, which intensified after the recapture of
Turkish territories in Hungary and anti-Habsburg
riots in the late seventeenth century. Roma were
outlawed from Habsburg lands; illegal re-entry led
to flogging and finally execution. A 1710 ordinance
decreed hard labour for anyone harbouring them.(148)
All Roma found in Hungary were to be registered,
and resistance was punishable by death.
Empress Maria Theresa (who reigned from 1740-
80) attempted to exile or forcibly settle nomadic
Roma throughout the empire (see section on the
Czech Republic). Taxes, compulsory feudal service
and military service for all male Roma were
imposed. Providing Roma with food was
punishable by law. Roma were forbidden to own
horses and wagons and, from 1774 onwards, to marry other Roma. Rom children over five were to
be taken permanently into non-Gypsy families to
ensure a Catholic upbringing. A policy of
Magyarization and compulsory integration of
Roma was strongly pursued, though with mixed
success. Roma evaded it whenever possible, officials
and nobles complied half-heartedly, and Hungarian
scholars protested. Joseph II intensified the
oppressive anti-Gypsy legislation. Smithing and
trading at fairs were forbidden; Rom children over
four were to be forcibly removed from their
families; forced settlement continued. In the
nineteenth century there was little open persecution
of Roma (although until 1906 anyone suspecting a
Gypsy of a petty crime could nail him to a tree
until police arrived). Rom music, championed by
Franz Liszt, regained prominence, and scholars
explored Romani dialects and culture.(149)
Under communism
Roma have historically been rejected by Hungarian
society and remain so today, despite attempts under
the communists to combat growing anti-Gypsy
prejudice and raise educational standards and
housing conditions (though Roma did not benefit
from post-war land reform). Many local
communities were destroyed in slum clearance
programmes from 1964, and many men had to
travel long distances for work, staying in hostels. In
the late 1970s the government established councils
of Gypsy affairs and an inter-ministenal co-
ordinating committee, and in 1986 ratified the
formation of a (politically active) Gypsy cultural
association, supporting forty dance troupes and
over 200 cultural groups.
Post-1989
From the late 1980s, when the government
abandoned the policy of full employment,
unemployment among Roma rose sharply.
Formerly over 83 per cent were employed, mainly
in traditional crafts, agriculture and unskilled jobs.
Now a minimum of 30 per cent are unemployed,
rising in some regions to 50, 80 or even 100 per cent.(150) Most employed Roma earn below-average
wages in unskilled menial or heavy work and are
the first workers to be sacked. Unemployment pay
is for one year only; many Roma, particularly those
who have worked in agriculture on a daily paid
basis, are ineligible to claim it. An estimated 80 per
cent of Roma live below the poverty line.
Education
Although their condition is better than that of
Roma in Romania, Hungarian Roma live on the margins of society, dwelling in hovels, urban slums
and rural shanty-towns. Their educational level is
low: 50-80 per cent of Rom children do not
complete elementary school, due partly to cultural
factors (Romam as a first language, early marriages,
lack of parental encouragement), and partly to
poverty and the overriding need to contribute to
the family's livelihood (under 2 per cent of Roma
adolescents attend a secondary school).( |