Roma communities todayHistorical background, culture and

current issues

Week 4 Class 1:

Roma under imperial and authoritarian states

ANTH 4020/5020

Today‘s outline

1. Film sequences from „Latcho drom“ by T. Gatlif (1994)

2. Text: The Roma in Imperial and Authoritarian States

3. Text discussion

Film by Toni Gatlif, 1994, 103 min.

- Born in Algeria

- Roma roots

- Lives in France

- screenwriter, actor, composer, producer

- Many films on Roma, focussing on music

- Cannes Film Festival

(Les Princes, Gadjo Dilo, Vengo)

About the film:

•„Safe journey“

• Itinerary of the Roma told through musicians & dancers

• India, Egypt, Turkey, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, France and Spain

And once more …

We are not in a history class here, but it is important to put the Romani experience in the proper historical and socioeconomic context in order to understand their present-day situation!

Text:Barany, Zoltan. 2002. The East European

Gypsies. Regime Change, Marginality, and Ethnopolitics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 83-111 (Ch. 3: The Gypsies in Imperial and Authoritarian States).

The Roma in Imperial and Authoritarian States

A brief historical overview (based on Barany 2002):

I. The Roma in the Imperial Age

II. The Roma in the interwar period

III. Porajmos: The Roma Holocaust

I. Roma in the Imperial Age (1)• Imperial Age: -1914 (beginning of WW I)• Differences in Romani marginality in the two major East

European Empires: Ottoman Empire & Habsburg Empire

Ottoman Empire:• Rel. Humane and tolerant sociopolitical system• Legal traditions and practices of religious Groups

protected.• Roma had suborditate social position at „bottom of society“

but they did have a definite place in society (Lived in Gypsy quarters in cities, huts, tents)

• Widespread prejudice and contempt• Despised by Turks as „less reliable“ (taxpayers) and „useless

parasites“ (without stable occupations)“ (Barany 2002, p.85)• Ottoman Empire was promised land for Slaves in

Romanian principalities Moldavia and Wallachia

I. Roma in the Imperial Age (2)

Habsburg Empire:• More overt persecution• More contention with dominant populations• Deep-seated Anti-Gypsy prejudices • Roma did not posess equal rights• Majority lived outside of villages, led separate lives• Still: place in society due to commercial contacts• Wave of Romanticism in the 18./19. cent. evoked interest

in rich Gypsy traditions and myths• Rise of Roma musicians and skilled craftsmen versus

growing impoverishment of nomadic and/or unskilled Gypsies increasing stratification within Romani population since 19th. Cent.

I. Roma in the Imperial Age (3)Economic Conditions:• Roma were at the bottom of the imperal era‘s economic

and occupational scales• But had a well-defined position in imperial economies:

posessed useful & valuable skills• At arrival: palm readers, „religious pilgrims“, …• By 15th. Cent.: settled Roma had reputation as talented

craftsmen and artisans, in parts controlled entire trades (e.g. smithing in Romania)

• Gypsy bands; superb entertainers (dancers, bear tamers)• Involvement in military endeavors: messengers, gunsmiths• But: reputation as lazy workers, „Traditional Romani skills were appropriate to pre-industrial

economies, but industrialization resulted in their gradual economic displacement and increasing marginalization“ (Barany 2002, p. 88)

Their role in Western Europe declined earlier than in the Habsburg and Ottoman empires.

II. Roma in the interwar period (1)

State policies:

Peace settlements & redrawing of the map after WW I Various ethnic minorities in all new states Political attention limited to the country‘s nationals living in neighboring statesRoma held an irrelevant place in policies

Gypsy policies of authoritarian East European states were very similar and characterized by:- utter disregard of Roma‘s plight- view that „Gypsy problem“ was a police problem

II. Roma in the interwar period (2)Socioeconomic status:• Most East European Roma kept their old ways of life & continue to practice traditional occupations• Seemingly inable to adapt to the region‘s slowly modernizing economies• Roma become increasingly incompetitive in the labor markets Forced to take on unskilled labor many become unemployed•„In the interwar era the growing economic exclusion of the Roma was concomitant with their increasing social marginalization“ (Barany 2002, p. 97)• Still: differences between conditions in urban & rural areas

III. Porajmos: The Roma Holocaust

• Romani Holocaust is one of the less thoroughly researched periods of Romani history

• Why? Absence of reliable demographic data Deficient accounting of Nazi administrators

„The Gypsies were deemed so marginal that their murder provoked no intra-agency rivalries and thus required no written authorization“ (Barany 2002, p. 103)

Romani traditions: the dead are seldom mentioned or commemorated

Gypsy survivors did not leave behind diaries, memoirs or do research

Discussion questions (Barany text)

• What were the main differences in Romani marginality in the two major East European Empires: Ottoman Empire & Habsburg Empire?

• Why did the (economic) role of the Roma slowly decline at the beginning of the 20th cent.?

• What were the consequences for their socioeconomic status?

• How were the new government‘s approaches to the „Gypsy problem“ in the interwar period?

• Why is the Romani Holocaust so little documented – compared to the Jewish Holocaust or other periods in Romani history

Text (optional):

• Hübschmannova, Milena. 2006. Roma in the so-called Slovak state (1939-1945), in Kenrick, D. (ed.). The Gypsies during the Second World War. 3: The Final Chapter. Hatfield: University of Hertfordshire Press, pp. 3-46.

Hübschmannova, Milena. 2006. Roma in the so-called Slovak state

(1939-1945)

• Accounts of Romani survivors are mostly consistent with facts described in literature, but contribute additional insights on diverse topics not mentioned anywhere:

- Roma were recruited by Tiso into army

- fought on the side of Germans on Eastern Front

- joined the first Czechoslovak army

- joined the partisan movement & Slovak national uprising• Witnesses tell of local authorities who kept “their Gypsies” from being deported

Hübschmannova, Milena. 2006. Roma in the so-called Slovak state

(1939-1945)

• Accounts of Romani survivors are mostly consistent with facts described in literature, but contribute additional insights on diverse topics not mentioned anywhere:

- Roma were recruited by Tiso into army

- fought on the side of Germans on Eastern Front

- joined the first Czechoslovak army

- joined the partisan movement & Slovak national uprising• Witnesses tell of local authorities who kept “their Gypsies” from being deported

Discussion questions (Huebschmannova text)

• Why are accounts of Romani survivors so valuable (Besides the existing historical facts)?

• Why did the Roma in Slovakia NOT become victims of Nazi genocide during WW II (as Roma elsewhere or as the Slovak Jews)?

• Why does Huebschmannova claim that the Roma were socially better integrated into the local society before WW II than later during Socialism?