DOCTORAL (PHD) DISSERTATION by ANNA LUJZA SZÁSZ 2015

DOCTORAL (PHD) DISSERTATION

by

ANNA LUJZA SZÁSZ
2015
EMANCIPÁLT EMLÉKEZET

KÉPES TÖRTÉNETEK A MAGYARORSZÁGI ROMA HOLOKAUSZT
EMLÉKEZETRŐL

írta
SZÁSZ ANNA LUJZA

KONZULENS: habil Dr. KOVÁCS ÉVA CSc

EÖTVÖS LÓRÁND TUDOMÁNY EGYETEM, BUDAPEST

TÁRSADALOMTUDOMÁNYI KAR
SZOCIOLÓGIA TANSZÉK
INTERDISZCIPLINÁRIS TÁRSADALOMKUTATÁSOK DOKTORI
PROGRAM

2015

MEMORY EMANCIPATED

EXPLORING THE MEMORY OF THE NAZI GENOCIDE OF ROMA IN HUNGARY by
ANNA LUJZA SZÁSZ

TUTOR: habil Dr. ÉVA KOVÁCS CSc

EÖTVÖS LÓRÁND UNIVERSITY BUDAPEST

FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY
INTERDISCIPLINARY SOCIAL STUDIES PROGRAM

2015

Acknowledgements

As the submission of my dissertation was approaching I started getting emotional about it. It was the realization that this text is not only about the exploration of the memory of the Nazi genocide of Roma but it is also a context which made me possible to meet great people, to gain incredibly meaningful experience and knowledge academically, socially and personally, and to learn to be aware of the position from where I am speaking. It was a little bit more than four years of my life, and this project was developed, nurtured and completed together with many people whom I am thankful to and whom I shall keep in my memories.

This research would have never begun if I had not met Júlia Szalai at a course titled “Sociological Approaches to Race and Ethnicity: The Roma in Post-communist Central Europe” at the Central European University in 2008. A year later I had the chance to be her research assistant in an FP7 research project on ethnic differences in education. I was in that privileged position that Júlia paved my way for many years and I immersed myself in the realm of her knowledge and enjoyed every bits and pieces of the work we did together. I learned an exemplary discipline and that no matter how tired I am only high-quality work should be produced.

Thank you for being my tutor, Éva Kovács. I had butterflies in my stomach every time I received your comments on my chapters. You constantly challenged my ideas and provided new insights throughout the discussions; your questions and suggestions were invaluable. I have learned from you an elemental and fundamental sensitivity to the interviewee and to the text: an approach which brings along a certain theoretical and methodological rigor as well as an ambition to read across the lines and understand the depths. You have taught me to always look for and see the human behind the subject of analysis as well as have emphasised the importance of belonging and preserving an intellectual community in which knowledge can be shared. I am grateful that I can be your colleague at the Voices of the 20^thCentury Archive.

The backbone of my research is contemporary art. Art has become a fundamental pillar of my life, a kind of lens through which I wish to understand processes and problems. Being a colleague of Tímea Junghaus meant to experience her creativity and endless ideas. Tímea introduced me to Roma contemporary art. I have been working with her in the European

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Roma Cultural Foundation (ERCF) and had the chance to be involved in projects such as the 7^thBerlin Biennale or in exhibitions at the Gallery 8 – Roma Contemporary Art Space.

I was fortunate to write this text in a number of stimulating institutions. I owe a great thank you to the wonderful people at the Wiener Wiesenthal Institute für Holocaust-Studien for having me as a junior fellow at their base for ten months. Béla Rásky, Éva Kovács, Greta Anderl, Barbara Grzelaková, Jana Starek, Sandro Fashing and Philipp Rohrbach thank you for your hospitality and the academic, technical and financial support you provided. My colleagues, Zoe Roth, Katharina Friedla, Elisabeth Gallas, Eva Waibel, Patrice G. Poutrus, Raul Carstocea, Robby van Eetvelde and Gerhard Baumgartner, I enjoyed every moment there with you: the glasses of wine at Giorgina, Saltzamt or Philosoph, the flatparties and lunchbreaks, or the sad and sweet farewell picnic at Augarten. I would also like to thank the support of Henriette Asséo, Dominique Trimbur and of the Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah which institute generously financed my research with a one-year long doctoral scholarship in 2013/2014.

I had the opportunity to travel around the world and challenge my ideas, thus the summer schools in both Ohrid titled “The Diverse Survival Strategies of Jewish and Roma Communities in Macedonia: From Resistance to Memorialization” and Brno titled “Memory, Culture and Identity” as well as the workshop of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum titled “New Research on Roma and the Holocaust” contributed to the betterment of my thesis.

I am utterly grateful for the comments, guidance, editing and unconditional help of the following people in various phases of the project: Ágnes Daróczi, Andrea Pócsik, Antal Örkény, Borbála Varga, Enikő Bódis, Erna Sághy, Ethel Brooks, Gábor Bernáth, Gábor Sárközi, György Csepeli, Henrik Kállai, János Bársony, Máté Zombory, Nadine Blumer, Péter Szuhay, Slawomir Kapralski, Tibor Balogh, Titanilla Fiáth and Zoltán Kékesi. Furthermore, I am grateful for the artists who talked about their work to me.

Dear Vera Vaspál, thank you for generously reading through every chapter I sent you. I am deeply grateful for the challenging arguments and comments you gave me in both study and life and for your enthusiasm towards this project which breathed life into it in times when I was frustrated or lacking self-confidence. My dearest friends, Klári, Juli, Andi, Mariann,

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Bukky, Eszter, Szonja and Nóra, thank you for your encouragement. Dear Doris, Márk and Masha, you taught me what it means to nurture a friendship across the borders. I thank for my parents and my brothers, Gergely, Jakab and Vince.

One of the greatest highlights of each day is the moment when I take on my running shoes and set off to run. Running is exact, meditative and mentally as well as physically challenging however it would be empty and boring without the people at BEAC. I am pleased that I have the opportunity to run with all of you every day.

Ádám Richárd Hőrich, my friend and love. I started this challenge with you and I am glad that we can finish it together. You helped me evolve this project and I would not have been able to accomplish it without your sense of humour, patience and calmness.

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Abbreviations and translations

Association of Sociology and Ethnography of the Society for the Dissemination of Scientific

Knowledge – Tudományos Ismeretterjesztő Társaság Szociológiai és Néprajzi Csoportja Bank Centre – Pénzintézeti Központ Committee of Roma Professionals – Roma Szakértői Tanács vagy Roma Integrációs Tanács European Roma Cultural Foundation (ERCF) – Európai Roma Kulturális Alapítvány

General Bank and Trust Co. Ltd – Általános Értékforgalmi Bank Hungarian Gypsy Cultural Association (HGCA) – Magyarországi Cigányok Kulturális

Szövetsége

Music Workers Trade Union – Zenei Dolgozók Szakszervezete National Association of Persecuted by Nazism – Nácizmus Magyarországi Üldözötteinek

Országos Érdekvédelmi Szervezete

Roma Educational and Cultural Centre of Budapest – Fővárosi Roma Oktatási és Kulturális

Központ

Social Review – Társadalmi Szemle

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Table of Contents

I. INTRODUCTION AND THEORETICAL ORIENTATION S .............................................. 1

II. UNFOLDING THE DISCOURSE ON THE ROMA GENOCID E .................................... 30

III. A THEORETICAL CONCEPTUALIZATION OF THE MEMORY OF THE HOLOCAUST AND ITS REPRESENTATION ..................................................................... 62

Trauma and representation ................................................................................................................ 67 Representation and the experience of the Holocaust......................................................................... 75 Generations of post-Holocaust .......................................................................................................... 83

IV. THE AESTHETICS OF VIOLENCE Photographic representation of the Nazi genocide of Roma.................................................... 87

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The eternal image of the “Other” .................................................................................................... 101 Marcell Esterházy: On the same da y ............................................................................................... 105 Péter Korniss and Pál Závada: “One Row of Gypsies. Twenty four contemporary Hungarian ”.... 107

V. DISILLUSIONED IMAGES The representation of the genocide in film s ........................................................................... 110

VI. CHALLENGING PASTS AND PRESENTS The works of art of Omara and Tibor Balog h ........................................................................ 144

VII. REMEMBERING AND PROTESTING Memorialization and commemoration of the Nazi genocide of Roma .................................. 167

VIII. CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................. 196

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BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................................. 203

APPENDIX I. THE AESTHETICS OF SILENCE ............................................................... 221 APPENDIX II. FILMS.......................................................................................................... 224 APPENDIX III. FINE ART WORKS................................................................................... 226 APPENDIX IV. MONUMENTS .......................................................................................... 230

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I. INTRODUCTION AND THEORETICAL ORIENTATIONS

“It cannot be peace where one is putting down the others. ... If we ignore the past it can happen again and that’s a shame and this shame I never want to face with, not as a member of the majority and not as a member of the minority. I want peace for everybody.” (Ágnes Daróczi; at the 7^thBerlin Biennale, Collegium Hungaricum, June 1, 2012.)

One of the art works at the exhibition Multiple Exposures: Memory of the Roma Holocaust-

contemporary reflections, held at the Gallery 8 – Roma Contemporary Art Space in Budapest in summer 2013 was a voice installation by Klára Rudas. The work was titled Almost Now.¹
The artists fixed three small microphones on the bottom of the walls in equal distance from each other, and placed two loudspeakers into the corners, on the floor. They were connected and operated by an audio-mixer which was unnoticeable for the audience, hidden in the storage room of the gallery. The microphones, sensitive to tone and pitch, recognized the voices of people in their proximities and transmitted them to the loudspeakers with a short delay however the audio-mixer made it possible to generate an echo out of them. Thus even in the case of a smaller number of visitors the room appeared to be crowded with people and produced speech with adequate loudness. Rudas’ work was supposed to be a response to the silence that surrounds the Nazi genocide of Roma – as the caption explained. “Silenced,” “forgotten,” “hidden” are all adjectives which suggest in relation to Roma that knowledge is still fragmented and that this past event has not yet been acquired an outer dimension and been transmuted into tradition or into symbolic forms of cultural memory. The sound of the artificial echo filled the space of the gallery suggesting that the experiences of Roma under the Holocaust shall be communicated, discussed, narrated or considered as object of historiography. The installation was not only a playful invitation to speaking – since most of us take pleasure in the phenomenon of the echo or enjoy producing it – but also a creative attempt to start a real-time discourse on the theme. The separate comments, remarks and

¹“Multiple Exposures: The Memory of the Roma Holocaust – contemporary reflections,” last modified February

17, 2015, http://gallery8.org/en/news/2/20/multiple-exposures-memory-of-the-roma-holocaust-contemporary- reflections .