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Hidden History: Perceptions of the Romani Holocaust in Romania Viewed Through Contemporary Race Relations

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Hidden History: Perceptions of the Romani Holocaust in Romania Viewed Through Contemporary Race Relations 44 HIDDEN HISTORY: PERCEPTIONS OF THE ROMANI HOLOCAUST IN ROMANIA VIEWED THROUGH CONTEMPORARY RACE RELATIONS Michelle Kelso University of Michigan Romanian authorities stirred up reinforcing the dominant narrative in which international outrage in 2003, when they denied Romanians were victims of the Second World that the Holocaust took place in Romania, despite War, the Wiesel Report produced a counter- the deportation by the pro-Nazi regime led by Ion narrative in which the Romanian regime Antonescu of hundreds of thousands of Jews and perpetrated genocides against Jews and Roma, tens of thousands of Roma to Axis-occupied adding complexity and new meanings to the Romanian conceptualization of victimhood during Soviet territories. In the wake of this scandal, then- 2 President Ion Iliescu bowed to international the War. The presence – or absence – of pressures and created the International narratives of genocide also shapes other peoples’ Commission for Studying the Holocaust in identities (Young 1993, Gocek 2006, Zubryzcki 2006, Olick 2007). Even though the report Romania, headed by Nobel Prize laureate Elie 3 Wiesel. In November 2004, the!Commission produced relatively little new knowledge, it presented its conclusions to Iliescu, stating that the forced Romanians to reconfigure, in part, their Antonescu regime was responsible for the deaths national identity. The report made clear that not of at least 280,000 Jews and over 11,000 Roma.! only Jews had been victimized, but that Romanian Noting that its report came after six decades of Roma were also persecuted. The addition of Roma Holocaust denial, the panel urged authorities to as victim category also constitutes a new counter- disseminate materials on the Holocaust and to narrative in its departure not only from current organize public debates to raise awareness of this views that the Holocaust was a uniquely Jewish hidden history. experience, but also in its challenge to As Romania was grappling with these wartime atrocities, it was also trying to solidify its Euro-Atlantic ties through admission into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and had Neighbors: The destruction of the Jewish entered accession talks with the European Union. community in Jedwabne. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Decades of omission and denial had passed, University Press, 2001; The Neighbors Respond: forcing the country to re-assess its memory of the The Controversy over the Jedwabne Massacre in Holocaust. Communist-era dominance of the Poland, edited by Anthony Polonsky and Joanna Soviet-informed narrative had allowed Romania to B. Michlic. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton shape its collective memory of the Holocaust so University Press, 2004; Zubryzcki, Geneviève. that solely Nazi Germany bore the burden of 2006. The Crosses of Auschwitz: Nationalism and genocide, while Romanian involvement in Religion in Post-Communist Poland. Chicago: atrocities was minimally covered. As was Poland, University of Chicago Press. Romania was forced into what Genevieve 2 Zubryzcki calls narrative shock that accompanied In interviews, Romanian teachers told me that the repositioning of the national narrative about Romanians were victims of WWII because some the Holocaust (Zubryzcki 2006).1 Instead of Romanian soldiers had suffered in Soviet POW camps, hundreds of thousands died at the frontlines, and countless civilians became war refugees when the Soviet army invaded Bessarabia 1 In the case of Poland, the narrative shock was and Bukovina in 1940. They were also victims more severe than in Romania, where debate and because even though Romania switched alliances dialogue were less intense. The data here in 1944, Western allies let the USSR take over the demonstrates that for Romanians, the country and set up a repressive communist regime. reconfiguring of Holocaust history is also a 3 Many of the reports’ authors had previously narrative shock. For more on Poland’s coming to published books or articles in Romania about the terms with its Holocaust history, see Jan T. Gross, topics they wrote on for the report. Volume 25, No. 2 Page 44 45 contemporary perceptions of Roma as asocial film on this topic, it was the first distributed 4 victimizers of Romanians. through the Romanian educational system, which meant it was the first exposure many viewers had In this article, I examine Romanians’ to the subject. The film stands as a proxy for the perception of their past to better understand how Holocaust history of Romanian Roma, and its conceptualization influences the present. While viewers’ reactions to it in surveys and discussions a few studies depict Romanian perceptions of the provide insight into their prior knowledge of the Holocaust, none focus specifically on the fate of genocide while revealing present attitudes!toward Roma.5 First and foremost, I want to know what the Holocaust and toward Roma. Understanding recollections of the Romani Holocaust reveal Romanian interpretations of Romani Holocaust about the collective memory of Nazi persecution. history is essential since Roma, unlike other victim Have these narratives entered the collective groups in recent Romanian history, continue to be memory of Romanians? If so, what do Romanians the main target of prejudice and racism in think about Roma and the Holocaust, and are their Romania today.8 views subject to transformation? How have these stories reconfigured the relationship between Given the above context, in addition to Romani survivors and dominant members of decades of denial of Romania's role in the contemporary Romanian society? Holocaust, the low socio-economic status of Roma today, and the widespread negative attitudes of the To apprehend Romanians’ perceptions of general Romanian public toward this ethnic group, Roma as victims of the Antonescu government, I many respondents had trouble reconciling their use audience reactions to a documentary film views on Roma with the new information about entitled Hidden Sorrows: The Persecution of Romani suffering. The film made it difficult to Romanian Gypsies During WWII,6 which I deny the validity of victims’ narratives as Roma produced and directed.7 While it is not the only tell their accounts, which are then corroborated 4 According to a study, World Bank Final Report: census figures, and the unofficial population Qualitative Survey (Focus Groups) Attitudes estimates are around 8%. In this paper I gauge the Towards the Roma in Romania July 2005, most non-Romani Romanian reaction to the Romani Romanians believe that Roma are social deviants Holocaust. Even if one assumes that Roma were (criminals) who seek advantage at the expense of representatively present at screenings and talks in Romanians. high schools, teacher-training programs, 5 See: Viorel Achim si Constantin Iordachi, universities, and public screenings, the vast Romania si Transnistria: Problema Holocaustului. majority of the audience members would still be Perspectiva istorice comparative (2005) Editura non-Romani Romanians. Furthermore, as the Curte Veche. See also: “Survey of opinions Open Society Institute’s Roma Inclusion regarding the Holocaust in Romania and Barometer survey indicates, only 15% of Roma perceptions of inter-ethnic relations,” National attend high school or vocational schools and less Institute for the Study of the Holocaust in than 1% go on to higher education (p.159). Thus Romania, May 2007. Roma are not represented proportionately to their 6 I use the word Gypsy in the title because my population statistics (official or unofficial) in the respondents declared a preference for !igan over educational venues I visited, which were the rom (Gypsy over Rom) in interviews. On the primary sources of this research. necessity of situating the term "igan in the 8 From 1990-95, some 40 incidents of anti-Gypsy Romanian context and the difficulties that inhere violence broke out across the country, leaving in attempts to translate it into English, see several Roma dead, some severely beaten, and Woodcock, this issue. others homeless after their properties were 7 I use Romanian to refer to viewer citizenship, as destroyed by neighbors. Discrimination against audience members’ ethnicity was not recorded. Roma in education, health, housing, human The majority of Romanian nationals are ethnic services, and employment continues to be a Romanians (89.5%), followed by ethnic problem in Romania according to the World Bank, Hungarians (6.6%), Roma (2.5%), ethnic the U.S. Department of State, the European Union, Ukrainians (0.3%), ethnic Germans (0.3%), etc. the Council of Europe, various human rights Roma are considered to be underrepresented in the organizations, and numerous academic studies. Volume 25, No. 2 Page 45 46 with archival evidence. Romanian audiences, faced part by the U.S. and Israeli governments, rather with psychological discomfort, tried to make sense than emerging from an internal desire to confront of the history by appealing to the present and thus past atrocities.10 The bulk of the Holocaust sought justification for Antonescu's policies by discourse focuses on the fate of the Jews, though a pointing out today's tensions involving the Roma minuscule space exists for examination of the fate minority and by blaming Roma for failing to of Roma. Additionally, over!the last decade integrate in society and for other social problems various foreign governments and institutions have such as crime. pressured Romania to improve the country’s dismal human rights record toward Roma, which The data were collected starting in spring
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