PROJECT EDUCATION OF ROMA | HISTORY ROMA CHILDREN COUNCIL CONSEIL OF EUROPE DE L´EUROPE IN EUROPE AUSTRIA AND HUNGARY 4.1 1850 – 1938 Austria and Hungary 1850 - 1938 compiled by the editors Austro-Hungarian Empire | Austria | Hungary More and more regulations within the monarchy restricted the Roma’s opportunities to earn a living. Bans on travelling were followed by settling by force, large-scale registration and bans on certain professions. Economic difficulties and National Socialist propaganda aggravated the situation, and finally “forced labour, deportation and sterilisation” were to solve the “Gypsy question” with a “National Socialist solution”. ROMA POPULATION NEUSIEDL in BuRgEnland in 1927 The rigorous census allowed for a continuous, close watch of virtually every single person of Roma ethnicity. MÖRBISCH ill. 1 (based upon Mayerhofer 1988, p. 40) MATTERSBURG E U R O P E AUSTRIA HUNGARY BURGENLAND 1 - 9 persons OBERPULLENDORF 10 - 49 persons 50 - 99 persons 100 - 200 persons 200 - 289 persons INTRODUCTION ous problems between Roma and non- OBERWART Roma. When the Austrian government The “Gypsy policy” of the Austro-Hungari- closed the Hungarian border to the Roma, an Empire was determined by restrictions. many Roma settled in the very poor parts Bans on travelling, settling by force, bans of Western Hungary, known today as Bur- and deportation continued a tradition of genland. Thus, conflicts were pre-pro- expulsion and repression which had lasted grammed in the first decades of the 20th GÜSSING for centuries – the starting point being the century, which was marked by pover- Roma’s first arrival in Central Europe. ty and war. The “Gypsies” were seen as The influx of groups of Roma a “plague” by the majority population, coming from the east and southeast and finally as a “question” to which only mainly into Hungary, was percei- one “solution” was possible in the 1930s, RAX ved as an “invasion” and led to seri- strongly marked by National Socialism. Austro-Hungarian Empire Austria Hungary ill. 2 “Putri“ with wooden door, window and chimney, St. Margarethen, Burgenland, between the wars. Ill. 3 The homes of the Roma were registered in Burgenland in the 1920s. This hut bears the number “28” above the left window. The photo was taken approximately in 1926. Ill. 4 Settlement in Mattersburg, Burgenland, between the wars. The picture shows the three different designs of dwellings that existed then: left, a plastered and whitewashed house of clay bricks, in the middle a “putri”, a hut half dug in the earth, half made of wood, branches and clay, right, a clay-filled, half-timbered building. ill. 2 (from Mayerhofer 1988, p. 177) ill. 3 (from Mayerhofer 1988, p. 37) ill. 4 (from Mayerhofer 1988, p. 184) immigrations, these regulations were a criminalising the Roma increased, not AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN growing burden for the towns. least because of publications about EMPIRE in 1907, 28 districts demanded Hungarian law. State and society were a standardised way of dealing with the not able or not willing to take purpose- From the second half of the 19th centu- Roma; the parliament, however, was not ful measures with respect to the Roma. ry onwards, Roma groups such as the able to find a political solution. Instead, This led to dramatic changes in the Wes- Lovara, who had originally come from the problem was transferred to an admi- tern Hungarian districts (today’s Bur- the Danubian Principalities and were nistrative level. The decisions that were genland): the austrian government had now mainly working as horse dealers, taken, such as the ban on begging and tightened the immigration laws in the came into Hungary from the east. The forced repatriation to the original coun- second half of the 19th century in order more nomadic groups appeared, the try of residence, were in line with the to stop the Roma’s immigration. At the more complaints were registered in the existing “Gypsy policy”, based on re- same time, it decreed the deportation of “comitatuses” (the Hungarian counties). pression and threats. all Hungarian Roma found in Austria. In “Repeated law-breaking” and the lack This Hungarian policy, valid until combination with the Hungarian prohi- of laws helping to deal with this “public 1918, aimed at forcing the Roma to sett- bition to leave the country, decreed in nuisance” led to complaints. From the le. The economic structures and means, Hungary in 1870, this led to a massive point of view of the Hungarian popu- however, were not sufficient, and so fai- rise in the number of Roma living in the lation, the Roma’s immigration was an lure was pre-ordained. The towns could border districts. These districts did not “invasion”. not offer the Roma the necessary means have or did not want to give accommo- Another reason for complaints for their daily survival, so that they had dation to the Roma, so the latter were were those regulations of the Hungarian to keep up their “Gypsy” way of life in given worthless plots of land to settle. district laws which obliged the munici- order to enssure their existence. At the This is how the infamous “Gypsy co- palities to find accommodation and sup- same time, the prejudices of the majo- lonies” came into being on the towns’ plies for the Roma. In view of the many rity population and a tendency towards outskirts. [ills. 2-4] COUNCIL OF EUROPE ROMA | HISTORY PROJECT EDUCATION OF ROMA CHILDREN IN EUROPE AUSTRIA AND HUNGARY 4.1 1850 – 1938 Ill. 5 Family of an itinerant craftsman in front of the tent, between the wars. ill. 6 A Rom getting arrested, St. Margarethen, Burgenland, 1934. ill. 7 List of male Roma of the village Spitzzicken in Burgenland who were deported to labour camps mainly in Styria, 1942. ill. 5 (from Mayerhofer 1988, p. 184) ill. 6 (from Mayerhofer 1988, p. 178) ill. 7 (from Baumgartner 1995, p. 140) provincial government decreed that all gravated the situation between the Roma AUSTRIA Roma had to stay in the district they were and the rural population. A climate of es- living in, and had to be prevented from calating hostility was the result. travelling. In order to stop new immigrati- One of the main reasons for the The big number of Roma and the economic on, censuses were carried out and “Gypsy rising number of crimes committed by backwardness of the Western Hungarian dwellings” were registered. “Gypsies” were – with similarities to region made integration impossible. In in 1926, the finger prints of all Germany – the new, restrictive regulati- view of the difficult economic situation, the Roma over 14, living in Burgenland, were ons. Many records resulted from offences conflict between the Roma and non-Roma taken and later supplemented by a pho- against the strict registration laws and other became more and more pronounced. to. From 1928 onwards, the police of Ei- administrative offences. This connection, During World War I, many Roma senstadt had a so-called “Zigeunerkarto- however, was not taken into account, as served in the army. Women and unfit men thek” (“gypsy” card file), which included crime rose among the Roma. [ill. 6] were enlisted to do various works as decreed entries about 8,000 Roma (names and fin- On the contrary: police statistics by the “Kriegsleistungsgesetz” (army ser- ger prints). [ill. 1] were used to prove the “Gypsy” ’s “anti- vice law). in 1916, all draught animals and Due to the emerging economic social” behaviour. Their settlements were wagons were taken away from the travelling crisis many Roma, who had worked as perceived as a “cultural shame”, particu- Roma, and given to the army. Horses, mules unskilled labourers and travelling crafts- larly by the media in Burgenland, who, and donkeys could only be bought with a men, got into a situation which made their using a more and more radical language, police permit. With the annexation of the daily survival almost impossible. They had fostered hostile behaviour towards the Burgenland area in 1921, several thousand no sources of income anymore, had to beg Roma and demanded that the Burgenland Roma came into the newly-founded Repu- and – much to the dislike of the non-Roma should quickly be freed from this “plague”, blic of Austria. Thus, the Roma could not – had to rely on district welfare. warning about their “terrifying reproduc- be deported anymore, and drastic measures This economic crisis also led to tion”. Several assemblies were held on were taken. already in 1922, Burgenland’s theft and petty crimes, which in turn ag- how to achieve this. During one of them, COUNCIL OF EUROPE PROJECT EDUCATION OF ROMA CHILDREN IN EUROPE ROMA | HISTORY AUSTRIA AND HUNGARY 4.1 1850 – 1938 ill. 8 (detail) Some rules from the memorandum “Die Zigeunerfrage. Denkschrift des Lan- deshauptmanns für das Burgenland” (The Gypsy Question. Memorandum by the Head of Government of the Province Burgenland) by Thobias Portschy (Eisenstadt, 1938): 1. “Sexual intercourse between are to be pulled down, and the Gyp- Gypsies and Germans constitutes an sies lodged in labour camp shacks. offence of racial disgrace. 6. In the labour camps, the Gypsies 2. Gypsies are not allowed to attend work as closed group. the general primary school. 7. Exercising private professions out- 3. Sterilising Gypsies should stop side the labour camp is prohibited. their reproduction. 8. Gypsies are not allowed to bear 4. Searchings of houses and individu- weapons. als have to be conducted regularly. 9. Voluntary emigration is promoted.” 5. Gypsy huts (a cultural disgrace) (translated from Mayerhofer 1988, p. 43f.) which took place in Oberwart on January had been laid in the years and decades der) Thobias Portschy was determined 15, 1933, it was suggested that they “take before.