Xenophobia, nationalism can only be defeated together
Romani Rose
Guest commentary
August 2, 2020
Sunday marks European Roma Holocaust Memorial Day. But remembering isn't enough — we must decisively combat racism and nationalism, writes Romani Rose of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma.
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Image: picture-alliance/dpa/K. Nietfeld
On August 2, 1944, the last 4,300 Sinti and Roma still living in the so-called "gypsy camp" were murdered in the gas chambers of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp. This day marks the Nazi Holocaust of more than 500,000 Sinti and Roma in occupied Europe.
On August 2, a very important day for our community across Europe, we remember these final victims, and we remember all the victims of the Sinti and Roma genocide and all the victims of National Socialism. Remembering them has become an integral part of our identity.
In 2015, the European Parliament declared this date as a European day of remembrance, and EU member states have been asked to observe August 2 as a day of commemoration in their own countries. Poland was the first member state to do so.
Violent anti-Gypsyism, anti-Semitism and racism on the rise
Racist nationalism has taken hold in many countries across Europe in the form of nationalist parties and governments, and there are no longer guarantees for the state of our democracy, the rule of law and European values.
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For some time now, we have seen an increase in hatred toward Sinti and Roma, Jews and other minorities. The attack in Halle last October and in Hanau this past February, are just the latest examples in Germany of an increasingly violent form of anti-Gypsyism, anti-Semitism and racism.
Sinti and Roma have been living in Europe for more than 700 years, and are citizens of their home countries. The Nazis systematically detained and marginalized us, denied us our citizenship, deported us and, in the end, tried to eliminate us completely. Extreme and radical forms of racism, anti-Semitism and anti-Gypsyism were the very essence of the Third Reich, and they resulted in the Holocaust — a crime against humanity, an unprecedented fracture of our civilization.
The 20th century was marked by two world wars, along with numerous conflicts in nearly every corner of the globe. Now, in the 21st century, we are faced with a situation in which democracies are giving up on themselves, in which the principles of the rule of law are being systematically dismantled and in which, above all, many different camps within our societies are barely able to communicate with one another.
Taken together, this is an unsustainable situation — one that can only be defeated in unison. Social tensions have always been blamed on minorities, and still are today, once again increasing the risk of displacement and pogroms against the Roma.
Anxiety over Berlin memorial to murdered Sinti, Roma
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We can no longer remain silent
The memory of Auschwitz is the conscience of our democratic states. We can no longer remain silent and trivialize, we can no longer look away when racism rears its head, when nationalism tears down the idea of Europe and our common democratic values, when nationalists and right-wing groups try to eradicate our democracy and the rule of law.
The governments of Europe must now — finally, unequivocally and once and for all — outlaw anti-Gypsyism, anti-Semitism and racism. To this end, the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma welcomes the independent expert commission on anti-Gypsyism appointed by the federal government, whose task it is to study the issue in Germany and develop recommendations to fight it.
This is the obligation imposed on us by the people murdered in Auschwitz-Birkenau, in the other concentration and extermination camps, or at the hands of the SS killing squads. Europeans must face it together.
Romani Rose has been chair of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma since 1982. He lost 13 relatives in the Holocaust.
Remembering Nazi genocide of Sinti and Roma
Sinti and Roma have lived in Europe for 600 years. Under the Nazis they were marginalized, forcibly sterilized and murdered. After World War II, German society denied for decades they had been persecuted.
Image: Dokumentations- und Kulturzentrum Deutscher Sinti und Roma
Serving the fatherland
Many German Sinti fought for Germany not only in the First World War but also in the Wehrmacht from 1939 on. In 1941 the German high command ordered all "Gypsies and Gypsy half-breeds" to be dismissed from active military service for "racial-political reasons." Alfons Lampert and his wife Elsa were then deported to Auschwitz, where they were killed.
Image: Dokumentations- und Kulturzentrum Deutscher Sinti und Roma
Measuring and registering race
Eva Justin, a nurse and anthropologist, learned the Romani language to gain the trust of Sinti and Roma. As a specialist in so-called scientific racism, she traveled through Germany to measure people and create a complete registry of "Gypsies" and "Gypsy half-breeds" — the basis for the genocide. She and others researched family ties and and assessed churches' baptismal records.
Image: Bundesarchiv
Locked up and dispossessed
In the 1930s, Sinti and Roma families were in many places forced into camps on the outskirts of town, surrounded by barbed wire and patrolled by guards with dogs, like here in Ravensburg in southwestern Germany. They were unable to leave. Their pets were killed. They had to work as slave laborers. Many were forcibly sterilized.
Image: Stadtarchiv Ravensburg
Deportation in broad daylight
In May 1940 Sinti and Roma families were sent through the streets of the town of Asperg in southwestern Germany to the train station and deported directly to Nazi-occupied Poland. "The dispatchment went smoothly," a police report noted. Most of those deported traveled to their deaths in work camps and Jewish ghettos.
Image: Bundesarchiv
From school to Auschwitz
Karl Kling appears on this class picture from Karlsruhe in the late 1930s. He was collected from school in spring 1943 and sent to the "Gypsy Camp" at Auschwitz-Birkenau, where he became one of the victims of the genocide. Survivors reported that before being deported they had been marginalized in their schools and sometimes weren't even able to take part in lessons.
Greeted with an evil lie
"I can work," thought nine-year-old Hugo Höllenreiner when he arrived at Auschwitz in a cattle car with his family in 1943. He was greeted by the phrase "Arbeit macht frei" ("work will set you free") above the entrance. It offered hope, Höllenreiner remembered later. He wanted to help his father work: "Then we could be free again." Only one out of every ten people deported to Auschwitz survived.
Image: DW/A. Grunau
Brutal experiments by the 'Angel of Death'
Notorious SS doctor Josef Mengele worked at Auschwitz. He and his colleagues tortured countless prisoners. They mutilated children, infected them with diseases and carried out brutal experiments on twins. Mengele sent eyes, organs and entire body parts back to Berlin. In June 1944, he sent the head of a 12-year-old child. He escaped Europe after the war and never faced trial.
Image: Staatliches Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau
Liberation comes too late
When Russia's Red Army arrived at Auschwitz on January 27, 1945, children were among the prisoners. But for the Sinti and Roma, the liberation came too late. On the night of August 2-3, 1944, the officers in charge of Auschwitz ordered those remaining in the "Gypsy Camp" sent to the gas chambers. Two children came crying out of the barracks the next morning and were subsequently murdered.
Image: DW/A. Grunau
Racially persecuted
After the concentration camps were liberated, allied and German authorities issued survivors certificates of racial persecution and imprisonment. Later, many people were told they had only been persecuted for criminal reasons, and their requests for compensation were denied. Hildegard Reinhardt (above) lost her three young daughters in Auschwitz.
Image: Dokumentations- und Kulturzentrum Deutscher Sinti und Roma
Calling for recognition
In the early 1980s, representatives of the Sinti and Roma communities staged a hunger strike at the entrance of the former Dachau concentration camp. They were protesting the criminalization of their minority and calling for the recognition of Nazi persecution. In 1982, then-Chancellor Helmut Schmidt officially recognized the Sinti and Roma as victims of Nazi genocide.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
A memorial in Berlin
In 2012, a memorial for the Sinti and Roma victims of Nazi persecution was erected near the Bundestag in Berlin. The site is a reminder of the fight against discrimination for the world's Sinti and Roma, particularly on International Romani Day. To this day, members of the minority still experience discrimination in Germany and around Europe.
