Giving Memory A Future
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Denied Memory

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Summary

• Non-recognition of the "Porrajmos" at Nuremberg  Though mentioned several times in the dreadful deeds related to International Military Trials, the trials held in Nuremberg from 1945 to 1949 against the architects of the crimes committed by the Nazi regime, the Porrajmos, which in the Romani language means "devastation" or "huge devouring," refers to the mass murder of the Romani communities by the Nazi/Fascists. In fact, even today, the Romani Holocaust has not yet received the recognition that it deserves not only as an historic event but also as a collective tragedy... (Claudio Vercelli)
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Chronology

• After the Porrajmos:  1945, May 8: the war ends. 1945, November - April 1949: Nuremberg Trials. No Roma or Sinti are called to testify. In several depositions (Gerrit Hendrick Nales, Otto Ohlendorf) "Gypsy" extermination is mentioned. 1946: local German authorities denounce the "growing sense of insecurity" caused by the Roma and Sinti...  Continue reading
 

Historical Documents

• Testimony of Gerrit Hendrick Nales, Nuremberg Trial hearing from 30 June 1947.

 

 
 


Further Reading


» Situation of Concentration Camps Survivors – Council of Europe (Germany – Austria – Socialist Countries)

» Internment in France 1940-1946 - Council of Europe (Identifying "Gipsies" and Tracking their Movements Compulsory Residence Orders for "Nomads" in the Third Reich – Internment in the Unoccupied Zone – Internment in the Occupied Zone – After the Liberation – Daily Life in the Camps – Cases of Deportation from French Internment Camps).

» Deportations from Romania -  Council of Europe (The Deportation of Itinerant Roma, July-August 1942 - The Deportation of Sedentary Roma Deemed “Undesirable”, September 1942 - The Treatment of the Roma in Transnistria – The Postwar Years and the Treatment of the Roma Deportations in War Crimes Trials – The Future of the Past: The Recognition of Slavery and the Holocaust against Roma).

» Stewart M., "The other genocide", in Stewart M., Rövid M, a cura di, "Multi-Disciplinary Approaches to Romany Studies", CEU Press, Budapest, 2010, pp. 172-195.

» Asseo H, "L'avènement politique des Roms (Tsiganes) et le génocide. La construction mémorielle en Allemagne et en France", in Nouveau monde - Le Temps des Médias, 2005/2.

» Rothea X., "Pistes pour un enseignement de l'histoire des Tsiganes à l'école".

• Italia

» Bravi L., Sigona N., "Educazione e rieducazione nei campi per 'nomadi': una storia", in "I campi per stranieri in Italia" a cura di Matteo Sanfilippo della rivista trimestrale Studi Emigrazione, XLIII (164): pp. 857-874.

» Bravi L., "Storia e memoria del Porrajmos per il tempo presente. Una storia della scolarizzazione dei rom e dei sinti in Italia", 2013.

» Sci – Cesd – Arcilesbica Lady Oscar, "Interviews with Roma and Sinti about Porrajmos", tratto da "The forgotten among the forgotten".

» De Bernart M., "Multiple transitions: growing up Gypsies. The case of Former Yugoslavian young Gypsies in Bologna, Italy", relazione alla  "4th Conference Young People & Societies in Europe and around the Mediterranean", Forlì, 2009.