ROMA: A Discussion of Diversity and the Treatment of Minorities in Europe
Understanding the Roma people’s past and present and discusses issues of race, identity, integration and discrimination that are at the forefront of contemporary European politics.
Humanity in Action, Denmark
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Course Description
Who are the Roma (also known as Romani) people? And why is this question important?
Distinguished scholar, journalist and activist Konstanty Gebert analyzes the experience of the Roma people of Europe starting from the Porajmos - the Roma Holocaust (also known as Pharrajimos, or Porrajmos). Often called a forgotten chapter in European history, the Porajmos is important to not only the Roma but also European history and identity at large, because the Roma are fundamentally European people.
Units
Unit 1
The Roma during the Porajmos
Konstanty Gebert is a Jewish activist and one of the most notable war correspondents of various Polish daily newspapers. He is an associate fellow at the European Council for Foreign Relations and a special advisor on international affairs with the educational organisation Humanity in Action.
In this unit, Konstanty Gebert lays out important facts about the genocide of the Roma during World War II, and belated acts of to remember and commemorate the genocide many decades after the war had ended.
Note: Information contained in some sources may contradict others. This is because Roma and Sinti history is still being researched, and much remains to be discovered
Unit 2
The Roma after the Porajmos
So what happened to the Roma after the Porajmos?
As tension rose between the powers in the Eastern Bloc led by the Soviet Union, and Western Bloc led by The United States in the years after World War II, the different political climates of Eastern and Western Europe had distinctive impact on the Roma.
Konstanty Gebert argues that in Eastern Europe, the communist system to some extent had the effect of including the Roma into larger society.
Unit 3
Exclusion of and racism against the Roma in Europe
In this unit, Konstanty Gebert discusses issues of racism and discrimination that have characterized relation between Roma and non-Roma.
The Roma have an inbuilt mistrust of the institutions of the European states. To make the problem worse, the Roma are an internally very diverse community, and there is growing internal mistrust of middle-class Roma who are seen as disloyal and unreliable.
Unit 4
A shared identity based on the Porajmos?
In this unit, Konstanty Gebert analyzes the mixed Jewish experience of building an identity largely around the Shoah in Israel and the diaspora. The negative effects that can be seen from the Jewish experience have direct implications for any effort to construct a Roma identity around the Porajmos.
This raises the questions of how to commemorate the Porajmos, and where this event should stand vis-a-vis Roma identity.