On the night of August 2, 1944 2898 Romani men, women, and children were gassed at Auschwitz as Soviet troops closed in. Preceding it in January 1940 over 200 Romani children were murdered in Buchenwald, Germany, used as research subjects for the efficiency of the crystals of Zyclon B Gas later employed in the gas chambers.

It took over 50 years for the Roma genocide to achieve attention and recognition, still often marginal. At least 250 000 (and most probably around half a million) Roma perished in 1940s as a result of extreme nationalistic theories which described them as a threat to the “health” of the nations/countries they lived in. Over 90 percent of the Austrian and German Roma and Sinti were exterminated during the Second World War.

After 61 years, fascism tends to be viewed simplistically and presented as the policy of a couple insane men, Hitler and Mussolini. The enormous popular support for fascism is often forgotten, along with the important role played by eugenics and race purity theories to justify the mass murder of millions of people.

Over half a century of strong remembrance and atonement for the Jewish Holocaust has created an environment where most Europeans would hesitate to make anti-Semitic statements. Public expression of anti-Semitism triggers justified strong reactions not only from Israel but also from the majority of European governments, aware of their responsibility to curb still unacceptable levels of anti-Semitism within the majority populations.

The anti-Gypsyism continues to receive little or no attention from the European Governments.

It is without doubt that Roma are third class European citizens. The 2005 annual report of the European Commission on equality and non-discrimination writes on its first page that Roma communities face “widespread exclusion and discrimination.” Racist political speech and media coverage targeting Roma, which could not be written about any other European citizens, are seen as normal in a Europe ravaged by strong anti-Gypsyism.

Dr Robert Ritter, the moral author of the genocide against Sinti, Roma and Jews during the era of National Socialism, considered people of mixed Romani and non-Romani blood (Aryan) to have an inherited predisposition towards criminality. They were the ones first targeted by the extermination policies aimed at Roma.

The following article appeared in a major Eastern Europe newspaper not in the 1930s, but in 2003:

"The coordinator doctor of the bank (fertilization bank) A.M., says that all men between 18 to 40 who have an athletic body, have never had syphilis diabetes, obesity, AIDS or genetically transmittable illnesses and have at least a high school diploma can donate sperm. We are also giving a financial bonus, but I do not want to say the amount because we will have here a huge crowd tomorrow. The gypsies will come to donate, and when they are refused and told that we look only for the Caucasians, they will just tell us they have no idea what we are talking about."

The obsession with preventing Roma from polluting the White “Volkskoerper” is nothing new, but the extent of it and the similarities with National Socialism propaganda are striking.

This year in Italy , Councilman Pierpaolo Fanton, after describing Roma as “Nomads, they are animals,” suggested a vaccine for Roma children. This would prevent them from “infecting” Italian students going to the same schools with their spit.

In February, Pietro Zocconali, President of the National Association of Sociologists, implied in a public statement that killing children is a practice of Roma. He claimed that Roma steal children and then sell them “sometimes in parts”.

“Stamp on the camps,” “War against gypsies,” and “Gypsy madness” are just a few of the headlines of the top selling newspapers in Britain from 2004 and 2005. The Sun ran an opinion poll under the title “Should we let gypsies invade Britain.” If any of these newspapers dared to ask the Brits to “crush the Jews,” the reaction would be unimaginable. Despite Roma protests, The Sun and other tabloids did not even apologise.

Significant energy is put into justifying anti-Romani racism. Tabloids in the UK saw a dramatic increase in the number of newspapers sold when the headlines targeted Roma. This triggered a market-based tendency which “justified” the production of racist articles not just in England but all over Europe. Arguably the main reason for the rise of Hitler was the positive impact on the German economy of forced labor and weapons production.

August 2 should be a day of reflection for the European public, opinion makers and mass media about the dangers of anti-Gypsyism and racism in general. It is unacceptable to isolate, exclude and blame Roma for the obvious failures of policies made to forcibly assimilate them; it is unacceptable to publish racist materials in mass media and shameful to justify it from an economic point of view.

In recent years the Roma remembrance of August 2 was largely ignored by both mass media and the public. Last year, less than one in one hundred articles focused on the Holocaust mentioned Roma. Since 1984 the European Parliament has recognized the discrimination faced by Roma communities around Europe; more than 20 years later, according to a World Bank Report the situation of Roma in Europe is very far from getting better.


The original source of this article is  http://www.erionet.org/Articles.html

More about the Roma Holocaust can be found at  http://www.erionet.org/Holocaust.htm