The memory of the genocide of Sinti and Roma has very different starting points in German and Czech society. German-Czech youth encounters enable young people to gather new experiences outside the national framework of remembrance and to deal openly with the topic due to the distance in time and over generations.
International youth encounters are often influenced by the recall of history. In particular, memories of National Socialism, the Shoah, the Roma holocaust and the Second World War come into play as part of the different cultural approaches to history precisely when the issues are not explicitly addressed. “Reflecting Memories” is a transnational project seeking to encourage participants in youth encounters to discuss the significance of memory and remembrance of the Shoah, the genocide of Sinti and Roma, the German occupation and other National Socialist mass crimes. It also wants to offer teachers practice-oriented support to help them organise memory processes in international youth meetings.
In October 2017, as part of the “Reflecting Memories” series, the Bavarian Youth Council held a Czech-German seminar on remembering the Sinti and Roma genocide for multipliers involved in international youth work. The event was planned jointly and led by staff of the Berlin-based Agency for Education, the Bavarian Youth Council and the Museum for Roma Culture in Brno. The issues covered included both the different historical backgrounds and the similarities in the ways the Sinti and Roma were treated and the genocide remembered.
Different starting points for addressing the issues
Anti-gypsyism continued in German society after 1945, finding expression in the way the authorities acted and even in legislation. As far back as the early 19th century and until after 1945, Bavaria ignobly led the way in setting up a regime designed to control members of the gypsy minority. The “Ordinance on Vagrants” (Landfahrerordnung) of 1953 reinstated many of the restrictions of the Bavarian law on “gypsies, vagrants and the workshy” which was passed in 1926 and later abolished by the US military government. The term “vagrants” (Landfahrer) simply camouflaged the anti-gypsy nature of the ordinance, because post-1945 people did not want to risk being accused of racism. In addition, many Sinti and Roma persecuted under National Socialism were denied any compensation. Official recognition of the genocide of up to half a million Sinti and Roma was not forthcoming until the then German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt spoke out in 1982. A memorial in Berlin was only unveiled in 2012.
The situation in the Czech Republic is different. The German invasion and the breakup of Czechoslovakia led to the emergence of a national narrative that focused on the country’s victim status. In addition, during the state socialist era there was considerable emphasis on the heroic aspects of the Czech resistance to the occupation. Yet the “gypsy camps” on Czech soil, in Lety and Hodonín, from which trains took people to Auschwitz for extermination, were staffed by a Czech commandant and Czech guards. The memory of this form of complicity is still a sensitive issue. Dušan Slačka of the Museum for Roma Culture described the founding of the Svaz Cikánů-Romů (Association of Gipsy Roma, SCR) in 1969 as an important milestone in the post-war history of the Czech Roma. The steps that led to the founding of the SCR, the first political and cultural association for Roma in the ČSSR, originated in the Prague Spring. The SCR campaigned for the social and political rights of Roma. After the only semi-voluntary dissolution of the association in 1973 there was no stable successor organisation. This situation continued even after 1989/90. The Muzeum romské kultury is indirectly picking up the baton.
It was not until 2017 that a memorial managed by the Muzeum romské kultury was opened in Hodonín. The museum had been organising memorial events there since 1995. A holiday and leisure activity camp had previously been located on the site. Until the site of the former Lety camp was transferred to the Czech state in 2018, the area was used as a pig fattening farm. Roma and non-Roma activists from Germany and the Czech Republic had long campaigned for an appropriate form of remembrance; it is thanks to their efforts that a memorial is now being erected here too.
Surprising similarities
It is clear that in both countries there are shortcomings in the way the Nazi genocide is addressed. Some participants were surprised by the similarities with anti-gypsy persecution practices outside National Socialism. An example is the Czechoslovak law no. 117/27 of 1927, which is based on the repressive Bavarian “Law to combat gypsies, vagrants and the workshy” and foreshadows elements of later Nazi policy. There are also parallels in terms of anti-gypsy stereotypes encountered by participants in their professional practice.
And today?
The participating practitioners welcomed the opportunity to explore different perspectives on forms of remembrance in a bilateral setting. This would also enable young people to gather new experience outside the national framework and to better understand the complexity of historical situations.
Youth encounters in the context of Czech-German relationships take place at a large generational distance from the historical events. While the historical picture acquired by young people is influenced by the historical narratives they are exposed to and by family involvement, the distance in time and over generations and the mixing with peers are factors that contribute to openness in the exploratory process.
