By Anja Kožul, freelance journalist
“…Did they kill the Roma, too?” The greatest ‘murder of truth’ about the Roma concerns their genocide in the Second World War. Thousands of books, hundreds of thousands of texts, and millions of articles have been written about this last great global catastrophe and the suffering of various peoples in it. Entire libraries have been dedicated to the suffering of Serbs, Croats, Jews, and all others in this region. This is a positive step because truth, no matter how bitter, must be remembered. And what better way to preserve it than between the covers of a book, on celluloid, or some other medium. The truth about the suffering of the Roma in this region has been neglected, forgotten, and relegated to oblivion, kept away from public eyes and ears. Why? Because it suits everyone else. Nobody asks the Roma how they feel about the concealment of the truth of the genocide against them. And who would even ask them, when so many of those who knew this truth are no longer alive? The records answering the questions of who and how many of the Roma were killed, as well as when, how and why, are scarce, almost nonexistent. For example, from the end of the war onward, almost all researchers of genocide in the Independent State of Croatia claimed that there were virtually no records of Roma suffering in that place of torture. Tons of pages have been written on the subject, but there is little that addresses the genocide against the Roma. Darkness and silence…” This excerpt from the book They Killed the Truth About Us by Dragoljub Acković, a Roma activist and journalist from Serbia, vividly illustrates and summarizes the injustice done to the Roma minority following their tragic mass suffering in World War II.
The suffering of the Roma and Sinti in World War II across Europe remains, even decades later, full of significant historiographical gaps, scientific inaccuracies, and memorial oversights. The knowledge about the crimes against the Roma and Sinti is still lacking, and research on the genocide of this group is insufficient and largely marginalized. Innocent and utterly defenseless victims are not equally represented in the culture of remembrance with respect to other victimized peoples.
One case in Croatia that we will present here illustrates this culture of oblivion. For a full 45 years, from 1977 to 2022, the cemetery in Marija Gorica near Zagreb, Croatia’s capital, commemorated what was long-believed to be the suffering of Jewish victims at the hands of the Waffen SS in the nearby village of Hrastina. The truth, however, is somewhat different. It was, in fact, the last massacre of the Roma and perhaps the only crime against the Sinti in the Independent State of Croatia (NDH). Over 40 people – Roma and Sinti, including pregnant women and children – were killed in a single night. This horrific massacre took place on the night of April 24-25, 1945, just weeks before the country’s liberation from fascism. The members of the artistic circus troupe of the Winter brothers were murdered by the First Ustasha Defense Brigade, known as the Luburić Brigade (named after their commander Vjekoslav Max Luburić).
This circus group, as historians note, brought joy and song to villages and towns during the grim wartime years. Constantly fleeing from Nazis and their collaborators, this group of Roma and Sinti hid and fled abroad to escape the ravages of war. In Marija Gorica, they held several performances for the local villagers in April. The Ustashas noticed them and forced them to put on a show for them as well. On the abandoned estate of a partisan family in Hrastina, they were subjected to torture, rape, culminating in murder, and even desecration of the dead until the early hours.
This important discovery of the massacre of Roma and Sinti is the result of the research for a book published by the Jasenovac Memorial Site, The Massacre of Roma and Sinti in Hrastina in 1945. The authors are Mario Šimunković, researcher, Đorđe Mihovilović, senior curator at the Jasenovac Memorial Museum, and Ivo Pejaković, the then-director of the same museum.
Đorđe Mihovilović spoke about the circumstances surrounding the creation of the book, as well as the importance of historical sources, including a large number of testimonies from locals provided to the State Commission. In an interview with the newspaper Novosti at the time of the publication of this article, he pointed out that the researchers’ interest in this period in the Zaprešić area began in 2018, specifically from the perspective of the suffering of people from Hrvatsko Zagorje in Jasenovac. Through the research and analysis of documents from domestic and foreign archives and museums, as well as antifascist associations, insights were gained into this unusual case. Until this book was published, the massacre had been believed to be an SS crime against a Jewish group.
The first commemoration with complete and reliable information on the ethnic origins of the victims was held at the cemetery in Marija Gorica in April 2022. Veljko Kajtazi, the political representative of the Roma in Croatia, member of the Croatian Parliament, and leader of the commemoration, stressed the importance of honoring the Roma victims of World War II, especially since the public knows very little about these victims of the Ustasha genocidal policy.
“I am very pleased that the massacre in Hrastina is being presented to the public to draw attention to this tragic event and to rectify the injustice done to the victims. The massacre that took place on this day in 1945 is one of the greatest Ustasha crimes against the Roma committed in the Independent State of Croatia, and it may have been the last mass crime against the Roma and Sinti on occupied European soil during World War II. I sincerely support initiatives like this so that the victims of all affected peoples find their permanent place in our collective memory. Through this commemorative gathering, we aim to introduce the public for the first time to new historical facts and the tragedy of the Roma people during World War II, along with the restoration of the memorial site, with a promise to return here every year to maintain this place with dignity and not forget this tragic event,” Kajtazi said on April 24, 2022.
The umbrella organization of the Roma in Croatia, Kali Sara, reached an agreement with the Alliance of Antifascist Fighters and Antifascists of Croatia regarding the maintenance of all cemeteries in the country where Roma were killed during World War II. Veljko Kajtazi noted that, for decades, the fact that the victims from Marija Gorica were Roma was unknown simply because they had different names.
“Even today, we still see many Roma changing their first and last names to survive in the communities where they live; even newborns are sometimes given names from the majority population,” Kajtazi said.
Ivo Pejaković, former director of the Jasenovac Memorial Museum, emphasized the lack of visibility of the trauma suffered by the Roma population, noting that the official term for their suffering – Samudaripen – is still not well-established outside of expert circles and among the interested public. As he says, years of effort by individual researchers, such as Danijel Vojak, have helped raise the level of available knowledge about the Roma, not only during World War II but also earlier. Nonetheless, despite these efforts, most of the stories of Roma life, especially those involving their suffering, remain untold.
How is it that the mass extermination of Roma and Sinti during World War II has not been significantly recorded and the data remains incomplete? What are the causes of this? First and foremost, why did this group have to wait several decades for the recognition of their victimhood? It is worth recalling that the West German authorities initially refused to acknowledge that the Nazi regime in Germany committed genocide against the Roma. They claimed that the Nazis applied “the usual criminal policy they used for other criminals.” The view that all Roma are criminals and thieves is centuries old. Official requests for the recognition of Roma and Sinti victims were even dismissed in courts. This continued until the 1960s, when Romani organizations managed to win legal battles in the courts. The then German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt officially acknowledged the suffering of the Roma and Sinti in 1982.
In the book The Nazi Persecution of the Gypsies, published in 1999, author Guenter Lewy focuses on the little-known and poorly documented subject of the Nazi persecution of Roma and Sinti during the Third Reich. The book represents a pioneering effort to gather documentary evidence from German and Austrian archives. He emphasizes the fact that Roma and Sinti remained marginalized and without adequate legal and social support after the war, and their persecution was largely overlooked in historical and legal processes. This work provides a thorough understanding of the systematic persecution of Roma and Sinti. The political scientist aimed to redress the historical invisibility of their suffering, stressing the importance of combating prejudice and documenting genocide in order to preserve the memory of the victims.
“The suffering of the Gypsies was overshadowed by the massive tragedy of the Jewish people… and not a single Gypsy was called to testify before the various tribunals,” Lewy wrote. The author argues that Roma were reluctant to speak about their experiences due to cultural norms and trauma, but also out of fear of further discrimination, which made research more challenging. Due to a justified historical distrust of institutions, their persecution has remained less well explored. The persecution of Roma and Sinti has long been neglected in historiography, especially compared to other groups such as Jews.
In the research paper ‘Roma during the Holocaust,’ Danijel Vojak writes that the suffering of Roma in the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) was tangentially and unsystematically researched in Croatian historiography after 1945. Historian Narcisa Lengel-Krizman began investigating this subject in the 1980s and published the work The Genocide of the Roma – Jasenovac 1942 in 2003, with the support of the Jasenovac Memorial Museum. Lengel-Krizman notes the lack of systematic scientific studies on the suffering of Roma. She uses terms such as “peripherality of research,” “forgetting,” and “slipping from global attention.”
This “collective scientific amnesia about the Romani Holocaust,” as Vojak describes it, is gradually changing within the Croatian scientific community, primarily through the publication of translations of European scientific works, such as the three-volume series The Gypsies during the Second World War, published by Ibis-grafika between 2006 and 2009. The publication features articles by a number of French, German, Bulgarian, Czech, and other scholars, including Giovanna Boursier, Reimar Gilsenbach, Marie-Christine Hubert, Michelle Kelso, Elena Marushiakova, Vesselin Popov, Ctibor Nečas, Erika Thurner, Michael Zimmermann, Herbert Heuss, Henriette Asseo, Frank Sparing, among others.
Vojak believes that the scale of suffering experienced by the Roma during World War II is comparable to their suffering in terms of the marginalization or suppression of the culture of remembrance (in this case, the culture of forgetting) regarding their victims after the war. He notes that Romani victims were not specifically commemorated during the Yugoslav period. It wasn’t until 1971 that the first and only memorial dedicated exclusively to the Romani victims of World War II was created in the village of Uštica. This village was one of the central sites of the mass killing of Roma as part of the Jasenovac concentration camp system during the war. Vojak agrees with scholar Heike Karge, who sought to explain this commemorative practice of the Yugoslav authorities as part of their official cultural policy, in which the ethnicity of the victims, including the Roma, was submerged in the collective ideological discourse of “victims of fascist terror.” This pattern was prevalent in most European countries.
The attitude of the Croatian authorities toward the commemoration of Romani victims gradually changed as a result of the recognition of Roma as a national minority in the Republic of Croatia (2002), which led to the strengthening of the political influence of Romani political representatives and their non-governmental organizations, as researcher Vojak notes. Veljko Kajtazi, together with Romani NGOs, initiated the regular commemoration of Romani victims in Uštica in 2012. August 2, recognized as the International Day of Remembrance of Romani Victims of the Samudaripen/Holocaust, was chosen as the date of commemoration.
We live in an era of increasing historical revisionism and are witnessing the rise of the extreme right in Europe. Fake news and distorted historical facts that spread through mass media and social networks reach an enormous number of people. From political arenas to the media, scientific and educational institutions, pseudoscientific research is disseminated in an attempt to distort collective memory, revise the past, and consequently destroy the dignity of the victims. In such an atmosphere, it is challenging to nurture a culture of remembrance. All of this becomes even more problematic when we consider that Romani and Sinti victims have never been studied systematically, even in more favorable times. Lies and prejudices about the Roma have persisted for centuries, and their exceptionally poor position is difficult to improve. Probably the most vulnerable ethnic minority on European soil suffers from racial harassment, mockery, segregation in schools, social exclusion, and poor quality of life.
Anna Míšková, a historian at the Museum of Romani Culture in Brno and a Czech delegate to IHRA, notes in a text on the occasion of the Day of Remembrance of the Genocide of the Roma, August 2, that the discrimination of this ethnic group did not end with the liberation of concentration camps but continues to this day, clearly evidenced by the widespread distortion and neglect of the genocide against the Roma.
“Unfortunately, the genocide against the Roma remains one of the lesser-known crimes of the Nazi era. This lack of recognition represents a harmful form of distortion that serves to perpetuate harmful stereotypes and ongoing discrimination against the Romani community. It is a clear reminder that distortion is not limited to the denial or minimization of the Holocaust but extends to other victims as well. We still encounter denial or questioning of the suffering of Roma and Sinti during World War II. There is still a belief in society that Roma were killed because of their way of life, their inadaptability, and even hereditary criminality,” Míšková writes.
She believes that distorting history threatens to destabilize historical truth, undermine collective memory, and jeopardize the integrity of the lessons learned from this grave human rights tragedy. “The erasure of the genocide against the Roma from the narrative of Nazi crimes symbolizes enduring social marginalization, reinforcing centuries-old prejudices, stigmatization, and discrimination. The distortion of history in various forms is a powerful weapon used to incite hatred, extremism, and xenophobia. The distortion of the genocide against the Roma is not an isolated historical untruth; it resonates in the present and directly affects the social position and mental health of the Romani community. The persistent prejudice against the Roma, manifested through social exclusion, discrimination, and segregation, reveals a troubling continuity from the past,” Míšková emphasized.
The visibility and importance given to the commemoration of Romani and Sinti victims varies from country to country. Perhaps the most striking recent example is the commemoration in Donja Gradina, Bosnia and Herzegovina, near Jasenovac, just across the Croatian border. Eighty years after the night when 2,897 Romani people were killed in Auschwitz, August 2 was marked in this place with no high state or institutional representatives present. Samudaripen, the International Day of Remembrance of Romani Victims of Genocide during World War II, was commemorated by the Committee for Roma in the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina and about thirty young Roma.
As reported by Novosti, the Ministry of Human Rights and Refugees, which should have the commemoration of August 2 marked on its calendar, informed the Committee for Roma that they were “unable to pay travel expenses and attendance in Donja Gradina due to budget restructuring.” This justification was awkward and indeed disrespectful. Furthermore, no state institution sent either a floral wreath or a delegate.
Despite all the declarations, primarily the Jasenovac and Poznań Declarations, as well as positive legal and subordinate legal acts prescribing the integration of Roma and honoring their victims in World War II, such unacceptable behavior continues.
The Jasenovac Declaration emphasizes, among other things, the need to encourage state and other institutions and organizations to adequately commemorate the International Day of Remembrance of Romani Victims of Samudaripen, particularly at the sites of their suffering. It establishes that there needs to be state and general societal recognition of the suffering of Roma during World War II in European and other countries, especially in light of the increasing discrimination they suffer. Furthermore, it is important to encourage scientific and other research related to the persecution of Roma during World War II as necessary for the appropriate recognition of their suffering. The improvement and coordination of the work of educational institutions in European and other countries is also imperative to educate the population adequately on the suffering of the Roma. In this context, we need to promote Romani culture, language, and history within educational institutions at all levels. Regarding the representation of this topic in the media in European and other countries, it is important to encourage properly informed writing and reporting on their suffering.
In 2023, the Government of the Republic of Croatia adopted a Conclusion on the Adoption of the Non-binding Working Definition of Antisemitism of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, including definitions of anti-Roma racism and discrimination. At that time, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković stated: “…All three definitions have been supported by Croatia during their adoption, and they have been adopted or endorsed at the national level by numerous member countries of IHRA. The purpose of these conclusions is to mandate all bodies of state administration to use these definitions in their work to improve education, research, and information about the Holocaust and systematically encourage remembrance of the genocide against the Roma and the Holocaust…(…)…the working definition is an expression of awareness that we must oppose the denial of the Holocaust and the distortion of facts about it, that such actions should be condemned at the national and international level, and that they need to be examined on a global scale.”
Examples illustrating anti-Roma sentiment/anti-Roma discrimination include: the distortion or denial of the persecution of Roma or the genocide against them; glorifying the genocide against the Roma; inciting, justifying, and committing violence against Romani communities, their property, and individuals; forced and involuntary sterilization, as well as other physical and psychological violence against Roma; insisting on discriminatory stereotypes about Roma and against Roma, and affirming such stereotypes; blaming Roma, using hate speech, for real or imagined social, political, cultural, economic, and public health problems; stereotyping Roma as individuals engaged in criminal activities; using the term “gypsy” as a pejorative; endorsing or encouraging exclusionary mechanisms directed against Roma based on racially discriminatory assumptions, such as exclusion from regular schools and institutional procedures or policies leading to the segregation of Romani communities; adopting policies without a legal basis or setting conditions that allow for arbitrary or discriminatory displacement of Romani communities and individuals; holding Roma collectively responsible for the real or imagined actions of individual members of Romani communities; spreading hate speech against Romani communities in any form, such as in the media, including the internet and social networks.
The European Union and international organizations have recognized the problem and are trying to address discrimination and violence against Roma through various initiatives and programs. One of them is the Strategy for the Integration of Roma. The European Union has adopted national strategies for the integration of Roma to improve their access to education, housing, employment, and healthcare. Punitive measures against discrimination have also been prescribed. The European Union mandates strict measures against racial discrimination and encourages member states to strengthen legal frameworks for the protection of Roma.
However, despite these efforts, violence and discrimination against Roma remain a serious problem. All of the above leads us to question the broader implementation of these civilizational and very important declarations, strategies, and laws. On paper, many things may look ideal, but there is a long way to go to their concrete application and sincere adoption and the recognition of the suffering of a community as well as their current position. Those who fight daily for the rights of vulnerable national minorities, such as the Romani minority in Europe, know this best. Unfortunately, the long period from the end of the bloody Second World War to today has more recently been marked by a constant rise in hate speech and the flourishing of neo-Nazi groups. The Romani minority suffers from both institutional racism and economic marginalization.
The increase in extremism and anti-minority attitudes in some European countries further complicates the overall situation. We must not lose sight of the fact that right-wing populism and extremist groups in countries like Hungary, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia increasingly use anti-migrant and anti-Roma rhetoric. This often leads to violence, attacks on Romani settlements, and hate speech and crimes.
In Hungary, radical groups such as Jobbik have been linked to violent incidents against Roma, including physical assaults and arson of homes. In Bulgaria and Romania, Roma often face police brutality and violence from local communities. Racially motivated attacks on Roma in Central and Eastern European countries unfortunately continue to occur, many of which end tragically.
To remind us of the most horrific attacks on Roma, we highlight a few examples of the brutal violence to which they are subjected. In Slovakia, in the town of Moldava nad Bodvou in 2013, police carried out a violent raid of a Romani settlement under the pretext of searching for the perpetrators of alleged crimes. During this incident, dozens of Romani residents were injured, and Romani families reported the destruction of property. A few years earlier, in 2009, also in Slovakia, in the town of Zehra, a group of racists attacked Roma in their homes. While beating them, they shouted racist slurs. Minority organizations reported the trauma suffered indirectly among the wider local Romani community following this incident.
The neighboring Czech Republic has recorded equally gruesome crimes against Roma. Probably the most well-known racially motivated crime in the Czech Republic occurred in 1995 when four young men aged 17 to 21 broke into a family home in Žďár nad Sázavou, where a Romani family lived. One of them struck Tibor Berky with a baseball bat multiple times on the back of the head, inflicting fatal injuries. His five children witnessed the murder. In Vítkov in 2009, three Molotov cocktails were thrown at the family home of a Romani family, causing severe injuries to three-year-old Natálie Kudriková. She survived but suffered permanent disfiguration due to burns covering 80 percent of her body. The perpetrators were later convicted, but the case highlighted the danger of rising racism in the country. In Teplice in 2021, during a police intervention, Rom Stanislav Tomáš died after an officer pressed his knee on his neck while he was lying on the ground. The incident provoked outrage in the Romani community, and many compared it to the case of George Floyd in the USA.
Hungary has recorded several deadly attacks on Roma during 2008 and 2009. The perpetrators of these crimes used firearms and Molotov cocktails. One of the deadliest attacks occurred in the village of Tatárszentgyörgy, where a father and son from a Romani family were killed after their home was set on fire. The attackers shot them as they attempted to escape. In the village of Kisléta, racists broke into a Romani family’s home, shot and killed the mother and severely injured her daughter. This case was part of a series of attacks on Roma in Hungary that caused shock and protests throughout the country.
In Bulgaria, an attack occurred near Plovdiv in 2021. During protests by extreme-right groups, hatred was unleashed against Roma. They attacked Romani settlements, terrorizing and threatening residents, creating fear among the Romani community across the area.
These tragic cases highlight the ongoing challenges faced by Roma due to ethnic intolerance, often fueled by prejudice and discrimination. International organizations regularly warn of the rise of xenophobia and extremism, and the attacks on Roma in European countries reinforce the need to strengthen protection of and respect for human rights.