The Roma—A Minority in Europe

Historical, Political and Social Perspectives
ISBN: 
978-963-7326-86-8
cloth
$69.00 / €56.00 / £50.00
Publication date: 
2007
205 pages

The main issues arising from the encounter between Roma people and surrounding European society since the time of their arrival in Medieval Europe until today are discussed in this work. The history of their persecution and genocide during the Nazi era, in particular, is central to the present volume. Significantly, some authors sought to emphasize the continuing history of prejudice and persecution, which reached a peak during the Nazi era and persisted after the war. Current questions of social integration in Europe, as well as that of ethnic definition and the construction of ethnic-national identity constitute another principal pillar of the book. The complexity of issues involved, such as collective memory, myth-making and social constructionism, trigger intense debate among researchers dealing with Romani studies.

This volume is the result of an international conference held at Tel Aviv University in December 2002. The conference, one of the largest held among the academic community in the last decade, served as a unique forum for a multidisciplinary discussion on the past and present of the Roma in which both Roma and non-Roma scholars from various countries engaged.

Acknowledgments

Foreword
Yehuda Bauer

Introduction
Roni Stauber and Raphael Vago

Religious Minorities, Vagabonds and Gypsies in Early Modern Europe
Shulamith Shahar

The Campaign against the Restless: Criminal Biology and the Stigmatization
of the Gypsies, 1890−1960
Peter Widmann

Jews, Gypsies and Soviet Prisoners of War: Comparing Nazi Persecutions
Michael Zimmermann

Nazi and Postwar Policy against Roma and Sinti in Austria
Erika Thurner

Story, History and Memory: A Case Study of the Roma at the Komarom Camp in Hungary
Katalin Katz

Romanian Public Reaction to the Deportation of Gypsies to Transnistria
Viorel Achim

Gypsies in Germany – German Gypsies? Identity and Politics of Sinti and Roma in Germany
Gilad Margalit and Yaron Matras

The Politics of Memory – Jews and Roma Commemorate Their Tragedy
Roni Stauber and Raphael Vago

Human Rights and Roma Policy Formation in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary
Eva Sobotka

Central European Roma Policy: National Minority Elites, National States and the EU
Pál Tamás

Notes on Contributors