News
63rd Anniversary of the Murder of the Zigeunerlager Prisoners
The Association of the Roma in Poland and the Romani Historical Institute invite you to ceremonies commemorating the 63rd anniversary of the murder by the Nazis of the Roma prisoners who remained alive in the Zigeunerlager (“Gypsy” Camp).
The ceremonies will be held on August 2, 2007 at the site of the Nazi German Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp
Schedule:
- 11.45 - Arrival of organized groups and official guests, meeting of participants at the gate leading to the Zigeunerlager site.
- 12.00 – March to the Monument
- 12.10 - Remarks
- 13.00 – Placing of floral tributes
The Roma (“Gypsies”)
Origins and Settlement
The Roma are a partially settled nomadic people who live in Europe, Western Asia, Africa, the Americas, and Australia. Their origins can be traced to northwestern India, from where they migrated over a thousand years ago. The present-day Roma population is estimated at several million, the majority of whom live in Europe.
The multicultural Roma society defies the traditional definition and image of a national minority. They live scattered throughout all of Europe, usually in isolation from their surroundings. They are internally divided and show a tendency to nomadism, even though a large proportion of them have long led a settled life.
The Roma are an example of a “non-territorial society,” which neither possesses its own ethnic territory, nor makes territorial claims against any states. Nor do the Roma constitute an integral ethnic group in terms of culture or ethnic and national consciousness.
The Second World War
The Nazi Germans sentenced the Roma to extermination on racist grounds during the Second World War. It is estimated that as many as 50% of the Roma living in German-occupied territory may have died.
Auschwitz became the symbol of this genocide. The first Roma arrived there in 1941. The so-called “Gypsy” family camp in Auschwitz II-Birkenau dates from late February 1943. The Germans deported Roma there from between ten and twenty occupied countries. Sickness and hunger decimated them in the camp. Children suffered especially and were subjects of Josef Mengele’s experiments.
The “Gypsy” camp was liquidated on the night of August 2/3, 1944 on orders from Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler. All the people still alive, 2,897 of them, were murdered that night. About 23,000 Roma were imprisoned in Auschwitz; 21,000 of them died.
In Poland
Fewer than 13 thousand Roma live in Poland at present. They belong to four main ethnic groups: the Polish Roma, the Carpathian Roma (Mountain Roma, Bergitka Roma), the Kalderash, and the Lovash. The decided majority belong to the Roman Catholic church, although some are Eastern Orthodox, Seventh-Day Adventists, and Jehovah’s Witnesses.
The majority of Roma, who once led a migratory life, now reside in cities. This is a consequence of the compulsory settlement policy enforced during the period of the Polish People’s Republic. The overwhelming majority of Roma students attend public school in an integrated system, alongside Polish children—although some 30% of Roma children do not fulfill the obligation for education.
Roma or Gypsy?
In 1981, the World Gypsy Congress requested the member states of the UN to recognize Roma as a separate nation and treat them as a fully-fledged national minority. The same session of the Congress also recommended the use of the term “Roma,” rather than “Gypsy,” in the various languages.
Roma
The majority of Gypsies define themselves as Roma, without regard to the division or subgroup they belong to. In the Romani language, the word Rom means both “person” and “man” or “husband.”
Gypsies
The English word “Gypsy,” like Gyphtoi (one of several exonyms used in Modern Greek), is usually associated with the mistaken belief that the Roma people originated in Egypt. Terms in other languages, such as Gitane (French) and Gitano (Spanish), may be related. “Gypsy” is an exonym (a word used by one group for talking about another group) rather than an autonym (a word used by a group when talking about itself). Despite the fact that this is not a word that Roma use to describe themselves, and that its pejorative connotations may make it offensive, “Gypsy” has been in such wide use for so long that it appears in the names of some Roma organizations.
Central-European terminology
Some etymologists trace such terms as Cigany (Hungarian), Cygan (Polish), Tsigganoi (Modern Greek) and Zigeuner (German) from a term meaning “poor” in Kipchak (a Turkic language). Others derive these exonyms from Byzantine Greek and Latin terms.
