{"id":1626,"date":"2014-03-19T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-03-19T01:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/%20rroma.org\/19-03-2014-commemorating-the-rroma-holocaust\/"},"modified":"2022-07-26T14:42:18","modified_gmt":"2022-07-26T13:42:18","slug":"19-03-2014-commemorating-the-rroma-holocaust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rroma.org\/fr\/19-03-2014-commemorating-the-rroma-holocaust\/","title":{"rendered":"19.03.2014 Commemorating the Rroma-Holocaust"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Giessener-Allgemeine<\/em> (2014) reports on an event to commemorate the Rroma of \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGiessen murdered by the Nazis. The historian Engbring-Romang talked about the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tpersisting prejudice against the minority and the poor recognition of the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\texclusion and persecution of the Rroma. As a particular concern, the historian \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tsees social acceptance of pejorative stereotypes: \u201cMore than 40 percent of Germans do not want to live in the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tneighborhood of Sinti and Roma. According to a survey by the Allensbach \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tInstitute \u2013 in 2011. \u201cAnd those are only the ones that adhere to their \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tprejudices\u201d, Engbring-Romang the reviews the result.\u201d <\/em>It is therefore the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttask of the present society to break with deadlocked prejudices and replace \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthem with independent, critical thinking and empathy. The fate of the fourteen \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSinti, who were deported to the extermination camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau on the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t16th of March 1943, remains unknown to this day, the newspaper \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tstates.<\/p>\n

Helwig replaces this \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tlack of clarity with a detailed analysis of the history of Johanna Klein and \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ther family. On March 16th 1943, the parents and six siblings of \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tKlein were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Klein herself could stay in Giessen \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tbecause she suffered from diphtheria at the time. After her recovery, she was \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\talso deported. It is thanks to the \u201catypical racial characteristics\u201d in eugenic \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tterms that Klein was not murdered like the rest of her family in the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tconcentration camp: \u201cMy blonde hair and \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tblue eyes saved me\u201d, says Johanna Klein. […] \u201cOtherwise, I too would have \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tgone through the oven\u201d, the statement bursts out of the 84-year-old, while \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttears run down her cheeks. \u201cI have to think about it every day.\u201d Because then, her \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tyounger siblings Anna and Friedrich remained behind. \u00a0\u201cThis plagues me to this day.\u201d Both were murdered in \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAuschwitz-Birkenau as were previously the parents and the three siblings Karl, Mathilde, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tand Wilhelmine.\u201d<\/em> (Helwig 2014).<\/p>\n

Several German \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tnewspapers report about the death of 91-year-old Rrom and Holocaust survivor \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tReinhard Florian. Florian was interned into the concentration camp Mauthausen \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tin 1941. This was followed by forced labour in the camps Auschwitz, Monowitz, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRydultau and Blechhammer. Florian was present as \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ta contemporary witness in the post-war years and \u201ca living example that [the] memory of the crimes of the Nazis is an \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tobligation for the present.\u201d <\/em>With the exception of a brother and the father, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tall eighteen members of his family were murdered. In October 2012, he was guest \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tof honour at the inauguration of the monument to the Rroma murdered under the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNazis in Berlin (compare Bild 2014, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFocus online 2014, Main-Netz 2014, Merkur online 2014).<\/p>\n