Gypsies, Roma, Romani, Romanichal. Cultural Diaspora. HUMANITIES, HISTORY.: 2011

Saturday, January 22, 2011

WWII Roma persecution. History. Bergen Belsen. Roma, Sinti, Zigeun, Gypsy Groups

At Bergen Belsen Concentration Camp near Celle, Germany (near Hannover) there are prominent and multiple memorials for Jewish victims of the Holocaust. There also is, however, if you look closely, a specific memorial to all those others murdered in such masses:

Bergen Belsen: Germany permitted the tearing down of all the original structures, or was it done so fast that no active "choice" was made? Instead of seeing what it was like, however, it is a huge memorial park with a perimeter pathway, leading around, and around and pathways across, easy to get lost.
There is a Documentation Center of photos, films, exhibits.

Then, after following markers on relief maps that say, "You are here," there may be -- finally finally - large markers, an Obelisk, a tall Cross, and buildings nearby signifying the Documentation Center and a religious center.

Here is one we nearly missed, a memorial flush to the ground: the main site for Bergen Belsen is at Germany Road Ways, Bergen Belsen. These markers are worth repeating here: Memorialized are the Jews, the Sinti, the Roma, the Zigeun, the Homosexuelle, the Jehovah's Witnesses. Try to make out the groups:

The Remembrance stones are on most every marker at Bergen Belsen.

Memorial Marker, Sinti, Roma, Zigeun, Homosexuelle, Jehovas, Bergen Belsen Concentration Camp

There was an entire Gypsy Camp, Zigeunerlager, at Bergen Belsen, see photo at http://www.bergenbelsen.co.uk/pages/Database/CampAreaPhotographs.asp?CampAreaID=23&PhotographsID=652/.

The photograph, aerial, was taken in 1944. There is no trace we could see of the Zigeunerlager now, as all was razed and the Bergen Belsen area is now a nature-type walk, with memorials and huge burial mounds, pits beneath, filled.

See the photos also at the American Holocaust Museum in Washington DC, at http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005224/;

See also http://www.bergenbelsen.co.uk/pages/Camp%20Development/ASP/CampAreas/DevelopmentCampAreaPhotographs1945_1949.asp?CampAreaID=23&index=1/ Click on the sequential photos, a series of photos.

There are also testimonies and videos, this from Yale: http://www.library.yale.edu/testimonies/excerpts/annaw.html

Overall, some 5,000,000 non-Jews were killed, says this site, including some 500,000 or about half the Eastern European population of Gypsies were killed, because of their ethnicity, see Holocaust Non-Jewish Victims, http://www.holocaustforgotten.com/romgypsies.htm/ The site also refers to this book, not read by me yet, see The Nazi Persecution of the Gypsies, by Guenter Lewy 2001.

Too hard to read? Try a close-up: