Thursday, October 25, 2012

Memorial to the Sinti and Roma of Europe Murdered in National Socialismolocaust Memorial, Germany


Extermination of Roma, Zigeuner, Gypsies

Bring back the term "Gypsies" as Univerally Recognizable - Use with Respect


Berlin.  High time. Finally, Germany acknowledges the hundreds of thousands of killed Romany -- Sinti and Roma -- in a new Holocaust Memorial.  See NYT at http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/25/world/europe/memorial-to-romany-victims-of-holocaust-opens-in-berlin.html?_r=0.  Not all died in the killing camps, of course.  Many were killed in the woods, driven out, bodies in ravines. Jewish people came with written records of births, places; they could more easily be counted.

Crematorium, Mauthausen Concentration Camp, Austria

National Socialism:  That sounds like a euphemism.  National? A harmless word.  Socialism?  Many benefits to that, applied carefully and not exclusively.  Put them together and the horror of the Nazis is not evoked at all.  This is 50-60 years later than the events, two to three generations-worth. It should be clear by now that no one-approach will work anywhere.  See variations in political systems explained at http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/street/pl38/sect2.htm

For the most effective display of the history of Roma slaughter under the Nazis, go to Mauthausen, in Austria.