Literature: Fires in the Dark. An Editor Betrays the Essence

Roma in WWII.  What countries.  

What untrumpeted devastation. 

For a variety of reasons, I am interested in Slovakia, a smaller country in Central Europe, but one with an important history:  how do ethnic controls, exterminations, proceed, become "accepted."  See overview at http://hitlernews.cloudworth.com/roma-gypsy.php./  I am continuing my interest in Slovakia in particular at Slovakia Road Ways.

Has the devastation of this ethnic group, guilty only of its difference from regimentation as the West saw was virtuous (themselves), been appreciated.

• Update:  Forced sterilization of Romany women.  Letter to editor, New York Times today July 5, 2012.  " *** Romany women in Slovakia are forcibly sterilized for racist reasons. *** Letter triggered by forced abortions in China reports, letter by Nancy Northrup, who identifies herself as President and  Chief Executive of the Center for Reproductive Rights, New York. Find the organization at http://reproductiverights.org/en/about-us

1.  Awareness rising, but deflected.
.
A fine novel for the beginner in learning about Roma culture, including me, is Fires in the Dark, by Louise Doughty, see http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/307210.Fires_in_the_Dark. 

Hwaet.  The cover there online, is not the cover on my library book, 2004, Harper Collins.  The library book I have shows a tall Aryan looking woman, even with the coins in her braids, with all the features of, say, fair skinned as in Norway; not dark-skinned.  The man looks more ethnically accurate: the man with her less Aryan, and even non-Aryan as in Hispanic or South American.  Why the culture blending, or culture-avoidance?

 Did someone approach an editor after seeing the odd couple, and request, and get, the new cover -- copping out of ethnicity entirely, and showing only a Roma wagon on the horizon.  I would have preferred the change to be this:  a Roma woman, dark-skinned and tall and proud, as in the book.

Fair use: small portion of cover -- commentary on the use of light skin instead of the dark skinned woman in the book. 

Fires in the Dark, fair use portion of cover for commentary, novel by Louise Doughty

2.  Read the book.  Learn what it was like in the years leading up to WWII in the Czech Republic, Slovakia.  And during WWII.  Not to be a spoiler, but the day-to-day accounts of life in the camps is overwhelming.

3.  Point remains.  People with dark skin, for those of us with light skin, are fully human and deserve to be represented as such -- with all the human loves, betrayals, tragedies. What is it to have to "pass" as Aryan in order to survive.   What essential values separate the ethnicities -- and where do the whites fall far short.  Think of that.  Who cuts the corners, is far less "clean", who remains complicit in the name of profit.  On the other hand, do both groups abuse women. Orthodox Jewish scholars may justify their lack of employment, working for others, on religious ground.  Is the Roma refusal, or at least reluctance, to work for others, but to be self-sufficient, admirable? Of course.  How do we "frame" the other.

4.  Enjoy, then report what other covers you find. I understand from the book jacket that Louise Doughty has Roma in her family ancestry.  Editors betray with their covers. What editors do may not reflect the author's preferences for integrity, but only profit.

5.  What European countries also foster human trafficking, including of Roma.  I saw the sign, in English, in one of Slovakia's rural areas, for a farm for such activities.  What persons of Slavic-non-Slavic ethnic origin are kept there. What are the roots of our religious and cultural customs that promote that. See also http://www.slovakiaroadway.blogspot.com

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:

Bergen-Belsen, Close-up, Memorial to Gypsy Groups,  Celle, Germany (near Hanover)

Resources:

Have to get back to read these, but here is a beginning list:

• Gypsies, Second World War, at http://books.google.com/books?id=5U_Auv-u0PIC&pg=PA127&lpg=PA127&dq=Bergen+Belsen+gypsy+camp&source=bl&ots=BfSNVlHp2r&sig=6Aw_8g_5_IY0vqk-V67my6Ci-M4&hl=en&ei=64I7Te-VCYiq8AaXnOHECg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CEkQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=Bergen%20Belsen%20gypsy%20camp&f=false/
• A researcher blog, Joedresch's Blog, see it, at http://joedresch.wordpress.com/category/bergen-belsen/