EDUCATION FOR REMEMBRANCE OF THE ROMA GENOCIDE

Preface:
Transgenerational Transfer of War
Trauma within the Roma and Sinti
Community
Zoni Weisz
Within the Roma and Sinti culture, it is not generally customary
to hold public commemorations for the loved ones who were
murdered during the Nazi period. This does not mean to say
that our loved ones have been forgotten. On the contrary: they
are still always present in our thoughts and are frequently commemorated
within our own circles. We talk about them and
reminisce about them.
The survivors will always retain the traumatic experiences,
which they underwent during the Nazi period, but these also play
a major role among their children and grandchildren to this day.
They remain a great sorrow, a scar. It is very difficult to share this
sorrow with gadje (outsiders). As a result of centuries of exclusion
and persecution, we have become an inward-looking community.
We are a community which finds it difficult to communicate with
gadje. Only a few of us will speak about our experiences of the war
with outsiders, at schools, meetings and conferences.
Personally, I feel that it is extremely important for our story to
be told. I speak at commemorative events, conferences and schools.
When I do so, I discover how little the general public know about
the Romani Holocaust, the Porrajmos, the Genocide of the Roma
and Sinti. Thankfully, some of our young people recognise the
importance of our history and are also driving the message home
today. The annual commemoration events on August 2 nd , the day