engleski

Attitudes of the Croatian Academic Community and General Public towards the Roma Genocide in the Independent State of Croatia

After World War II the study of the suffering of the Roma population in the Independent State of Croatia was pushed to the margins of scientific and public interest. Consequently, the Roma victims were not commemorated and their suffering was not taught in schools. The Roma victims were “drowned” into the wider ideological frame of the “victims of Fascist terror.” A certain interest in the study of this subject occurred only in the mid-1980s with the first scientific study of the subject in Croatian historiography. At that time the first Roma non-governmental organizations were established, the process which gained special momentum with the independence of the Republic of Croatia in 1991. Ten years after that, the Roma obtained the status of a national minority. Since 2012, the Roma political representatives have organized commemorations of the Roma victims in the village of Uštica, which was, during World War II, the central site of the Roma suffering within the Jasenovac concentration camp. The presentation will encompass the issues related to the development of the scientific research of the suffering of the Roma in the Independent State of Croatia during World War II. The first issue is the one of the recognitions of the Roma Genocide in Croatia. In order to better understand that issue, the attitude of the Croatian historiography towards the Roma Genocide should be analyzed, together with the issue of how the Roma Genocide is depicted in the Croatian educational system. In this regard, it is important to mention the teacher’s manual on the history of the Roma suffering in the Independent State of Croatia, published earlier this year. The presentation will also encompass the issue of the support of Croatian institutions (the Ministry of science and education) in conducting the most recent scientific researches of the subject, e.g. the scientific project of researching the Roma suffering in Dalmatia, Quarnero and Istria—the territories occupied by the Italian Fascist authorities during the war. Thereby the question of attitudes of these authorities towards the Roma population is completely unexplored. Furthermore, one of the main issues is the analysis of the commemoration of the Roma victims in Croatia and the ways in which Croatian public is treating these problems. Finally, the ever-stronger influence of the historic revisionism in Croatia should be addressed, which negates the genocidal suffering of the Roma in the Independent State of Croatia—the attitude that exerts a certain influence on the general public in Croatia.

Roma, genocide, World War II, Independent State of Croatia.

Radionica se održala u The Wiener Holocaust Library (London), u organizaciji AHRC Research Network: Legacies of the Roma Genocide in Europe since 1945 (University of Cambridge / University of Liverpool)