The Roma - A Minority in Europe : Historical, Political and Social Perspectives

The main issues arising from the encounter between Roma people and surrounding European society since the time of their arrival in Medieval Europe until today are discussed in this work. The history of their persecution and genocide during the Nazi era, in particular, is central to the present volume. Significantly, some authors sought to emphasize the continuing history of prejudice and persecution, which reached a peak during the Nazi era and persisted after the war. Current questions of social integration in Europe, as well as that of ethnic definition and the construction of ethnic-national identity constitute another principal pillar of the book. The complexity of issues involved, such as collective memory, myth-making and social constructionism, trigger intense debate among researchers dealing with Romani studies. The situation of the Roma in Europe, especially in the former communist states, is one of the more important human rights issues on the agenda of the international community, especially in the Euro-Atlantic bodies of integration. Within European states that have Roma populations there is a growing awareness that the matter must be confronted, and that there is a need for a concentrated effort to solve social problems and ease tensions between the Roma and the European nations among which they dwell. This volume is the result of an international conference held at Tel Aviv University in December 2002. The conference, one of the largest held among the academic community in the last decade, served as a unique forum for a multidisciplinary discussion on the past and present of the Roma in which both Roma and non-Roma scholars from various countries engaged Contents Acknowledgments Foreword Introduction Religious Minorities, Vagabonds and Gypsies in Early Modern Europe The Campaign against the Restless: Criminal Biology and the Stigmatization of the Gypsies, 1890−1960 Jews, Gypsies and Soviet Prisoners of War: Comparing Nazi Persecutions Nazi and Postwar Policy against Roma and Sinti in Austria Story, History and Memory: A Case Study of the Roma at the Komarom Camp in Hungary Romanian Public Reaction to the Deportation of Gypsies to Transnistria Gypsies in Germany—German Gypsies? Identity and Politics of Sinti and Roma in Germany The Politics of Memory: Jews and Roma Commemorate Their Persecution Human Rights and Roma Policy Formation in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland Central European Roma Policy: National Minority Elites, National States and the EU List of Contributors Index