Gypsy Children Crying
The holocaust: yesterday and today
Mexican daily La Jornada, published El holocausto
gitano: ayer y hoy. Neither
the West nor -most of
all- its colossal media apparatus said a
single word about them. Although
several articles, published before and
after September 1st, 2010, on that day
on this subject, were of
great impact, reminds us, truly
a tragic history. [Without adding or deleting]
a single word, contained, El
holocausto gitano: ayer y hoy
(The gypsies’ holocaust: yesterday and today), article
I will quote some lines
referring, some events, really touching
“1496”: boom of humanist thinking. The Roma
peoples (gypsies) from Germany, declared
traitors to, Christian nations, spies
paid by the Turkish, carriers, plague, witches
warlocks, bandits, and children kidnappers
“1710”: century of Enlightenment and
rationale. An edict ordered, Prague adult gypsies
be hanged without any previous
trial. Young persons and women
mutilated. In Bohemia, left ear cut off
In Moravia, their right ear
“1899”: climax of modernity and
progress. The police of Bavaria founded Special
Section, Gypsies’ Affairs. In 1929
the section promoted, the category
National Central section, moved, Munich. In 1937
it was based in Berlin
Four years later, gypsies died
half million in Central and Eastern Europe
concentration camps. In her PhD
thesis, Eva Justin (assistant of
Dr. Robert Ritter, Racial Research Section, Ministry
and Health, Germany), asserted gypsies’
blood, extremely harmful to the
purity, German race. Someone called Dr. Portschy
a memorandum to Hitler, sent
suggesting gypsies be submitted, to
forced labor, mass sterilization, because German peasantry
pure bloods jeopardized, labeled inveterate
criminals, gypsies arrested en masse
and from 1938, put into special blocks
Buchenwald, Mauthausen, Gusen, Dautmergen, Natzweiler
Flossenburg camps. Heinrich Himmler, Chief
of the Gestapo (SS), Ravensbruck, concentration camp
he owned, created space, sacrificing
gypsy women, submitted to medical
experiments. One hundred and twenty zingari girls
sterilized. Gypsy women married to non-gypsy men
sterilized, at Dusseldorf-Lierenfeld hospital
“Thousands of gypsies were deported from Belgium
Netherlands, France, to Polish concentration
Auschwitz camp. In his memoirs
Rudolf Hoess (commander of Auschwitz) wrote that
among the gypsies deported, old
people almost one hundred years
of age, pregnant women, large numbers, children
“At the ghetto of Lodz (Poland)
none, of 5 000 gypsies survived.”
“In Yugoslavia, gypsies and Jews were equally
killed in the forest, Jajnice
Farmers still remember the cries
of the gypsy children who were taken
to the places of execution.”
“At the extermination camps, only
the love of gypsies for music was at
times a source of comfort
In Auschwitz, starving and infested
with lice, they gathered together to play
music, encouraged children to dance
the courage of gypsy guerrillas
who fought alongside the Polish resistance, in
the region, Nieswiez, was legendary”
Music was the factor that
kept them together, helped them to survive
just as much as religion
was for Christians, Jews, Muslims
The successive articles published by La Jornada
from the end of August
have reminded us of events
that were almost forgotten about what happened
to the gypsies in Europe
After having been affected, Nazism
they were consigned to oblivion after the
Nuremberg trials, 1945 and 1946
The German government headed by
Konrad Adenauer declared that the extermination of the
gypsies before 1943, was result
of the State’s legal policies
Those who had been affected on that
same year did not receive
any compensation. Robert Ritter, Nazi
expert in the extermination of gypsies, freed
Thirty nine years later, 1982
when most of the affected
persons had already passed away, the government
recognized their right to compensation
More than 75 per cent
of the gypsies, whose total number is
estimated, between 12 – 14 million
live, Central and Eastern Europe
Only in Tito’s socialist Yugoslavia, gypsies, recognize
the same rights as the
Croatian, Albanian and Macedonian minorities
The Mexican newspaper described as “particularly perverse”
the mass deportation of gypsies
to Romania and Bulgaria ordered
by the government of Sarkozy, Hungarian Jew
descent-; these are the words
– words used by the newspaper
Please do not take this as an
act, irreverence on my part.
In Romania, number of gypsies
is estimated to be two million. The
president of that country
Traian Basescu, a US ally
and an illustrious member of NATO, called
a woman journalist, “filthy gypsy”
As can be observed, this
is an extremely delicate person who speaks
in a, her polite language
The website univision.com posted
some comments about the demonstrations against the
deportation of gypsies and the
“xenophobia” in France. According to
AFP, around “130 demonstrations should
take place in France, as
well as in front of
the French embassies in several European Union
countries, with the support of
tens of human rights organizations
trade unions and left wing and ecologist
parties. The extensive report refers
to the participation of well
known cultural personalities such as Jane Birkin
and the film-maker Agnes Jaoui
and reminded readers that Jane
“together with Stephane Hessel, a former member
of the resistance against the
Nazi occupation of France (1940-1944)
was part of the group that later
on met with the advisors
to the minister of Immigration
Eric Besson. “‘It was a dialogue of the deaf
but it is good that
this took place, for it
showed that most of the population was
enraged at that nauseating policy’
said a spokesperson of the
network ‘Education Without Borders.’” Other news about
this thorny issue, from Europe:
“Yesterday the European Parliament put
France and Nicholas Sarkozy on the spot
for having deported thousands of
Romanian and Bulgarian gypsies during
a tense debate in which the attitudes of
Jose Manuel Durao Barroso and
the Commission were described as
scandalous and ridiculous for their apparent pusillanimity
and for failing to condemn
Paris decisions as illegal and
contrary to community rights”, according to an
article, Ricardo MartÃ-nez de Rituerto
published by El Pai-s.com
La Jornada published in another article impressive
social data. Neo-natal mortality
among the gypsy population is
nine times as much the European average
and the life expectancy rate
is hardly above 50 years
Before that, on August 29
it had reported that “although there have
been plenty of criticisms “from
the European Union institutions as
well as from the Catholic church, the
United Nations and the broad
spectrum of pro-immigrants organizations- Sarkozy
insists in expelling and deporting hundreds of
citizens from Bulgaria and Romania
“and therefore, European citizens- using
as an excuse alleged ‘criminal’ character, these
citizens.” “It is difficult to
believe that in the year
2010″ concludes La Jornada- after the terrible
past Europe had with racism
and intolerance, it is still
possible to criminalize an entire ethnic group
by labeling it, social problem.”
“Indifference, or even consent towards
the actions carried out by the French
police today and the Italian
police yesterday “more European, general
terms- leave the most optimist analyst
speechless.” Suddenly, while I wrote
this Reflection, I remembered that
France is the third nuclear power in
the planet, and that Sarkozy
also had a briefcase with
the keys required to launch one of
the more than 300 bombs
he had. Is there any
moral or ethical rational, launching an attack
against Iran, a country condemned
for its alleged intention of
manufacturing this kind of weapon? Where
are the good sense and
the logic of that policy?
Let us assume that Sarkozy all of
a sudden goes crazy, as
it seems to be the
case. What would the UN Security Council do
with Sarkozy and his briefcase?
What will happen if the
French extreme right decides to force Sarkozy
to maintain a racist policy
opposite to the norms that
prevail within the European Community? Could the
UN Security Council respond
to those two questions? The
absence of truth and the prevalence of
deception is the biggest tragedy
in our dangerous nuclear age.
By Fidel Castro Ruz, September 12, 2010
commentary, Roberta Kelly, 09/10
