The Austrian legal system does not provide legal recognition of historical facts, although the denial of the Holocaust is a criminal offence under the “Law prohibiting the Reactivation of National Socialism”. Although Austria has not officially recognised the Holocaust or the Samudaripen – in Austria referred to as the Holocaust of the Roma – through any legislative act, the Samudaripen or the Holocaust of the Roma is recognised as an integral part of the Holocaust as such. In 2004, the official commemoration organised by the Austrian Parliament on the occasion of the Holocaust, on 5 May – the Austrian Holocaust Day – , was dedicated exclusively to the Roma Genocide.
Data (camps locations, Remembrance places, measures etc.)
The Camp Lackenbach in Austria (1941-1945) was the largest “Zigeunerlager” (concentration camp for Roma) within the borders of Austria. About 2 000 out of its 4 000 inmates were murdered in Łódź (in German, Litzmannstadt) and Chełmno (in German, Kulmhof) in Poland; another 1,000 in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Smaller “Zigeunerlager” (“Gypsy Camps”) were located in Weyer, Salzburg and Vienna. Out of 12 000 Austrian Roma, between 9000 and 10 000 perished during the Holocaust.
According to Dokumentationsarchiv des Österreichischen Widerstandes (DÖW, Documentation centre of the Austrian Resistance), approximately 9500 Austrian “Gypsies” fell victim to National Socialism. The official data collected on the number of the surviving Gypsies after 1945 are similarly problematic as those of the interwar period because of the arbitrariness of the stigmatisation. In a document from Burgenland dated 7 February 1952 there is a reference that in 1948, under the pretext to register all victims of NS-terror, a census of all Gypsies residing in Burgenland had taken place. The police counted 870 Gypsies of whom 636 had survived various concentration camps. Liberation, however, did not put an end to discrimination and harassment by the authorities for Roma and Sinti. The regional government of Lower Austria, for instance, informed warningly about an imminent new “Gypsy scourge” on 28 June 1945. Also the “Gypsy registration” required since 1888 was continued until the late 1950s. The remark by the Department for Public Security of September 1948 that Gypsies would frequently pretend to have been former concentration camp inmates, denied the survivors the status of victim of National Socialism.
In Lackenbach a memorial was inaugurated by President Dr Rudolf Kirchschläger in 1984 to commemorate the interned and deported Roma and Sinti. On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the construction of the camp the first commemoration ceremony was organized in 1990. Since then a commemoration ceremony takes place annually in November.
A memorial was inaugurated in Salzburg in 1995 (Ignaz-Rieder-Kai), with the inscription: "In Salzburg fell more than 300 Gypsies, victims of the Nazi racial policies. Imprisoned from 1940 to 1943 under inhumane conditions in the Gypsy camp of Salzburg, they were deported in the spring of 1943 to the Auschwitz extermination camp. As a reminder and admonition. The township Salzburg - Zoltan Pap ".
Another memorial was built in 2009 in the "Zigeunerlager Maxglan", on the grounds of the former camp at Salzburg.
In Vienna, a central memorial at Aspangbahnhof, the station from which over 47 000 people were deported to concentration camps, was opened in 2017. For Roma the memorial at Aspangbahnhof has a special meaning as nearly all eastern Austrian Roma were deported from here, mostly to the Lager Łódź in Poland.
Specialised institution, commission, research centre etc., dealing with this issue
The Documentation Centre of Austrian Resistance (DÖW) was founded in 1963 by former members of the Austrian Resistance, victims of NS-persecution, and committed scholars from the sciences and humanities. It collects and archives relevant source materials on the Nazi era and Nazi crimes, and in particular the Holocaust. It holds a permanent exhibition in the Altes Rathaus (Old Town Hall), in Vienna.
The Institute for Holocaust Education of the Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, Science and Research, commonly referred to as _erinnern.at_, dedicates itself to the transfer of historical and methodological-didactical knowledge and its today’s reflection.
The Viennese NGO Romano-Centro is the organiser of many commemoration events in Vienna and curated museum exhibitions covering, among others, the Roma Genocide.
The Austrian Service Abroad, an NGO that seconds Holocaust Memorial Servants to Genocide Commemoration sites worldwide, dedicates some of its activities to the Roma Genocide. In 2013, the NGO awarded its annual prize for merits in Holocaust remembrance and research, the Austrian Holocaust Memorial Award, to the Bavarian Sinto Hugo Höllenrainer.
Official initiatives (campaigns, actions, projects, commemoration days, museums)
The Documentation and Information Centre of Austrian Roma (Kulturverein Österreichischer Roma) has a special exhibition on this topic, as does the permanent exhibition of the DöW (Dokumentationsarchiv des österreichischen Widerstandes - Documentation Centre of the Austrian Resistance) in Vienna. The Mauthausen Memorial has a special monument dedicated to the Roma Victims of the Genocide. There are special monuments in Salzburg, Weyer, and Lackenbach/Burgenland. “The Roma Base Project” at the University of Graz has been a major research centre for Roma history in Austria for many years and was a major contributor to the “Factsheets on Roma History” published by the Council of Europe, which contain a very detailed account of the fate of Europe’s Roma populations between 1938 and 1945. The topic of the Roma Genocide is an integral part of Holocaust commemorative activities in Austria – such as “Letter to the Stars” or the teacher training programs on the topic.
The Ministry of Education (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Frauen - BMBF) is in charge of the teaching of the Roma Genocide. They have set up a project called "Nationalsozialismus und Holocaust: Gedächtnis und Gegenwart" (National Socialism and Holocaust: Memory and Future) which integrates contemporary witnesses in the classroom. This programme is yet not compulsory but is one of the offerings of the the civil education in Austria. This project is led by association Erinnern.at, which is a network emanating from the BMBF. They have developed a pedagogical website dedicated to the Roma Genocide “Das Schicksal der europäischen Roma und Sinti während des Holocaust” (The fate of European Roma and Sinti), together with Anne Frank House (The Netherlands) and Mémorial de la Shoah (France). It is currently available in English, German and French. It brought together professional historians, Roma and Sinti representatives and educators in order to develop a mutually accepted version of instruction and information materials for teachers, students and other interested persons concerning the largely forgotten fate of the European Roma and Sinti during the Holocaust.
In November 2012 and November 2013, Erinnern.at organized, in cooperation with Anne Frank House (The Netherlands) and the Museum of Romani Culture (Czech Republic), the International Conference on teaching material on the Roma Genocide. There were three target groups represented at the meetings: educational experts working at institutes related to the history of the Holocaust and/or the Roma Genocide, teacher trainers that are working at universities or teacher training colleges, and educational authorities. The expertise of these different groups of experts contributed significantly to the development of the teaching material and of the implementation process. The project aimed to create a network of educators and policy makers from across Europe to generally support teaching about the Roma Genocide in the institutions and countries that are part of the project, and in particular to further implement the teaching materials "The Fate of the European Roma and Sinti during the Holocaust".
The NGO Romano Centro organised a temporary multimedia exhibition entitled “Romane Thana” (“Places of the Roma”) in 2015 at Wien Museum and in 2017 at Vorarlberg Museum. “Romane Thana” explores the history of Roma in Austria and offers teaching material on Roma and the Roma Genocide online.
Since 2012, the National Roma Contact Point at the Austrian Federal Ministry organises Dialogue platforms with the Roma civil society on specific subjects. On 2 June 2017 the Dialogue Platform was dedicated entirely to Memorial and Commemoration work.
Initiatives of the civil society
The Roma Theater Pralipe played Z 2001. Die Tinte unter meiner Haut (2001) in different countries, for instance Germany (Frankfurt a. M., Heidelberg, Berlin...), Austria (Vienna), the Czech Republic or the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. The DVD Z 2001. Die Tinte unter meiner Haut (2001), by Valentin Albersmann, shows some images of the play. Theater Pralipe is no longer active.
In 2010 the two actors Simonida and Sandra Selimović founded the first professional feminist Roma Theater association Romano Svato in Vienna. Romano Svato takes up the themes of anti-Romaism, racism and sexism in plays, rap, performances and interventions in public space. In 2018, Romano Svato organised the three day theater and performance festival “E bistarde / Vergiss mein nicht” in Vienna on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the “Anschluss” (accession) of Austria to Nazi-Germany.
2nd August is not officially recognised as Holocaust Memorial Day in Austria. Since 2015, Roma civil society organisations organise a commemoration ceremony at Ceija-Stojka-Square in Vienna.
Austria commemorates the victims of the Holocaust on 27 January, the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, and 5 May, the Memorial Day against Violence and Racism and Commemoration Day for the Victims of National Socialism. In 2004, the official commemoration organised by the Austrian Parliament on the occasion 5 May was dedicated exclusively to the Roma Genocide.
Testimonies
Karl and Ceija Stojka are brother and sister who survived the Holocaust and internment at Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen. Their father was sent to the Dachau concentration camp, then to Schloss Hartheim, where he was killed.
After the end of World War II, their family saw the lack of acknowledgement of the Porajmos in Austria, the population’s ignorance concerning this suffering and the continuation of some anti-Romani policies.
The never forgettable experiences become a central and eternal theme of their artistic work. Although both famous in Austria, it was in particular Ceija’s art that evoked international recognition. Ceija's paintings reflect upon the entrenched sorrow in the bodies and spirit of the victims. There are several books, films and artistic works which are capturing her life. Ceija published her first autobiographic book in 1988, "We Live in Seclusion. The Memories of a Romni". Later on in 1992 she published another autobiographical book called: “Reisende auf dieser Welt” /"Travellers on This World". Besides writing, Ceija also sang in Romanes.
Only in 1989, at the age of 56, Ceija Stojka began to paint. Her work has been exhibited in western and eastern Europe as well as in Japan. In 2005 the Jewish Museum of Vienna organized an exhibition entitled „Ceija Stojka, Leben!”. In 2010, her artworks were exhibited for the first time in the U.S. Her ars poetica declared: „I always try to portray my feelings and memories. I want to show my own world to the people. It is important to understand that, we are all human beings and art allows us to live and exist. Art can demonstrate and connect us”. Her artistic account offers stories and visual representation of trauma as a new mean to face the past in order to start a new and meaningful dialogue and challenge the various forms of discrimination and violence in present day Europe. Ceija Stoika was an outstanding Austrian Romani woman, one of the members of The Romani Elders of Europe, and a key figure for the history, art, and literature of Romani culture in Europe. Ceija Stojka is featured in the 2013 US documentary film "Forget Us Not", which follows several non-Jewish survivors of the Holocaust.
Ceija Stojka died on 28 January 2013.
Karl Stojka's story is told in the pedagogical and interactive website RomaSinti.eu, a Dutch initiative Tweedewereldoorlog.nl dedicated to World War II.
Teaching at Austrian schools is based on the principle of competence-based syllabi. The aim is to acquire cognitive abilities, which allow for learning from the time of National Socialism and the Holocaust in order to strengthen individual democratic attitudes of learners.
The curricula of Austrian schools providing general upper secondary education include the issue of the Roma Genocide implicitly both as an inter-disciplinary subject within the subjects geography and economics and German as well as within specific individual teaching modules in the subject “History and Social Studies/Civic Education” from year 7. The issue should be incorporated into teaching in an illustrative manner within all school years, having due regard to age, regional circumstances and opportunities. It is a discretionary matter for the teacher to decide which groups of victims, including amongst others the Roma and Sinti groups, should be specifically discussed within the prescribed competence-based history modules. Each individual module is dedicated to a particular core issue, as is specified for example in module 5 (historical education) “Holocaust/Shoah, Genocide and Human Rights”, which specifically engages with the issue in year 8. The aim of module 6 (historical-political education), “Cultures of History – Cultures of Remembrance – Policies of Remembrance”, is to analyse in particular monuments, memorials and contemporary accounts (video archive).
The Roma genocide is implicitly included as follows within the curricula of vocational schools throughout all subject areas in vocational upper secondary schools (BHS, 5 years) and vocational middle schools (BMS/FS, 3 years): within schools focusing on social occupations and services [Humanberuflichen Schulen] (46 curricula), the genocide is considered illustratively within the subject “History and Civic Education” when studying Persecution and the Holocaust. It is also considered within the curricula of technical, commercial and craft schools (29 curricula for 5-year BHS and 29 curricula for BMS/FS) as part of the subject “Geography, History and Civic Education” when dealing with the historical causes of xenophobia and racism, national and transnational identities and stories of migration. In addition, prejudices and stereotypes as well as the historical and current causes of xenophobia and racism should also be engaged with. The Roma genocide is addressed illustratively within the curricula of commercial schools as part of the subject “Political Education and History (Economic and Social History)” when dealing with fascism, anti-Semitism, National Socialism and the Holocaust (resistance, remembrance and the present day), populism and political extremism. The aim of the subject “Civic Education” in the curricula of vocational schools for apprentices (3-4 years) is to recognise discrimination, to reflect on prejudices and to develop personal strategies in order to avoid them.
Over and above the curricular requirements for individual subjects, the teaching principle of civic education applies throughout the Austrian education system within all Austrian schools – as defined in the 2015 General Edict. As regards the development of the teaching principle of “civic education”, it should be mentioned that it was established in 1978 for all types of schools, at all levels and in all subjects.
The aim of the teaching principle of civic education is inter alia: to recognise democratic principles and basic values such as peace, freedom, equality, justice and solidarity; and to seek in particular to overcome prejudices, stereotypes, racism, xenophobia and anti-Semitism along with sexism and homophobia.
The teaching principle results from the tasks laid down for Austrian schools in § 2 of the Austrian School Organisation Act [Schulorganisationsgesetz, SchOG] as well as from international recommendations and guidelines, which stress the major significance of civic education and the right of young persons to it. These include in particular the Council of Europe Charter on Education for Democratic Citizenship and Human Rights Education and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. In addition, the Recommendation of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2006 on key competences for lifelong learning establishes a clear link with civic education.
Inclusion of the topic in the school textbooks
Austrian competence-based school textbooks for History and Social Studies reveal a strong awareness of the long-standing history of antisemitism in Austria, also in relation to the persecution of Jews and as well as to the persecution of Roma and Sinti.
Some illustrative examples:
Zeitbilder 7: Geschichte und Sozialkunde/Politische Bildung [History and Social Studies/Civic Education], year 7, “Roma und Sinti – Die Vernichtung einer fast vergessenen Minderheit” [“Roma and Sinti – the destruction of an almost forgotten minority”] (pp. 100, Österreichischer Bundesverlag)
Zeitbilder 4: Geschichte und Sozialkunde/Politische Bildung [History and Social Studies/Civic Education], year 4 (Österreichischer Bundesverlag)
ganz klar: Geschichte 4, Geschichte und Sozialkunde/Politische Bildung [History 4, History and Social Science/Civic Education], year 4 (Verlag Jugend&Volk, pp. 33–40)
Zeitenblicke 4: Geschichte und Sozialkunde/Politische Bildung [History and Social Studies/Civic Education], year 4 (E. Dorner, p. 48)
Bausteine 4: Geschichte und Sozialkunde/Politische Bildung [History and Social Studies/Civic Education], year 4 (Ernst Klett, pp. 19, 44)
Also within the subjects Geography and Economics, see Global 6: Geographie und Wirtschaftskunde, Schulbuch für die 6. Klasse [Geography and Economics, year 6 textbook], which contains texts such as “Leben an den Rändern der Gesellschaft – Roma in Europa” [“Life on the Margins of Society – the Roma in Europe”] (p. 38, Österreichischer Bundesverlag).
Training of teachers and education professionals
Teacher training seminars on the issue of the Roma and Sinti Genocide are regularly held at University colleges of Teacher Education throughout Austria. Individual Austrian colleges consider the issue with a regional focus.
Initial training of teachers
Pädagogische Hochschule Burgenland [Burgenland University College of Teacher Education]
Teaching events dealing with the Roma and Sinti Genocide are regularly offered to trainee teachers at the Burgenland University College of Teacher Education in the form of lectures, didactic field trips and selected specialist seminars. Selected chapters on Contemporary History – National Socialism and the Holocaust deal with the Roma and Sinti Genocide with reference to Burgenland between 1900 and 1955. Field trips involve visits to memorial sites (e.g. visit to the Mauthausen concentration camp). A selected specialist seminar is dedicated to the culture of remembrance and memorial sites for the Roma and Sinti Genocide.
Pädagogische Hochschule Steiermark (Styria University College of Teacher Education)
Although not explicitly mentioned in descriptions of teaching events, aspects relating to the Sinti and Roma Genocide are frequently addressed within core history training.
Further teacher training
2017 the BMBWF issued an edict to all rectorates of Austrian University College of Teacher Education concerning the Austrian Roma strategy. The edict requests that, when planning further training, a focus be placed on aspects that enable greater engagement with the history and current living conditions of the Roma and Sinti in order to help reduce antigypsy stereotypes.
In 2017 the Pädagogische Hochschule Vorarlberg (Vorarlberg Teacher Training College) arranged an exhibition in the Vorarlberg Museum entitled: “Romane Thana. Orte der Roma und Sinti” (“Romane Thana. Roma and Sinti Locations”), in cooperation with Initiative Minderheiten (Minorities Initiative), the Burgenland State Museum, Romano Centro and the Vienna Museum.
Whoever recounts history decides on its content. Almost all stories of the Roma and Sinti have been told by non-Roma people. Widespread prejudices are still rife: for example, there is still a widely held view that these people do not want to work at all, and rather prefer begging or stealing. In the exhibition “Romane Thana. Roma and Sinti Locations”, Roma and Sinti tell their own stories – at the places where they live and work: at settlements in Burgenland, at workplaces of immigrant Roma, and all over Vorarlberg. But also at sites of persecution and mass extermination during the Second World War. These counter-stories against prevailing stereotypes provide insights into the life situation of Roma and Sinti in Austria.
The Pädagogische Hochschule Wien [Vienna Teacher Training College] and the Arbeiterkammer Oberösterreich (Upper Austria Chamber of Labour) jointly arrange the Hermann Langbein Symposium. The symposium, which takes place each year, is named after the resistance fighter and Auschwitz survivor Prof. Hermann Langbein (1912–1995). The symposium was founded by Langbein himself in 1980.
For 38 years, the seminar on the “Ideologie und Wirklichkeit des National-Sozialismus” (Ideology and Reality of National Socialism”), better known as the “Hermann Langbein Symposium”, has been a significant module within further training with regard to the “Nazi period in Austria” and the “Fate of Austrian Roma and Sinti”. The aim is to shed light on National Socialist crimes and to provide comprehensive knowledge and information for teachers at all types of school. The fact that the seminar is held close to the Mauthausen and Hartheim memorials means that trips can be arranged in order to involve these places of remembrance and their educational value.
The seminar is open to the public and it is possible to attend individual presentations. This seminar is a permanent event within the context of further training for teachers. The current symposium for 2020 is entitled: “Ideology and Reality of National Socialism. Hermann Langbein Symposium
Over the last few years, the association Erinnern.at has held further training events concerning the Roma and Sinti Genocide, in cooperation with teacher training colleges.
In 2019 the seminar for instance was held together with the University College of Teacher Education Burgenland: Vergessene Kosmopoliten: Das Schicksal europäischer Zirkusleute während des Nationalsozialismus [Forgotten Cosmopolitans: the fate of European circus people during National Socialism]. This further training seminar with international experts formed part of the University of Helsinki project entitled Forgotten Cosmopolitans: The Diverging Fates of Europe’s Circus People in the Wake of the Second World War. Based on the results of research already available, the initial aim of the speakers was to provide information concerning the life, persecution, death and survival strategies of circus people in Europe during the National Socialist period. Circus families with a Jewish, Jeni and/or Sinti and Roma background were affected by the persecution. The seminar therefore remembered these forgotten groups of victims of National Socialism and recounted why circus people have as yet hardly been considered as victims of National Socialism. (www.forgottencosmopolitans.eu)
The Central seminars of Erinnern.atare the largest Austrian further training events for educators concerning the issues of the Holocaust, National Socialism and combatting antisemitism and racism as well as antigypsyism and the Roma genocide. The seminar is held each year, rotating between different provinces. The Central seminar always focuses on the actual location of the seminar and presents current teaching materials. When a Central seminar is held at the province of Burgenland, a Roma genocide focus is always foreseen.
Factsheet on the Roma Genocide in Austria
List of resources to download
