Recognition of the Roma Genocide

 Recognition, official texts

There is no information whether Slovenia has recognised Roma Genocide.

 Data (camps locations, Remembrance places, measures etc.)

In 1953, the Kampor memorial cemetery was dedicated to the victims of the Kampor camp on the Adriatic Island of Rab, designed by the Slovenian architect Edvard Ravnikar.

 Specialised institution, commission, research centre etc., dealing with this issue

There is no information about specialised institution or research centre dealing only with the issue of the Roma Genocide.

 Official initiatives (campaigns, actions, projects, commemoration days, museums)

 Remembrance day

Slovenia observes 27th January as its “National Holocaust Remembrance Day”. The day was chosen to coincide with the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust. The day aims to pay reverence to the victims of the Holocaust, including 2,330 Slovenians deported to Auschwitz, as well as to victims of other acts of genocide. The date was established in February 2008 by a decision of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia.

The Government does not directly organise events to commemorate this day. However, the President of the Republic of Slovenia, Dr. Danilo Türk, serves as the honorary patron of a yearly event organised by the Maribor Synagogue to pay reverence to the victims of the Holocaust. The event includes a meeting, entitled “One Name Each Year”, and the symbolic laying of paving stones of remembrance, as well as a cultural programme by the students of the First Grammar School of Maribor. In 2012, the President awarded Erika Fürst, a Holocaust survivor, with the Gold Order for Services for her contribution to Slovenian and European awareness of the Holocaust.

In addition, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has opened a website on the Holocaust, where most commemorative events are publicized. The Ministry also publishes a statement a day before National Holocaust Remembrance Day. Furthermore, the President of the National Assembly marked the occasion of Holocaust Memorial Day by issuing a statement.

In cooperation with seventeen Slovene museums, the National Museum of Contemporary History in Ljubljana is preparing an exhibition project entitled "Coming Home" dedicated to stories and memory of the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the Isonzo front (1915) and the 70th anniversary of the end of WW2 (1945). Exhibition is opened until 1st September 2016.

 Teaching about the Roma Genocide

 Inclusion of the topic in the school curriculum

This topic is included in school curriculum but as a part of curriculum which touches History of World War II. The Genocide of Roma is mentioned together with other genocides, but not as a special topic. It is included in all levels of school and it is compulsory.

 Inclusion of the topic in the school textbooks

The topic is partly included in the textbooks in all levels; there are some remarks about suffering Roma during the World War II. But in all textbooks this content is connected with the suffering of other groups (Jews, Slavs…).

 Training of teachers and education professionals

There is no specific information on this topic in the training of teachers.

 Particular activities undertaken at the level of education institutions

Schools are encouraged to commemorate National Holocaust Remembrance Day. School authorities send an e-mail to history teachers giving them suggestions on appropriate ways to commemorate the Holocaust and requesting them to provide feedback on their events. School authorities have also opened a website from which teachers can get additional information on the Holocaust.

In 2012, special school activities included an exhibition at Drago Kobal Elementary School, Maribor, entitled “On the Trail of Jewish Heritage in Slovenia”, and another at Pesnica Elementary School, entitled “Holocaust 1933-1945: Courage to Remember”.

Testimonies

Francesco Brajdic, Roma survivor, remembers the life in Italian concentration camp in Kampor at the island of Rab and Gonars (Udine) in Italy. His testimony in Italian is a part of the project MEMORS - the first virtual museum of Porrajmos in Italy.

Ms Ivanka Zanida from Kocevje, a survivor of three Italian fascist camps, Bakar, Kampor at the island of Rab and Gonars in Italy, says: In the concentration camp Kampor on the island of Rab children until age of 14 were forced to the sea. "I was so sad. I couldn't socialize. I sat on my mess bowl touching the sea with my feet. I couldn't do much. I was so sad." And they were suffering hunger.  As children they searched kitchen rotting leftovers hoping to find something to calm the persistent hunger. "Out of desperation I was once among these kids. Suddenly an officer hit me on the head with a stick having a metal square and a hook on the top. I was wounded. I've got a bruise and a swelling on my head." - Extract from 2013 exhibition "The Last Witnesses", National Museum for Contemporary History, Ljubljana.

Oral history interview with Sonja Vrščaj, Auschwitz survivor, about killing of Roma in crematorium (video, part 3 from 17:50 to 18:56)

 Initiatives of the civil society

In 2012, civil society organisations sponsored a variety of events around National Holocaust Remembrance Day which included lectures, presentations and exhibitions in Ljubljana, Murska Sobota, Lendava and Celje.

Project “Memories from underneath the ashes”, implemented by Roma Information Center Anglunipe from Ljubljana, includes survivors testimonies and the photo exhibition presented in Maribor and Ljubljana during 2015.

"Project Stone Tears" is an international project focused on developing strategies as well as providing educational and meaningful substance for three remembrance days honouring the victims of the Holocaust and Porrajmos (Genocide of the Roma), while promoting and encouraging such activities both in Slovenia and in neighbouring countries."

 Resources

 Educational material

 Information material

HACKL, E.: Slovo od Sidonije: povest, 2009, novel, Celovec, Ljubljana, Dunaj: Mohorjeva. [Original in German]

LAKATOS, M.: Zadimljene podobe: roman. 1977, novel, Murska Sobota: Pomurska založba. [Original in Hungarian]

TOFFOLO, Davide: “Italijanska zima”, 2010, [orignal in Italian "L'inverno d'Italia", English: "Italian winter"] Coconino Press - a graphic novel about two children interned at Gonars (Udine) concentration camp

The Information Portal to European Sites of Remembrance, online since 2011, is a project of the Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. It is part of the exhibition of the Information Centre under the Field of Stelea of the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin. The presentation focuses on the victims of the Holocaust, but also on memorials to other victims of National Socialist crimes and the millions of victims of the Second World War. Among others, it presents memorial sites in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia.

 Scientific publications

BULAJIĆ, M. (1996). Tudjman's "Jasenovac myth": Genocide against Serbs, Jews and Gypsies. Belgrade: Stručna knj.

CROWE, KOLSTI, HANCOCK: „The Gypsies of Eastern Europe“, 1992, Routledge

FINGS, K., LISSNER, C. and SPARING, F. (1992). “...einziges Land, in dem Judenfrage und Zigeunerfrage gelöst”: die Verfolgung der Roma im faschistisch besetzten Jugoslawien 1941-1945. Köln: Rom e.V. Köln.

HERMAN, Janež: “Koncentracijsko taborišče Kampor na otoku Rabu (1942-1943)”, article, (Slovenian) Dolenjski list, 18. sep. 2003-6. nov. 2003, page. 23

JEVTIC, E. (2004). Blank pages of the Holocaust Gypsies in Yugoslavia during World War II. Thesis (M.A.), Brigham Young University.

LITUCHI, B. M. et al. (2006). Jasenovac and the Holocaust in Yugoslavia: Analyses and survivor testimonies. New York: Jasenovac Research Institute.

MIRKOVI, D. (1993). “Victims and Perpetrators in the Yugoslav Genocide 1941-1945. Some preliminary observations”, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, 7 (3), pp. 317-332.

RODOGNO Davide: "Il nuovo ordine mediterraneo. Le politiche di occupazione dell'Italia fascista (1940-1943)”, Nuova cultura, 94 Bollati Boringhieri, Torino, 2002, pp. 529-535 (list of Slovenian, Croatian, Jewish and other prisoners of the Italian camps in Slovenia and Dalmatia)

TOMIC, Yves: “Massacres in Dismembered Yugoslavia, 1941-1945”, Online Encyclopedia of Mass Violence

 Multimedia material

1943: “Romani (Gypsy) campsite in Slovenia”. Historical Film. Yugoslavia. Silent film. 1 min.
It depicts the hard living conditions of the Roma people in 1943.

2009: "Oltre il filo" (Beyond the wire, in Slovene: "Onstran žice"). Short documentary. Italy. Director: Minigutti, Dorino. 6:43 min
A story about suffering of the inmates of the Gonars concentration camps told from the children perspective.

2011: "The other Genocide: The Persecution of Sinti and Roma in Europe 1920–1946“ (Mémoires tsiganes, l'autre génocide) , France Documentary, directed by Juliette Jourdan , Produced by Marie-Hélène Ranc, Mark Edwards & Eric Darmon, duration 1:15:05.
Film follows the lives of Roma from Czech Republic, France, Germany, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Ukraine before and after the Holocaust.