Teaching about the Roma Genocide

 Inclusion of the topic in the school curriculum

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.at are 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.

• Further trainings provided by Erinnern.at

Numerous workshops concerning the touring exhibition “talking about it” (with an exhibition display board about the Roma and Sinti Genocide)

Numerous workshops concerning the nonfiction series “National Socialism in the Federal States” (including a chapter on the Roma and Sinti Genocide)

2015 Pestalozzi Seminar in Graz “Genocide of the Roma and Sinti in Europe”

Workshop at the Hartheim Memorial (April 2014) – presentation on the website www.romasintigenocide.eu

 Particular activities undertaken at the level of education institutions