Teaching about the Roma Genocide

 Inclusion of the topic in the school curriculum

In Belgium ‘remembrance education’ is addressed through the compulsory core curriculum. This curriculum contains a number of objectives (called final objectives) for certain levels of education (end of primary and end of each cycle in secondary), formulated per learning area, subject or cross-curricular theme. The objectives are determined by the education authorities. The general framework for remembrance education can mainly be found in developmental objectives for world orientation in primary education and in the final objectives concerning history and the cross-curricular final objectives in secondary education.

Note: The final objectives constitute the minimum expectations. Within the framework of these minimum objectives, the organizing authorities of the different educational networks have the right to establish the curriculum autonomously, with complete freedom regarding elaboration, deepening, enlargement and methodical incorporation. So there is no identical curriculum to be used by all schools.

In practice this means that the genocide of the Roma can be taught (and is taught) within the framework of the existing final objectives, adapted to school context and population, but without a global picture.

Teachers frequently visit memorial sites in Belgium and abroad, whilst Holocaust survivors are often asked to share their experiences with pupils in schools. It is safe to say that all Belgian schools do devote a considerable amount of time to the Holocaust. It is, however, very likely that in this context more attention is devoted to the Shoah than to the genocide of the Roma and Sinti.
 

In French-speaking Belgium

Founded in 1994, Democracy or Barbarism (DOB - http://www.democratieoubarbarie.cfwb.be) is an educational coordination unit of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation to support schools in the commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the end of the Second World War and the liberation of and from Nazi camps.

Throughout its actions since then, the specificity of its approach has been to innovate in the training of students to citizenship, while fostering teachers and animators to build up a relationship with remembrance, keeping the necessary critical distance with the event to enable a decent historical approach as always required.

Its missions are :

• Coordinating questions pertaining to education to citizenship through history and education to remembrance.
• Enabling the interface between institutional organs, the associative and school worlds.
• Providing coordination, follow-up and promoting activities supported by the Wallonia-Brussels Federation within the framework of the decree on the transmission of the memory of genocide crimes, crimes against humanity, war crimes, resistance feats, or movements resisting political systems that instigated those crimes.
• Exerting a support mission with in perspective the commemoration of the First World War.

DOB (Démocratie ou barbarie) works with 3 “resource” centres (The Auschwitz Foundation, the Centre communautaire Laïc Juif and les Territoires de la Mémoire) which are particularly active in the field and seven “certified” centres (The MERCi Foundation which organizes study trips to e.g. Yad Vashem and Terezin, La Fondation de la Mémoire contemporaine and l’Institut de la Mémoire audiovisuelle juive).
 

In Flemish-speaking Belgium

In 2008 the Special Committee for Remembrance Education (BCH - Bijzonder Comité voor Herinneringseducatie) was created in Flanders. This committee, coordinated by the non-profit organisation Kazerne Dossin (Dossin Barracks), consists of educationalists of a number of major actors in the field of remembrance education (Kazerne Dossin, the Fortress of Breendonk, the Auschwitz Foundation, In Flanders Fields Museum, the pedagogical advisory services of the various educational networks and the Ministry of Education and Training). The committee has as its task to support the teaching teams who are involved in remembrance education, by working on the transparency and the quality of remembrance education. The genocide of the Roma and Sinti is included in some of the materials, seminars,… developed by the BCH.

On January 27th 2015 the Flemish Minister of Education and representatives of the different educational networks signed a declaration of commitment concerning the genocides and crimes against humanity during WWII. With this declaration the educational networks commit themselves to explicitly integrate these topics in secondary education. The main aim is to stimulate critical thinking about the origin of conflicts and how to deal with them today. In the explanatory memorandum of the declaration of commitment the genocide of the Roma and Sinti is explicitly mentioned

 Inclusion of the topic in the school textbooks

Belgian Ministries of Education are not involved in the development or distribution of didactic materials. Schools are free to choose the methods, materials,… they want to use. They can make use of manuals developed by educational publishers, they can develop materials themselves, and they can use the material or training developed by different organisations and nongovernmental organisations active in this field. The Holocaust is most certainly addressed in the curriculum and thus in the pedagogical tools used by teachers but systematic and specific information about the Roma genocide is not guaranteed.

Examples of pedagogical tools can be found at the end of this page.

 Training of teachers and education professionals

Remembrance education is an integral part of initial teacher training. Several organisations and nongovernmental organizations offer in service training in the field of remembrance education (Yad Vashem…). Also, schools receive a yearly budget with which in-service training for teachers can be financed, but they decide completely autonomously how they want to spend this budget, taking into account the specific needs of the school.

Since 2008, schools in the French-speaking part of Belgium have been invited to organize and participate in activities related to Holocaust remembrance. Information materials and publications are distributed in schools, and training activities are organized for teachers. The DOB unit organizes various activities in schools and teacher training initiatives.

 Particular activities undertaken at the level of education institutions

Belgium also reported that the Kazerne Dossin museum in Mechelen (Malines) plays an important role in Holocaust remembrance, offering visits, seminars and publications in French during school trips to the museum, and co-operating with the Democracy or Barbarism unit (DOB) (Démocratie ou Barbarie) of the Ministry of the Wallonia Brussels Federation.