Family Memories of Roma as Sources for Holocaust Studies

Insights from the Belarusian-Lithuanian Border Region

Authors

  • Volha Bartash

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.23777/sn.0217/art_vbart01

Keywords:

Roma Genocide, family memory, collective amnesia, Holocaust studies, ethnography, regional studies

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a boom of scholarship on the Romani memory of the Nazi genocide. Approaches vary from collective amnesia to the impact of the Holocaust on current identities of European Roma and the role of Romani Holocaust memories in nationbuilding processes. However, few studies have attempted to analyse memories of ordinary Roma as sources on their suffering and survival under the Nazi occupation. In what follows, I aim to demonstrate in which ways family memories of Roma, coupled with local archival evidence and ethnographic data, may shed light on the plight of Roma in the occupied territories. In doing so, I argue for the inclusion of Romani experiences in the broader field of Holocaust studies, as well as in the history of their micro-regions.

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Published

2017-12-05

How to Cite

Bartash, Volha. 2017. “Family Memories of Roma As Sources for Holocaust Studies: Insights from the Belarusian-Lithuanian Border Region”. S: I.M.O.N. Shoah: Intervention. Methods. Documentation. 4 (2):4-17. https://doi.org/10.23777/sn.0217/art_vbart01.