AN OPEN LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN
Your Excellency,
As it has recently been pointed out that protection against discrimination against Roma is one of the segments for your administration, I address you in my capacity as President of the Board of the Institute for European Roma Studies and Research Against Crimes of Humanity and International Law in this open letter in which I would like to thank you first. That the human rights of Roma in Europe have become the subject of attention of the American administration is a welcome development and shows your sensitivity towards the flight of minority people around the world and your kindness of spirit towards helping to protect them from the venom of irrational opportunists and high-handed leaders.
Today, between twelve and fifteen million indigenes of Roma live within the territory of the European Union. This number roughly corresponds to the population of a medium-sized member-state of the European Union. Yet, most people still know very little about the people who have lived on the European continent for over seven centuries. This lack of knowledge is often based on ignorance, prejudice and stereotype. Today, the Roma are on the threshold of the Third Millennium, for many lower beings or “pariahs.” This is evident by the daily physical attacks and racist harassment to which they are exposed, as well as ghettoization, segregation and general disrespect for their most basic human rights – the right to work, education, protection of the judiciary, and their own culture – so the US administration’s statement on various attacks against the people of Roma is well-observed and correct.
While some of our people live in relative comfort, millions of Roma across Europe live in shanties, which they raise wherever they go. Others are not so lucky, they live on the streets, and all they have due to massive scheme of impoverishment, are just pieces of card board or plastics. Many indigenes of Roma earn a living by doing any menial jobs they find – rummaging through containers, operating as casual workers, or using small carts to collect card boards, empty bottles, cans and such other materials in the quest for survival.
Armoured vehicles, dogs, and excavators are used to intimidate and dehumanise Roma women and children. The sustained charade of pogrom against Roma and intensity of carrying out the arbitrariness and inhuman orders of a local powerful man whose victims are hundreds of Roma in Stara Zagora is unacceptable and the worst in attacks in human history and leadership. Comparatively, the situations in Bulgaria are reminiscent of the horrors of the Nazi era, but, a child’s play to the situation in Roma. For years, natives of Roma lived peacefully, built houses, and paid utilities, levies and taxes. As of yesterday, only the sky is their roof.
Pundits and civil society organisations public have been warning for years about enormous human rights violations in EU countries, especially in the case concerning Roma. France, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Italy and Greece are in the lead, but since yesterday, thanks to an unprecedented procedure, Bulgaria has come to the fore. In Stara Zagora, excavators with the support of armoured Police with dogs and the gendarmerie demolished, on the Mayor’s orders, a a settlement of the Roma that had existed on that location for decades. Houses made of hard materials built with the blood and sweat of their hosts were turned to dust, in front of the eyes of terrified children as the screams and cries of their mothers broke through the air. All that was left was a gas chamber and a crematorium, and they would go back to the 1940s and the time when Adolf Hitler condemned the Roma to extermination. The silence of the highest authorities of Bulgaria, a member of the European Union that likes to present itself as a bastion of democracy and false giant in the protection of human rights, as well as the silence of the EU and UN have combined to completely unmasked the strategy for the future and policy to be implemented in EU countries on Roma.
The demagogic empty rhetorics and fallacy on human rights have collapsed and ended in the mire of discrimination, segregation and total suspension of anything that has to do with the equality of Roma with other Europeans. Apparently, based on what has been happening in Europe, over the last two years, culminating in the recent deportation to Stara Zagora, 12 million Roma are undesirable EU citizens and should become nomads again if they do not want to physically disappear.
Former Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Thomas Hammarberg, criticised Berlusconi’s proposal, arguing that “arrests should be used against criminals, which immigrants are not.” In another statement, Hammarberg said that “the entire Roma community has been made unqualified scapegoats for crimes committed by only a few.”
Similarly, European Union Commissioner for Social Affairs, Vladimir Spidla, said in the European Parliament that the “Roma people” must have the same freedom, the same rights as others. “They are not immigrants from Third World countries, they are citizens of the European Union and there should be no discrimination against them.”
In a report on his findings from a visit to Rome on 19th and 20th June, 2008, the then Commissioner for Human Rights, Hammarberg expressed “deep concern” over “extremely violent” actions against Roma and Cynthians in Italy, including the burning of Roma camps, without effective protection from the Police, who also carried out violent raids on Roma camps.” In addition, Hammarberg expressed concern over discriminatory statements by national leaders, and legislation that identified foreigners with criminals and identified the security problems with “specific population groups.” The Commissioner recommended a swift response by the authorities “to publicly and firmly condemn all statements, regardless of their origin, which generalise and stigmatise certain ethnic or social groups, such as Roma and Sinti or migrants” while ensuring that government initiatives, including new security packages, “cannot be constructed as supporting or encouraging the deliberate stigmatisation of the same groups.”
The European Council and its human rights commissions say little or nothing concerning the core issues affecting the Roma people. They do not say how many students in Europe are left out of primary and secondary schools; how many Roma girls have given up higher education; how many Roma families have no access to employment; how many indigenes of Roma lack means for economic survival; how many Roma are wandering the streets of Europe looking for jobs; how many Roma minors who are exposed to the relentless exploitation of various employers; etc. Why does the history of such a misunderstanding of Roma nationals and genocide against them continue in Europe? Why are the voice and necessity for the well-being and expression of the Roma nationals being limited? Isn’t that an anti-civilization attitude towards one nation today? The Second World War brought to the Roma the greatest troubles recorded in the history of this nation. Leading despot in his era, Adolf Hitler considered the existence of the Roma as the greatest insult to his racial agenda.
We have the conviction that all human beings, despite the differences in their locations or small population or weakness operate in a decent and supposedly modern and civilized era. If this is true, as it is: Why is it that gas chambers, trials, decrees, regulations, persecutions, executions without evidence, crimes for prevention and self-defense, prisons, ghettos, restricted areas are allowed to suffocate the people of Roma? Auschwitz gas chambers and experimental scalpels of doctors from Auschwitz, Dachau and Buchenwald, and other torture sites have, so far, claimed the lives of 3.5 million Roma. Besides, 120,000 natives of Roma were killed in Jasenovac at Croatia while the Leti Camp in Czechoslovakia and the Transnistria Camp in Romania houses 40,000 and 65,000 natives of Roma, respectively. This statistics does not include the data of victimized and suffering natives of Roma at camps of the Third Reich. Without mincing words, the Roma had gone through Dante’s hell from Vitos, through Iasi, to Auschwitz and Jasenovac.
Arising from the holocaust in the Second World War, issues of human welfare and survival, democracy and equality as well as values for the human rights of all people should be raised and respected.
Doesn’t it seem to you, Mr. President, that the Roma are the only people in Europe who voluntarily give up their rights? Today, the Roma, both as a people and as individuals, are truly at a melting point of justice and truth because the rights and freedom of the Roma in Europe and beyond are endangered both as a nation and as individuals.
Discrimination based on race, colour, or ethnicity (“racial discrimination”) is almost always a violation of human rights. According to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the main international law dealing with the prohibition of racial discrimination, the term ‘racial discrimination’ means any discrimination, exclusion, restriction or favouritism based on race, colour, family, national or of ethnic origin having the purpose or effect of annulling or diminishing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal basis, of human rights and fundamental freedom in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other fields of social life.
Even with Article 31 of the Copenhagen document, which obliges the member-states of the European Union to take the necessary measures to prevent discrimination both individually and collectively, especially in relation to employment, housing and education, based on belonging or non-belonging to a national minority, those in Europe still apply a policy of double standards towards Roma. Sir, this practice should not be so!
An objective analysis easily reveals that, while in various ways it plays a very active role in solving the problems of protection of minorities in the “rest of the world”, the European Union at the same time avoids facing this issue when it comes to its member-states. In other words, despite certain positive development, especially in the field of combating discrimination, the European Union is still unwilling to respect what it demands from others, including its future members.
In this regard, the record of the Copenhagen document rightly points out that the policy of double standards is at stake. As a confirmation of this, the mere fact that one of the important elements that are taken into account when evaluating independent countries for admission to the European Union is the assessment of how they apply the Council of Europe Framework Convention for the Protection of the Minorities, while on the other hand, as many as five EU member-states have not even ratified the agreement the (The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, and Greece).
The fact that these are double standards, and especially the need for appropriate solutions to be found for the protection of minorities to be applied to all members of the European Union, it has been observed and publicly stated by, not only independent experts, but also by competent international non-governmental organisations dealing with the protection of minority rights as collaborated by a former High Commissioner of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on National Minorities, Thomas Hammarberg.
An inclusive society has been and should remain a key priority of the European Union since the adoption of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (1950), making significant and visible progress, over time. As a result, strong and sustainable political and economic development mechanisms have fast-tracked European progress to transform Europe, at all levels, into an expressive and prosperous continent, with improved living conditions for all social groups, and citizens of all races and colours.
The last 20 years have been dedicated to glorifying the success of the EU and its political and socio-economic approaches, which have enabled Europeans and migrants from other continents to access better lives through dedicated resources, services and infrastructure in areas such as employment, health, housing, education, etc. The fame of such inclusive policies has enabled many disadvantaged communities in Europe to rise above their social status. It has also provided access to millions of people to live and strive for decent lives – as a natural fundamental right of all human beings. As a result of such European ideologies and practices, we have today’s Europe and its progress.
Despite Europe’s glorified progress and sustainable development, no one can deny that, in this beautiful picture of Europe, there are still many ideological stains, anti-human and dirty practices known as racism, exclusion, discrimination and marginalization against its largest and historically most excluded minorities – the Roma people. Europe, therefore, shows a very controversial picture: a beautiful, progressive, modern and developed continent, but it is unable to ensure the integration of its most excluded citizens – the Roma, or to offer respect for their basic human rights.
Therefore, for long as the social inclusion and rights of the Roma people remain only an issue of mere theory or propaganda on her the political agenda, and never implemented, then, Europe has been and remains a progressive and developed place only for people who enjoy access to their rights, but not for the Roma. For as long as legislative and executive instruments lack implementation and as long as they do not provide a real socio-economic approach to the development of the Roma people – the stigmatized and excluded Roma people cannot be blamed for their historical circumstances.
Mr. President, it is high time that the US administration calls on all governments of the 56 participating countries of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to implement the 1995 Framework Convention on Human and Minority Rights, otherwise Roma will continue to face institutional discrimination.
In order to build a Roma nation, all human angle international, European and national instruments should be immediately enacted or implemented while the authorities are called upon to provide their support in a joint effort to establish and achieve the highest standards of human rights implementation to enhance the integration of the Roma people so as to take workable actions against certain states and carry out stringent sanctions against such states for the violations of the human rights Roma.
The US administration needs to put human rights at the centre of its foreign, domestic and security policies to remove the “enormous chains of dangerous, consistent and huge damage” done to it during the ….Bush’s administration.
The Bush administration largely deviated from defending human rights when it decided to fight terrorism “by neglecting basic human rights, such as the rights not to be tortured, and by practising enforced disappearances or detention without trials.”
I applaud the American administration under President Joe Biden, which has recently done everything possible for the United States to join the UN Human Rights Council, and ratify the leading agreements in that area. The administration should also join the International Criminal Court (ICC), which would signal that the new US government is ready to rejoin the international community. The United States should take the lead in defending human rights, especially the rights of Roma people and that of other suppressed minorities around the world. The current US government is seeing as a mirror of hope to suffering people. The Roma no longer want to be held hostage to a European policy of double standards.
Given the fact that the position of the Roma has never been discussed and no concrete measures been taken to rescue them from suffering, I appeal to the highest bodies of the American administration to put this issue in their programme and to consider it at one of their sessions. Mr. President, in conclusion, in the light of the above, I would like to further solicit your personal efforts and the permanent commitment of your administration to continue to raise awareness of the problems facing the Roma community geared towards helping to combat all forms of discrimination against Roma, and to contribute towards achieving a swift inclusion of the Roma people by using all the means at your disposal in that struggle. I trust your further kindness and the passionate zeal of the United States to promote the rights of all people on this pertinent issue as human beings are NOT supposed to be equated with vegetables.
Prof. Bajram Haliti, Ph.D,
President of the Institute for European Roma Studies
and Research Against the Crimes of Humanity and International Law.
H.R.H. Prince Akedmik, Prof. Dr. Bajram Haliti
27. Januar Međunarodni dan sećanja na žrtve holokausta
HOLOKAUST NAD ROMIMA ZA VREME DRUGOG SVETSKOG RATA (1941-1945)
Srbija i svet svakog 27. Januara obeležavaju Međunarodni dan sećanja na žrtve holokausta, ali i 75 godina od oslobođenja logora smrti „Aušvic“. Svetski dan sećanja na žrtve holokausta ustanovljen je 1. novembra 2005. godine rezolucijom Generalne skupštine UN. smatrajući potrebnim da se reafirmišu ljudskih prava, prevencija i kažnjavanje zločina genocida, ali i kao upozorenje na stalno prisutnu opasnost od rasne, nacionalne i verske mržnje zasnovanih na predrasudama, na podršci obrazovanja, sećanju i istraživanju holokausta na nacionalnom i međunarodnom nivou, kroz široko informisanje javnosti o holokaustu, slobodi pristupa i istraživanju arhiva i uključivanju ovog pitanja u nacionalne obrazovne programe.
Zakonom o zaštiti nemačke krvi masovno je sprovođen genocid nad Srbima, Jevrejima i Romima. Najpre u Nemačkoj, pa zatim u svim zemljama Evrope pod okupacijom nemačkog Rajha. Gasne komore, ne tako daleki procesi, dekreti, odredbe, progoni, izgoni, egzekucije bez dokaza, zločini zbog preventive i samozaštite, zatvori, geta, zabranjene zone, plinske komore Aušvica i eksperimentalni skalpeli doktora iz Aušvica, Dahaua i Buhenvalda, Jasenovca i druga mučilišta odneli su živote 6.500.000 jevreja, 700.000 Srba i 3.500.000 Roma. Romi su, jednom rečju prolazili kroz Danteov pakao od Vitosa preko Jašija do Aušvica i Jasenovca.
Ciljeve nacizma Hitler je izložio 24. februara 1920. u programu od 25 tačaka, iz kojih se u pet vide koreni budućih zločinačkih i genocidnih radnji, a to su:
Zahtevamo ujedinjenje svih Nemaca u veliku Nemačku, na osnovu prava naroda na samoopredeljenje;
Zahtevamo ravnopravnost za nemački narod u odnosu na druge narode, poništavanje Versajskog i Sen-Žermenskog mirovnog ugovora;
Zahtevamo zemlju i teritoriju za ishranu našeg naroda i za kolonizaciju viška našeg stanovništva;
Samo član rase može biti građanin. Član rase može biti isključivo onaj koji je nemačke krvi, bez obzira na veru. Prema tome, nijedan Jevrejin ne može biti član rase… (antisemitizam je zauzimao veoma istaknuto mesto u Hitlerovoj nacističkoj ideologiji i propagandi).
Zahtevamo ukidanje najamne vojske i formiranje nacionalne armije. Ovaj program Hitler je detaljno razradio u svojoj knjizi ,,Mein Kapmf“, izdatoj 1925.godine, obrazloživši nacistička gledišta i ciljeve, zbog čega se ova smatra autentičnim izvorom nacističke doktrine.
Iz njegovog programa i knjige, a zatim i politike rajhskancelara od 30. januara 1933.godine, jasno se vidi da je on planirao i pripremao teren za vođenje agresorskog rata protiv izvesnog broja drugih država, pripremao je zločin protiv mira i genocid nad jevrejskim, slovenskim i romskim narodom.
I u Pavelićevoj Nezavisnoj Državi Hrvatskoj (NDH) koja je proglašena 10. aprila 1941. pod pokroviteljstvom nacističke Nemačke i fašističke Italije, a obuhvatala je Hrvatsku, Bosnu i Hercegovinu i oblast Srem – prostor na kome je živelo oko 6,3 miliona stanovnika, od kojih su više od trećine bili Srbi išlo se za potpunom likvidacijom Srba, Jevreja i Roma.
U zverstvima i po sadizmu prema Srbima, Jevrejima i Romima ustaše su gotovo nadmašili svoje naciofašističke gospodare. To je jedno od najvećih stratišta Srba, Jevreja i Roma, i to ne samo u bivšoj SFRJ. Uštice i Gradina mesta su strave i užasa. Tu su ustaše nemilice noževima klali, a lopatama, sekirama i maljevima ubijali nedužne Srbe, Jevreje i Rome. Tu su na zverski način mučili romske žene, tu su živu pokopali romsku, srpsku i jevrejsku decu. Muškarce, žene i decu klali su noževima, bradvama, sekirama ubijali, čekićima, streljali i pekli na roštilju, spaljivali u krematorijumima, žive kuvali u kotlovima i pravili od njih sapun, vešali i satirali glađu, žeđu i hladnoćom.
Zločin genocida nad decom su zločini za koje nema pokajanja. Na celom okupacionom području Evrope samo u ustaškoj Nezavisnoj državi Hrvatskoj postojali su dečji konclogori. U toku Drugog svetskog rata u NDH ubijeno je, poklano i masakrirano preko pedeset hiljada dece, uključujući nerođenu i novorođenu, samo u ustaškom logoru Jasenovac preko deset hiljada. Svet ne zna za istinu o zločinima genocida nad srpskom, jevrejskom i romskom decom.
Genocid nad Romima je često bio osporavan. Obično se tvrdilo da su Romi bili asocijalni problem – što je jako netačno – jer u trećoj tačci Majn Kampfa stoji da sa rasnog aspekta pored slovenskog i jevrejskog naroda, Rome treba takođe istrebiti.
Sedamdeset i pet godina je prošlo od kako je završen Drugi svetski rat, a još uvek se vode rasprave o tome da li su Romi bili žrtve Holokausta. U svetu gotovo i da nema radova koji se bave ovom temom. Autora, uglavnom, samo usputno pominju zločine koji su izvršeni nad Romima, Srbima i Jevrejima. Upravo to je razlog i osnovni cilj mog obracanja ,,Holokaust nad Srbima, Jevrejima i Romima u paklu Jasenovca“.
Genocid nad Srbima, Jevrejima i Romima nije izbrisan samo iz svetske istorije, nego sve donedavno bio je izbrisan i iz nacionalne istorije. U našim udžbenicima taj fenomen je prosto izostavljen, za njega se nije našlo mesta ni u fusnotama. Međutim, treba reći da je nedostatak naučno utemeljenih rasprava o genocidu u nekadašnjoj Jugoslaviji mnogo složeniji problem, no što bi se to, na prvi pogled, moglo zaključiti. Naučni radnici ostajali su nemi pred delikatnošću situacije sa kojom su bili suočeni u jednom vešto izrežiranom revolucionarnom vremenu.
Romi su u Drugom svetskom ratu doživeli Genocid kao i Jevreji i Srbi, ali im to do danas deo svetske naučne i intelektualne javnosti osporava. Ovo iz razloga što Genocid nad Romima nije bio u fokusu pravnih procesa koji su vođeni posle kapitulacije Nemačke i njenih ratnih saveznika, te nestanku tzv. NDH i tsl, upravo zbog nedefinisanog ustavno pravnog statusa Roma i sociološke degradacije kojoj su bili izloženi kroz istoriju.
Na osnovu utvrđenih činjenica, očevidaca, svedoka, istorijskih i pravnih dokumenata, u toku Drugog svetskog rata zločin genocida nad pravoslavnim Srbima, Jevrejima i Romima svih vera osim islamske izvršen je.
Nije utvrđen ni objektivno približan broj žrtava genocida, što predstavlja zločin, nepravdu prema nevinim žrtvama.
Krivci nisu pozvani na odgovornost, pravda nije zadovoljena, na taj način je ostavljena mogućnost obnavljanja zločina genocida, što je bilo u suprotnosti sa Međunarodnom konvencijom o sprečavanu i kažnjavanju zločina genocida.
Žrtve genocida nisu obeštećene. Niko nije izračunao koliko je danas manje Srba, Jevreja i Roma kao posledica zločina genocida. Od oko 75.400 Jevreja, koji su živeli na teritoriji Jugoslavije uoči Drugog svetskog rata, preživelo je samo oko 16 hiljada. Od 10.500 Jevreja koji su se na početku rata azatekli u Sarajevu, oko 9 hiljada je odvedeno u ustaške logore odakle se vratilo oko četrdeset. Skoro svi Jevreji u Zagrebu su pobijeni, imovina opljačkana. Ustaške vođe Budak i Artuković su se hvalili 1942. U Saboru ustaškeNDH da su najradikalnije rešili ,,Jevrejsko pitanje“. Posle iseljenja u Izrael, računa se da danas živi na prostorima bivše Jugoslavije oko šest hiljada Jevreja.
Jasenovac, večna opomena. O njemu treba pisati, govoriti, snimati filmove. Ne da bi se ljudi zastrašivali, nego da se nacizam ne zaboravi i da se opomene na opasnost koja svetu preti od rastućeg neonacizma. U taj muzej treba dovoditi i sve one koji danas žele da rehabilituju vreme nacizma, one koji tvrde da nije bilo ni logora, ni istrebljenja, one koji i 1978. godine u nekim državama drže knjižaru pod imenom ,,Rudolf Hes” sa nacističkom literaturom i znamenjem, one koji tolerišu neonacističke organizacije i njihovo provokativno vršljanje na zapadu. Naravno, i one koji su omogućili da i danas u svetu na slobodi žive i razvijaju zločinačku delatnost na hiljade nacističkih zločinaca.
Fašizam i nacizam su isuviše zla naneli čovečanstvu da bi lako i brzo mogli biti zaboravljeni. Ta zla i ne smeju biti zaboravljena! Podsećanje na njih, kao najmračniji deo nove ljudske istorije, u interesu je svih naroda i društava sveta. To je u interesu naroda i onih zemalja na čijem je tlu fašizam ponikao kao ideologija i kao oblik vladavine. Ne zbog toga da bi bezgranično nosili hipoteku i kompleks krivice, koja se, uostalom, ne može pripisivati ni delu savremenika fašizma, a kamoli budućim generacijama, već zbog toga da bi se sa ostalim narodima solidarno borili za potpuno iskorenjivanje старог и сваког новог фашизма и неонацизма као заједничког непријатеља. Ово утолико пре и више што идеологија фашизма и нацизма не само да ни издалека није потиснута из свести појединаца, група и читавих слојева, као њихово идејно и политичко опредељење, већ она одавно налази своје оживотворење у организовању и активности својих старих и нових присталица.
Genocid nad Romima odneo je u Evropi, prema nekim računicama, oko tri i po miliona žrtava. Istoričari zaboravljaju tih tri i po miliona Roma koji su nestali u dimu krematorijuma ili lomača što su ih podigli nacisti. Međutim, to je činjenica: u većini dela koja obrađuju svet koncentracionih logora: ni retka, čak ni fraza. Tišina. Zaborav. Cigani. Nepoznato.
Nadam se da će ovaj autorski tekst dati znatan doprinos širenju znanja i nastavi o Uništenju i da će biti polazište za diskusije između roditelja i dece o moralu, etici i ljudskim vrednostima, ne samo danas nego i u budućnosti. Ali ovaj autorski tekst ne može, za onog ko je zainteresovan, biti ništa drugo nego samo početak.
H.R.H. Prince Akedmik, Prof. Dr. Bajram Haliti
Author: H.R.H. Prince Akedmik, Prof. Dr. Bajram Haliti
Edited by: H.R.H. Princess Prof. Dr. Eden Soriano Trinidad, LPT, DPed.LittD, DHum.
HOLOCAUST AGAINST ROMA DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR (1941-1945)
Google Translate
Every January 27, Serbia and the world mark the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, but also the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp. World Holocaust Remembrance Day was established on November 1, 2005, by a resolution of the UN General Assembly. Considering it necessary to reaffirm human rights, prevent and punish the crime of genocide, but also as a warning of the ever-present danger of racial, national, and religious hatred based on prejudice, to support education, remembrance, and research of the Holocaust at the national and international level, through broad information the public on the Holocaust, freedom of access and research of archives and the inclusion of this issue in national educational programs.
The Law on the Protection of German Blood carried out a mass genocide against Serbs, Jews, and Roma. First in Germany, and then in all European countries under the occupation of the German Reich. Gas chambers, not so distant processes, decrees, provisions, persecutions, expulsions, executions without evidence, crimes for prevention and self-protection, prisons, ghettos, forbidden zones, Auschwitz gas chambers, and experimental scalpels of doctors from Auschwitz, Dachau and Buchenwald, Jasenovac, and others torture took the lives of 6,500,000 Jews, 700,000 Serbs, and 3,500,000 Roma. In a word, the Roma passed through Dante’s hell from Vitos through Iasi to Auschwitz and Jasenovac.
Hitler set out the goals of Nazism on February 24, 1920, in a 25-point program, five of which show the roots of future criminal and genocidal acts, namely:
We demand the unification of all Germans into a greater Germany, on the basis of the people’s right to self-determination;
We demand equality for the German people in relation to other peoples, the annulment of the Versailles and Saint-Germain peace treaties;
We demand land and territory to feed our people and to colonize the surplus of our population;
Only a member of the race can be a citizen. A member of the race can only be one of German blood, regardless of religion. Therefore, no Jew can be a member of the race… (anti-Semitism occupied a very prominent place in Hitler’s Nazi ideology and propaganda).
We demand the abolition of the mercenary army and the formation of a national army. This program was elaborated by Hitler in detail in his book “Mein Kapmf”, published in 1925, explaining Nazi views and goals, which is why this is considered an authentic source of Nazi doctrine.
From his program and book, and then the policy of the Reich Chancellor of January 30, 1933, it is clear that he planned and prepared the ground for waging a war of aggression against a number of other states, prepared a crime against peace and genocide against the Jewish, Slavic, and the Roma people.
And in Pavelic’s Independent State of Croatia (NDH), which was proclaimed on April 10, 1941, under the auspices of Nazi Germany and fascist Italy, and included Croatia, Bosnia, and Herzegovina, and the Srem region – an area inhabited by about 6.3 million inhabitants, from more than a third of whom were Serbs, and the complete liquidation of Serbs, Jews, and Roma was sought.
In atrocities and sadism towards Serbs, Jews, and Roma, the Ustashas almost surpassed their Nazi-fascist masters. It is one of the largest execution sites of Serbs, Jews, and Roma, and not only in the former SFRY. Ustice and Gradina are places of fear and horror. There, the Ustashas mercilessly slaughtered with knives and killed innocent Serbs, Jews, and Roma with shovels, axes, and mallets. Roma women were brutally tortured there, and Roma, Serbian and Jewish children were buried alive. Men, women, and children were slaughtered with knives, axes, axes, killed with hammers, shot and grilled, burned in crematoria, cooked alive in cauldrons and made into soap, hung and satirized by hunger, thirst, and cold.
The crime of genocide against children are crimes for which there is no repentance. In the entire occupation area of Europe, only in the Ustasha Independent State of Croatia, there were children’s concentration camps. During the Second World War, over fifty thousand children, including the unborn and the newborn, were killed, slaughtered, and massacred in the Independent State of Croatia, over ten thousand in the Ustasha camp Jasenovac alone. The world does not know the truth about the crimes of genocide against Serbian, Jewish, and Roma children.
The genocide of the Roma has often been challenged. It was usually claimed that the Roma were an antisocial problem – which is very incorrect – because the third point of Mein Kampf states that from the racial aspect, in addition to the Slavic and Jewish people, the Roma should also be exterminated
Seventy-five years have passed since the end of World War II, and there are still debates about whether the Roma were victims of the Holocaust. There are almost no works in the world that deal with this topic. The authors, for the most part, only incidentally mention the crimes committed against Roma, Serbs, and Jews. That is exactly the reason and the main goal of my address, “The Holocaust against Serbs, Jews and Roma in the hell of Jasenovac.”
The genocide against Serbs, Jews, and Roma was not only erased from world history but until recently it was also erased from national history. In our textbooks, this phenomenon is simply omitted, there is no place for it even in the footnotes. However, it should be said that the lack of scientifically based discussions on genocide in the former Yugoslavia is a much more complex problem than it might seem at first glance. Scientists remained silent in the face of the delicacy of the situation they were faced with in one skilfully staged revolutionary time.
The Roma experienced Genocide in the Second World War, as did the Jews and Serbs, but to this day, part of the world’s scientific and intellectual public disputes that. This is due to the fact that the Genocide against the Roma was not in the focus of the legal processes that were conducted after the capitulation of Germany and its war allies, and the disappearance of the so-called NDH and so on, precisely because of the undefined constitutional and legal status of the Roma and the sociological degradation to which they have been exposed throughout history.
Based on established facts, eyewitnesses, witnesses, historical and legal documents, during the Second World War, the crime of genocide against Orthodox Serbs, Jews and Roma of all faiths except Islamic was committed.
The objectively approximate number of victims of genocide has not been determined, which is a crime, an injustice towards innocent victims.
The perpetrators were not called to account, justice was not served, thus leaving the possibility of renewing the crime of genocide, which was contrary to the International Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
The victims of the genocide were not compensated. No one has calculated how many fewer Serbs, Jews, and Roma there are today as a result of the crime of genocide. Of the approximately 75,400 Jews who lived in Yugoslavia on the eve of World War II, only about 16,000 survived. Of the 10,500 Jews who took refuge in Sarajevo at the beginning of the war, about 9,000 were taken to Ustasha camps, from where about forty returned. Almost all Jews in Zagreb were killed, the property was looted. Ustasha leaders Budak and Artuković boasted in 1942 in the Ustasha NDH Parliament that they had solved the “Jewish question” most radically. After emigrating to Israel, it is estimated that today about six thousand Jews live in the former Yugoslavia.
Jasenovac, eternal warning. You need to write about it, talk about it, make movies about it. Not to intimidate people, but not to forget Nazism and to warn of the danger that threatens the world from the growing neo-Nazism. All those who want to rehabilitate the time of Nazism today should be brought to that museum, those who claim that there was no camp or extermination, those who in 1978 in some countries run a bookstore called “Rudolf Hess” with Nazi literature and flag, those who tolerate neo-Nazi organizations and their provocative practices in the West. Of course, those who made it possible for thousands of Nazi criminals to live and develop their criminal activity in the world even today.
Fascism and Nazism have done too much harm to humanity to be easily and quickly forgotten. Those evils must not be forgotten! Remembering them, as the darkest part of the new human history, is in the interest of all peoples and societies of the world. This is in the interest of the people and those countries on whose soil fascism arose as an ideology and as a form of government. Not because they would carry a mortgage and a complex of guilt, which, after all, cannot be attributed to the work of contemporaries of fascism, let alone future generations, but because they would fight in solidarity with other nations for the complete eradication of old and every new fascism and neo-Nazism as a common enemy. This is all the more so because the ideology of fascism and Nazism is not only far from being suppressed from the consciousness of individuals, groups, and entire strata, as their ideological and political orientation, but it has long found its life in organizing and activities of its old and new supporters.
According to some estimates, the genocide against the Roma took about three and a half million victims in Europe. Historians forget those three and a half million Roma who disappeared in the smoke of a crematorium or bonfire built by the Nazis. However, that is a fact: most of the works that deal with the Seventy-five years have passed since the end of World War II, and there are still debates about whether the Roma were victims of the Holocaust. There are almost no works in the world that deal with this topic. The authors, for the most part, only incidentally mention the crimes committed against Roma, Serbs, and Jews. That is exactly the reason and the main goal of my address, “The Holocaust against Serbs, Jews and Roma in the hell of Jasenovac.”
The genocide against Serbs, Jews, and Roma was not only erased from world history but until recently it was also erased from national history. In our textbooks, this phenomenon is simply omitted, there is no place for it even in the footnotes. However, it should be said that the lack of scientifically based discussions on genocide in the former Yugoslavia is a much more complex problem than it might seem at first glance. Scientists remained silent in the face of the delicacy of the situation they were faced with in one skilfully staged revolutionary time.
The Roma experienced Genocide in the Second World War, as did the Jews and Serbs, but to this day, part of the world’s scientific and intellectual public disputes that. This is due to the fact that the Genocide against the Roma was not in the focus of the legal processes that were conducted after the capitulation of Germany and its war allies, and the disappearance of the so-called NDH and so on, precisely because of the undefined constitutional and legal status of the Roma and the sociological degradation to which they have been exposed throughout history.
Based on established facts, eyewitnesses, witnesses, historical and legal documents, during the Second World War, the crime of genocide against Orthodox Serbs, Jews, and Roma of all faiths except Islamic was committed.
The objectively approximate number of victims of genocide has not been determined, which is a crime, an injustice towards innocent victims.
The perpetrators were not called to account, justice was not served, thus leaving the possibility of renewing the crime of genocide, which was contrary to the International Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
The victims of the genocide were not compensated. No one has calculated how many fewer Serbs, Jews, and Roma there are today as a result of the crime of genocide. Of the approximately 75,400 Jews who lived in Yugoslavia on the eve of World War II, only about 16,000 survived. Of the 10,500 Jews who took refuge in Sarajevo at the beginning of the war, about 9,000 were taken to Ustasha camps, from where about forty returned. Almost all Jews in Zagreb were killed, the property was looted. Ustasha leaders Budak and Artuković boasted in 1942 in the Ustasha NDH Parliament that they had solved the “Jewish question” most radically. After emigrating to Israel, it is estimated that today about six thousand Jews live in the former Yugoslavia.
Jasenovac, eternal warning. You need to write about it, talk about it, make movies about it. Not to intimidate people, but not to forget Nazism and to warn of the danger that threatens the world from the growing neo-Nazism. All those who want to rehabilitate the time of Nazism today should be brought to that museum, those who claim that there was no camp or extermination, those who in 1978 in some countries run a bookstore called “Rudolf Hess” with Nazi literature and flag, those who tolerate neo-Nazi organizations and their provocative practices in the West. Of course, those who made it possible for thousands of Nazi criminals to live and develop their criminal activity in the world even today.
Fascism and Nazism have done too much harm to humanity to be easily and quickly forgotten. Those evils must not be forgotten! Remembering them, as the darkest part of the new human history, is in the interest of all peoples and societies of the world. This is in the interest of the people and those countries on whose soil fascism arose as an ideology and as a form of government. Not because they would carry a mortgage and a complex of guilt, which, after all, cannot be attributed to the work of contemporaries of fascism, let alone future generations, but because they would fight in solidarity with other nations for the complete eradication of old and every new fascism and, neo-Nazism as a common enemy. This is all the more so because the ideology of fascism and Nazism is not only far from being suppressed from the consciousness of individuals, groups and, entire strata, as their ideological and political orientation, but it has long found its life in organizing and activities of its old and new supporters.
According to some estimates, the genocide against the Roma took about three and a half million victims in Europe. Historians forget those three and a half million Roma who disappeared in the smoke of a crematorium or bonfire built by the Nazis. However, that is a fact: in most of the works that deal with the world of concentration camps: not a single word, not even a phrase. Silence. Forget it. Gypsies. Unknown.
GC
I hope that this author’s text will make a significant contribution to the spread of knowledge and teaching about Destruction and that it will be a starting point for discussions between parents and children about morals, ethics, and human values, not only today but also in the future. But this author’s text cannot, for the one who is interested, be anything other than just the beginning.
H.R.H. Prince Akedmik, Prof. Dr. Bajram Haliti
HOLOKAUST NAD ROMIMA ZA VREME DRUGOG SVETSKOG RATA (1941-1945) https://www.arabicnetwork.net/2021/01/international-director-of-arab-media_25.html International Arab Media Network- Sydney