The political-correct gang of history revisionists has now finally managed to insult the memory of the Gypsy Martyrs of the Holocaust in that they will only permit the memorial for the Gypsies (Zigeuner) murdered by the Nazis to be erected with the inscription "Roma" claiming this name to be representative for all of the Gypsy victims of the Holocaust. Apparently a deal has been struck between the German government and the chair of the Central Council of German Sinti & Roma to use ONLY the term "Roma" in the inscription. This is a travesty as we are not all Roma and it makes a mockery of the suffering and sacrifice of our People who were not persecuted as "Roma" or even as "Sinti" nor as "Sinti & Roma" but were persecuted as an inferior race to the Germans, one called "Zigeuner". The text that was originally suggested, and based on the citation of the German President Herzog, would have been much more appropriate as it referred to "all those that were persecuted as "Zigeuner" by the Third Reich". Not every Gypsy in Germany and other countries from whence the victims came are happy to be called and referred to as "Roma". It is therefore an insult of the highest order to the Sinti and Yenisch (and Roma) who were persecuted by the Nazis under the title of "Zigeuner" (Gypsy) or "Zigeunermischling" (mixed-blood Gypsy) to be thus referred to as "Roma" or is this a deliberate fact to diminish the sufferings of the Yenish who too were rounded up and sent to the camps for reasons of being "Zigeuner" by excluding them from this by not using the term "Zigeuner".
Most of our People in those days, and not only when speaking to Gohja, would call themselves "Zigeuner" (the equivalent of what the Romanichals in the UK and in other English-speaking countries did by calling themselves "Gypsies") but neither that fact, nor the fact that we did call ourselves "Zigeuner" (and there are documents to prove that) in the German areas ever since our arrival is not what is to discussion here. What is subject to the discussion though is the fact that in this case the ongoing attempt to make all Gypsies "Roma" regardless to whether or not they thus regard themselves and also to include those that have no right to be called "Gypsies" even, such as the Irish Travellers, in the term "Roma" is being continued and made worse by in this instance by using the term "Roma" yet again without it being representative of the entire group of people that were persecuted and murdered by the Nazis as "Zigeuner". Who cares what has been decided by people not representative for the whole and especially in conjunction with Gohja administrators. One can only as on whose side those supposed representatives of the People stand. Not on the side of the People, that is for sure. It was not the German government that decided to use the term "Roma" thus, by word at least, excluding all other Gypsy groups from the memorial and thereby insulting their victims, but one who supposedly is a representative of the People.
How can the People permit this to happen? Our People were persecuted as "Zigeuner" and as "Zigeuner" they were dragged off to the camps to be sterilized, to be experimented upon, to be tortured and in the end to be murdered and burned. And then those people come along and declare that the word "Zigeuner" is an insult and such. The insult is the fact that the word "Zigeuner" is being made into a dirty word by those self-same people who supposedly are the representatives of the People. Not only is this an attempt to falsify history; it is a disgrace of the highest order. Those who have done this and are doing this should hang their heads in shame and disgrace and leave the scene. We should honor the word "Zigeuner" and wear it as a badge of honor because it was under that name "Zigeuner" that our ancestors were persecuted and murdered.
Dosta penesas!
Zigeuner (Gypsy) and proud of it!
© M V Smith, May 13, 2006
