Roma Violence

1364 Words3 Pages

While communism was about creating equality, there were still people in greater positions of power than the working class. The implications of this testing was that Roma children who were able to pass the test still ended up in special schools because they wanted to be with other Roma children (where most were not able to pass the exam). Ultimately, regardless of whether the children passed the exam or not, they ended up at the special schools. To the regime, having clever Roma children become part of Czechoslovakia and helping to better the state was less important than the perceived threat of Roma infiltrating the regime and hurting the communist dream of statehood over individualism. Infringement on Roma justice was perpetuated by both …show more content…

One of these customs was the practice of Roma marriage with an older man and a younger woman. “Many Romany men were locked up for sleeping with underage girls…” (HRW, 92), even though marriage within Roma culture had for a long time been men who were of legal age with underage women. While a law within Czechoslovakian society, the inability for the Romani to peacefully continue their cultural practices, again, erased an aspect of Roma life that would be difficult to regain without the fear of being convicted. In modern society, the practice of sleeping with an underage person has been banned for reasons of development that were not yet fully known during the 1950s to the 1980s. During the communist regime, these laws were practiced for safety but harshly punishable to a Romani because it meant further assimilation into the Czechoslovak society if they discontinued. It was further attacks on culture that became punishable by law, which illustrate the threat the regime posed to the Roma culture. However, the communists viewed the Roma as the real threat to the sovereignty of the nation and claimed that without these punishments there was no hope for keeping Czechoslovakia a functioning country. The citizens of Czechoslovakia believed them because there was already a deep-rooted fear and hatred that was felt toward …show more content…

This period of Romani newspapers, art and music came to an end in 1971 resulting in the loss of all freedoms that had been enjoyed and a return to persecution. A group called the Association of Gypsies-Roma in Czechoslovakia recognized their opportunity for national recognition in 1968 with the rise of “socialism with a human face”. Anton Facuna requested that the Czechoslovak government to recognize the Roma, “Previous measures concerning the so-called ‘Gypsy question’, even if they included well-meant proposals and regulations after 1945, have been for the most part implemented incorrectly. These measures have not fulfilled the conditions of social democracy for us Gyspies-Roma...administrative measures will not suffice to guarantee the rights of Gypsy-Citizens,” (Kouki, Romanos, 39). The power found within the Roma people and activist groups came from the memories of the pain suffered by the Roma during World War II and how they were persecuted then too. Since opportunities and ideas for freedom and equality were being pushed for by the Czechs and Slovaks there was an opportunity for the Roma to also demand equal treatment under the law. While not successful in the long term, this movement for Roma citizenship illustrated that the possibility of Roma power and culture becoming an aspect of Czechoslovakian culture.

Open Document