Oh, you black bird. The forgotten holocaust of the Romanies
Description
Although it is acknowledged that the Gypsies were the victims of the Nazi scourge, this downtrodden group has seldom told its story to the outside world. When seventy year old Romany, Helena Malikova revisits Auschwitz where more gypsies met their end than anywhere else, she shares with us her bitter memories. The terrorist measures against the Romanies went back to a decree issued by the Reich President February, 1933, to the effect that the Romanies were among the "worthless" or "Gaunerpopulation." By December, 1938, Himmler had ordered the extermination of the Gypsy nuisance. Nazi doctors appraised each person for racial composition and determined who would go to an extermination center and who was to be crowded into a cold, barren work camp to suffer starvation and disease. The film also bears witness to the incredible disrespect the Communist regime had for the Romanies: a pig farm and a recreation center were built on the sites of the former concentration camps. The Gypsies put their suffering into mournful songs which survive today. The film is laced with their music and their memories.
Runtime
59 min
Creator
Rychik, B
Subjects
Genre
Date of Publication
2001
Database
Alexander Street
Direct Link
Similar Films
S.S. Ionian
Everyman. What Magdalena said
The war. A necessary war. Episode 1
Transforming America. Road to war. Lesson 13
Back door to Tokyo
Germany at war. 1918-1941
In darkness
India in crisis
The WPA Film Library. French Resistance fight Nazi Occupation, 1944
Secrets of World War II. Cruises of the Secret Raiders
Cover-Up at Ground Zero. Atomic Bomb Testing and the "Downwinders
Requiem for Detroit?
History Shorts, The Mendez Family, Trailblazers Fighting School Segregation
Time to remember. Civilians at war. Episode 10
Across the tracks. The Vlach Gypsies in Hungary