Moderator: Dr. Teresa Wontor-Cichy, Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, Poland
This panel consisted of four separate presentations of the newest research from experts in various fields of knowledge regarding different groups of victims of Nazi persecution, with special focus on the stories and narratives that have historically been marginalized or forgotten. The presentations had the form of impulse lectures that included a brief overview of the research and were followed by a discussion with participants. The main idea of the lectures was to reflect on the application of new paradigms on traditional scholarship as they shed light on the previously overlooked aspects of Holocaust studies.
Dr. Markéta Hajská is a Senior Researcher at the Institute of Ethnology and Central European and Balkan Studies at the Faculty of Arts at Charles University (CUNI) and has obtained her PhD in Ethnology. Her research focuses on the history of Roma in Czechoslovakia, Romani migration, intra- and interethnic contacts, and Vlach Romani. Since 2014, Hajská has been a researcher and lecturer at Charles University’s Seminar of Romani Studies. Between 2019 and 2023, she was an
investigator for the project “Genocide, Postwar Migration and Social Mobility: Entangled Experiences of Roma and Jews”, focusing on the history of Vlach Roma in Czechoslovakia in
both the pre-war and post-war periods. Currently she is the co-principal investigator of the Czech team, coordinating the Roma Studies/CUNI team with the bilateral ROCIT project on
the recent migration of Ukrainian Roma following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Dr. Markéta Hajská discussed the extensive work of researchers within the Department of Romani Studies, sharing insights from over 25 years of experience in the field. Their work primarily focuses on the historical context of Romani people, particularly in the Czech Republic. “We are focusing, which is world-unique, on the Roma and Sinti people from a multidisciplinary perspective. It covers anthropology, history, political science, a folklorist approach, and, very importantly, a philological, or language, approach.” Key initiatives include efforts to create educational materials and foster academic discussions to enhance understanding and awareness about the history and culture of Roma and Sinti people.
Dr. Hajská spoke of unique challenges that scholars faced when researching Roma history, most notably the extreme scarcity of primary source materials created by Roma individuals. Another difficulty was that “till today, the history of the Roma was researched in a very biased way; that means from the position of non-Romani researchers.” Dr. Hajská’s specific research addresses the Lovara or Vlax Roma, a group that migrated from Romania to Slovakia and then the Czech lands in the 19th century. Findings from the research indicate that during the war, this group faced a different fate than many other persecuted Roma, a fact that significantly alters their representation in victim statistics and opens up questions about their history as well as the histories of other subgroups impacted by the genocide.
IMPULSE LECTURES