Under the 1935 addition to the Nuremberg Laws, the Roma were placed in the same category as the Jews and defined as "enemies of the racially pure state". Between 250,000 and 500,000 Roma men and women were killed by the Nazis and collaborators, a quarter to half of the less than 1 million Roma living in Europe at the time. Porajmos is commemorated every year on 2. August on Roma Holocaust Memorial Day.
According to the 1938 census, the population of Slovakia in 1938 was 26,265. However, their number was probably higher because they also claimed other nationalities. The majority of Slovak Roma were integrated into Slovak society. The absolute majority of the Roma (both Slovak and Hungarian-speaking) had lived a settled life for several centuries; only a small percentage of the Olas Roma were nomadic.
The Roma, with their traditional occupations, had a specific place in the occupational structure of the Slovak village - as musicians, blacksmiths, adobe brick makers, or wage labourers in various municipal services (roadworks, digging wells, collecting cesspits), which they performed for the benefit of their neighbours in return for a salary, financial remuneration or in kind. They also found employment in seasonal agricultural work.
The Roma had their "gadžo" (non-roma peasants) and these peasants in turn had their "gypsies". They worked for their gadžos, and in return they provided them with various kinds of protection, often sanctified by the relationship of 'godparenthood'. In the 1930s, however, as a result of the economic crisis, the Roma population grew and did not find employment and 'caused problems'.
The Roma, with their traditional occupations, had a specific place in the occupational structure of the Slovak village
However, the declaration of the Slovak State on 14 March 1939 also created new circumstances for the Roma living on Slovak territory, which limited and restricted their normal life. Although Slovakia was a satellite of Nazi Germany and had to comply with various Nazi demands, the liquidation of the Roma was not one of them.
The liquidation of the Jews came first, and only later was the extermination of the Roma population to follow. The Roma as an ethnic community were therefore not subjected to systematic murder on Slovak territory. This was probably due to a combination of factors. For example, unlike the Jewish population, the Roma did not possess property that would have been of interest to the regime or Nazi Germany. Even so, the anti-Semitic policies of the People's Republic and the deportations of the Jewish population indirectly affected the Roma as well.
In eastern Slovakia, service in Jewish families was an important supplementary source of livelihood for the Roma. When they lost this source of livelihood, their material and social situation deteriorated. Since relations between the Jewish and Roma populations were very solidary, the deportations of the Jewish population aroused a justified fear in the Roma population, which was reinforced by the propaganda slogans of the People's Party, 'After the Jews, the Gypsies'.
The first anti-Roma regulation of the People's regime was a circular letter of the regional office in Bratislava of 23 June 1939, which forbade "Gypsies" to trade in horses and ordered them to stay only in the villages where they had the right of domicile (belonging to the municipality). The district and notary offices were ordered to carry out a review of the home nationality of all Roma. At the same time, they were to identify those who were to be evicted from the municipalities because they did not have the right of domicile there.
The ban on horse-trading affected in particular the nomadic Olasa Roma, for whom the horse trade was a characteristic form of livelihood. This was followed by the withdrawal of nomadic certificate. At the same time, however, the ban also restricted the livelihood of the settled Roma population, as the Roma were also deprived of their trade certificates for horse trading.
In some counties, the regime officials went even further and took away the Roma's trade licenses for trading in pigs or poultry. This inconsistent practice and the supply problems in some localities led to a reassessment of the regulation or its arbitrary application.
In October 1940, therefore, the Ministry of Economic Affairs issued a directive according to which the trade licences were to be returned to the Roma or retained as long as they lived a settled life. Although these first measures against the Roma population were not applied unequivocally and consistently, it is characteristic of them that they did not apply only to nomadic or non-working Roma, but were also applied to the settled Roma population.
Another discriminatory measure that affected the Roma noticeably was the forced conscription into labour camps. Already during the period of autonomy (October 1938-March 1939), there were discussions about the establishment of penal labour camps to which persons were to be placed "for political, racial and moral reasons".
As mentioned above after the adoption of the conscription law, Jews and Roma were excluded from conscription education (pre- and post-war). Instead of conscription education, they were obliged to carry out work for the defence of the state. The labour camps were therefore not extermination camps. Their aim was to maximize the labor use of the enlisted men. For example, only 14 deaths were officially registered in the camps in Eastern Slovakia. However, based on the surviving memories of survivors, the actual number of deaths was considerably higher, as many died at home as a result of the treatment in the camp (general exhaustion, injuries, accidents).
The institution of the labour camps led to a further impoverishment of the Roma population. In the families, after the men were taken away, there was no labour force, no breadwinner. The social consequences had an impact on the future livelihood of Roma families. The seasonal nature of the forced labour of Roma enlisted men made it impossible for them to work in agriculture, which provided them with various subsistence goods (grain, timber). Problems with the loss of breadwinners led to further anti-social activities, which people committed just to survive at all. These acts provoked a tightening of punitive measures against the "asocials" by the government authorities, who actually forced them to behave in an anti-social manner.
Many Roma reported in their memoirs that "their mayors" did not put anyone in the camp - on the grounds that "his gypsies" were not "gypsies", but citizens who worked properly. It depended on the personal bravery of the mayor in question, but also on the nature of local relations between the Roma and the non-Roma population. On the contrary, in some areas (especially in eastern Slovakia) where a larger number of Roma lived - in large and poor settlements, men aged 16-60 were taken to labour camps en masse, without any distinction whatsoever.
Jozef Pešta, a motor-mounted soldier in the Slovak army, was also taken to the camp and only after the intervention of the military authorities was he released so that he could be sent to the eastern front. In August 1942, the Roma from Levoča Luka, who were duly employed in the East Slovak Power Plants in Levoča, were conscripted to the labour unit in Nižný Hrabovec. However, they were not dismissed even after protests by their employer.
The labour camps were therefore not extermination camps. Their aim was to maximize the labor use of the enlisted men.
The labour camps were one of the discriminatory measures of the People's Republican regime to "morally re-educate" the Roma population. Physically, morally and socially, however, they mainly decimated the Roma population. Many, who had previously made a living by craft, trade or wage labour, resorted to begging and petty theft. State officials themselves at the local level demanded from the Ministry of the Interior that the families of the conscripts be paid their wages regularly in order to improve the situation of the families of the conscripts, in the interests of peace and to prevent field thefts by children and family members of the conscripts.
On the basis of the decree of 2 April 1941, the labour camps fulfilled a double purpose, in addition to the political motive (re-education) and the economic motive. The economic purpose of the labour camps was to exploit slave labour. The prisoners were to receive only a low wage, from which they were still deducted items for accommodation, food and clothing (as a replacement of the advance payment for the clothes, linen and shoes supplied) and social allowances.
However, the food was very poor (the simplest and cheapest, with supply problems making the food even worse). Accommodation was made in wooden barracks, on simple palletes with fogged haylofts, often without blankets. The prisoners did not have sufficient clothing, despite the fact that according to the decree shoes and clothes should have been allocated to them. Many worked in their own clothes, in which they were taken away. Some, however, had only a blanket or a piece of cloth wrapped around their waists.
As the conscripts' wages were deducted for their material provision (accommodation, food), their families received almost nothing. Only a small part of the conscripts were entitled to a small pocket allowance to cover their personal needs. The evaluation reports on the functioning of the labour units themselves noted the disastrous sanitary conditions in the camps (verminous, lack of detergents), inadequate food, lack of shoes, clothes, linen, etc.
The Central Labour Office determined the internal organisation of the camps, the labour and penal regulations on the basis of a decree of the Ministry of the Interior of 28 May 1941. Guarding and supervision was carried out by the gendarmerie subsidiary; its commander was the supreme authority of the labour department. Labour supervision was provided by the employers themselves (construction firms, forestry enterprises).
Many worked in their own clothes, in which they were taken away. Some, however, had only a blanket or a piece of cloth wrapped around their waists.
According to the new organisational regulations, which came into force on 1 October 1942, labour units were established by the central labour office of the Ministry of the Interior to carry out work in the state or public interest, and also on the initiative of employers. So-called 'anti-social elements' were to be included in the labour units - a very broad term which covered not only persons who avoided work, but also various opponents of the regime, explicitly 'Gypsies out of work'.
The selection of so-called anti-socials was carried out by notary offices, gendarmerie stations and municipal authorities, creating a card file of anti-socials in which Roma were registered on blue cards. The registered asocials were to be taken away on a set date. They should have been shaved clean, medically checked, de-wormed, provided with working clothes and shoes, linen and blankets, and food for 2 days.
From category "A" were selected "gypsy guards" who were responsible for, among other things, punishing other inmates for various disciplinary offences.
The enlisted men were divided into three categories in the labour units - the first category (A.) included those who were considered able-bodied, well-preserved, intelligent, with a good political record, and who led an orderly life. The second category (B.) included those who, according to the regime, already had a tattered past but were not yet considered the worst; the third category (C.) included those who were considered career criminals, undisciplined, with a bad political past. All those who tried to escape from the camp and were caught were automatically reassigned to category C.
From category A were selected "gypsy guards" who were responsible for, among other things, punishing other inmates for various disciplinary offences (escapes from the camp). The punishment was most often a severe beating; if the "gypsy" warder did not carry out this punishment, or did it insufficiently, he was also punished. Especially frequent and severe physical punishments resonated in the memories of the memoirs. The punishment for small acts of work, for "stealing" field crops - corn, beets, potatoes, which the starving men stole in the fields on their way to or from work - was punished with beatings. Escapes in particular were punished with severe beatings.
There were 11 camps in Slovakia. Their inmates worked on the construction of railway lines, water works and strategic infrastructure. The camps were therefore mainly seasonal and were disbanded after the completion of work on a given section of construction.
List of Roma labour units / camps: Očová, work for the Directorate of State Forests in Žarnovica; Most na Ostrove, completion of the construction of a municipal road; Jarabá, construction of the state road in the section Čertovica - Mýto pod Ďumbierom; Hanušovce nad Topľou, construction of the railway line Prešov - Strážske; Bystré, construction of the railway line Prešov - Strážske; total number of classified persons 509, of whom 341 were Roma; Dubnica nad Váhom, in December 1944 the labour camp in Dubnica nad Váhom was transformed into a "gypsy collection camp"; Revúca, construction of the railway line Slavošovce - Chyžnianska Voda and Revúca - Tisovec; total number 235, of whom 125 were Roma; Ústie nad Oravou, construction of the Orava dam.
The mayors themselves decided on the evictions, but an important authority was the local priests or members of the local party organisation or the Hlinka Guard.
Another discriminatory measure was the resettlement of 'gypsy' settlements from villages to remote locations. The order to resettle the Roma population was issued twice - on 20 April 1941 and 21 July 1943. The Decree of the Ministry of the Interior of 20 April 1941 "On the regulation of certain conditions of the Gypsies" clarified and tightened the previous regulations. Nomadic letters were definitively abolished and their holders had to return within 8 days to their home villages or to the villages where they had been staying longer, at the same time they were put under police surveillance. They could leave their residence only with the written permission of the commander of the gendarmerie station or the head of the state police office, and they had to sell their nomadic carts and beasts of burden, otherwise they were confiscated.
The regulation also affected the settled Roma population: "if the Gypsies lived along the public state and vicinal roads, they were to remove their dwellings from there and build them separately from the rest of the population in a secluded and specially designated place." Simply, both decrees ordered the eviction of "gypsy dwellings" from villages and busy towns. At the same time, however, the Ministry of the Interior anticipated the early opening of a concentration camp for "Gypsies," so it requested lists of all persons who were to be interned in such a camp.
The mayors themselves decided on the evictions, but an important authority was the local priests or members of the local party organisation or the Hlinka Guard. However, the forced removal of settlements was not easy. All expenses had to be paid by the municipalities, and not everywhere there was a suitable place where the settlements could be moved.
For purely practical reasons, many municipalities refused to evict the Roma population, as the local Roma were an important workforce and part of the local community. In particular, they refused to relocate the settled Roma population in permanent employment (the Roma in Betliar and Veľká Poloma, who worked in the Rimomuránská společnost in Nižná Slaná or in the paper factory in Slavošovce).
At the beginning of 1944, the question of the "final solution to the Gypsy problem" was discussed more intensively. Since the Gypsies were not evaluated as an equally dangerous element as the Jews, only the registration of the Gypsy population was to take place, their free movement and migration were to be prohibited.
Consequently, "gypsy legitimations" were to be introduced and surveillance was to be put in place. Finally, an 'uncompromising and radical' solution was to be adopted, concentrating the entire Roma population 'in a single gypsy colony, organised and set up in such a way that its existence rests solely on the strength of its own inhabitants'.
In May 1944, this proposal was considered by the Ministry of the Interior and resulted in the establishment of a detention camp for the Roma in Dubnica nad Váhom. Already in 1941, the representatives of the People's Republic regime had discussed the idea of setting up a "camp for Gypsy families" in the cadastre of the town of Krupina. However, the construction of this camp was delayed and the original intention to concentrate entire Roma families there was rejected.
In 1944, however, the situation developed differently. The detention camp in Dubnica nad Váhom followed on from the existence of the labour unit, but it was a completely new and special institution, both economically and organisationally. In this camp, persons of the "gypsy race" were to be detained, regardless of age and sex.
The wooden barracks of the camp housed 729 prisoners, 250 of whom were children. The adult prisoners were deployed for various jobs in Dubnica nad Váhom and its surroundings (hydro-central plant in Ilava, fortification works in the vicinity of Piešt'any). Other Roma families, recruits from labour units, were transferred to the camp. However, further concentration was stopped because of the outbreak of typhus epidemic in the camp. The Germans feared that the epidemic would spread among the employees of the Škoda factories in Dubnica nad Váhom.
Other fates of the prisoners are not well recorded, with the exception of the brutal massacre that took place on 23 February 1945. On that day, two trucks with German soldiers arrived at the detention camp to take the sick to the hospital in Trenčín. Those who were loaded into the cars were taken to the so-called Valley to a dug pit, where they were shot and buried in a mass grave (many probably still alive). There is no further information about the fate of the prisoners.
The detention camp in Dubnica nad Váhom was dissolved on 8 April 1945, the day before the liberation of the town.
The camp served exclusively for the internment of the Roma population, its organisation and character being equivalent to the so-called "gypsy" camps in the Reich and in German-occupied Europe.
Those who were loaded into the cars were taken to the so-called Valley to a dug pit, where they were shot and buried in a mass grave (many probably still alive).
The discrimination and persecution of the Roma was a sufficient motive for many to join the partisan movement and the Uprising. Some found themselves in the Uprising as part of the military units (or work units) to which they were assigned and which took part in the fighting in central and eastern Slovakia - Ladislav Tancoš, František Klempár, Ladislav Petrík and others.
Many Roma joined the resistance or the Uprising voluntarily - e.g. Ján Tumi-Koro or Anton Facuna. Facuna, as a soldier in the Slovak Army, reached the Eastern Front, where he fought against the Red Army, in 1943 he was assigned to a technical brigade in Italy, where he defected to the partisans - he joined the partisan group Rinaldo in the Perugia area.
In April 1944, he joined the Czechoslovak Mission in Rome, became an officer, and served as an interpreter, guide, and intelligence officer. He was a member of the Anglo-American military mission of the Day Group. He operated under the code name Anton Novák. During the Uprising, he was sent to the territory of Slovakia several times to investigate the movements of German troops. During the mission in Zvolenská Slatina he was the only one who managed to escape from the encirclement.
The Roma were willing to engage in partisan fighting, retreat operations, and sabotage actions. In Tisovec, local Roma were asked by a provocateur posing as a partisan to help blow up a bridge. After the Germans occupied Tisovec, they executed all the Roma and razed the settlement to the ground as a partisan nest. According to the writer Elena Lacková, there was even a Roma partisan group (led by Mr. Oračko from Chmeľov in the Prešov district). To this day, the number of Roma partisans and resistance fighters is unknown. Nevertheless, or perhaps because of this, the topic resonates in the media and in scholarly research (more in Vera Lacková - How I Became a Partisan, available here.)
Roma participated in the resistance and the partisan movement for various motivations and reasons. The persecution, exclusion and violence of the People's regime were strong motivations for many to actively participate in the anti-fascist resistance on the basis of civic solidarity, anti-fascism, desire for social and political acceptance and emancipation.
The discrimination and persecution of the Roma was a sufficient motive for many to join the partisan movement and the Uprising.
The worst time for the Roma came after German troops occupied Slovakia in August 1944 to suppress the Slovak National Uprising. Roma settlements on the outskirts of villages and in forests, where they had been evicted or forcibly displaced by the policies of the People's Republican regime, became a refuge for many retreating, hiding or wounded partisans after the suppression of the Uprising. The Roma provided them with food, medical treatment, information, or just a simple refuge from further movement. In the memories of the survivors, testimonies of mutual help and support of people hiding in the forests have been preserved, regardless of nationality and ethnicity.
Many Roma settlements were burnt down and the inhabitants murdered because of the real or perceived help and support of the partisans. The exact numbers of Roma victims of mass executions are still not precisely known. German occupation troops and members of the POHG (Emergency Troops of the Hlinka Guard) committed mass murders in Kremnička (November 1944-January 1945) and in Nemecká nad Hronom (December 1944-January 1945). Among the victims were also Roma who were taken from the settlements in Krupina and Tisovec.
However, mass executions also took place in other places (Kováčová, Podkriváň, Krupina, Detva, Zvolen - Jewish cemetery, in Žiar nad Hronom all the inhabitants of the Roma settlement in the village of Lutila, Sásová were executed). Among the victims were also Roma who were caught or captured during various punitive expeditions. Many Roma lost their lives, especially in central Slovakia, in the burning of settlements, which was usually part of punitive measures against the civilian population, f.e. in Žiar nad Hronom Roma were burned alive with their houses or the burning of a settlement in the village of Polomka, the murder of Roma in a settlement near the village of Slatina, the burning of settlements in the village of Pohorelá, Kunšov and Pustom, in the area of Čierny Balog the settlements near the village of Neresnica and the settlement of Vydrovo. However, attacks on the Roma population also occurred in other places.
Many Roma settlements were burnt down and the inhabitants murdered because of the real or perceived help and support of the partisans.
Although the Slovak Republic was one of the few satellite states of Nazi Germany where the Roma did not suffer genocide, this does not mean that Slovak Roma did not die in concentration camps. In 1938, the so-called Vienna Arbitration took place, when the south of Slovakia and Subcarpathian Rus became part of Hungary. The Roma who lived in southern and eastern Slovakia and in the area of Subcarpathian Rus thus became part of Hungary, which cooperated closely with Nazi Germany.
In the occupied territory, the Hungarian military commanders ordered the registration of 'enemy elements', among whom were also the Roma. At the beginning of 1939, Roma dwellings in the Gemer area were numbered and lists of inhabitants were posted. Later, in May 1939, these inventories were further refined, for example, children under the age of 14 were added. The registers caused tension and fear among the Roma population.
The general radicalisation in views on the Roma was reflected in proposals to impose a labour obligation on the settled Roma, to prevent the nomadic Roma from moving around and to confine them in camps, to establish one or more labour camps, or even proposals to deport them outside Hungary. Mass deportations of Jews and Roma to German concentration camps took place in Hungary, especially in the last year of the war, when the fascist Ferenc Szálasi and his Arrow Cross Party seized power. The transports passed through Komárno, in whose fortresses the Roma were sorted and sent to various concentration camps. For example, Roma from the Košice area were sent to Komárno.
In the final phase of the war, in many places in Hungary there were vicious attacks on the Roma population, killings and mass executions. Mass killings also took place on the island of Žitný ostrov. During their retreat to the west, the Hungarian fascists (the so-called Nyilašis) dragged a group of Roma with them, whom they drove into the water and shot near the farmhouse in Trhovom Mýto, near the Klatovy Branch of the Little Danube. 53 adults and 7 children perished; only Alžbeta Lakatošová survived the massacre.
Although the Slovak Republic was one of the few satellite states of Nazi Germany where the Roma did not suffer genocide, this does not mean that Slovak Roma did not die in concentration camps.
The persecutions during the war deeply and long-lastingly scarred the life of the Roma population in Slovakia, reinforced the specific fear rooted in the historical consciousness of the Roma, who were constantly marginalised and persecuted, and undoubtedly drove their post-war interest in migrating to the territory of Bohemia and Moravia.
After the war, the integration of the Roma into pre-war Slovak society was disrupted. A situation that had been repeated many times before in history was repeated: the social upheavals hit hardest the minorities who did not cause the upheavals. The process of integration is thus interrupted, and minorities must again and again, from the beginning, laboriously find their place in the new, changed society.
all chapters
Remembering the HolocaustHungary
Return and emigrationHungary
LMBTQHungary
History of the HolocaustHungary
Fascist ideologyHungary
The HolocaustHungary
The HolocaustSlovakia
Slovak StateSlovakia
IdeologySlovakia
PersecutionSlovakia
AntisemitismSlovakia
AryanisationSlovakia
PorajmosSlovakia
PorajmosHungary
LGBT minoritySlovakia
First transportSlovakia
DeportationsSlovakia
Life in the campSlovakia
Slovak National UprisingSlovakia
HomecomingSlovakia
EmigrationSlovakia
