Remembrance Day, the memory of the persecution of Roma and Sinti: the confinement in Sardinia

“Dad, why are we here?”
“Because we are Sinti and Roma.”
“We are Sinti and Roma, but not
we did nothing.”
…and we arrived at Auschwitz.

Hugo Hollenreiner

Luca Bravi, historian, scholar of the persecution and extermination of Roma and Sinti under Nazism and Fascism, continues to study and tell in many Italian schools (including Sardinian ones) the “Porrajmos” or “Samudaripen”, the horror of the extermination experienced in Hitler’s concentration camps by people belonging to the “gypsies” category , described as an inferior race to be eliminated, whose tragic events are memories culpably repressed. Stories of suffering and pain that cannot be forgotten on the occasion of the Day of Remembrance. Events that also concern Sardinia which became, with the racial laws of the fascist regime, a place of deportation of Roma and Sinti.

Confinement on the Island

«The Sardinian affair – warns Luca Bravi – brings us back to Italian responsibilities. Fascism begins to build the category of the “dangerous gypsy”. It is decided to “liberate” the borders, with a real ethnic cleansing, from the presence of these people considered dangerous without referring to specific behaviors of the individual, but only for the fact of belonging to a category». Mussolini's attention focuses on Istria where there is a large community of Roma and Sinti: «In that territory – explains the historian – the regime decides to proceed with their registration. Starting in 1937, 80 families are registered. From Rome comes the order to deport them to Sardinia. Under the control of the carabinieri, the family groups are accompanied to Civitavecchia to board the ferry. They are assigned to small centers (13 towns are identified) where they remain until 1945. There is a testimony that tells of a little girl, Lalla, who is born in Perdasdefogu. The mother was in confinement."

In the book “The persecution of Sinti and Roma in Fascist Italy” (just published) the researcher Paola Trevisan writes that «the first family forced to embark for Sardinia was that of Raidich Giovanni son of Giorgio, destined for Urzulei with his wife and six minor children. On February 22, 1938, other Roma were transferred to the island with their families, three days later another 15, always with their families. On July 7, 1938, the family of Hudorovich Michele also left Civitavecchia for Terranova Pausania (Olbia). On the site where the memory of “Porrajmos” is recovered, there is a map of the Sardinian municipalities to which Roma and Sinti were forced to move. It is a geography little explored by historiography: in addition to Perdasdefogu and Urzulei, there are Loceri, Talana, Lula, Posada, Illorai, Ovodda, Nurri, Padria, Bortigali, Padria and Chiaramonti. "The majority of the Roma subjected to the scrutiny of the Fascist Commission of Pola - notes Paola Trevisan - were sentenced to 5 years of confinement, the maximum penalty for this type of measure and usually assigned to individuals who had committed serious crimes". Roma and Sinti remained on the Island, none of them were transferred to Hitler's concentration camps.

In the concentration camps

"Half a million gypsies - Luca Bravi explains - were deported to concentration camps, but it is always difficult to have certain data. On the deportation and extermination in Auschwitz we have a precise indication thanks to Tadeusz Joachimowski, a Polish survivor. He was the prisoner in charge of recording in two books the entries of Sinti and Roma to that place. There were 23 thousand prisoners of Auschwitz whose names were transcribed in those volumes between February 1943 and August 2, 1944".

The Memoirs

Now we are trying to make these memories stronger. The Sardinian Institute for the History of Antifascism and Contemporary Society (Issasco), chaired by Walter Falgio, has given life in recent months on the Island to a series of meetings on “Porrajmos”. The comparison has produced immediate results.