Roma in Estonia

Roma in Estonia have been documented for Estonia since the 16th century . They remained a small and barely noticed minority in the history of the country . Almost all Estonian Roma were murdered during the German occupation of Estonia (1941–1944). According to various estimates, between 500 and 1,500 Roma live in Estonia today. Most of them are immigrants from the time of the Soviet occupation of Estonia (1944–1991).

designation

The traditional Estonian-speaking name for Roma is mustlased (singular mustlane ). The expression literally means the black (cf. Finnish mustalainen ). Mustlane is not a derogatory term in Estonian. However, the Estonian Chamber of Language Editing recommends the internationally used expression rom (plural romad ) for Estonian as well .

Beginnings

According to a Finnish source book, Roma came to Finland via Estonia in 1515 . The first direct mention of Roma in Estonia dates back to 1533. The Tallinn City Council records (German Reval ) mention two " gypsies ". Their names were Clawes von Rottenberch and Christoffer Rottenbech. Their names suggest that both came from Germany .

Throughout the 16th century, Roma who had been expelled from other European countries repeatedly moved to the Baltic States . The Roma migrating to the northern Baltic region were particularly exposed to brutal persecution in Poland and Sweden . However, the Swedish authorities in Estonia and, after the conquest in 1710, the Russian authorities showed a hard hand against the so-called “vagrancy”, which was often attributed to the Roma.

18th century

On January 24th and November 4th, 1784, the Russian Senate issued restrictions on the freedom of movement for Roma. According to the decree of January, all “traveling gypsies” who immigrated from outside the borders of the tsarist empire were subjected to surveillance measures. They could be expelled by the authorities. According to the ordinance of November 1784, local travel restrictions were imposed on "gypsies" without passports.

19th century

In the 19th century, the Baltic Roma became more settled, also due to the tsarist coercive measures and reprisals. The Roma living in Estonia and Livonia did not settle as a closed, homogeneous group. There were rather loose contact networks between individual Roma groups and families, even if mixed marriages and occasional collaborations were not lacking.

For the 18th and 19th centuries there is no precise information about the size of the Roma population in the Baltic States. The Russian census of 1897 gives their number in the area of ​​today's Estonia and Latvia as 1,750.

Traditionally, from the 19th century onwards, three groups of Roma were distinguished in Estonia: the Laiuse Roma, the Latvian Roma and the Russian Roma.

• The Laiuse Roma (or Lajenge Roma or Kale ) are the culturally most important group of Roma in Estonia. The tsarist authorities ordered on March 13, 1841 that all Roma in Estonia had to settle in the parish of Laiuse (German Lais ). The majority of families had probably immigrated to Estonia from Sweden and Finland since the 17th century . The request was followed by 44 people belonging to six Roma families. Their family names were Indus, Maddisson, Lama, Lakak, Guruni and Welberk. They assimilated in the 19th century and almost completely merged with the local Estonian rural population. Their dialect, a hybrid of Romani and Estonian, disappeared more and more in favor of Estonian. The social barriers to the rural Estonian population were permeable. There was more and more mixed marriages. The Laiuse Roma became predominantly settled. In 1910 there were 270 Roma in Laiuse belonging to 65 families. When Estonia declared its independence in 1918, the borders between Laiuse Roma and Estonians were barely distinguishable.

• The so-called “ Latvian Roma ” settled in liberal Estonia, which had declared independence from the Russian Empire in 1918 , mainly during the interwar period in the first half of the 20th century. The Roma mostly had a good command of the Estonian language. The tolerance of the state towards minorities and the minority legislation of the Republic of Estonia was considered exemplary for the 1920s. In contrast to the numerically more significant Germans , Russians , Swedes and Jews in Estonia, the Roma did not have an official status as a national minority. You had so z. B. no right to school lessons in their mother tongue. Estonia remained a largely agrarian society in the interwar period. The Roma were mostly avoided by the simple Estonian and Russian rural population. As traveling traders they were mainly present in the markets, especially in the horse trade. A stereotypical distrust of the Roma was widespread among the rural Estonian population. The otherness of the Roma with exotic clothes and unfamiliar customs (such as pipe smoking women) fascinated the Estonian population and put them off at the same time.

• The third group were so-called “ Russian Roma ”. They mostly settled in the strongly Russian-speaking areas of Estonia, especially on Lake Peipus , near Narva and in southeast Estonia ( Setumaa ). The Setumaa region fell to the Republic of Estonia only after the peace treaty with Soviet Russia and, because of its Russian and Russian Orthodox character, remained a social, religious and linguistic foreign body in the Estonian state association.

In the Estonian census of 1934, 766 people in Estonia declared themselves to be Roma as a nationality. The Estonian linguist Paul Ariste (1905–1990), who carried out extensive research on the Roma in Estonia, estimates their actual number shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War at 60 Laiuse Roma, 800 Latvian Roma and 10 Russian Roma.

Genocide of the Estonian Roma 1941–1944

While Estonia took a liberal attitude towards its minorities in the interwar period, the Second World War brought the end of the Roma in Estonia through the Nazi genocide ( Porajmos ).

First Soviet occupation of Estonia (1940/1941)

The Soviet occupation of Estonia in the summer of 1940 initially had little impact on the lives of the Estonian Roma, even if individual Roma were affected by the Stalinist deportations that began. The Roma in Estonia have traditionally been apolitical. The communist idea of ​​equality met with sympathy among some Roma, even if most of them were skeptical of the ideological compulsory work, compulsory schooling in the Soviet school system and collectivization in socialist society. In addition, the Roma were aware of the Soviet persecution measures under Stalin's Great Terror of 1937/38, to which many Roma had also fallen victim while allegedly fighting criminals and anti-social elements.

German occupation (1941–1944)

1941

In June 1941 the German Wehrmacht conquered the Baltic States . Immediately afterwards, the first National Socialist persecution and extermination measures against the Estonian Jews and Roma began. The number of settled Roma at this point in time is given as 743. There are also around 2,000 traveling Roma in Estonia.

The acts of terrorism against the Roma began in August 1941 after a concentration camp was set up near Tartu . The concentration camp established in July was under Estonian and later under German supervision. Around 100 people were initially imprisoned there, including a few dozen Jews and Roma. The majority of those arrested were executed as political prisoners and alleged partisans. Several non-sedentary Roma were detained at the same time in a house across the nearby Emajõgi River , after two months they were taken to the concentration camp and executed there as “criminals”.

In September 1941, the Prefect of the Estonian Security Police in Viljandi issued an order on German orders to detain all Roma in his district in the Viljandi prison. The exact background is not known. This included women, children and the elderly. In September 1941 there were 30 Roma in Pärnu prison who had been detained as political prisoners. The majority of them were subsequently murdered by the Estonian paramilitary militia Omakaitse .

On September 10, 1941, the head of Sonderkommando 1a , Martin Sandberger , issued the order to arrest all Jews in Estonia. In practice - in contrast to the extermination policy towards the Estonian Jews - no uniform line of the National Socialist race and extermination policy towards the Roma could be established at this time. The terrorist measures against the Roma in Estonia were therefore often local arbitrariness. In practice, the National Socialists often made the distinction between traveling and sedentary Roma. Persecution measures were often linked to social status. This changed just a few weeks later.

In the decree of the Reich Commissioner for the Baltic States and Belarus , Hinrich Lohse , dated December 4, 1941, he made it clear that traveling Roma were to be treated in the same way as Jews. This was preceded by a German massacre of around 100 Roma in Liepāja, Latvia . Lohse cited the twofold danger posed by the traveling Roma as the reason: on the one hand, they transmit diseases, especially typhus ; on the other hand, they are unreliable and work-shy elements. However, no clear line was drawn as to who the National Socialists viewed as traveling Roma and who as sedentary Roma. This again left the occupation forces and the local Estonian police relatively free to persecute the Roma. On November 21, 1941, the commander of the Rear Army Area North, General Franz von Roques , issued an order to exempt settled Roma from executions, with a few exceptions.

1942

On the basis of the Lohse Decree, which was confirmed in January 1942, large-scale registrations of the remaining Roma began in Estonia. Most of them were arrested as part of the so-called Gypsy Action on February 19, 1942. Roma travelers were taken to local Estonian prisons. In the summer of 1942, around one hundred Roma were imprisoned in Tallinn Central Prison, all of whom were probably later murdered. In the prison in Harku (near Tallinn) an arrest list of Roma was drawn up. It comprised 328 people, 170 men, 138 women and 189 children and young people. Only 42 of them were considered fit for work.

According to an internal German report, from June 1942 there were no longer any traveling Roma in Estonia. In July 1942, a draft of the Reichskommissariat Ostland provided for the directive that now settled Roma should also be treated like Jews. This also applied to the mixed gypsies . On October 27, 1942, SS man Heinrich Bergmann participated in mass executions of Roma in the Harku labor education camp . A total of 91 men and 152 women were murdered.

The "Estonian International Commission to Investigate Crimes Against Humanity" drew up a list of 243 Estonian Roma who had been murdered by October 1942. In addition, there are mainly Roma from Czechoslovakia who were murdered in Estonia.

1943

In January and February 1943, all Roma who had not yet been imprisoned in Estonia were arrested without discrimination. The order was given by Martin Sandberger as the commander of the Security Police (SiPo) in Estonia. Estonian Roma property was also confiscated. Almost all Estonian Roma still alive were brought to Tallinn on February 8, 1943. Their exact number is not known. In March 1943, some Roma who were unable to work, including numerous small children, were brought to the Jägala camp and murdered in nearby Kalevi-Liiva by Estonian security forces under the command of Alexander Laak and that of his deputy Ralf Gerrets .

Another decree of the Reichskommissariat Ostland in May 1943 stipulated that all Roma who were still able to work were to be detained in special camps instead of being executed. No distinction should be made between traveling and sedentary Roma. In October 1943, however, there were probably only a few Roma left who were not imprisoned. In the spring of 1944 the last of them were probably murdered by the German occupiers and Estonian collaborators.

According to estimates by the “Estonian International Commission to Investigate Crimes against Humanity”, 400 to 1,000 Roma were murdered in Estonia during the German occupation. The exact number can probably no longer be determined. Less than six Estonian Roma are believed to have survived the genocide in Estonia.

After the Second World War

Almost all Estonian Roma fell victim to the Nazi genocide in World War II. During the second Soviet occupation of Estonia (1944–1991) they played practically no role as a minority in the Estonian SSR .

With Estonia's membership of the Soviet Union, Latvian and Russian Roma came to Estonia. In the 1959 Soviet census, 366 people in the Estonian SSR stated that they belonged to the Roma nationality. Further censuses took place in 1970 (438 Roma), 1979 (529 Roma) and 1989 (665 Roma).

The Roma were hardly noticed by the Estonian public. Only the Tartu linguist Paul Ariste kept the memory of the Estonian Roma alive in his scientific work and published further research results.

After regaining independence

The 2000 census recorded 529 Roma. Of these, 263 had Estonian citizenship. 78.6% said they have mastered Romani .

According to various estimates, between 500 and 1,500 Roma live in Estonia today. Some of them still speak Romani . In the vast majority of cases they are sedentary.

Many Roma in Estonia live at or below the lower income limit. They are often economically and linguistically marginalized. State and church projects try to provide education and improve the social and professional opportunities of the Roma. 90% of Estonian Roma are unemployed.

In 1991 the “Cultural Association of Estonian Roma” ( Eestimustlaste Kultuuri Selts ) was founded. A Roma youth culture center ( Mustlas-Eestlasnoorte Kultuurikeskus ) was established in Võru in southern Estonia . The Association of Northern Estonian Roma ( Põhja-Eesti Romade Ühing ) has been representing the interests of the Estonian Roma since 2000 and is active throughout Estonia today. Its chairman is Roman Lutt. Above all, the association advocates better educational opportunities for Roma children in Estonian schools. She is a member of the "Round Table" ( Presidendi Rahvusvähemuste Ümarlaud ) set up by the Estonian President in 1993 , the central forum for dialogue between the Estonian government and the ethnic minorities living in Estonia. In 2002 the "Roma Association of Central Estonia " ( Kesk-Eesti Romade Ühing ) was founded.

In 2007, a memorial for the murdered Roma was inaugurated in Kalevi-Liiva.

literature

• Anton Weiss-Wendet: “ Extermination of the Gypsies in Estonia during World War II: Popular Images and Official Policies. “In: Holocaust and Genocide Studies . Spring 2003. pp. 31-61
• Roman Lutt, Lembit Vaba, Jüri Viikberg. “Mustlased.” In: Eesti rahvaste raamat: rahvusvähemused, -rühmad ja -killud Tallinn: Eesti Entsüklopeediakirjastus 1999, p. 336.
• Toomas Kroll: "Gypsies in Estonia between two World Wars." In: The Roots of Peoples and Languages ​​of Northern Eurasia II and III. Tartu, 2000, pp. 285–290 (= Fenno-Ugristica 23)

Web links

• Risto Blomster: "Estonian Roma before World War II" (Estonian)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://ajaveeb.keeletoimetajad.ee/2010/03/mustlased-on-nuud-romad/
2. ↑ http://www.estblul.ee/EST/Keeled/mustlaskeel.html
3. ↑ Paul Ariste. Laiuse mustlased. Tartu, 1940 (= Acta Universitatis Tartuensis / Dorpatensis. B; 50.1)
4. ↑ http://www.estblul.ee/EST/Keeled/mustlaskeel.html
5. ↑ Ruth Bettina Birn : "Heinrich Bergmann - a German detective career ." In: Klaus-Michael Mallmann and Gerhard Paul: Careers of violence. National Socialist perpetrator biographies , Darmstadt 2004, p. 48ff.
6. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from March 23, 2013 on WebCite ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
7. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from March 23, 2013 on WebCite ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
8. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from October 25, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
9. ↑ http://www.jti.ee/?s=200
10. ↑ http://www.estblul.ee/EST/Keeled/mustlaskeel.html
11. ↑ http://www.jti.ee/?s=200
12. ↑ http://www.estblul.ee/EST/Keeled/mustlaskeel.html
13. ↑ http://www.histrodamus.ee/?event=Show_event&event_id=3434&layer=215&lang=est#3434
14. ↑ http://www.ohtuleht.ee/index.aspx?id=14505  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
15. ↑ http://www.eubusiness.com/news-eu/estonia-france-roma.66u
16. ↑ http://www.estblul.ee/ENG/Members/pe_rooma.html
17. ↑ http://www.postimees.ee/?id=238140
18. ↑ http://uudised.err.ee/index.php?0574355