forgettance

at the same time as the Jewish Holocaust was happening in Europe, another Holocaust was happening in the world, namely the 1943/44 man-made Bengal Famine in British-ruled India. This atrocity took as many as 4 million lives and was associated with a 1940s demographic deficit of 10 million in Bengal. Satyajit Ray in his outstanding film “Distant Thunder” asserts that 5 million died. According to Amartya Sen, food was actually available there but cashed-up Calcutta, prosperous because of a war-time manufacturing boom, sucked food out of the rice-producing countryside. The price of rice increased 4-fold for a variety of reasons and in a free market, colonial economy and with a heartless, racist British administration, those who could not afford to buy rice simply starved.

The fascists destroyed our lives, so that even today we are unable to forget. Today we wander through the whole of Europe, searching for what the fascists took from us. Among us there are children who have Romani mothers and German fathers – children whose mothers were raped and came into the world that way children like J.S. and A. who wander with us as Roma and not as Germans. They also are seeking a place where they can stay and lead meaningful, dignified lives.

On December 16th [1941], Himmler issued the order to have all Roma remaining in Europe deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau for extermination. On December 24th, Lohse gave the additional order that "The Gypsies should be given the same treatment as the Jews." At a party meeting on September 14th, 1942, Justice Minister Otto Thierack announced that "Jews and Gypsies must be unconditionally exterminated." On August 1st, 1944, four thousand Roma were gassed and cremated in a single action at Auschwitz-Birkenau, in what is remembered as Zigeunernacht.