Bosnia and Herzegovina is a country on the western Balkan Peninsula in Southeast Europe, whose historical territory comprises the two regions of the same name. Its capital city is Sarajevo. In the second half of the 10th century, Bosnia was briefly independent, but for most of its history it belonged to different states (Byzantium, Croatia, Hungary, Serbia, Ottoman Empire, Austria-Hungary, Yugoslavia). During World War II, Bosnia and Herzegovina was annexed to the Independent State of Croatia (ISC) [Nezavisna Država Hrvatska]. Roma were subjected to racist special laws and persecuted, many were deported to Jasenovac concentration camp, while others were shot by German and Ustaša units in the course of campaigns against partisans.
Roma on the Territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina
The first documented sources about Roma in the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina date from the late Middle Ages, and in the succeeding centuries, under Ottoman rule, they lived as part of local society. Most of them lived in an urban ‘mahala’ (neighbourhood with institutionalised self-governance) and worked as blacksmiths, breeders and traders of horses, or musicians.
In early Ottoman times, a process of Islamisation of the Roma took place, which saw most Roma in the Balkans converting. Although the Islamisation of most Roma was considered suspicious (Roma had to pay the Christian Haraç regardless of their religion), a Roma group known by the modern exonym ‘White Gypsies’ was fully integrated into the Muslim community. They were predominantly settled and adhered to Muslim religious practices. By the 19th century, the majority of the Bosnian and Herzegovinian Roma were Muslims, while others were of Orthodox and Roman Catholic faith.
Another Roma group was the Gurbeti (sometimes assimilated to ‘Black Gypsies’) who fled slavery in Wallachia and arrived in the region in the 18th century. At that time, they continued their itinerant trade, although it was officially prohibited by the government. With slight reservations, the Romanian-speaking Karavlasi can also be counted as a subgroup of the Roma, although they do not speak Romanes.
In 1878, under the provisions of the Berlin Peace Treaty, the Austro-Hungarian monarchy occupied Bosnia and Herzegovina. The administrative incorporation of this area went hand in hand with a process of social, political and economic modernisation. For parts of the Roma, these changes brought restrictions on their traditional professions and new travelling bans. In 1908, Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina, which remained within the Monarchy until the end of World War I.1Filipović, Visočki cigani; Kasumović, “Dvostruka drugost;” Mujić, “Položaj Cigana.”
After World War I, today’s territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina became part of the new state of the ‘Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes‘ (since 1929 Kingdom of Yugoslavia). The territory covered mainly the Vrbas and Drina Banovinas, as well as parts of Zeta and Littoral [Croatian: Primorska] Banovinas. According to the 1931 census data, a total of 3,885 Roma lived in this area (Drina Banovina: 3,155; Vrbas Banovina: 491; Littoral Banovina: 185; Zeta Banovina: 54).2Publikationsstelle Wien, Die Gliederung, 14–20; Vojak, U predvečerje rata, 73–89.
Bosnia as Part of the Independent State of Croatia
After the collapse of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia following the attack of the German Wehrmacht and its allies in April 1941, the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina became part of the newly established ISC. The ISC remained occupied by German and Italian troops, separated by a demarcation line. The largest parts of Bosnia and Hercegovina, including Sarajevo, were German-held territory, while the south-west became Italian occupation zone.
On 30 April 1941, the Ustaša authorities introduced ‘racial laws’ against Jews and Roma which were also implemented in both occupation zones. In a first step, the movement of Roma was restricted in some areas. In the summer of 1941, the Ustaša authorities, as part of their policy of ‘colonisation’ (euphemistic collective term for mobility bans, expulsion and removal for forced labour) of Roma, carried out a registration throughout the country, with the aim of obtaining precise data on their number, places of residence and occupations. A small part of the census results has survived, including those for the areas of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Banja Luka, Goražde, and in the Sarajevo district).3Vojak et al., Stradanje Roma, 29–31, 131–41. On 29 July 1941, 442 Roma were enumerated in the City of Banja Luka (Greater Sana-Luka parish), on 28 August 1941, 40 Roma were enumerated in Goražde (Greater Vrhbosna parish), and on 4 September 1941, 335 Roma were enumerated within the Sarajevo district (of which 46 Roma in the City of Sarajevo/Hadžići i Tarčin; 289 Roma in the municipality Rajlovac). Zbirka arhivalija Historijskog muzeja BiH, box: Stradanje Roma u Drugom svjetskom ratu, 28.08.1941., b.b.; ARSBL -74, Velika župa Sana i Luka, br. 1 (1 –800), No. 661/41. Part of the local authorities in the Bosnia and Herzegovina area of the ISC reported that no Roma lived in their area. This was reported on 15 July 1941 by the municipal authorities of Lijeska (Rogatica district, Velika župa Vrhbosna). Historijski muzej BiH, fond Nezavisna država Hrvatska, box. 4, sign. 1525.
This policy provoked resistance from some Muslim intellectuals, Islamic religious representatives and businessmen, who successfully asked the central ISC authorities to remove ‘White Gypsies’ from the listing in the summer of 1941, by emphasising their observance of Islamic customs and describing them as an integral part of the Muslim ‘Aryan’ community.
In 1942, some Muslim intellectuals protested with the Ustaša authorities over the decision to deport Roma to the Jasenovac concentration camp and drafted a special document named ‘Zenica Resolution’, in which they demanded the exclusion of ‘White Gypsies’ from deportation and incarceration. This was accepted by the ISC authorities, and that explains why parts of the Muslim Roma were spared from further persecution, even though their exact number has not yet been determined by research.
Deportations and Mass Murder
A first mass deportation of Bosnian Roma from this area was conducted in early August 1941, when more than 600 Serbs, Jews and Roma from the wider Travnik area (the villages of Mudrike, Vitovlje, Turbe, Karaula, Varošluk, Komar, Goliše [Goleš], Trebeuša) were deported to the Ustaša camp in Gospić (Croatian part of ISC under Italian occupation). At the end of April 1942, there was a second mass deportation of 105 Roma from the town of Travnik and further 73 from surrounding villages (Kmetići, Turbe, Bjelobučje, Čosići) to the Jasenovac concentration camp. The Ustaša authorities freed 26 of them following an intervention by the local population with support of Islamic religious authorities in Sarajevo. The remaining Roma were murdered in the Jasenovac concentration camp. Roma were also deported to Jasenovac from Rijeka, Vitez and Kruščica.4Milišić, “Stradanje Roma,” 524–535.
After the decree of 19 May 1942, the Ustaša authorities systematically deported the Romani population to the Jasenovac camp system, which thus became one of the central places of mass suffering of the Bosnian Roma. One part of the Jasenovac complex was the Donja Gradina camp, which was located on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and where a significant number of Roma was killed. The systematic deportations affected hundreds of Roma from the area of Tešanj (the villages Lepenica, Karadaglije, Raduša, Šije and Sivša), Maglaj, once again Travnik (Turbe, Bjelobučje, Krčevine), and the village of Kamenica in the Zvornik district. The Jasenovac Memorial Site records Roma victims from 19 of the total of 136 municipalities in today’s Bosnia and Herzegovina; 943 Roma from Bosnia and Herzegovina account for 5.83 % of all known Roma victims of Jasenovac.5Jasenovac Memorial Site, “List of individual victims.”
In the autumn of 1944, Ustaša units carried out a military offensive in the area of Kozara (where a major Wehrmacht operation had already taken place in the summer of 1942, resulting in tens of thousands of deaths among local civilians), in course of which they arrested Roma from the wider area of Bosanska Gradiška (the Roma villages in Batar, Mokrice, Rovine and Muslimanske Dubrave), which was close to the frontline. The Roma were transported to a place near the Jasenovac camp and murdered. Post-war investigations of the Bosnian State Commission do not allow an exact reconstruction of this mass crime. According to various witness testimonies, the events took place in September or October 1944, and the killing site was either in the village of Mlaka (12 km from the Jasenovac camp), Jablanac forest (near the village Mlaka) or Uskočke šume (the woods between the villages of Gornji Varoš and Jablanac in the Novska district, Croatian part of ISC). The latest research on World War II population losses in the area of Bosanska Gradiška shows a total number of 1,079 Roma victims, 936 of whom were murdered in autumn 1944.6ABiH, ZKURZ, k. 38, dok. 55685; Vujčić, “Persecution of Roma,” 243.
German occupation authorities also committed crimes against Bosnian and Herzegovinian Roma, in most cases in connection with anti-partisan operations. In April 1942, German SS units murdered 78 Karavlasi from a hamlet south of Lopare. On 9 August 1943, members of the 7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division ‘Prinz Eugen’ [7. SS-Freiwilligen-Gebirgs-Division ‘Prinz Eugen’] came to the village of Podorašac (near Konjic), where they locked 36 Roma in their huts and killed them by dropping ‘bombs’ (most likely hand grenades) inside. After this mass killing, the SS men looted the property of their victims. On 18 April 1944, members of the 13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS ‘Handschar’ [13. Waffen-Gebirgs-Division der SS ‘Handschar’] came to the village of Karavlaška Maoča (municipality of Srebrenik). Under the accusation of supporting the partisans, the SS men locked up and burned 36 Karavlasi in their houses.7ABiH, ZKURZ, k. 134, dok. 57016; Kovačević, Sjeveristočna Bosna, 75, 92; Milišić, “Stradanje Roma,” 536–39.
Chetnik military units committed at least two crimes against the Bosnian Roma: These units killed 27 Roma from the village of Vlasenica in 1941, and in 1943, they captured eight Roma from Banja Luka. Their fate is unknown, but they were most likely murdered.8Ibid., 526–527.
Roma actively participated in the anti-fascist resistance movement, fighting in many military partisan units under the leadership of Josip Broz Tito (1892–1980). Roma were recorded as partisan fighters in the 18th Croatian East Bosnian National Liberation Assault Brigade [Hrvatska istočnobosanska narodnooslobodilačka udarna brigada], 21st Tuzla East Bosnian People’s Liberation Assault Brigade [Tuzlanska istočnobosanska narodnooslobodilačka udarna brigada] and the Mostar Partisan Battalion [Mostarski partizanski bataljon].9Vojak, “Roma Resistance,” 54–59; Vojak, “Otpor Roma,” 343–66.
From the Post-War Years to the Present Day
In the first post-war census of Yugoslavia in 1948, only 442 Roma were registered in Bosnia and Herzegovina. During the following decades, the number grew with partial fluctuations. According to the latest census of 2013, 12,583 Roma lived in the country.
Under the ‘Law on the Protection of the Rights of Members of National Minorities’ [Zakon o zaštiti prava pripadnika nacionalnih manjina], the Parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina granted Roma the status of a national minority in 2003. As such, they are guaranteed the protection of ‘their cultural, religious, educational, social, economic and political freedoms, needs and identity’.10OSCE, “National Minorities in BiH.” Today, the Roma are the largest national minority in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but at the same time still the most marginalised group in social, economic and political terms.
In socialist Bosnia and Herzegovina, the culture of remembrance for Roma victims was marginalised. In 1970, however, local authorities and the Yugoslav World War II veterans’ association (SUBNOR) helped Roma survivors to erect a monument in the village of Žeravica (near Bosanska Gradiška, today Gradiška in Bosnia and Herzegovina). One of the initiators was the former Roma partisan Nadir Dedić (1928/30–2023), who lost dozens of family members in this area. Annual commemorations are held at this place on 4 July, organised by the local authorities, Roma non-governmental organisations and veterans’ organisations of World War II.
