Roma in Southern Italy
Sinti and Roma have lived on the Italian peninsula for many centuries. The arrival of the ancestors of today’s southern Italian Roma can be dated to around the 16th century. Fleeing from the advance of the troops of the Ottoman Empire, they travelled across the sea from the Balkan peninsula to southern Italy together with other Greek- and Albanian-speaking population groups. They were mainly involved in the manufacture and sale of metal goods, and later also in breeding and dealing in horses.
Soon Roma were present in all regions of southern Italy, both in the cities and in the smaller towns. Some families settled permanently, while others maintained a certain degree of local mobility for occupational reasons, such as participation in markets and fairs. At the beginning of the 20th century, there were no significant tensions in relations with the rest of the population, and in some areas, there were increasing numbers of marriages with the rest of the Italian population.
Northern and Central Italy
In northern Italy, the arrival of the first people known as ‘cingari’ or ‘cingani’ can be dated to 1422. Making weapons in the service of local nobles and generals was one of the economic activities of the ‘cingari’ for which documentary evidence exists. Around the middle of the 19th century, various groups of Sinti lived in northern and central Italy; some came from German-speaking countries, while others were of French origin, and there were also families who had been present in Italy for several centuries. They worked as travelling artists (musicians, acrobats, circus performers and carousel operators), basket weavers and sellers of all kinds of goods. Their mobility meant that they were not registered among the resident population, and this made it difficult for them to obtain the licences required to carry out itinerant trades [‘mestieri girovaghi’]. As ‘vagrancy’ was punishable by law, only those families who managed to obtain the necessary licences to carry out their trades were protected from being chased from one place to another and thus losing income or even being arrested as ‘vagrants’.
At the end of period during which the Kingdom of Italy was unified (1870), Roma lived in all regions of southern Italy, and in Sicily and Sardinia they were indistinguishable from the rest of the population. Sinti were present in all regions of northern Italy and in at least three regions of central Italy: the Marche, Tuscany and Umbria. Their number is unknown because the censuses did not register ‘Gypsies’ either in the individual states before unification or in the Kingdom of Italy, as it was a category not used in public administration.
First Circular Decrees
Soon after the creation of the Kingdom of Italy, the first circular decrees were issued to prevent the immigration of ‘foreign Gypsies’, even if their identity documents and visas were valid. In this respect, the procedure followed for Sinti and Roma diverged from the usual procedure for foreigners wishing to immigrate to the Kingdom of Italy. Around the turn of the century, the entry of Roma and Sinti attracted increased public attention, and those who managed to cross the border despite everything were summarily and unlawfully deported by land or sea. In Italy, it became practically illegal to be a ‘foreign Gypsy’, although there was neither a legal framework to refer to, nor a legal and administrative definition that clearly outlined who should be considered as such. The consequence was that the treatment meted out to those concerned was no longer determined by an administrative procedure within the law, but was left to the arbitrary decision of the relevant police authority.
Meanwhile, the existence of Italian Sinti and Roma was officially denied, for example at international congresses that addressed repeated deportations between neighbouring states. From the Italian point of view, the principle was that ‘Gypsies’ were basically foreigners of indeterminate origin. At the same time, the ‘itinerant life’ of many Sinti families in northern Italy was stigmatised and the measures that the penal code prescribed for ‘vagrants and vagabonds’ were imposed on them. They were subject to police surveillance, even though there was no specific legislation concerning ‘Gypsies’.
At the end of World War I, the Peace Treaty of Saint Germain-en-Laye (1919) awarded Italy some territories that had previously belonged to the Habsburg monarchy; the territories were given the name Tridentine Venetia, with Trento (Trient) and Bolzano, and Julian Venetia, which included the provinces of Gorizia (Görz), Pola (Pula), Trieste and, from 1924, Fiume (St. Veith am Flaum, Rijeka). The Dalmatian city of Zara (Zadar) also went to Italy. The reorganisation of the north-eastern border of the Kingdom of Italy raised the politically sensitive question of the nationality of the population living in the former Habsburg territories. The presence of Sinti and Roma in these territories was considered a problem by the Italian authorities, and many of them were not granted citizenship despite the clauses contained in the peace treaties. The Italian police forces continued to try to deport them as foreigners, but they were inevitably sent back as they had been born in the territories transferred to Italy.
Under the Monarchical-Fascist Regime
In October 1922, thousands of armed Fascists marched to the capital Rome (‘March on Rome’). This was a demonstration of power that led the King of Italy, Victor Emmanuel III of Savoy (1869–1947), to commission Benito Mussolini (1883–1945) to form the new government. Within a few years, Mussolini overturned all democratic institutions (parliamentary elections, multi-party system, freedom of the press and freedom of expression) in close consultation with the king, who authorised all the changes made to the existing constitutional state order.
The first circular decrees on the subject of ‘Gypsies’ issued by the Fascist regime in the 1920s were almost identical in content to the decrees of the previous liberal governments and only referred to ‘foreign Gypsies’. These were categorised as ‘dangerous’ for public safety, public health and state security. Their entry into Italy was to be prevented; if they had entered the country, they were to be expelled.
Towards the end of the 1930s, the expulsion of foreign Sinti and Roma to neighbouring countries became increasingly difficult due to the changing political situation. In addition, those living in Julian Venetia and Tridentine Venetia could no longer be regarded as foreigners to be expelled.
Axis Powers
On 1 November 1936, Italy and Germany founded the ‘Rome-Berlin Axis’. Around a month later, on 25 November 1936, Germany and the Empire of Japan signed the so-called Anti-Comintern Pact, which was an alliance against the Soviet Union. Italy joined the pact on 6 November 1937. On 22 May 1939, Germany and Italy signed the ‘Pact of Steel’, which extended the Axis agreement alliance to include mutual military support. Finally, on 27 September 1940, Germany, Italy and Japan signed the ‘Tripartite Pact’, which became known as the ‘Axis Alliance’.
Capture and Banishment
On 3 December 1937, the Chief of Police Arturo Bocchini (1880–1940) asked the prefects to report the number of Sinti and Roma present in the individual provinces of the Kingdom of Italy.1Archivio Centrale dello Stato (ACS) [Central State Archives], Ministero degli Interni (MI) [Ministry of the Interior], Direzione Generale Pubblica Sicurezza (DGPS) [Directorate General of Public Security], Divisione polizia amministrativa e sociale [Administrative and Social Police Division], Archivio generale [General Archives], b. 865, Fasc. Zingari. Statistica [Gypsy. Statistics], Da Capo polizia a prefetti Regno, 3 dicembre 1937, dispaccio telegrafico n. 45568 [Chief of Police to Prefects of the Kingdom, 3 December 1937, Telegraphic Depeche no. 45568]. The data was compiled very carelessly and represented an underestimate, as it had not been clearly defined in advance who was to be considered a ‘Gypsy’. In total, the prefects counted 2,199 Roma and Sinti throughout Italy,2ACS, MI, DGPS, Divisione polizia amministrativa e sociale, Archivio generale, b. 865, Fasc. Zingari. Statistica, letter from the Chief of the Office of the Minister of the Interior to DGPS, Prot. no. 10345, 13 November 1938. a number that was far too low, as can be seen from the historical and ethnographic literature available for individual Italian provinces. After examining the data received, Bocchini decided not to take any special measures against ‘Gypsies’ and instead to apply the police measures decreed by the Fascist regime for ‘dangerous persons’.
However, special attention was paid to Julian Venetia and Tridentine Venetia, where 231 Roma and Sinti had been reported, mainly in the provinces of Trieste and Pola (Pula).3ACS, MI, DGPS, Divisione polizia amministrativa e sociale, Archivio generale, b. 865, Fasc. Zingari. Statistica. Between December 1937 and January 1938, three circular decrees were issued against the Sinti and Roma in these parts of the country, areas where the political tension caused by the violent Italianisation of the German-speaking, Slovenian and Croatian population was creating considerable difficulties for the Fascist regime. Some Sinti and Roma were ordered to relocate to provinces in southern and central Italy; those who were considered particularly ‘dangerous’ were subject to police banishment (confino di polizia), also in southern Italy. The authorities in the province of Pola (Pula), which corresponded to the Istrian peninsula, sent all Roma to banishment in Sardinia.
Police banishment was one of the instruments of repression used by the Fascist regime and was usually imposed on individuals. In the case of the Roma and Sinti, it affected entire families, who were then forced to live in extremely difficult circumstances with a meagre financial allowance. The Sinti and Roma from Julian Venetia and Tridentine Venetia had to remain in banishment until 1946, long after the end of the war.
Steps towards the Establishment of a Racist State
At the same time, the Fascist regime began to take the first concrete steps towards the establishment of a racist state.4Sarfatti, “Il fascismo,” 87–105. After the conquest of Ethiopia in 1936, the existence of ‘mestizos’ (meticci) in the colonial territories was portrayed in an increasingly negative light, and the opportunities for the children of mixed (white-black) parentage to obtain Italian citizenship were increasingly restricted.
On 14 July 1938, a text was published in the daily newspaper ‘Il Giornale d’Italia’ under the title Il Fascismo e i problemi della razza [‘Fascism and the problems of race’], which claimed that ‘the origin of the differences between peoples and nations’ lay in the differences between the ‘races’, that there was a ‘pure Italian race’, that Jews did not belong to the ‘Italian race’ and, finally, that it was ‘absolutely necessary to prevent the purely European characteristics of Italians from being changed’.5The article was published anonymously in the daily newspaper Il Giornale d’Italia on 14 July 1938; see Sarfatti, Mussolini, 30–35. On 22 August 1938, the census of all Jews living in Italy began; the legal designation ‘belonging to the Jewish race’ was created, which was based on a reconstruction of ancestry, i.e. had a strictly genealogical-biological basis. The most important legal provisions against Jews were passed between September and December 1938, and administrative measures continued to be issued until 1943. Within a few months, Italians and foreigners of Jewish faith were banned from working in the civil service, practising liberal professions, serving in the army and attending schools; foreigners who had acquired Italian citizenship after 1919 were stripped of it and ordered to leave Italy by 12 March 1939. It was mainly the latter, primarily refugees from Germany and Eastern Europe, who were interned after Italy entered the war, provided they had not left the country by then.6Sarfatti, Gli ebrei nell’Italia fascista, 190–192.
Sinti and Roma were not mentioned in official regime documents on the ‘racial question’, nor were any specific laws passed concerning them. The measures taken against them were based on the circular decrees of the Ministry of the Interior signed by police chief Arturo Bocchini and his successor Carmine Senise (1883–1958).
Among contemporary publications, there were two essays worth mentioning which emphasised the negative characteristics of the ‘Gypsies’ as a ‘race’ or the dangers of ‘interbreeding’ with ‘Italians’.7Semizzi, “Gli zingari”; Landra, “Il problema”. By contrast with Germany, however, no genealogical research or ‘racial biology’ investigations into the Roma and Sinti living in Italy were ordered, nor was a group of experts with specific knowledge formed with the job of surveying their psychological and physical characteristics.
Internment in Concentration Camps
On 10 June 1940, Italy entered World War II as an ally of Nazi Germany. The first consequence of the mobilisation for war was the introduction of a series of measures for the increasingly strict surveillance of all those who were considered a ‘danger’ to the state. The internment of civilians began in the first few days after the start of the war. This affected political opponents, citizens of enemy states and foreign or stateless Jews, as well as Sinti and Roma. They were either transferred to concentration camps (campi di concentramento) or internment localities, depending on the assessment of their ‘dangerousness’.
The basic rules for internment had been laid down from 1925 as part of the ‘General Plan for the Event of War’; the plan was then worked out in more detail in the laws of 8 July 1938. The law of 21 May 1940 contained provisions for its implementation and gave the Ministry of the Interior responsibility for decisions concerning the construction of camps, their administration and the people to be interned in them.8Cf. Persichilli, “Disposizioni normative”.
Internment played an important role in the antisemitic policy introduced by the regime. In May 1940, Mussolini decided to intern foreign Jews, and on 15 June 1940 he ordered their arrest and transfer to concentration camps and localities of internment.
The concentration camps administered by the Ministry of the Interior were not set up to exploit the prisoners’ labour, nor did they serve as murder sites, as was the case in the National Socialist system of concentration camps, but they were nevertheless an essential part of the Fascist repressive system, one which has been unjustly underestimated.9Capogreco, I campi del Duce, 3–14.
Measures against Sinti and Roma from 1940 onwards
Although the entry into the war accelerated the persecution of Sinti and Roma, the regime still failed to formulate a legal and official definition of ‘Gypsies’. As a result, the persecution was not carried out systematically and mainly affected those people who were already known to the police and Carabinieri as ‘Gypsies‘.
On 11 June 1940, a circular decree ordered that all ‘suspicious Gypsies’ be transferred to concentration camps, especially if they were foreigners. This was followed by another on 11 September, which decreed the internment in localities for ‘Gypsies with established or presumed Italian citizenship’ if they were still ‘roaming around’.10Michele Sarfatti, Per una storia della normativa antizigana nell’Italia fascista: i testi delle circolari; “Documenti e commenti”, no. 7 (upload May 26, 2017; last update May 27, 2017), http://www.michelesarfatti.it/documenti-e-commenti/una-storia-della-normativa-antizigana-nellitalia-fascista-i-testi-delle-circolari [accessed: 16/02/2024].
The measures imposed by the Fascist regime against Sinti and Roma since the start of the war can be summarised as follows: For ‘foreign Gypsies’, deportation and expulsion from the Kingdom was reaffirmed, as provided for in all the circular decrees of the 1920s and 1930s; for ‘Gypsies’ suspected of anti-national activity and espionage, internment in concentration camps was prescribed, in accordance with the regulations for ‘dangerous’ persons; for all those with ‘established or presumed Italian citizenship’ who led an ‘itinerant life’, arrest and transfer to localities specifically designated for this purpose in each province of the Kingdom was ordered.
The non-itinerant Roma, who were mainly located in southern Italy, were not mentioned in the circular decrees. This omission would often lead to misunderstandings when applying the decrees. From the documents known to date, it cannot be deduced that ‘settled’ Roma and Sinti were explicitly excluded from these measures. Rather, it is clear that the Fascist regime imagined ‘Gypsies’ as people who were constantly on the move, travelling around with their families. This idea—which had already developed in the course of the 19th century—prevailed for the entire duration of the war and in practice meant that repressive coercive measures only affected part of the Roma population present in Italy.11Cf. Trevisan, La persecuzione.
Where the measures were implemented, two types of internment were imposed on Sinti and Roma, as well as other civilian internees. The first to be sent to concentration camps were those foreigners who could no longer be expelled as a result of the war,12According to the circular decree of 11 June 1940, ‘Gypsies’ suspected of anti-national activity and espionage were to be transferred to concentration camps. However, no Roma or Sinti were investigated for such activities, nor was anyone convicted of them. along with some Roma and Sinti arrested in the provinces on the north-eastern border, where the prefects did not want to provide local internment places. The Roma who had been arrested in the Province of Ljubljana, which had been annexed by Italy in May 1941, were also interned in camps. There are no surviving documents or witness accounts of the arrest and internment of Roma in the Croatian territories occupied by the Italian army. However, it cannot be ruled out that Roma who tried to reach the Kingdom of Italy in order to escape the violence of the Ustaša regime were deported back to the Independent State of Croatia.13ACS, MI, DGPS, Divisione Affari Generali e Riservati (DAGER) [General and Secret Affairs Division], cat. A 16, b. 51, Fasc. 5: Zingari carovana, Fiume. Rastrellamento [Gypsy caravan, Fiume, arrest]. The document contains the names of 24 Roma, mostly minors, who had entered Istria in the summer. They were transferred to Fiume (Croatian: Rijeka) and handed over to the Croatian authorities at the border post in Meja.
Internment in Concentration Camps and Exile Colonies
As of 2024, archival research had identified the following coordinated arrests and internments: Between July and December 1940, around 35 to 40 foreign Sinti and Roma without identity papers were arrested. They were transferred to various concentration camps, where other categories of internees were also held, in particular to Bojano (Molise region) and to the exile colonies on the smaller islands (Tremiti Islands, Ustica, Ventotene). Internment in exile colonies was usually intended for people who were considered particularly ‘dangerous’ politically, and the conditions of detention were harsher than in the concentration camps administered by the Ministry of the Interior.
From March 1941, the police chief Senise decided to use the Bojano concentration camp exclusively for interned ‘Gypsies’. Other categories of internees who were already there were transferred. In addition to the foreign Sinti and Roma, those who had been arrested in Julian Venetia and Tridentine Venetia were also interned there. In August 1941, the 66 Roma interned in Bojano were transferred to the Agnone concentration camp, also located in the Molise region. Again, other categories of internees who were already there were transferred to other camps. Between August 1941 and September 1943, the total number of internees in Agnone, including children born in the camp, is said to have totalled 176. Roma who had initially been interned in other camps were also sent there.
The third camp, intended only for ‘Gypsies’, was located in Tossicia, in the province of Teramo. 118 Roma arrested in the Province of Ljubljana were interned there. The internment of the Sinti and Roma in Tossicia and Agnone lasted until 27 September and 6 October 1943 respectively, when the German troops were already fighting the Allies on Italian territory after the Allied landings in Sicily on 8 July 1943.
Internment in Localities
In addition to the concentration camps, the Fascist regime also provided for internment in localities for those who were considered ‘less dangerous’. This consisted of being forced to live in a location chosen by the Ministry of the Interior, which they were not allowed to leave without the permission of the Carabinieri. The internees could rent flats and move within a limited area within the town. The circular decree of 11 September 1940 stipulated that in each province of Italy where ‘Gypsies of established or presumed Italian nationality’ had been arrested, it was up to the prefect to designate a locality where they could be concentrated under continuous surveillance.
The Kingdom of Italy had a total of 94 provinces, in about 30 of which localities were designated as places of internment for Sinti and Roma. In some provinces there was more than one such place, while the border provinces could send the arrested Roma and Sinti to other provinces: this was the policy of the prefects of the provinces of Udine, Gorizia, Bolzano and Aosta. Between 11 September 1940 and 13 January 1941, 878 Sinti and Roma were arrested, of whom 534 were interned in the localities designated by the prefects. The remaining 344 were transferred to the municipalities where they had their registered or habitual residence. Both groups were prevented from pursuing their previous occupations, as these required a certain freedom of movement. The number of interned Sinti and Roma increased slightly in the course of 1941, only to decline steadily, so that by the summer of 1943 there were only two remaining places of internment. The gradual abandonment of this type of internment was caused by the severe economic crisis in which Italy found itself, which meant that the podestà [village chiefs], who were responsible for the internees, no longer received any funds from the Ministry of the Interior. Many Sinti and Roma families managed to escape from internment and go into hiding in the mountains or in the countryside, where they tried to make themselves as invisible as possible.
Fall of the Fascist Government and German Occupation of Italy (1943–1945)
After repeated military defeats and the landing of Anglo-American troops on Italian territory, the Gran Consiglio del Fascismo [Great Fascist Council] withdrew its confidence from Mussolini on 25 July 1943. He was imprisoned in a secret location while King Victor Emmanuel III appointed Marshal Pietro Badoglio (1871–1956) to lead a provisional government. Badoglio confirmed the alliance with Nazi Germany, while at the same time the government secretly negotiated a surrender with the Allies. On 8 September 1943, the Badoglio government announced the armistice with the Allies and fled Rome to seek refuge in Apulia. The Italian troops were left to their own devices. The German Wehrmacht, which was then occupying most of the Italian regions, disarmed the Italian armed forces. As a result, around 600,000 Italian soldiers were deported to the Reich and German-occupied territories as ‘Italian military internees’ for forced labour. Mussolini was liberated by a German commando and taken to Vienna, where he met with Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) and agreed on the creation of a new Fascist state: the Italian Social Republic [Repubblica Sociale Italiana, RSI].
The new Fascist government, under the patronage of its Nazi ally, settled in northern Italy. Italy was thus divided into two parts, separated by a front that continually shifted northward as a result of the slow advance of the Allies and the retreat of the Nazi troops. Not only was the Italian peninsula partially under military occupation and the RSI granted only limited sovereignty, but some Italian provinces along the north-eastern border were even incorporated into the German Reich. The provinces of Bolzano, Trento and Belluno became part of the ‘Operational Zone Alpine Foreland’ (OZAV), while the provinces of Udine, Gorizia (Gorizia), Trieste, Pola (Pula), Fiume and Lubiana (Ljubljana) formed the ‘Operational Zone Adriatic Coast’ (OZAK). The military commander in the areas of the OZAK and the OZAV was the plenipotentiary General Rudolf Toussaint (1891–1968), and the main political role was played by Rudolf Rahn (1900–1975), ambassador to the RSI. The police authority was exercised by the supreme SS and Police leader Karl Wolff (1900–1984), who was also a ‘special adviser’ to the RSI.
Deportation of the Jewish Population
The arrest and deportation of Italian and foreign Jews to the extermination camps began on 12 September 1943 in the OZAV and eventually extended to the rest of Italy. The round-ups were carried out by the local military commandos as well as by the Security Police (SIPO) and the Security Service (SD) with its main command in Verona. The OZAK was home to a SIPO and SD organisation, partly independent of Verona, which stood out for its particularly cruel actions and operated the only de facto extermination camp in Italy, the Risiera di San Sabba.
In the meantime, on 1 November 1943, the RSI had revoked all the circular decrees by which the Badoglio government had ordered the liberation of internees. Depending on where they were, this meant different things for those affected. The concentration camps still under the control of the RSI were now used for ‘politically suspect individuals’ and deserters, and from 30 November also for Italian and foreign Jews on Italian territory, as the first step on the way to the extermination camps. The largest detention camp of the RSI was located in Fossoli di Carpi, in the province of Modena; from March 1944, it was under the direct control of the SS (Schutzstaffel) and thus became a police and transit camp for the deportation of Jews and political opponents to the Nazi camps. As the front line drew ever closer, the camp was moved to Gries near Bolzano, in the OZAV, on 2 August 1944.
In the two operational zones (OZAV and OZAK), only German units carried out the arrests; in the Italian provinces under the control of the RSI, the arrests were carried out in co-operation with the police forces that had remained loyal to Benito Mussolini. From January 1944, the Jews remaining on the territory of the RSI were handed over to the Germans following an agreement between the RSI and the German Reich.14Sarfatti, Gli ebrei nell’Italia fascista, 301–307.
Between 1943 and 1945, around 8,000 people in Italy who were categorised as ‘belonging to the Jewish race’ were arrested and then deported and in many cases murdered. 91 percent of them were deported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp. During the same period, the German police deported around 24,000 political opponents or members of other categories who were considered ‘dangerous’. Two thirds of them were transferred to Dachau and Mauthausen concentration camps.
Deportation of Sinti and Roma
Over 20 Roma and Sinti were deported to the Nazi camps via the prisons in Gorizia, Udine and Trieste. The fact that the number of deported Sinti and Roma was not higher is explained by the fact that the Fascist regime had not set up a centralised identification system for them and had not registered them. In addition, Sinti and Roma had just been forcibly removed from the provinces incorporated by Germany in September 1943 as a result of the regime’s earlier measures.
During the German occupation, a resistance movement emerged in Italy, the Resistenza. Around ten Roma and Sinti are currently known to have been among the partisans; five of them died in battle.
End of the War and Post-War Period
Partisan warfare and the advance of the Allies forced the German troops, who were still in control of most of the Po Valley in the autumn/winter of 1944, to gradually retreat. In the spring of 1945, it became increasingly difficult for the German troops to control the Italian territory that was still in their hands. On 25 April 1945, the Committee of National Liberation [Comitato di Liberazione Nazionale], which was made up of the anti-fascist parties and movements involved in the war of liberation, called for an uprising in the major cities of northern Italy: This marked the end of World War II in Italy. Mussolini was shot by partisans on 28 April 1945 after trying to escape. On 29 April, the unconditional surrender of the German troops still in Italy was signed in Caserta, coming into force on 2 May.
Refugees from the Former Italian Territories Assigned to Yugoslavia
Trieste was liberated on 1 May 1945 by the Yugoslav People’s Liberation Army, and this led to serious tensions with the Allied troops who arrived in the city a day later. The question of the border between the Republic of Italy and the Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia remained unresolved for a long time. The signing of the peace treaty in Paris in 1947 left some issues between the two states in limbo; these were not resolved until 1954, and even then, only partially.15Cattaruzza, L’Italia e il confine orientale, 312–326. All those who lived in Dalmatia and in the areas of Julian Venetia that had been granted to the state of Yugoslavia were given the opportunity to opt for Italian citizenship. There thus began a huge influx of people who had left the disputed territories and arrived in Italy as refugees. Many families of Croatian and Slovenian Roma who were already in Italy turned to the International Refugee Organisation (IRO) to be recognised as refugees from Julian Venetia and Dalmatia and opted for Italian citizenship. As the processing times for the approval of the option application were very long, some of them also submitted an application to emigrate overseas. The majority of these people remained stateless until the 1970s.
Historical Reappraisal
In the post-war period, silence prevailed about the persecution suffered by Roma and Sinti under the Fascist regime. The first testimonies of Roma and Sinti about their internment, usually only a few lines long, were compiled in the 1970s by Mirella Karpati (1923–2017) and published in the journal Lacio Drom, which she edited. However, they did not arouse the interest they deserved in the Italian academic world. The same fate befell the autobiography of Giuseppe Levakovich (1902–1988), who wrote about the Istrian Roma who had been banished to Sardinia and Calabria, about the Slovenians who had been interned in the Tossicia concentration camp (campo di concentramento) and about the deportation of his wife Emma ‘Wilma’ Braidich (1921 or 1922—unknown) from Udine to Ravensbrück concentration camp. It was only towards the end of the 1990s that historian Giovanna Boursier (born 1966) published her first research on the internment of Sinti and Roma. At the beginning of the 2000s, various testimonies from Roma and Sinti were collected, and this stimulated new archival research. Essays on individual places of internment were published by Paola Trevisan (born 1964), who also published the first general study of the persecution of Sinti and Roma in Italy in 2024.16Trevisan, La persecuzione. The compilation of circular decrees concerning ‘Gypsies’ published by Michele Sarfatti (born 1952), which has been available online since 2017, should also be mentioned.17Sarfatti, Per una storia della normativa antizigana nell’Italia fascista: i testi delle circolari (see endnote 10).
One aspect that has not yet been sufficiently researched is the history of the Sinti and Roma in the territories occupied or annexed by Italy and incorporated into the German Reich from September 1943, such as the Province of Ljubljana and the Governatorato di Dalmazia [Governorate of Dalmatia].
Offical Denial, Public Commemoration
The Fascist persecution of the Sinti and Roma is still not acknowledged by the Italian state, although many activists have been calling for years for them to be commemorated at events on 27 January, the ‘day of remembrance of the extermination and persecution of the Jewish people and of Italian military and political deportees to Nazi camps’.
In commemoration of the persecution, memorial plaques have been erected with the direct involvement of formerly interned Roma and Sinti at the sites of the Bolzano-Gries, Agnone and Tossicia concentration camps, as well as at the internment site of Prignano sulla Secchia in the province of Modena. A copper sculpture by Loris Levak (born 1951) was placed at the deportees’ memorial in Padua in memory of the deported Roma and Sinti, and a stone sculpture by Tonino Santeusanio (born 1949) commemorating the Samudaripen is located in the memorial park [Parco delle Memorie] in Lanciano in the province of Chieti, thanks to the initiative of the Thèm Romanó cultural association. The first stumbling stone was laid in Trieste in January 2023 in memory of the deported Sinto Romano Held (1927–1948).
