The Zenica Resolution is a document written by Muslim intellectuals on 26 May 1942, in Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, in which they attempted to protect a part of the Muslim Roma population from persecution.
After the Ustaša authorities decided, on 19 May 1942, to deport all Roma in the Independent State of Croatia (ISC) to the Jasenovac concentration camp system, deportations of the Romani population began on Bosnian territory as well. The deportation of so-called ‘White Gypsies’—an exonym used for Roma who had been settled for generations and were often highly assimilated—from the Travnik area, and the announcement of similar deportations of this subgroup of Roma in the Hercegovina region, triggered a reaction within the local Muslim community. Around 40 Muslim intellectuals, landowners, state officials, religious representatives, and citizens gathered in Zenica on 26 May 1942, and 27 of them signed the ‘Zenica Resolution,’ drafted at the meeting and published the same day.
First Initiatives in 1941
On 30 July 1941, the Sarajevo-based office for Bosnia and Herzegovina of the fascist Independent State of Croatia sent a letter to the Ministry of the Interior requesting the exemption of so called ‘White Gypsies’ from registration as ‘Gypsies’.1HR-HDA-223, Ministarstvo Unutarnjih Poslova ISC, box. 25, No. 21868.
On 30 August 1941, the Ministry sent a letter regarding the ‘racial affiliation’ of ‘White Gypsies’ to the district authorities of Derventa. The letter orders the exemption of ‘White Gypsies’ from all discriminatory measures applied to Roma so far, citing as their reason that this group of Muslims is ‘to be considered Aryans’. It is interesting to note that the initiative to which the order is responding, is also mentioned—namely a ‘petition by Miraković Šaban and others from Derventa’, as well as the intervention of the head of the ISC authorities for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ademaga Mešić (1868–1945), on their behalf.2AGHB, Fond Ulema Medžlis, UM-1-1844/1942, Ministry of the Interior of the ISC to the Derventa district authorities, ‘White Gypsies. Racial Affiliation’, 30 August 1941.
Judging from the historical context, it can be assumed that Mirakovic and the other petitioners were Muslim Roma, which would mean that this regulation was enacted as a result of a Romani petition. It has not yet been possible to clarify this with certainty from the sources.
The Zenica Resolution
The document consists of two parts The first paragraph states that the Islamic faith does not distinguish between people according to ‘race and class,’ but only according to their religious conduct and one’s relationship to the faith. The second paragraph presents the key thesis that the ‘sedentary’ Roma of Muslim faith (‘White Gypsies’) in Bosnia and Herzegovina constitute an integral part of the Muslim community and, consequently, must not be treated separately from the rest of the Muslim population by the authorities. The third paragraph reveals a selective solidarity of the intellectuals: in it they state that, following from the paragraph before, the term ‘Gypsy’ should refer only to those ‘uncivilised nomads’ who have no permanent residence and who lead a ‘thievish’ way of life.
The second part of the Resolution includes a transcript of the above-mentioned Order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the NDH of 30 August 1941 (No. 32661/41), by which ‘White Gypsies’ are exempted from discrimination and persecution by the authorities. By citing this decree, the signatories reinforce the legal authority of their claims.
The signatories of the Resolution, whose biographies and backgrounds require further research, were (in the order in which they signed): Šaćir Konjhodžić, president of the district court; Abdulah ef. Serdarević, director of the Madrasa (Islamic religious school) and president of the Vakuf‑Meʿarif commission; Mehmedalija Tarabar, landowner; Fadil Imamović, judge; Ragib Hadžiabdić, prison administrator; Hasib Mujić, Sharia judge; Midhad Serdarević, secretary of the ironworks; Asim ef. Tarabar, imam of the local parish; Muhamed Kundalić, Sharia judge; Dr. Hasib Muminagić, physician; Mensur Serdarević, ironworks official; Osman ef. Mutapčić, landowner; Mehmed ef. Čoloman, president of El‑Hidaje [organisation for imams]; Teufik Limić, school administrator; Huseinbeg Kulenović, prison treasurer; Mustafa Šestić, merchant; Enis Mutapčić, merchant; Salih Mehmedić, merchant; Muhamed Selesković, civil servant; Abdulah Tabaković, craftsman; Safvet Karić; Ahmed Osmanagić, civil servant; Smail Soko, land registrar; Avdaga Haramandić, merchant; Salim Tarabar, landowner; Muhamed Salčinović, merchant; Mustafa Panjević, merchant.3Ibid., “Zenica Resolution,“ 26 May 1942.
Effects
The Zenica Resolution was forwarded to the Ulema Medžlis of the Islamic Religious Community in Sarajevo, which, after consulting with the Office of the Reis-ul-Ulema, addressed the central authorities in Zagreb, requesting that the Roma in question be protected from persecution and deportation to camps. On 29 May 1942, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the ISC halted further deportations of ‘White Gypsies’, stating that they were Muslim Roma who were defined as ‘Aryans’.
On 1 June 1942, the same Ministry sent a letter to the Office of the Reis-ul-Ulema, stating that it had issued an order to the authorities at the Jasenovac camp to release such Roma, and that all police forces and local authorities were again instructed to leave Muslim Roma alone and refrain from sending them to camps. Furthermore, all responsible camp authorities received the instruction not to admit these Roma into the camps under the regulation of 29 May 1942—an instruction which was reiterated in the regulation of 11 June of the same year.
The signatories of the Zenica Declaration accordingly requested from the Ustaša authorities adherence to the existing legal provisions concerning ‘White Gypsies’, the return of those members of the group who had already been deported to the camps, and, finally, accountability and punishment for those ‘responsible officials’ who acted contrary to the existing provisions. According to some sources,4Kovačević and Rajić, Zenička ilegalna partijska organizacija, 125–26. by that time five railway wagons with Roma had already been sent in the direction of Jasenovac. Of these, three wagons carrying around 400 Roma were successfully returned, thereby saving them from deportation.
Soon, the Ustaša authorities were confronted with another hurdle regarding the implementation of the provisions concerning ‘White Gypsies’. Some Roma, realising that identifying as members of the Muslim faith could protect them from persecution, began presenting themselves as such in front of authorities and elsewhere. In response, the Ustaša Surveillance Service sent out a circular on 9 June 1942, ordering measures to prevent such actions by Roma.
On 5 June 1942, moreover, a group of Muslim intellectuals from Bugojno had issued the Bugojno Resolution, which is identical in wording to the Zenica Resolution but differs in terms of place of origin, date, and signatories.5AGHB, Fond Ulema Medžlis, UM-1-1844/1942, “Bugojno Resolution,” 6 June 1942. Systematic scholarly research still needs to investigate the circumstances surrounding the creation of this resolution, as well as its role in the protection of Roma in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
On 16 July 1942, the Ulema Medžlis in Sarajevo forwarded the Ministry of Internal Affairs regulation of 29 May 1942 to all district‑Meʿarif commissions (local administrative bodies for Muslim religious affairs) and local imams, along with instructions that, in the event of renewed deportations of Muslim Roma to concentration camps, they should request their release based on the existing provisions and inform the authorities accordingly.
Historical Assessments
After the war, the first to write about this resolution was Muhamed Hadžihajić (1918–1986) (writing under the pseudonym Muhamed Džemaludinović). According to his own account, published in 1971 in the journal ‘Takvim’, Hadžihajić was personally involved in the clerical work associated with the preparation of scientific dossiers on the ‘White Gypsies’ and was thus instrumental in developing the concept for their protection.6Džemaludinović, “Jedno svjedočanstvo,” 72–75.
In 1991, Fuad Džidić (born 1954) and Esad Hećimović (1963–2017) discussed its significance in the book ‘Robija šutnje’.7Džidić and Hećimović, Robija šutnje, 163. Since then, several authors have written about the Resolution. The narrative prevalent in these publications highlights the Resolution as an example of pan-Bosniak humanism and civic activism in resistance to Fascism among the Muslim population during World War II, through which Bosnian Roma were saved from persecution and annihilation by the Ustaša authorities. The authors situate the resolution among other similar resolutions by Bosnian Muslims openly criticising Ustaša policies but emphasise that its distinctiveness lies in its preventive character, aimed at protecting Muslim Roma, while enjoying the support of the leadership of the Islamic Community itself.8Mevludin Dizdarević, “Tretman Roma: jedno svjedočanstvo,” 31–40; Ibid.; Dizdarević, “Zenička rezolucija i borba”; Ibid., “Muslimanska rezolucija o zaštiti,” 65–68.
However, there are also critical interpretations of the ‘Zenica Resolution’, with some arguing that it was motivated by prominent Muslim citizens and the Islamic Community in an effort to protect exclusively Muslim Roma, and not Roma of other faiths (Orthodox and Roman Catholic) or with itinerant professions. The third paragraph of the resolution, containing several antigypsy stereotypes and explicitly exposing ‘nomadic’ Roma to persecution and death, points to the selective solidarity of Muslim intellectuals, which likely prevailed to a similar extent among the general population. It still has not been systematically researched how many members of the Roma community in Bosnia and Herzegovina were saved and how many perished.9Gladanac-Petrović, “Zenička rezolucija.” Nevertheless, this initiative, which indeed saved a large part of the Roma population in Bosnia and Herzegovina from certain death, is one of the very few known instances in which religious authorities have spoken out in defence of the lives of Roma.
Public Recognition
The Zenica Resolution was the topic of the scholarly conference ‘Civic Activism and Resistance to Fascism as an Expression of Democracy and Human Rights—80 Years Since the Signing of the Zenica Resolution and 110 Years Since the Birth of Fadil Imamović’, held on 20 December 2022 at the Faculty of Law of the University of Zenica. At this conference, the Resolution was highlighted as an attempt by the Muslim community to save Bosnian Roma from racially based persecution by the Ustaša. The initiative was marked as an expression of the defiant and courageous stance of the Bosnian public as a whole as well as a symbol of their humanistic and solidary attitude towards marginalised groups.
In the past ten years in particular, representatives of the Muslim community have repeatedly cited the Resolution in order to emphasise their religious community’s political and ideological position as diverging from and opposed to the policy and ideology of the Ustaša authorities, supposedly also as part of the attempt to counter or at least balance accusations of collaboration of the Muslim community with the occupying authorities.
On 27 May 2024, the Zenica Muftinate installed a commemorative plaque dedicated to the Zenica Resolution on the building of the former Sultan Ahmed Madrasa in Zenica, stating that the publication of the resolution was ‘an act of civic courage’ that saved the lives of many Roma in Bosnia and Herzegovina.10E. M., “Zenička rezolucija dobila trajni spomen.“
