POSITION OF ROMA AS AN ETHNIC MINORITY IN ZENICA VIEWED THROUGH THE PRISM OF THE RESOLUTION OF ZENICA INTELLECTUALS ISSUED IN 1942

Abstract

UDK 316.662(=214.58)(497.6 Zenica)

For centuries now, Romani (Roma, often Gipsies) as an ethnic group live in Bosnia and Herzegovina and are struggling to preserve their existence as well as the elements of their ethnic identity. However the actual study of the culture and the history of the Romani does not have some long tradition. Research works that explore the history of the Roma in some specific locality are even rarer. That in particular was a motive behind this work wherein we tried to trace the history of the Romani in Zenica, focusing on the period of the Second World War. This period was the most difficult period in the history of the Romany and is marked with anguish of genocidal proportions in Europe. One of the rare exceptions were the Romani people living in Bosnia and Herzegovina who were spared as a result of the effort of Zenica’s elite group that, in their determination to save their neighbours, signed the Resolution of Intellectuals of Zenica wherein race-based prosecutions were strongly publicly condemned. This document has been a subject matter of many authors; however it has never been scientifically elaborated nor contextualised in its historical and cultural domain. Thus the document insufficiently researched, never attained the recognition that pertains to it considering its cultural and historical meaning and significance. In this article we analysed the significance and the impact of Zenica Resolution on the bases of extant official documents, other relevant writings and statements of the witnesses.