International Symposium in April 2023: Roma, Jews and the Holocaust

Roma, Jews and the Holocaust

April 18-19, 2023
Sterling Memorial Library, Lecture Hall
Yale University

This symposium is an attempt to think about the intersections between Romani and Jewish experiences of persecution and between the ways Romani and Jewish survivors, activists, historians, artists, and organizations have sought to come to terms with those experiences. The event will consist of a series of small panels, taking the forthcoming publication of Ari Joskowicz’s book Rain of Ash: Roma, Jews, and the Holocaust (Spring, 2023), winner of the 2022 Ernst Fraenkel Prize, as an occasion to gather and discuss these themes.

Program

Tuesday, April 18, 2023, Sterling Memorial Library, Lecture Hall

5:00 PM    Introduction, Stephen Naron, Director, Fortunoff Video Archive

5:10 PM     Keynote/Booktalk, Ari Joskowicz, Vanderbilt University
                    Roma, Jews and the Holocaust 

Wednesday, April 19, 2023, Sterling Memorial Library, Lecture Hall

9:00 AM    Coffee

9:30 AM    Introduction, Gil Rubin, Head of Academic Programs, Fortunoff Video Archive

9:45 AM Panel I - Comparative histories

• Magda Matache, Harvard University
  “The Place of Enslaved Roma People in the Global History of Slavery, Racism, and Oppression.”
• Petra Gelbart, Independent scholar
  “Burn Me, Too: A Family History of Remembering and Forgetting.”
• Chair Holly Case, Brown University

11:00 AM     Panel II - Jewish and Romani testimony intertwined

• Ioanida Costache, University of Pennsylvania
  “Witnessing and Recognition: Critically Listening to Holocaust Testimony”
• Aleksandra Szcecepan, Vienna Wiesenthal Institute
  “Negotiating Testimonial Agency: Polish Roma in Holocaust Archives”
• Chair Éva Kovács, Vienna Wiesenthal Institute

1:45 PM  Panel III - New Research on Roma in Czech lands

• Helena Sadílková, Charles University in Prague
  “Negotiating Participation and Visibility. Romani Holocaust Survivors in Post-war Czechoslovakia”
• Kateřina Čapková, Institute of Contemporary History, Prague
  “From Forced Assimilation to Genocide. Two Divergent Policies Towards Roma and Sinti in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia”
• Chair Marci Shore, Yale University

3:00 PM     Coffee

3:30 PM     Concluding Roundtable

Panel of Participants: Ari Joskowicz, Kateřina Čapková, Holly Case

Sponsored by:

Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies

Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

Yale Program for the Study of Antisemitism

Judaic Studies Program, Yale University

Russia, Eastern Europe and Eurasian Studies Program, Yale University