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“Gypsies” in European Literature and CultureTrauma, Guilt, and Revenge

“Gypsies” in European Literature and Culture: Trauma, Guilt, and Revenge [In 1978, more than thirty years after the liberation of the Nazi death camps, Stefan Kanfer published his novel The Eighth Sin, the first widely read literary account of the extermination of Romanies in Nazi Germany.3 The fate of the Roma and Sinti had stirred virtually no interest in the literary world until 1978, and the Romani Porrajmos had become “an almost forgotten footnote to the history of the Nazi genocide” (Tyrnauer 97). It is, therefore, not surprising that Frank Timothy Dougherty applauds Kanfer’s “sheer courage in taking on a theme of the proportions of the [G]ypsies and the Holocaust” (260). Taking on such an overwhelming and understudied topic as early as Kanfer did was not only courageous, it was imperative in calling attention to the fate of a people still stigmatized and marginalized as if the Holocaust never happened and never involved them.4 It is easy to dismiss Kanfer’s novel from a contemporary perspective, but it is more important to discuss its relevance in the context of the 1970s and, especially, at the new fin-de-siècle, when Romanies were subjected to renewed discrimination in both western and eastern Europe.] http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png

“Gypsies” in European Literature and CultureTrauma, Guilt, and Revenge

Part of the Studies in European Culture and History Book Series
Editors: Glajar, Valentina; Radulescu, Domnica
Glajar, Valentina
“Gypsies” in European Literature and Culture — Oct 14, 2015
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References (15)

Publisher
Palgrave Macmillan US
Copyright
© Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Nature America Inc. 2008
ISBN
978-1-349-37154-9
Pages
125 –143
DOI
10.1057/9780230611634_7
Publisher site
See Chapter on Publisher Site

Abstract

[In 1978, more than thirty years after the liberation of the Nazi death camps, Stefan Kanfer published his novel The Eighth Sin, the first widely read literary account of the extermination of Romanies in Nazi Germany.3 The fate of the Roma and Sinti had stirred virtually no interest in the literary world until 1978, and the Romani Porrajmos had become “an almost forgotten footnote to the history of the Nazi genocide” (Tyrnauer 97). It is, therefore, not surprising that Frank Timothy Dougherty applauds Kanfer’s “sheer courage in taking on a theme of the proportions of the [G]ypsies and the Holocaust” (260). Taking on such an overwhelming and understudied topic as early as Kanfer did was not only courageous, it was imperative in calling attention to the fate of a people still stigmatized and marginalized as if the Holocaust never happened and never involved them.4 It is easy to dismiss Kanfer’s novel from a contemporary perspective, but it is more important to discuss its relevance in the context of the 1970s and, especially, at the new fin-de-siècle, when Romanies were subjected to renewed discrimination in both western and eastern Europe.]

Published: Oct 14, 2015

Keywords: Concentration Camp; Holocaust Survivor; Childhood Memory; Hunger Strike; Nuremberg Trial

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