Szczurowa The barrow of the murdered Roma
I'm standing at the cemetery in the village Szczurowa,
near the grave of murdered Roma.
In July 1943 Germans brought to this cemetery 93 Roma of various age
on the waggons.
They were adults, children and babies
and they were shot here at this cemetery.
Before this the members of local fire brigade
were forced to dig a large grave here
and later to dig those murdered Roma in.
Roma lived in Szczurowa many generations.
They formed a small community which lived outside the build-up part of the village,
in a small settlement.
At the time of the execution there
were circa 100 persons.
Someone managed to save themselves because, because they weren't at home at that time.
And this place is important more tan another, because
it is the biggest mass grave,
which hides Roma victims on the territory of contemporary Poland.
The first memorial in the world dedicated to Roma victims was also built here.
This boulder, standing here,
was unveiled as a memorial together with brickwork of this grave in 1966,
it was an initiative of local government, former combatants.
And the content of this inscription is also interesting,
because here it is written,
that it's a mass grave of 93 residents of Szczurowa.
It isn't mentioned they were Roma, Gypsies.
To this day I still think, how much
this sentence stemmed from the fact that local people
were strongly identified with the Gypsies,
simply, that they were our citizens.
It wasn't emphasized that they were Gypsies,
that it was someone unfamiliar to this community.
Documentation from the unveiling ceremony of this memorial has been preserved.
We can see that it was a celebration organized by local political power,
communistic power,
and therefore a sign of the cross,
which is so characteristic for Polish Christian culture,
wasn't factored in this memorial at all.
This cross was erected here only in 1993
together with the board with the inscription saying that
to the 50th anniversary of slaying of the Gypsies - Roma
ethnic identity was given to the victims, they were Roma, Gypsies
as they were called at that time.
And the third part of this memorial,
this mass memorial,
is the board where all names, surnames and age of all murdered
are listed here.
As we can see, there are just a few surnames:
The Bialons, The Ciurons, The Rakoczys, The Siwaks.
Because gypsy families here were big,
there were just a few surnames, a few big families.
And the age of those victims was
from several months to more than seventy years.
This way is the history of this memorial closed.
It was something extraordinary when it comes to the issue of Romani martyrdom.
Transcription: Lucia Němcová Corrections: Zdeněk Kovář, Vojtech Sloboda Translation: Zuzana Závadská