Fellows seminar - The role of music in Romani genocide commemoration

By Siv Lie, 2023 Fellow

Ambivalence and appropriateness in musical approaches to Romani genocide commemoration

This talk explores recent findings of my Fellowship project, which examines commemorative efforts among French descendants of victims and survivors of the Romani genocide. During World War II, Romanies were characterized by both French and German governments as criminals and vagabonds. In France, many were legally categorized as “nomads”, and while some were deported to concentration camps under German racial policies, more were placed under house arrest or sent to domestic internment camps. Since 1945, little progress has been made in terms of memorial sites, reparations, or other official forms of recognition. This project investigates the work of activists and cultural producers, largely Manouche Romani, who participate in genocide awareness-raising efforts and advocacy for Romani and Traveller rights.

Manouche artists have developed public-facing work, such as musical performances and recordings and films, as alternative methods of commemoration. What are the motivations and strategies for cultural producers to memorialize the genocide? How do these younger generations of Manouches understand and represent what happened to their families during the war and its aftermath?

In this talk, I will focus on two themes stemming from my ethnographic and archival research: ambivalence and appropriateness. Many of my interlocutors express conflicted perspectives on the politicization of music, shifting between endorsements of music’s political potential and the insistence that their music remain apolitical. This talk will argue that attention to varied iterations of enthusiasm and distaste for politicized music can afford richer perspectives on both music’s appropriateness in commemorative contexts and participants’ understandings of traumatic historical events.

• Read more about Siv Lie and her USIAS project: Memory works: variations of genocide commemoration by French Manouche artists.