Since the fall of Communism, the Romanies of eastern Europe have become both the subjects and the objects of a process of ethnogenesis: a conscious attempt to achieve the accepted status of a non-territorial, ethnic-national group. One of the most important aspects of this process is the development of an identity that could function in the contemporary world and unite different groups of Romanies. Such an identity must also be powerful enough to counteract the influence of traditions, both internal and external, denying the Roma a distinct national identity and hindering attempts directed towards the formation of such an identity. In this chapter, I argue that the viable foundations of such an identity can be found in the memory of the persecution of the Roma during the Second World War. This memory is generalized in the narrative of the Holocaust, and symbolized by the site of the Auschwitz- Birkenau death camp, which can be thus understood in Bakhtin's terminology as a chronotope of modern Romani identifications. However, for several reasons which are discussed in this chapter (e.g., the lack of identification with the Holocaust and/or its generalized symbols by some Romani groups), the tradition based on such memory, narrative, and symbol must be – to a large degree – ‘invented’. In the last part of this essay, I will present a case study of a ritualized practice which bears great potential in making this tradition a part of living memory and an identity- building factor. The practice in question is the ‘Romani Caravan of Memory’, an annual event in which the members of the Bergitka Roma group from Tarnow in Southern Poland make a pilgrimage to places where Romanies were murdered during the Second World War.

Towards a Modern Romani Identity

Nicolae Gheorghe (1991), advocating the political rather than cultural character of Roma ethnogenesis, stresses the fact that Roma ethnicity should not be perceived as an independent variable. It is, in his opinion, a consequence of political actions taken to secure the existence of the Roma and to provide them with recognition. Of course, this process does not mean an abandonment of ethnic identity.