an assistant professor at the Faculty of Humanities, Charles University and postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of History of the Czech Academy of Sciences
This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license. chapte... more This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license. chapter 8 Czechoslovakia 8.1 Naming and Labeling of Roma 8.1.1 A Letter to the State Attorney's Office in Uherské Hradiště Slavné státní zastupitelství! Já podepsaný Libor Daniel dne 24. července 1893 v Bílovicích u Uh. Hradiště narozený cikán a kovář bydlel jsem od roku 1909 v Ludkovicích i se svou manželkou Josefou Danielovou i s našimi 6 dítkami zcela pokojně až do poslední doby, 6 let před tím byl jsem u vojska a ve válce a dle dovolenky náhradního praporu čs. pěšího pluku č. 3 11. náhr. rota, běžné číslo seznamu 212/11 vystavenou v Kroměříži dne 25. května 1920, byl jsem po dosažení vojenské hodnosti jako svobodník propuštěn od vojska domů na trvalou dovolenou. Já podepsaný František Didy, dne 23. ledna 1896 narozený na Velkém Ořechově blíže Uh. Brodu, cikán a kovář v boudě v Hřivném Újezdě, bydlel jsem i se svou manželkou Františkou Didy a s našimi 7 dítkami již 8 let v naší boudě v Hřivném újezdě, když jsem byl před tím od roku 1915 sloužil u vojska a když mně byla od čs. domobraneckého okresního velitelství v Kroměříži pod běžným číslem seznamu 14542/20 vystavena dne 24. února 1921 dovolenka a já jsem byl demobilisován a propuštěn cestou superarbitrace na trvalou dovolenou jako pěšák 27. pěšího pluku. Obě rodiny živily jsme se i se svými četnými dítkami poctivě buď kovářskou nebo nádenickou prací, až do poslední doby. V neděli dne 29. května 1921 večer, když jsme již všichni i s našimi dítkami v našich leženích spali, přišli všichni obvinění, a ještě více jiných osob ozbrojených holemi a tyčemi, asi v 10 hodin večer k nám do našeho ležení v Ludkovicích a vyzvali nás, že se musíme z Ludkovic ihned v noci vystěhovat i s našimi dětmi. Já, Libor Daniel, jsem pana starostu Antonína Novotného i ostatní pány obecní radní prosil, aby mne nechali v našem táboře přespat alespoň do rána i s našimi dětmi, ale 1. pan radní Jan Gavenda mně na to pravil, že jak v 5 minutách se neodstěhujeme z Ludkovic, že budeme ihned všichni zabiti. Na to tloukli všichni obvinění silnými koly, holemi a tyčemi do naší boudy, až tuto celou roztloukli, a naše děti strachem pojaté se rozutekly do blízkého lesa a nalezli jsme je až ráno v lese celé ustrašené, a my sami byli jsme od obviněných přinuceni v noci po 10 hodině ze své boudy v Ludkovicích pryč odejíti a přespali jsme také v lese sousední obce Hřivného Újezda. Při tom měl p. obecní radní Josef Matouš též flintu a vystřelil z ní jednou, aby nás postrašil a vzbudil v nás důvodnou obavu a aby nás všichni obvinění přinutili své dosavadní bydliště opustiti a z Ludkovic pryč se odstěhovati.
This article focuses on the contemporary common association of itinerant trades with “Gypsyness” ... more This article focuses on the contemporary common association of itinerant trades with “Gypsyness” and the consequent relation between adopting anti-Gypsy measures and the state intentions to regulate professing itinerant trades. By analysing the intended bill on itinerant trades, the study shows how were the administrative police terms such as Gypsies and “work-shies” intertwined. It, further, argues that limiting space for self-employed mobile economic activities went hand in hand with legalizing the status of second-class citizens in 1927 when a new law On Wandering Gypsies was passed by the Czechoslovak Parliament. The article also analyses the agency of one particular itinerant traders´ association called Kotva (Anchor) and pays the attention to the traders´ manifold defensive strategies. Because of their close contacts with Gypsies – sharing social and economic spaces –, setting themselves apart from the Gypsies and presenting themselves as “decent citizens”, i.e. part of the Czechoslovak nation, constituted crucial agenda of this association. In their successful effort to shield themselves of being included into the new police register of “wandering Gypsies” they reproduced and amplified the state aim to eliminate “work-shies” among itinerant traders. In this way, the article deals with the process of racialization of the category of Gypsies in the interwar Czechoslovakia. And racialization is presented as intricate historical process which was influenced even by the non-state historical actors.
Bohemia. Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Kultur der Böhmischen Länder, 2019
A lot of times has passed since the 1990s, when a heated and controversial debate about concentr... more A lot of times has passed since the 1990s, when a heated and controversial debate about concentration camps in Lety near Písek and in Hodonín near Kunštát began in the Czech Republic, and quite a few historical studies devoted to this topic have appeared meanwhile. The present article seeks to take the ongoing debate a step further by analyzing the descriptions of persons characterized as "Gypsies" in Czechoslovak police and gendarmerie journals, textbooks and handbooks. The use of the "Gypsy" label is examined by the author with regard to the development of police forces (state police and gendarmerie) and of criminal science in Czechoslovakia during the First and Second Republic. On the basis, he comes to conclusion that a radicalization (racial allocation becoming increasingly important) of the "Gypsy" notion occurred in the 1920s and 1930s. In this context, the 1927 law on "vagrant Gypsies" was especially important, as it legitimized the use of fingerprints (dactyloscopy) for the registration of those who were labeled as Gypsies.
Tento článek se zabývá několikanásobnou vraždou Romů, kterou v noci z 1. na 2. října 1928 spáchal... more Tento článek se zabývá několikanásobnou vraždou Romů, kterou v noci z 1. na 2. října 1928 spáchali neromští obyvatelé obce Pobedim ležící na západním Slovensku a kterou lze označit za protiromský pogrom. Pozornost je věnována především interakcím mezi různými československými státními orgány, jako bylo četnictvo, okresní úřad, zemský úřad, soud a obce v daném regionu krátce před i po vypuknutí pogromu. V návaznosti na teoretický rámec Giorgia Agambena, který pro účely historické analýzy vývoje proticikánských opatření rozvinula například historička Jennifer Illuzzi, autor v článku tvrdí, že extrémní násilí pramenilo z napětí a konfliktů mezi těmi historickými aktéry, již měli uplatňovat dobová proticikánská opatření na lokální úrovni. Taková situace vedla k vytvoření výjimečného stavu pro obyvatele označované za „cikány“. Analýza dále odhaluje nejrůznější dobové praktiky vyloučení namířené vůči „cikánům“ v období meziválečného Československa. Přestože byli Romové v tomto případě oběti brutálního útoku, dokonce i soudní řízení svědčí o extrémní mocenské asymetrii mezi obviněnými pachateli, již byli popisováni jako „spořádaní občané“, a holými životy Romů. Vzhledem k tomu, že státní úřady obešly soudní orgány a vytvořily vlastní řešení, které bylo z perspektivy veřejného zájmu údajně vhodnější, byli Romové uzavřeni ve výjimečném stavu. Článek mimoto ukazuje, že představy o internaci „cikánů“ v různých formách nucených pracovních táborů coby ztělesnění výjimečného stavu pramenily z vlastní dynamiky uplatňování proticikánských opatření.
This study offers a qualitative analysis of two interrelated practices implemented in interwar Cz... more This study offers a qualitative analysis of two interrelated practices implemented in interwar Czechoslovakia with respect to ‘Gypsy children’. First of all, it deals with so-called ‘Gypsy schools’, which were in practice separate auxiliary classes for ‘Gypsy children’ established in Slovakia and Transcarpathian Ruthenia in 1927–1938. In the following, the author outlines a practice of taking children from families which were based on Czechoslovak law on ‘vagrant gipsies’, adopted in 1927, identified by authorities as ‘vagrant gipsies’. Both of these separate and largely regionally applied approaches are set within a wider context of implementation of state administration in the areas in question (eastern Slovakia and Transcarpathian Ruthenia on the one hand and Bohemia on the other hand) and within a context of contemporary expert discussions about a ‘re-education of Gypsy children’. The author argues that these were two distinct approaches to assimilation of ‘Gypsies’ into the Czechoslovak society, that is, to integration based on erasing and fully removing the alleged ‘Gypsyness’.
This article deals with the multiple murders of Roma people committed by a number of local citize... more This article deals with the multiple murders of Roma people committed by a number of local citizens in Pobedim, a village in West Slovakia, during the night of October 1–2, 1928, which could be understood as an anti-Roma pogrom. Attention is paid to the interactions between different Czechoslovak state authorities such as gendarmerie, the district office, provincial office, court and municipalities in the region shortly before the outbreak of the pogrom and in its aftermath. Drawing on Giorgio Agamben´s theory elaborated for the analysis of anti-Gypsy measures by various scholars, e.g. Jennifer Illuzzi, the author argues that the extreme violence resulted from the tensions and conflicts between those historical actors who enforced the contemporary anti-Gypsy measures on the regional level and which led to the creation of the state of exception for the population labeled as Gypsies. The analysis also reveals the variety of contemporary practices of exclusion towards the population labeled as Gypsies in interwar Czechoslovakia. Despite the fact that the Roma were victims of a brutal assault even the trials attest to the extreme asymmetry of power between the accused portrayed as “decent citizens” and the bare lives of the Roma. Because the executive state authorities circumvented the judiciary and forged their own solution allegedly more suited to the public interest, the Roma were caught in the state of exception. Furthermore, the article shows how ideas of Gypsies´ internment in various types of forced labor camps as a permanent and spatial embodiment of the state of exception stemmed from the dynamic of enforcing anti-Gypsy measures.
During the night from the 1 st to the 2 nd of October 1928 a group of at least 40 attackers assau... more During the night from the 1 st to the 2 nd of October 1928 a group of at least 40 attackers assaulted the Roma settlement situated at the outskirts of Pobedim, a village 7 kilometres north from Piešťany in Slovakia. The attackers, armed with sticks and boxers and several handguns, killed 6 and wounded 8 Roma including a 6-year-old child. They also tried to raze the whole settlement to the ground. Survivors of this event afterwards testified that they had recognized several peasants and even the mayor of Pobedim among the attackers. Afterwards, gendarmes took 21 Pobedim men into custody and questioned more than 50 locals. However, no one from the village confessed. Not a single citizen heard the shooting and screaming coming from the Roma settlement that night. Of all the people accused, the court found guilty only 10 men. They were found guilty of violence. But no one was found guilty of a particular murder.
In this paper, I focus on development of the “Gypsy school” project in Uzhhorod (Carpathian Ruthe... more In this paper, I focus on development of the “Gypsy school” project in Uzhhorod (Carpathian Ruthenia) and its practical implementation by the Czechoslovak administration. The project was perceived as a civilizing “experiment” that combined education and hygiene principles. Moreover, I describe how this unique case from the 1920s turned into a common practice within Czechoslovakia.
On December 22, 1926, an opening ceremony of the so-called Gypsy school was held in Uzhhorod, the... more On December 22, 1926, an opening ceremony of the so-called Gypsy school was held in Uzhhorod, the capital of the Czechoslovak administration in Carpathian Ruthenia. Czech officials who gave talks pointed out pedagogical significance of the established institution which they described as unique and exceptional “experiment”. The creation of a special school for children of those inhabitants who were labelled as “Gypsies” on the territory which was annexed by Czechoslovakia only later after the First World War and which in the contemporary imagination represented specific, “backward” region of the newly established state, served to consolidate the legitimacy of the First Republic as a democratic, progressive, modern, liberal state which belonged to the developed and civilized West. More than a half year later, on July 14, 1927, representatives in the Czechoslovak Parliament in Prague passed the Act No. 117/1927 on Wandering Gypsies. The development of this law was related to an immense interest of the contemporary media in “Gypsies” which was encouraged by the arrest of approximately twenty “Gypsies” from a village located in East Slovakia. They were charged of numerous robberies and murders. In contrast to the situation shortly after the First World War when the central Czechoslovak authorities didn´t accommodated various demands of the local authorities to “solve” the alleged “Gypsy question” and also in contrast to the situation in majority of European states, the Czechoslovak centre and right-wing government readied a special bill with the aim to bring “Gypsies” under intensified and permanent police surveillance and control. Subject of this thesis constitutes discussions on the “Gypsy question”, the creation and implementation of anti-Gypsy measures and also practices which meant to serve assimilation of the “Gypsies” into the Czechoslovak or Czech society during the First and Second Republic and the early phase of the Protectorate Bohemia and Moravia. The goal is to reconstruct the ways in which individual state authorities – on the central as well as on the local level – used not only the law from 1927 but the whole complex of measures which worked against “Gypsies”. The attention is paid to the role which in the process of labelling certain inhabitants as “Gypsies” or “Wandering Gypsies” played the category of race and the symbolic geographies of the West and the East within the interwar Czechoslovakia. In addition to that I also trace key categories and discourses which played an important role in the implementation of anti-Gypsy measures as well as in the assimilation practices towards “Gypsies”, such as criminality, bodily differences, youth care etc. The analysis of manifold sources transcends the traditional milestones of political history. It deals with changes in the criminalization of “Gypsies”, and their assimilation, in long-term time span and asks broader questions about historical continuities and discontinuities or about the nature of different political regimes.
This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license. chapte... more This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license. chapter 8 Czechoslovakia 8.1 Naming and Labeling of Roma 8.1.1 A Letter to the State Attorney's Office in Uherské Hradiště Slavné státní zastupitelství! Já podepsaný Libor Daniel dne 24. července 1893 v Bílovicích u Uh. Hradiště narozený cikán a kovář bydlel jsem od roku 1909 v Ludkovicích i se svou manželkou Josefou Danielovou i s našimi 6 dítkami zcela pokojně až do poslední doby, 6 let před tím byl jsem u vojska a ve válce a dle dovolenky náhradního praporu čs. pěšího pluku č. 3 11. náhr. rota, běžné číslo seznamu 212/11 vystavenou v Kroměříži dne 25. května 1920, byl jsem po dosažení vojenské hodnosti jako svobodník propuštěn od vojska domů na trvalou dovolenou. Já podepsaný František Didy, dne 23. ledna 1896 narozený na Velkém Ořechově blíže Uh. Brodu, cikán a kovář v boudě v Hřivném Újezdě, bydlel jsem i se svou manželkou Františkou Didy a s našimi 7 dítkami již 8 let v naší boudě v Hřivném újezdě, když jsem byl před tím od roku 1915 sloužil u vojska a když mně byla od čs. domobraneckého okresního velitelství v Kroměříži pod běžným číslem seznamu 14542/20 vystavena dne 24. února 1921 dovolenka a já jsem byl demobilisován a propuštěn cestou superarbitrace na trvalou dovolenou jako pěšák 27. pěšího pluku. Obě rodiny živily jsme se i se svými četnými dítkami poctivě buď kovářskou nebo nádenickou prací, až do poslední doby. V neděli dne 29. května 1921 večer, když jsme již všichni i s našimi dítkami v našich leženích spali, přišli všichni obvinění, a ještě více jiných osob ozbrojených holemi a tyčemi, asi v 10 hodin večer k nám do našeho ležení v Ludkovicích a vyzvali nás, že se musíme z Ludkovic ihned v noci vystěhovat i s našimi dětmi. Já, Libor Daniel, jsem pana starostu Antonína Novotného i ostatní pány obecní radní prosil, aby mne nechali v našem táboře přespat alespoň do rána i s našimi dětmi, ale 1. pan radní Jan Gavenda mně na to pravil, že jak v 5 minutách se neodstěhujeme z Ludkovic, že budeme ihned všichni zabiti. Na to tloukli všichni obvinění silnými koly, holemi a tyčemi do naší boudy, až tuto celou roztloukli, a naše děti strachem pojaté se rozutekly do blízkého lesa a nalezli jsme je až ráno v lese celé ustrašené, a my sami byli jsme od obviněných přinuceni v noci po 10 hodině ze své boudy v Ludkovicích pryč odejíti a přespali jsme také v lese sousední obce Hřivného Újezda. Při tom měl p. obecní radní Josef Matouš též flintu a vystřelil z ní jednou, aby nás postrašil a vzbudil v nás důvodnou obavu a aby nás všichni obvinění přinutili své dosavadní bydliště opustiti a z Ludkovic pryč se odstěhovati.
This article focuses on the contemporary common association of itinerant trades with “Gypsyness” ... more This article focuses on the contemporary common association of itinerant trades with “Gypsyness” and the consequent relation between adopting anti-Gypsy measures and the state intentions to regulate professing itinerant trades. By analysing the intended bill on itinerant trades, the study shows how were the administrative police terms such as Gypsies and “work-shies” intertwined. It, further, argues that limiting space for self-employed mobile economic activities went hand in hand with legalizing the status of second-class citizens in 1927 when a new law On Wandering Gypsies was passed by the Czechoslovak Parliament. The article also analyses the agency of one particular itinerant traders´ association called Kotva (Anchor) and pays the attention to the traders´ manifold defensive strategies. Because of their close contacts with Gypsies – sharing social and economic spaces –, setting themselves apart from the Gypsies and presenting themselves as “decent citizens”, i.e. part of the Czechoslovak nation, constituted crucial agenda of this association. In their successful effort to shield themselves of being included into the new police register of “wandering Gypsies” they reproduced and amplified the state aim to eliminate “work-shies” among itinerant traders. In this way, the article deals with the process of racialization of the category of Gypsies in the interwar Czechoslovakia. And racialization is presented as intricate historical process which was influenced even by the non-state historical actors.
Bohemia. Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Kultur der Böhmischen Länder, 2019
A lot of times has passed since the 1990s, when a heated and controversial debate about concentr... more A lot of times has passed since the 1990s, when a heated and controversial debate about concentration camps in Lety near Písek and in Hodonín near Kunštát began in the Czech Republic, and quite a few historical studies devoted to this topic have appeared meanwhile. The present article seeks to take the ongoing debate a step further by analyzing the descriptions of persons characterized as "Gypsies" in Czechoslovak police and gendarmerie journals, textbooks and handbooks. The use of the "Gypsy" label is examined by the author with regard to the development of police forces (state police and gendarmerie) and of criminal science in Czechoslovakia during the First and Second Republic. On the basis, he comes to conclusion that a radicalization (racial allocation becoming increasingly important) of the "Gypsy" notion occurred in the 1920s and 1930s. In this context, the 1927 law on "vagrant Gypsies" was especially important, as it legitimized the use of fingerprints (dactyloscopy) for the registration of those who were labeled as Gypsies.
Tento článek se zabývá několikanásobnou vraždou Romů, kterou v noci z 1. na 2. října 1928 spáchal... more Tento článek se zabývá několikanásobnou vraždou Romů, kterou v noci z 1. na 2. října 1928 spáchali neromští obyvatelé obce Pobedim ležící na západním Slovensku a kterou lze označit za protiromský pogrom. Pozornost je věnována především interakcím mezi různými československými státními orgány, jako bylo četnictvo, okresní úřad, zemský úřad, soud a obce v daném regionu krátce před i po vypuknutí pogromu. V návaznosti na teoretický rámec Giorgia Agambena, který pro účely historické analýzy vývoje proticikánských opatření rozvinula například historička Jennifer Illuzzi, autor v článku tvrdí, že extrémní násilí pramenilo z napětí a konfliktů mezi těmi historickými aktéry, již měli uplatňovat dobová proticikánská opatření na lokální úrovni. Taková situace vedla k vytvoření výjimečného stavu pro obyvatele označované za „cikány“. Analýza dále odhaluje nejrůznější dobové praktiky vyloučení namířené vůči „cikánům“ v období meziválečného Československa. Přestože byli Romové v tomto případě oběti brutálního útoku, dokonce i soudní řízení svědčí o extrémní mocenské asymetrii mezi obviněnými pachateli, již byli popisováni jako „spořádaní občané“, a holými životy Romů. Vzhledem k tomu, že státní úřady obešly soudní orgány a vytvořily vlastní řešení, které bylo z perspektivy veřejného zájmu údajně vhodnější, byli Romové uzavřeni ve výjimečném stavu. Článek mimoto ukazuje, že představy o internaci „cikánů“ v různých formách nucených pracovních táborů coby ztělesnění výjimečného stavu pramenily z vlastní dynamiky uplatňování proticikánských opatření.
This study offers a qualitative analysis of two interrelated practices implemented in interwar Cz... more This study offers a qualitative analysis of two interrelated practices implemented in interwar Czechoslovakia with respect to ‘Gypsy children’. First of all, it deals with so-called ‘Gypsy schools’, which were in practice separate auxiliary classes for ‘Gypsy children’ established in Slovakia and Transcarpathian Ruthenia in 1927–1938. In the following, the author outlines a practice of taking children from families which were based on Czechoslovak law on ‘vagrant gipsies’, adopted in 1927, identified by authorities as ‘vagrant gipsies’. Both of these separate and largely regionally applied approaches are set within a wider context of implementation of state administration in the areas in question (eastern Slovakia and Transcarpathian Ruthenia on the one hand and Bohemia on the other hand) and within a context of contemporary expert discussions about a ‘re-education of Gypsy children’. The author argues that these were two distinct approaches to assimilation of ‘Gypsies’ into the Czechoslovak society, that is, to integration based on erasing and fully removing the alleged ‘Gypsyness’.
This article deals with the multiple murders of Roma people committed by a number of local citize... more This article deals with the multiple murders of Roma people committed by a number of local citizens in Pobedim, a village in West Slovakia, during the night of October 1–2, 1928, which could be understood as an anti-Roma pogrom. Attention is paid to the interactions between different Czechoslovak state authorities such as gendarmerie, the district office, provincial office, court and municipalities in the region shortly before the outbreak of the pogrom and in its aftermath. Drawing on Giorgio Agamben´s theory elaborated for the analysis of anti-Gypsy measures by various scholars, e.g. Jennifer Illuzzi, the author argues that the extreme violence resulted from the tensions and conflicts between those historical actors who enforced the contemporary anti-Gypsy measures on the regional level and which led to the creation of the state of exception for the population labeled as Gypsies. The analysis also reveals the variety of contemporary practices of exclusion towards the population labeled as Gypsies in interwar Czechoslovakia. Despite the fact that the Roma were victims of a brutal assault even the trials attest to the extreme asymmetry of power between the accused portrayed as “decent citizens” and the bare lives of the Roma. Because the executive state authorities circumvented the judiciary and forged their own solution allegedly more suited to the public interest, the Roma were caught in the state of exception. Furthermore, the article shows how ideas of Gypsies´ internment in various types of forced labor camps as a permanent and spatial embodiment of the state of exception stemmed from the dynamic of enforcing anti-Gypsy measures.
During the night from the 1 st to the 2 nd of October 1928 a group of at least 40 attackers assau... more During the night from the 1 st to the 2 nd of October 1928 a group of at least 40 attackers assaulted the Roma settlement situated at the outskirts of Pobedim, a village 7 kilometres north from Piešťany in Slovakia. The attackers, armed with sticks and boxers and several handguns, killed 6 and wounded 8 Roma including a 6-year-old child. They also tried to raze the whole settlement to the ground. Survivors of this event afterwards testified that they had recognized several peasants and even the mayor of Pobedim among the attackers. Afterwards, gendarmes took 21 Pobedim men into custody and questioned more than 50 locals. However, no one from the village confessed. Not a single citizen heard the shooting and screaming coming from the Roma settlement that night. Of all the people accused, the court found guilty only 10 men. They were found guilty of violence. But no one was found guilty of a particular murder.
In this paper, I focus on development of the “Gypsy school” project in Uzhhorod (Carpathian Ruthe... more In this paper, I focus on development of the “Gypsy school” project in Uzhhorod (Carpathian Ruthenia) and its practical implementation by the Czechoslovak administration. The project was perceived as a civilizing “experiment” that combined education and hygiene principles. Moreover, I describe how this unique case from the 1920s turned into a common practice within Czechoslovakia.
On December 22, 1926, an opening ceremony of the so-called Gypsy school was held in Uzhhorod, the... more On December 22, 1926, an opening ceremony of the so-called Gypsy school was held in Uzhhorod, the capital of the Czechoslovak administration in Carpathian Ruthenia. Czech officials who gave talks pointed out pedagogical significance of the established institution which they described as unique and exceptional “experiment”. The creation of a special school for children of those inhabitants who were labelled as “Gypsies” on the territory which was annexed by Czechoslovakia only later after the First World War and which in the contemporary imagination represented specific, “backward” region of the newly established state, served to consolidate the legitimacy of the First Republic as a democratic, progressive, modern, liberal state which belonged to the developed and civilized West. More than a half year later, on July 14, 1927, representatives in the Czechoslovak Parliament in Prague passed the Act No. 117/1927 on Wandering Gypsies. The development of this law was related to an immense interest of the contemporary media in “Gypsies” which was encouraged by the arrest of approximately twenty “Gypsies” from a village located in East Slovakia. They were charged of numerous robberies and murders. In contrast to the situation shortly after the First World War when the central Czechoslovak authorities didn´t accommodated various demands of the local authorities to “solve” the alleged “Gypsy question” and also in contrast to the situation in majority of European states, the Czechoslovak centre and right-wing government readied a special bill with the aim to bring “Gypsies” under intensified and permanent police surveillance and control. Subject of this thesis constitutes discussions on the “Gypsy question”, the creation and implementation of anti-Gypsy measures and also practices which meant to serve assimilation of the “Gypsies” into the Czechoslovak or Czech society during the First and Second Republic and the early phase of the Protectorate Bohemia and Moravia. The goal is to reconstruct the ways in which individual state authorities – on the central as well as on the local level – used not only the law from 1927 but the whole complex of measures which worked against “Gypsies”. The attention is paid to the role which in the process of labelling certain inhabitants as “Gypsies” or “Wandering Gypsies” played the category of race and the symbolic geographies of the West and the East within the interwar Czechoslovakia. In addition to that I also trace key categories and discourses which played an important role in the implementation of anti-Gypsy measures as well as in the assimilation practices towards “Gypsies”, such as criminality, bodily differences, youth care etc. The analysis of manifold sources transcends the traditional milestones of political history. It deals with changes in the criminalization of “Gypsies”, and their assimilation, in long-term time span and asks broader questions about historical continuities and discontinuities or about the nature of different political regimes.
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