Czechoslovak Civilizing Mision: Assimilation Practices towards Romani Children between 1918 and 1972
Abstract
The study represents a qualitative micro-historical analysis of two related practices towards Romani children in interwar Czechoslovakia. Firstly, it deals with the so-called Gypsy schools which in fact were segregated special classes for "Gypsy children" and which were established between 1927 and 1938 on the territory of Slovakia and Carpathian Ruthenia.
Secondly, it sketches out the practice of taking away the children from the families which were labelled as "wandering Gypsies" according to the Czechoslovak Act No. 117/1927 On Wandering Gypsies. This article puts both these different and locally embedded practices in the context of state administration (East Slovakia and Carpathian Ruthenia on one hand and Bohemia on the other) and contemporary expert debates on "re-educating Gypsy children".
The author argues that it was about two different practices of assimilation of Gypsies into Czechoslovak society, i.e. such a form of inclusion which is based on erasing the former Gypsy difference.