Abstract
The speaker introduced her historical study of ten legionnaires with Romani origin, who have earned the status of "legionnaire by law" from the First World War. This status was important for a period 1919-1938, when legionnaires generally had privileged position in society.
The speaker presented several questions about the Romani legionnaires' integration in their next life. In the first part, there were briefly introduced all ten selected people, their involvement in the legions and possible valuation and recognition.
The focus of the study was on the period 1919-1945. One of the author's goals is to find out whether the successful legionnaires with Romani origin succeeded in achieving a social rise after the end of the First World War thanks to their participation in the legions.
On several fragments of a personal legionary file of one of them, Josef Holomek, the presentation will show how the legionnaires could be honored by their "confreres". The study demonstrates that, despite their participation in the legionary movement, almost all of the legionnaries with Romani origin were also living in the interwar period as marginalised people and that most of them, including their relatives, were even murdered in a concentration camp during the Second World War.
The research thus brings insights into the social processes of marginalization of the disadvantaged and proves that the seemingly privileged group of legionaries was in reality internally categorized in the inter-war period and distinguished in practical life according to their (ethno-)social origin.