'I haven't found any sympathy.' (Anton Facuna, 1947). Usable past of a war-veteran and a Romani activist in communist Slovakia
Abstract
Anton Facuna was a war veteran from the Second World War who served in a special Anglo-American mission sent to Slovakia in 1944 to save Allied flyers from Slovakian territory and to support the Slovak National Uprising. He was also one of the leading figures of the post-war Romani sociopolitical movement in Slovakia, briefly becoming the president of the only Romani organization in Slovakia sanctioned by the communist authorities, the Union of Gypsies-Roma (1969-1973).
Anton Facuna died in 1980. His name almost fell into public oblivion until the first decade of the new millennium.
The paper focuses on the ways in which Anton Facuna made his presence in the public debate and communication with state institutions with the aim to explore how dominant historical narratives shaped the ways in which Anton Facuna's life story was re-narrated at different occasions. By doing so, it also explores the early developments of the narrative of the fate of the Roma during Second World War.