Naród z popiołów. Pamięć zagłady a tożsamośc Romów. [A nation from the ashes: Memory of genocide and Roma identity] by Sławomir Kapralski (review)

Narod z popiolow. Pamicc zaglady a tozsamosc Romow. [A nation from the ashes: Memory of genocide and Roma identity] Slawomir Kapralski. Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Scholar, 2012, 466 pp, isbn 978-83-7383-457Reviewed by Elena Marushiakova and Vesselin PopovThe book with the poetical title A nation from the ashes by Slawomir Kapralski is devoted to the Roma and their memory of suffering, and its relation to the Roma identity. This is not the first publication examining genocide suffered by the Roma, but the first that puts it into the broader context of memory, identity development and nation building. The book examines the consequences of the Holocaust for Roma and discusses processes in which memory becomes a marker of identity rather than simply a recollection of the past. The sociocultural process of reconstructing the meaning of the past is analysed as being caused by, among other things, the transformation of Roma identity that followed the changes in the Romas status in Europe after the World War II. The book speaks about the "cultures of memory", about Roma politics of identity, about globalization of Holocaust discourse and its role as a "master narrative" of a pan-Romani identity. Kapralski introduces the label of "memory retailers", as "a category mediating between Romani elites and grassroots". The conclusion is that Romani identities are "neither traditional", nor "national", but form a "postmodern flexible hybrid of cultural constructs", a conclusion with which we cannot but agree.In the field of Romani studies it has recently become almost a rule to start any publication with an explanation of what should be understood under the term "Roma". Kapralski's book is no exception - at the very beginning the author explains that he uses the term "Roma" "in the political, not ethnic sense as a summary term for all groups known as Cyganie, Gypsies, Zigeuner, etc. and also Sinti, Cale, Travellers, etc." (p. 7). The next important clarification highlights the author's ambition to make his book relevant not only to the limited circle of Romani studies scholars, but also to the general field of social studies and humanities. Slawomir Kapralski uses Geertz's famous quote that anthropologists study not villages, but in villages in order to characterize their research approach. He underlines that his book is not a book about Roma but rather that he is using the Roma as "native villages", in order to highlight the relationship between memory, identity and evidence of genocide and in general the role of traumatic memory in the building of a national identity.The basic question to which an answer is sought in the book is "whether Roma can be considered a nation and whether their project of national identity can be constructed out of the memory of the genocide they experienced in the time of the Second World War" (p. 466).The book is underpinned by an extensive bibliography covering the field of study and by in-depth knowledge of different Roma communities. It is partly based on the outcomes of special research conducted with seventy-three Roma activists from eleven countries of East-Central Europe within the framework of the "Violence and Memory" project, coordinated by Slawomir Kapralski in 1996 and 1997. An important part of the book is devoted to the discussion of the current state of general and Romani studies scholarship.Kapralski himself characterizes his work as a "theoretical treatise" - developing concepts through critical discussion of literature combined with empirical data from records of Roma discourse within communities, program documents and statements of Roma organisations and interviews with activists.In order to achieve this goal the author relies on research and deductive reasoning, from general theory down to particular examples. The author firstly analyses the existing mainstream theoretical concepts and then reviews theories in Romani studies, followed by the formulation of a hypothesis. …