Sweden: We’re so racist that we’re measuring Roma skulls
Sweden publishes book on racism against Roma
The Swedish Ministry of Integration has published the systematic discrimination against Roma by the Swedish state in the 1900s under the title of “White Paper”.
Integration Minister Erik Ullenhag, who stated that the report was prepared to reveal a dark period in Swedish history, said, “We are explaining how Roma people have been subjected to racist and second-class human treatment by the Swedish people and state since the beginning of the twentieth century with the “White Paper”.” The report in question was prepared based on academic and field research studies on Roma, the accounts of Roma witnesses and archives.
The White Paper includes information that a common racist and discriminatory coalition was formed against Gypsies in Sweden in the early 1900s, and that the generally accepted perception was that Gypsies were “ugly”, “untrustworthy”, “inhumane” and “people who should be exterminated”.
The report also states that in the 1920s, the Committee for the Aid of the Poor advised Swedish parliamentarians that the Roma were polluting the pure Swedish race and that they should leave the country.
“The stories are the naked truth of history,” says a Roma witness named Mikael Demeter Taikons, adding, “In the 1900s, there was a strong reaction against the Roma living as nomads. Many municipalities provided housing and food aid to the Roma on the condition that they did not leave the provincial borders. If they left the municipal borders, they were fined.”
The report also states that in the 1940s, using the model adopted from the Nazis, the Roma were sterilized under the name of “improving the race,” and that families who did not accept this were punished. Another witness named Hans Caldaras describes witnessing people washing newborn babies in cold water in a children’s nursery under the name of public health.
Research has revealed that among the Gypsies sent from various countries to the Nazi death camps during World War II, there were also Gypsies sent from Sweden. However, Sweden collaborated with the Nazis despite not being involved in World War II.
In the White Book, it is revealed on behalf of the Swedish state that the Roma were assimilated, their skulls were measured, they were discriminated against in school and work life and they were profiled in order to create a welfare society.
Today, however, discrimination against Roma has not been completely eliminated.
Last September, the police in the Skane region of Sweden illegally profiled approximately four thousand Roma aged two and above. Following the incident, intense reactions arose from the public and the press, and the Minister of Justice apologized to the Roma and launched an investigation.
It is noteworthy that the report and book in question came to the agenda after the police profiling in Skane. The topics regarding the improvement of the socio-economic situations of the Roma, especially identity issues in Europe, are among the issues that have weight within the EU.
Cetin Ceko
25.03.2014
