Genocide Touches Nerves

I read with interest the article on director Aaron Yeger’s documentary about Roma victims of the Holocaust. But this matter is by no means unknown or undocumented, as your article seems to suggest. Just because people don’t notice or listen to the wealth of existing information about Roma victims in the Holocaust, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Best wishes. – Janna Eliot

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How egregiously insensitive of Matt Kettman to say that “only” half a million Roma died in the Holocaust, and how meanly competitive of him to call it only a “fraction” of the number of Jews who perished. The figure of half a million is outdated, the current estimate is one and a half million based on documentation more recent than the completion of the film under review. The UN’s definition makes it clear that intent, not numbers, determine genocide. But if Mr. Kettman is intent on one-upmanship and the numbers game, how about tallying the number of survivors? Ten times as many Jewish Holocaust survivors lived than did Roma survivors. Roma did not leave India as nomads; he might do some homework on our history.–Mary Hindge