Cultural policy and the governmentalization of Holocaust remembrance in Europe: Romani memory between denial and recognition

Abstract

We have been able to observe a shift in the European Union’s cultural policy from conceptualizing culture in symbolic terms to instrumentalizing it in governmental terms. Taking the example of Romani minority governance in Europe, this paper analyzes the consequences of this turn and focuses on the nexus between Romani Holocaust remembrance and cultural policy in the EU and its member states, the Czech Republic in particular. Governing through cultural and memorial practices, rather than predominantly through social policies and human and minority rights, represents a relatively new stage in how the EU tries to deal with Romani minorities in post‐communist Europe. The politics of European minority integration has led to an increased attention to the marginalized situation in which many European Roma live. However, the simultaneous governmentalization of Holocaust remembrance for integrative aims risks reinforcing stereotypes of the Roma, thereby hampering insight into current marginalizing mechanisms toward them and into possibilities to challenge these processes.