Travelling, trade and assimilation: the history of Romani and Rom in Norway
For 500 years the Romani and later Rom groups were travelling around in Norway, trading at markets and working with the local farmers. Their existence was accepted by the population but pursued to be forcefully settled and assimilated by the state in ways that was way tougher than for other minorities.
Romani groups travelled into Norway in the 1500s through Sweden and Denmark, and they were not warmly welcomed here as anywhere else in Europe at the time. England for example, made a deal with the Danish-Norwegian king to ship a group of their bothersome “gypsies” (slang for egyptians) to Norway, but it’s unclear whether they ever arrived. The wandering Romani groups got nicknamed Tatars in Germany and other european countries, because the Romani was mistakenly assumed to be Tatars or Egyptians, as they themselves said they came from “little Egypt”.
Authorities around in Europe and Denmark-Norway made strict laws such as death penalty for leaders of Romani groups, confiscation of assets, accusation of witchcraft, and it was also forbidden to house them at your farm or give them a ride. Such laws may given the impression of a rather hostile relation between the locals and Romanis everywhere, but in reality they were both in close contact with one another; in 1728 a Romani group was arrested after being hosted at local farms in Sør-Trøndelag county in Norway. The authorities interrogated the farm owners as well, but it was never any descriptions of the Romani being dangerous or violent. On the contrary it was several statements that the Romani had behaved properly, and only a hat had disappeared from one of the farms when a little Romani boy had taken it to wear it himself. Begging was mentioned and so was witchcraft — but their magic had seemed harmless: “tomorrow you will get a tooth ache!” had been the response from a Romani when he didnt get what he wanted.
In the 1860’s the second group of Rom came to Norway, as their slavery in Valakia in Romania ended and emigration spread throughout Europe. Rom and Romani groups often took jobs that was considered unwanted or dirty, such as handling horses or selling handmade tools to locals. With time Romani and Rom individuals married locals or even taking in Norwegians who wanted to join their travels. Finnskogen at the border to Sweden became a permanent home for many Rom and Romanis who wanted to settle down permanently, as the border areas had large forests that was mostly unhabited. These eastern parts of Norway became a melting pot of several immgrant groups, such as the Finnish immigrants known as “Skogfinner”, Swedish construction workers, Romani, Sami and Norwegian farmers.
With Nationalism, Romantiscism and a fight for indenpence from Swedish union rule, Norway started with a policy of cultural assimilation — the Norwegianization policy. It hit hard on minorities in the eastern parts of Norway, especially Romani who had no permanent home or profession.
The Norwegian Mission for the homeless
Rom and Romani were breaking the laws of being homeless, lacking documents that proved their citizenship, or being accused of theft which would have sent them to the nearest Tukthus, a labor prison in a town. Many also lived as boat travellers or ran carpenter businesses in Oslo (Kristiania). The government didn’t see a quick integration from them as a whole, and sponsored a private organization to solve the problem: The Organization of Counteracting Travellers / The Norwegian Mission for the homeless (1897–1989). They ran orphanages and labor camps, where the goal was to eradicate the Romani and Rom culture and instead integrate them into Norwegian society. Their labor camp Svanviken offered “housing-and labor training for adult travellers — and school for the children”. Those who ended up there often chose it to avoid punishment such as having their children taken away by the police or social services. After the stay many had to accept help to find a permanent home and job, possibly threatened of punishment if they did not agree to a more acceptable lifestyle.
Sterilization and castration of men, women and girls were also commonly done at the labor camp from 1934 to the 1970s, more or less under threat of loosing payments, children, or sometimes without any explanation at all. There was many Rom and Romani among the 3709 women and 420 men who were sterilized or castrated “voluntairly” between 1934–1954. One had the opinion that “travelling” was hereditary, and that most of the “travellers” were not suited to raise children who would become an economical burden for the society. It was for example costly for society to have so many children in orphanages. Especially those of the Romani or Rom people, who had been taken away from their still-living parents. In the school homes or orphanages they had control over the children through schooling, confiscation of letters from parents and separation of siblings. But they did not control them as soon as they grew past 15 years of age, so to avoid future expenditures on children of Romani, the authorities gave permission to sterilize or castrate the children / youth before they left their adoptive homes or orphanages.
The gypsy laws
The laws became even stricter as the 20th century progressed. In the 1920s the so-called “gypsy laws” made travelling and immigration of Rom and Romani even more limited, as the laws replaced the old “løsgjenger” laws of 1900, that were to prevent individuals who wandered around without any home or legal work. The gypsy laws inflicted the Rom group much more than Romani, as they were a more recent immigrated group. They could not travel around sell their crafts or horses as they could before, and Rom groups without Norwegian citizenship were denied entrance. Many Rom people had for instance been born in Norway and had in their birth right gotten a Norwegian citizenship. Without any clear legal basis, the authorities determined that these passports were invalid, and that they could not be renewed or used when entering Norway after a stay abroad. During the Second World War many Rom or Romani people were sent to concentration camps by the Nazi rule of Norway. Rom or Romani abroad who tried to return for protection were banned, and suffered other places in Europe where Norwegian-born Rom ended up in concentration camps. The gypsy laws were changed in 1956, leading to many previous expelled individuals being allowed to come back, including the few who survived Holocaust.
In the 1950s the Norwegian authorities decided to further implement laws to restrict travellers, such as by mid-50s it was forbidden to travel around with horses and carriages. That lead to most Rom and Romani loosing their main form of transport and work, which further drove people to settle permanently during winter, and then travel by car or camping wagon in summer.
Lobotomy
Between 1941 to 1959 there were 2500 yearly lobotomations at Gaustad and Lier public hospitals, most often women than men, with patients down to 11 years of age. The death rate was around 24% at Gaustad hospital until 1950, but the risk was not told to the patient nor the family. Lobotomy was considered a good treatment to lower anxiety, difficult behavior and psychotic symptoms as the patient calmed down if they survived. Rom and Romani ended up as patients in mental hospitals through social services, orphanages or health services, both teenagers and adults who somehow failed to fit into the society. As with the other dead patients of lobotomy, around 50 Rom or Romani were laid in unmarked mass graves at Riis cemetary in Oslo and the family were never told of their whereabouts or the reason of their deaths. The last lobotomy surgery were performed in 1974.
Ending the treatment
With an increasing public recognition of minorities since the 1960s and improved healthcare systems, many of the imposed assimilation efforts towards the Rom and Romani were stopped in the late half of the 20th century. The Ministry of Social Affairs recieved an increasing critisim of The Norwegian Mission organization in which they supported economically, and the orphanages and foster care homes were put down in 1989. The Norwegian Mission for the homeless rehomed about 1500 children from the about 3–5000 registered Rom and Romani families in the first half of the 20th century.
Ending the secrecy in the orphanages and for adopted children meant that many families and siblings found each other again, and repayment from the state were given to victims of lobotomy from 1996 thanks to the work of Dr. Joar Tranøy, who researched and published hidden documents from Gaustad and Lier mental hospitals. In the late 1990s all minorities recieved a national status through the European Council convention which meant that Rom and Romani culture, language and lifestyle had a right to be preserved and presented to the public such as through museums, organizations and research. The Norwegian Helsingfors Committee was one of the forces behind this recognition from the 1990s, which in turn made the Ministry of Social Affairs conduct research on Rom and Romani in adoption, social services and sterilization cases. The Norwegian Helsingfors Committee statements in 2009 goes so far as to say that the Norwegian authorities followed the same line of thinking towards the Romani people as in other countries resulted in crimes against humanity.
Over the last decades a Romani fund has been set up and a compensation scheme has been introduced. Rom and Romani did recieve a public apology from the authorities but there still haven’t been as much research, political organization and activism towards Romani or Rom as with other minorities in Norway. The Romani and Rom people still face discrimination in school, from the police and in the labor market, either by being denied access to campsites or by not being given the opportunity to learn their language. Many of Rom and Romani background also finds the use of “tater/tatar” and “gypsy” derogatory.
There are many stories about the Rom and Romani that have not yet been told, but they should.
