The study uses the interpretive framework of archival silence to examine the history of Roma settlement clearances in Budapest during the state-socialist period. The first half of the paper introduces and explores the concept referring to the invisibility of marginalized social groups in archives, with a particular focus on its applicability to the study of Roma history. This is followed by a reflection on the historical memory of the clearances of Roma settlements in light of this partly methodological, partly epistemological and interpretive challenge. How much do archival sources reveal about the intensive clearance operations carried out across the city during the 1970s and 1980s? What can they tell us about the fate of the “protagonists” – the Roma of Budapest – or about their lives before and after the clearances? These actions can certainly be regarded as attempts at social integration in various districts; however, it remains problematic how much of their realities can be reconstructed from sources that preserve only the voices of planners and executors while omitting those of the actual subjects.

What does Romany heritage mean in Hungary today? Can the “minority heritage” definitions and theories prevalent in international (especially English-language) scholarship be used for the preservation of Hungarian Romany culture, and for practices of its institutionalization? Where is the cultural heritage of the largest minority in Hungary kept, and what are the sites whose nonexistence (they either never existed or ceased to exist) and marginalization serve forgetting rather than memory. The study seeks answers to these questions through a summary of the general state and perception of European Romany culture, followed by an overview charting the possibilities of preserving and managing the Hungarian Romany heritage. After the description of European Romany museums, the study presents the long-standing trials and tribulations of the Hungarian Romany museum, as well as case studies of two smaller-scale Romany heritage collections, which can be best described as “participatory heritage,” created and managed by the active participation of local communities.

Nincs absztrakt.

Nincs absztrakt.