A pesterzsébeti cigánytelep-felszámolások emlékezete

Absztrakt

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.