PORRAIMOS: EUROPE'S GYPSIES IN THE HOLOCAUST

PORRAIMOS: EUROPE'S GYPSIES IN THE HOLOCAUST

    Price: $310.00

    Code: 1898

    Directed by Alexandra Isles
    2001, 57 minutes
    Purchase: $310 Rental: $125


    This historical video chronicles the Roma (Gypsy) Holocaust—Porraimos, or "the devouring." It is the first American documentary to expose how the pseudo-science of eugenics was used to persecute not only Jews, but also Gypsies. To the Nazis, Gypsies' dark skin and nomadic ways made them "lives not worthy of life." Using interviews with Austrian, Czech and German Gypsy survivors (including the Jewish artist who was ordered by Joseph Mengele to paint portraits of Gypsy prisoners at Auschwitz), as well as photographs and films from the Reich Department of Racial Hygiene, this video reveals the oppression of the Gypsies—their registration and segregation, their sterilization, the medical experiments, and their eventual murder. Porraimos remembers Gypsy victims of the Holocaust—victims whose persecution has been all but forgotten.

    Subjects & Collections



    Festivals & Awards

    American Library Association, 2003 Notable Video for Adults
    Premiere Screening, US Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC
    Official Selection, Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival
    Official Selection, Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival
    Winner, Golden Wheel Festival, Skopje, Macedonia
    Refocusing the Holocaust, Cinema Arts Centre, Huntington, NY
    Official Selection, Documentary Fortnight, Museum of Modern Art
    Screened on WNET/THIRTEEN, New York


    Reviews

    "[Porraimos] adds another whole layer to the evil of the Holocaust."
    The New York Times

        "Alexandra Isles' gripping documentary should rightly take a revered place alongside the more extensive body of work detailing the Jewish Holocaust. Highly recommended."
    Video Librarian