Focus ROMI.HR

The History of nomads and Gypsies during the Second World War is litlle known. In France, we had to wait until 2016 for French President François Hollande to acknowledge France's responsibility for the persecution of nomads and the internment of thousands of gypsies during the Second World War. In this optic, the Gypsies, called now Roma people, have to remember their heros during this time and can draw inspiration from their testimony to continue building the pride of the Roma community and stay standing in front of dscriminations.

One of them is-was Raymond Gurême. Born in 1925 in France in the Seine-et-Marne region, Raymond Gurême is coming from a family of itinerant gypsies. Clown, acrobat and musician kid, the familial circus was waiting to be run by him and his father. 

The 4th of October 1940, a German law- prescription had decreed the internment of Gypsies in the occupied zone in camps placed under the rersponsibility of the French police. The same day the fifteen years old Raymond Gurême and his family were deported to a French gypsy camp at Darnetal near Rouen. There, the young Raymond managed to escape with his brother after several attempts, but returned numerous times to the camp to bring food and clothes to his family. Later, his fammily was deported to the biggest Gypsy camp Montreuil-Bellay. In 1942, French authorites place him in a juvenile reform school in Angers (France) where he hijacked a train for the Resistance and due to this event he was deported just after in a working camp in Germany from which he escapes again. 

Back in France he joined the Resistance. The French Resistance (French: La Résistance) was a collection of groups that fought the Nazi occupation of France and the collaborationist Vichy régime in France during the Second World War. 

At the end of the war, the Gypsy camp Montreuil-Bellay was released in 1946, so almost two years after the Liberation of Paris in 1944. Raymond was reunited with his family only nine years later in Belgium.

Father of 15 children, he settled himself in 1968 a few kilometers from the old camp. Simple coincidence or desire to confront french authorities who were still trying to disloge him and his family, whatever the reason Raymond dedicated the rest of his life to testify the horrors that Gypsies lived during the 2nd World War and fight for their recognition. In addition his everyday combat is against the discrimination that Roma and Travellers community still suffer. On the 23th of September 2014, two policemen came in his caravan for a police raid (search?) that Raymond refused and they severely beaten him. A complaint agaisnt the police officers was lodged but unfortunately not pursued.

In the idea of spreading his testimony and fight against discriminations, Raymond testifies in public for the first time in 2004 and will continue to talk regularly in schools among young people.

In 2010, he joined the Collective for the commemoration of the internment of Gypsies and Travellers at the Linas-Montlhéry to bear witness and demand official recognition of the internment of nomads by the French state. It was only during this year (2010), on the occasion of the National Day in Memory of the Victims of the French State's Racist and Anti-Semitic Crimes, that the Secretary of State for Defense and Veterans Hubert Falco officially acknowledged for the first time that "nomads" had been interned for racial reasons on French soil, thanks to the support of the French authorities.Futhermore, it was not until 2016 that the French government paid its first national tribute to the nomads interned at Montreuil-Bellay, the biggest Gypsies camp in France, where Raymond Gureme ans his family were interned.

In 2011, he wrote a book “Interdit aux nomades“ (“Forbidden to nomads“), co-written with Isabelle Ligner, in which he recounts his internment as a gypsy during Second World War, and the discrimination still suffered by the Roma and Traveller communities. His book is a testimony of History but also an actual call for recognition and solidarity with the Roma community in the face of injustice.

In 2012, Raymond Gurteme was decorated with (received) the French honorary decoration managed by the Ministry of Culture the Medaille du Chevalier de l´Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (medal of the Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters) by Fredric Mitterand, Minister of Culture. This honor was offered to Raymond for having "contributed to the fight against the discrimination still suffered by Gypsies in our country (France), who have lived here since the 15th century and are French citizens in their own right“.

Raymond Gureme passed away on the 24th May 2020 at the age of 94 year old but not his activism. Since he became a role model for Roma and Travellers community to fight for their rights, he continue to inspire Roma community by his courage. 

“My testimony is for young people. Don’t leave your future to the hands of bloody fools! You must resist. You must resist the discrimination, racism, violent evictions to which the Roma and Travellers are falling victim across all of Europe. We, the old ones have lit the flame. Now, it is up to young people to feed it, make it grow, and so that we become stronger.  Young people, stand up! Stay standing, and never fall to your knees!” Raymond Gureme´s speech during the commemoration at Auschwitz-Birkenau, 2nd August 2016