Book Reviewed: Rain of Ash: Roma, Jews, and the Holocaust by Ari Joskowicz

Romas under the ash The genocide orchestrated by Nazi Germany in various concentration camps, particularly in places like Auschwitz-Birkenau were literally under the rain of ash. This is the literal falling of ash from the crematoria where the bodies of Jewish and Roma victims were burnt. Half a million European Roma were exterminated by the Nazi regime; many more were subjected to a policy of racial discrimination similar to that suffered by the Jewish people. However, the persecution and torment of Roma in Europe did not make into the history books. With the Romani people having been denied recognition as victims of Nazi Germany, this book focuses on the survivors, and their struggle for recognition. Historically, the cause of the Romani people was combined with Jewish holocaust in the same analytical framework. This book discusses an unequal entanglement of Jewish and Romani sufferings for justice and representation.