Roma and Sinti genocide must be taught in schools after Jimmy Carr ‘joke’, charities say

The comedian should not be left to teach the British public, they warned

Jimmy Carr has faced a torrent of criticism following his Netflix show (Getty Images)

More than 40 charities have called on the government to make the genocide of Roma and Sinti people a compulsory part of Holocaust teaching in schools.

It follows outrage over comments made by comedian Jimmy Carr, who used the Nazi murders of Gypsy people as a punchline in a Netflix standup routine.

He said people “never mention the thousands of Gypsies that were killed by the Nazis” in the Holocaust because “no one ever wants to talk about the positives”.

More than 500,000 Roma and Sinti people were tortured, starved, subjected to forced labour and medical experiments under the Nazis.

There has been widespread backlash, including from people in the Roma, Sinti and Traveller community, anti-fascist groups and politicians including the prime minister.

Greg Sproston, policy and campaigns manager at The Traveller Movement said earlier this week: “If you’ve got a punchline to a joke which is indistinguishable from the genuinely held beliefs of Nazis and fascists, a line has been crossed.”

Now, charities have written to education secretary Nadhim Zahawi, saying the genocide of Roma and Sinti people must be a mandatory part of the national curriculum.

The letter says: “The fact that the comments were made, deemed suitable by Netflix to air and laughed at by the audience, has once again highlighted the deep-seated prejudice that exists against Gypsy and Roma communities.”

“Including the history of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities in school curricula would improve the understanding that the communities are an integral part of both national and European societies, and would act as an effective tool to combat hatred, discrimination and prejudice,” it adds.

The letter cites 2019 YouGov research which found more than half of adults in Britain did not know that more than 500,000 Roma and Sinti people were killed by the Nazis.

Mattey Mitchell, health campaigns officer at the charity Friends, Families and Travellers said: “The experiences of Roma and Sinti peoples during the Holocaust remain in living memory, but are still largely unknown to the wider public.

“When these memories are gone also from our communities, who then will remain to ensure history does not repeat itself?”

“We [must] provide our children with the tools of empathy, understanding and critical thought,” he said.

The letter also said there needed to be a wider package of measures to tackle deep-seated prejudice and “improve the educational outcomes of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children”.

Friends, Families and Travellers found 86% of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children had been bullied at school, while 73% had experienced racism.

It added the department for education should help schools celebrate Gypsy, Roma and Traveller History Month – and called for the curriculum to set out a positive story about these communities.

The letter was organised by Friends, Families and Travellers and Roma Support Group, and signed by charities including the Anne Frank Trust, Race Equality Foundation, Show Racism the Red Card, Runnymede Trust.

Tim Robertson, chief executive of The Anne Frank Trust, said his organisation has found “young people’s stigmatisation of Gypsy Roma Traveller people to be more profound and intransigent than any other form of prejudice.”

He added: “Jimmy Carr’s cruel joking, and the laughter that followed it, show once again that addressing this issue is an urgent national educational priority.”

The Holocaust is a mandatory subject on the secondary school history curriculum.

The department for education explained schools “have the flexibility to teach about the persecution of different groups of people by the Nazis” but stopped short of saying the genocide of Roma and Sinti people should be made compulsory.