Researchomnia

Monday, March 2, 2020

JEWS IN CAMPAGNA INTERNMENT CAMP

THE JEWS IN THE CAMPAGNA INTERNMENT CAMP (1940-1943)

Many Italian Jews from the northern Italian"Venezia Giulia" region were sent -during the first years of WW2- to the internment camp of Campagna, a small city in southern Italy. These Jews (some were from Trieste and Istria-Dalmatia, but many others were not Italian-born) in 1943 survived the "Holocaust" in this internment camp, where they were helped by some inhabitants of this ancient southern Italian town. One of those who gave most help to them in those terrible last months of 1943, when Italy surrendered to the Allies (who landed on September 9, 1943 on the beaches of Salerno, a few dozen kilometers from Campagna), was the mayor of Campagna - Carlino D'Ambrosio (uncle of my father).

In August 1940 was done this photo showing the Italian Jew Bruno Pincherle (a doctor from Trieste forced to stay in the internment camp of Campagna) wearing glasses in the center of the photo, surrounded by local friends of this little city.

. The historical background of the Jews in WW2 Italy, according to what Giuseppe Pulin wrote (read for more information http://www.dalrifugioallinganno.it/camisano/pp13-52.pdf) ,can be resumed with these excerpts: "....at the beginning of the second world war 41.300 were the Italian Jews.... Additionally there were 9,800 foreign Jews on Italian territory .... After the enactment of the racial laws of 1938 a few thousand Italian Jews left Italy (like the brilliant exponents of Italian physics Bruno Pontecorvo, Bruno Rossi, the Nobel laureates Emilio Segrè, Salvador Luria and even Enrico Fermi, who had a Jewish wife). Those who remained found a new life a bit easy, at least for the first few times. The discriminated ones were doing slightly better, while foreign residents were forced to leave Italy. The over-65-year-olds and those who had married to an Italian spouse could have remained ... By 20 September 1939 6,480 Italian Jews had left, however 2,486 had flowed into Italy (they were foreign Jews fleeing Germany, Poland and Yugoslavia)….. During 1941 the initial expulsion plan was set aside for objective impossibility due to the ongoing war and so on October 28th of that year, just over 7,000 foreign Jews -blocked- were present in Italy. Upon Italy's entry into the war, between departures and incoming arrivals, the balance of foreign Jews present in the peninsula had settled on 3,800 units. About 2,200 others would later join them, coming from areas under Italian military control (Slovenia, Dalmatia, Albania, Dodecanese, Libya) who were exceptionally allowed to enter Italy. In 1941 there were 7,369 foreign Jews interned in Italy and in April 1943 there were 6,832. In Italy, therefore, until the month of September 1943, civil internment was expressed in the two options of free internment camp (intended as a delimited and controlled space) and confinement (compulsory residence obligation in a given country) ... In the Campania region, four "internment" camps were created: Campagna, Ariano Irpino, Monteforte Irpino, and Solofra .... In the fields listed there were various types of internees ranging from opponents to the regime, to enemy subjects, to Gypsies, to allogens and of course to both Italian and foreign Jews. The latter were mainly found in the fields of: Alberobello (Bari), Ateleta (Aquila), Campagna (Salerno), Agnone (Campobasso), Carana (Cosenza), Ferramonti Tarsia (Cosenza), Gioia del Colle (Bari), Isola del Gran Sasso (Aquila), Marsiconuovo (Potenza), Montefiascone (Viterbo), Osimo (Ancona), Sforzacosta (Macerata), Terranova di Polino (Potenza), Tortoreto (Teramo), Tuscania and Valentano (Viterbo). Of these camps for Jews, the most important were those of Campagna and Ferramonti where in 1940 there were already about 400 Jews interned in the camps. "
Photo of the caserma San Bartolomeo (a former late XIV century convent), that was used as internment camp in Campagna

. The largest and most important of the internment camps for Jews in southern Italy was that of Campagna. Only male Jews were interned in this small city of eleven thousand inhabitants, located nearly 40 kms east of Salerno in southern Italy. The first prisoners were 340 men captured in different parts of Italy. The majority of these were Jewish refugees who came from Germany, Austria, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Dalmatia & Fiume, because Italian fascists were not harassing them like were doing German nazis; later another 100 were added, and so there were also some English, French, Russian, Turkish, Romanian and Latvian citizens with a group of 40 Italian Jews (almost all from the north-east of Italy). The number of internees, during the three-year period, varied considerably between 430 (February 1941) and 160 (September 1943).
Among the camps established by the fascist regime in June 1940 in existing buildings destined to welcome foreign Jews, the largest was that of Campagna; in the first months after it entered service it already hosted 430 men captured in different parts of Italy, including some English and French and a group of 40 Italian Jews (many from Trieste/Fiume and Istria/Dalmatia). However, the latter were all transferred to other camps after a few months. In November 1940 the number of foreign Jews had fallen to 230, in February 1941 to 170, to reach the lowest level in April 1942, with only 112 men. By November their number had risen to 170, and in the last months before the liberation by the Allies, which occurred in September 1943, it was around 160. About two thirds came from Germany and Austria, the rest were mainly Polish, Czechs or Jews of Fiume (actual Rijeka) who become "stateless". It is noteworthy to pinpoint that in those 3 years there were no deaths of Jews in the Campagna internment camp.

On June 16, 1940 the first internees arrived in Campagna, which were also received by Carlino D'Ambrosio (mayor of Campagna, then called Podesta') and by the Bishop of Campagna, Giuseppe Maria Palatucci. The were interned in two ex-convents: the Caserma San Bartolomeo and the Caserma Immaculate Conception.
Bruno Pincherle, a doctor from Trieste, was one of the first Jews interned in Campagna and remembered in a book (read https://books.google.com/books?id=j67hCBV1yNsC&pg=PA26&lpg=PA26&dq=ebrei+triestini+nel+campo+internamento+di+Campagna&source=bl&ots=mk3arbHBMa&sig=ACfU3U2VY8ReHzauOcYHMWMVsFDUx_kyMg&hl=it&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjxisu9gvjnAhVoTd8KHVpGAy0Q6AEwEXoECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=ebrei%20triestini%20nel%20campo%20internamento%20di%20Campagna&f=false how well he was treated by the local population. Pincherle was one of the Jewish doctors who began to cure the inhabitants of the place, although it was prohibited by Fascism. And he even used to have lunch at his friends' house in Campagna! Moreover, almost the whole town contributed to helping and protecting the internees. This attitude of the inhabitants of Campagna towards the interned Jews caused the then secretary of the National Fascist Party, Adelchi Serena, to write a letter to the local police chief in the autumn of 1941, in which he complained about the "too much freedom in which the Jews interned were living at the Campaign concentration camp, and demanded consequent measures by the regime's police forces". Additionally, it should be remembered that Pincherle, an expert of the history of Jews in Italy, often affirmed to his friends in Campagna that at the famous "Schola Medica Salernitana" there were numerous medical Jews and that in Salerno in the twelfth century there was the most numerous Jewish community of southern Italy: according to Rabbi Beniamino da Tudela in 1165 as many as 600 Jews lived in their small neighborhood of Salerno - a city which in that century had less than seven thousand inhabitants (please, read in Italian https://www.lacittadisalerno.it/cultura-e-spettacoli/gli-ebrei-fecero-grande-salerno-1.2380411 ).

And the doctor Bruno Pincherle used to add that in the "Principate of Salerno" (where Campagna was located) the Jews were well-liked and accepted since the Middle Ages and the Longobards centuries.

The Italian government gave the following official "Gold Medal" award to Campagna's citizens (in September 2006 ):

Medaglia d'oro al Merito Civile

«La popolazione di Campagna, sfidando i divieti e le minacce di punizione e rappresaglie e dando testimonianza di elevati sentimenti di solidarietà e fratellanza umana, si adoperò per alleviare le sofferenze, dare ospitalità e, talvolta, favorire la fuga degli ebrei internati nel campo di concentramento ubicato in quel Comune. Mirabile esempio di eccezionale abnegazione ed elette virtù civili. 1940 - 1943»
— 1940 - 1943 Campagna

Furthermore, it should be highlighted that the bishop of Campagna Palatucci did his utmost for the moral and material assistance of the interned Jews, managing to save about a thousand of them from deportation to the Nazi extermination camps and receiving numerous appreciations later (read http://nuke.cittadicampagna.com/Cultura/Articoli/CarmineGranito/LaCittàdiDachaucommemoraGiovanniPalatucci/tabid/192/language/it-IT/Default.aspx ). The Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial honored him in 1990 as "Righteous Among the Nations". Further information can be read at http://paulonpius.blogspot.com/p/campagna-camp-bishop-and-archives.html . Finally, the podesta' Carlino D'Ambrosio and some local fascist authorities, who kept the many activities of aid to interned Jews hidden from the higher authorities, must also be remembered. Indeed I want to pinpoint that there was an opposition inside the Italian Fascist Party ("Partito Nazionale Fascista") to the alliance with Nazi Germany. This opposition was ruled by two famous fascists: Gabriele D'Annunzio (the poet-fighter who inspired Mussolini) and Guglielmo Marconi (who received the Nobel for creating the "radio"), but lost power & importance after 1938, when both of them died. Carlino D'Ambrosio was a member of this opposing group and always rejected the Hitler's attacks against the Jewish people. Remembering the Podesta' Carlino D'ambrosio
Let me now remind you of "uncle Carlino", my father's uncle who became mayor of the town of Campagna. I consider him the member of my family who reached the highest levels, being mentioned in many books (and circles) for his help to the Jews in September 1943. I remember him -when I was a high school student and personally knew him in the 1960s - like a very affable and polite old man. He spoke little, but I immediately noticed his ability to be appreciated socially, being accepted by friends as group leader without reservations (as by all of us, his relatives). A quality that was typical of a born politician.
My father always told me that Uncle Carlino had the same qualities of "forming a group and leading him" as Uncle Mimino (my father's brother who was the soul and the engine of the best football team in Venezuela in the sixties and seventies: the "Deportivo Italia").
In fact writers like Gianluca Petroni and Adolfo Ricci remember him in the following passages of their books on Jews interned in Campagna during the Second World War:

".....I arrived in the courtyard of the "Olindo Guerrieri" boarding school in Campagna where I was immediately welcomed and accompanied, with the related equipment, to the place assigned to me, and helped by a couple of bold young men who expressed themselves in a language unknown to me. But it wasn't long before I got to know the story of those young people, and their other friends present there, almost all graduates or university students: I saw them in the evening in the refectory when, wearing a white coat, they began to serve us with the non-lavish dinner ... And so I came to know that those young people, the most adult of whom was called Abraham, were Jews and had been "settled" in that college with the function of table attendants and not only, because they were also employed in the various tasks that required the dormitories and others outbuildings of the building. Later I understood that those young Jews were there, among the collegiate of Campagna, to escape the racial laws promulgated by Fascism and with the full approval and consent of the owner of the college, as well as Podesta 'di Campagna, Mr. Carlino D’Ambrosio, and of other political authorities and religious eminences of the place, since the boarding school was officially directed by an excellent priest - Mons. Alberto Gibboni - part of the Curia and parish priest of the cathedral ... "

I remember that this boarding school 'Olindo Guerrieri' was owned by Uncle Carlino since 1936 (I think, but I'm not sure about the exact year) and it was temporarily closed in the terrible days of the surrender of Italy and the landing in Salerno of the Allies: in September 1943.

".....The internees (in the Campagna internment camp) were able to receive visits and enjoy assistance, in food, clothing and money, offered to them by DELASEM. (Delasem, the Italian Jewish refugee agency, worked to help provide food, clothes and money to supplement the official government allowance of Lire 6.50 per day) ….Among the prisoners there were many Jewish doctors who began to treat the locals, despite being prohibited by Fascism. Among the various inmates, the Russian painter Alessandro Degai was also imprisoned, who painted several works, giving them to various citizens. All the prisoners were free to move through the streets and houses of the town ( The internees had permission to move around the town of Campagna daily for six hours). Local police, led by police commissioner Eugenio de Paoli and supported by 30 Carabinieri (police officers of a lower rank), maintained camp surveillance. The relationship between the internees in Campagna camp and the local population was good – sometimes too good, as they were welcomed by the Campagnesi as friends. Friendship ties were created and so many inmates dined at the home of local friends. This also involved the mayor Carlino D'Ambrosio and the local fascist authorities who kept the activities hidden from the higher authorities...…. An essential role had the bishop of Campagna, Giuseppe Maria Palatucci and his nephew Giovanni Palatucci, Quaestor of Fiume, who by sending as many Istrian Jews as possible to the Camp, saved hundreds of them from the extermination camps. .... To alleviate their detention, a library was set up, a football team that periodically played with external teams, a small theater and an internship bulletin. A small synagogue was also set up in the barracks of San Bartolomeo and, for a period, at the invitation of the bishop, an interned pianist (Bogdan Zins, an internationally famous polish pianist) played the organ in the main church during Sunday mass. On September 8, 1943, when the allied troops arrived in the southerners, fascists and German troops placed near Campagna, in an attempt to make reprisals, went to the former barracks to execute the detainees. Once on the spot they found no one, as previously informed by the inhabitants, the internees were made to flee into the mountains. ...."

Photo of the Jews interned in the S.Bartolomeo caserma in summer 1941, surrounded by friendly Italian carabinieri (What a difference with photos of Jews interned in Nazi camps in Germany!)

IN MEMORY OF CARLINO D'AMBROSIO

And now allow me to add something that is not mentioned in the texts that I have read: Uncle Carlino - according to what his brother (my grandfather Luigi) told me - ordered all the fascist soldiers and policemen stationed in Campagna on the night of September 8 ( when Italy surrendered) to stay locked in their barracks. At the same time he (risking his life for this decision) ordered one of his trusted attendants to leave all the doors of the cells of the Jewish detainees in the Campagna internment camp open, so that they would flee -without any obstacle- to the mountains around Campagna before the German Nazis arrived (who would immediately send them to the camps of extermination in Germany). In this way all 160 Jews locked up in Campagna were saved.

Uncle Carlino was offered an official recognition (as a "Righteous") after the war by Jews residing in Israel (some of them had survived thanks to him) but nothing was done because he had joined the Fascist Party (the one and only in my family) and the Israeli authorities did not allow this kind of honorific to a member of this Party.
May Carlino D'Ambrosio rest in peace. For me and my family he is a "Righteous" and deserves all eternal respect.

Monday, February 3, 2020

APPROPRIATION OF THE VLACHS' HERITAGE IN THE BALKANS

In my weblog in Italian language "Il mio Weblog Aromuno/Aromuni e neolatini balcanici" (please read http://brunodam.blog.kataweb.it/2019/11/06/chi-sono-gli-aromuni/) I have been denouncing since 2006 the process of appropriation & assimilation of the neolatin Aromanians (called also "Vlachs") by other populations (Greeks, Croatians, Bulgarians, Serbs, etc...) in the Balkans.

This process is going on in the linguistic, cultural, historical , etc.. areas in the last decades, when the European Community should have defended this shrinking minority. Only in Macedonia and Albania something seems to have changed in favor of the local "Vlachs", mainly with the official recognition of their language. If interested, additional information can be read at my https://researchomnia.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-aromanian-national-rebirth.html). It is noteworthy to pinpoint that this appropriation is very similar to the one denounced by Istrians and Dalmatian Italians in this essay: https://researchomnia.blogspot.com/2014/01/croatia-is-erasing-falsificating-and.html.

Here it is an interesting article -written by a university professor- about this "shameful" appropriation:

Map showing all the areas populated by "neolatin" people (often called "Vlachs") in the Middle Ages, after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The two biggest eastern Europe concentrations are in Romania and in the Aromanian region of the southern Balkans.

CULTURAL APPROPRIATION OF THE VLACHS' HERITAGE IN BALKANS

by Octavian Ciobanu, University of Bucharest (2019)

Cultural appropriation is when members of a dominant culture of a country appropriate elements of intellectual property, cultural expressions, folklore, artifacts and history from a disadvantaged minority culture. The worst cases of cultural appropriation involve the exploiting of the culture of minorities and hiding or denying the authorship of minorities. Some of the most known cases of cultural appropriation have occurred in the spaces dwelled by the Vlach minority in Balkans, where cultural exchange was intense. The approached cases of cultural appropriation cover the appropriation of Vlachs’ history in Bulgaria and the appropriation of Vlachs’ tangible and intangible heritage in other Balkan countries.

There are countries where the Vlach culture, history and language is not protected, like Bulgaria, Greece, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia and Croatia. In these countries Vlachs have no schools in maternal language despite the articles of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on the educational and cultural problems of minority languages and dialects in Europe, and the recommendation on history and the learning of history in Europe.

Wikicommons map showing the actual distribution of "neolatin" people (called usually "Vlachs" and "Romanians") in the XX century Balkans

Introduction

Shortly, the Vlachs are the Romance-speaking heirs of the Eastern Roman Empire in Balkans. The Avars, from their base in the Northern Danubian area, had controlled Slavic tribes with whom they attacked in a decisive move the Roman Empire territory in the 7th century.

The Latinophons of the Eastern Roman Empire found refuge in the forests and mountains, by cause of the ferocity of the Slavs, while nomads swirled around them1. The Latinophons were called Vlachs by the Slavic nomads. All Vlachs whom Weigand consulted around 1890 indicated that they lived pretty much in their ancestral country. Vlach is an exonym, as the Vlachs used various words derived from “romanus” to refer to themselves: români, rumâni, rumâri, aromâni, arumâni, armâni etc.

All Balkan dwellers (Greeks, Bulgarians, Serbs, Macedonians, Montenegrins, Bosniaks, Kosovars, Albanians, Croats, Slovenians and Turks) were influenced by the Vlachs from the early medieval times. However Vlachs do not have a country of their own and a lot of Balkan countries do not protect the Vlachs’ heritage and did not adhere to the "The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages".

Ewa Kocoj wrote about Vlachs’ heritage: “Today, we already know that the cultural heritage of national, ethnic and religious minorities as well as stateless communities in the 20th century in Europe was doomed in many countries to assimilation, persecution and even oblivion. Such minorities are often faced with the situation in which their heritage is rapidly vanishing, which is caused by a lack of general care. The heritage of minorities, including the one of the Vlachs, is not infrequently passed over in silence in official national discourse.”

Several articles concerning European minorities were published by the Council of Europe (Recommendation 1333/1997) and by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe: Recommendations 928/1981 and 1283/1996. But the situation of the Balkan Vlachs was not improved due to a number of issues: vague national legislation of some Balkan countries and unclear mechanisms that apply the EU legislation.

Vlachs of Bulgaria and the cultural appropriation of their medieval history.

Vlachs in Bulgaria may be shortly classified in Romanians and Aromanians (read for further information, my https://researchomnia.blogspot.com/2018/04/aromanians-in-bulgaria.html). The presence of Romanians in Bulgaria has been manifested in a space stretching between Danube and a line from Naissus, zone of former Dacia Mediterranea and Dacia Ripensis to Varna, area where the Vlach revolt started in Medieval times. South of this line, there were and there are islands of Aromanians, in South West of Bulgaria, in Macedonia, Albania, Greece and Serbia.

The Latinophons were called Vlachs by the Slavic nomads in Bulgaria and lived toghether with Bulgars, Slavs and Greeks in Medieval times. It is very difficult to asses the number of Vlachs in that times but their number was so high that they finally started the Vlach uprising in Bulgaria in the end of the 12th century. The medieval contemporary chronicles wrote about the Vlach origin of the Asen (or Asan) family who initiated the Vlach revolt in the 12th century and started a dinasty of Vlach-Bulgarian state.

Choniates wrote about Vlachs: "… at first, the Vlachs were reluctant and turned away from the revolt urged upon them by Peter and Asan, looking askance at the magnitude of theundertaking. To overcome the timidity of their compatriots, the brothers built a house of prayer in the name of the Good Martyr Demetrios…" and "…provoking the barbarians who lived in the vicinity of Mount Haimos, formerly called Mysians and now named Vlachs, to declare war against him and the Romans.”

Chronicler Geoffrey de Villehardouin wrote about the battle of Adrianople, of Vlachs, Bulgarians and Cumans led by Vlach king Johannizza against Latin Emperor Baldwin (1205): " ...And they found Adrianople very well defended, and saw the flags of Johannizza, King of Wallachia, on the walls and towers; and the city was very strong and very rich, and very full of people...Johannizza, King of Wallachia, was coming to succour Adrianople with a very great host; for he brought with him Wallachians and Bulgarians, and full fourteen thousand Comans who had never been baptised…”

Despite the evidences of Vlach origin of the Asen family, Bulgarian media practiced an intense Cultural appropriation and even denied the existence of Vlachs in their history.

Today, Romanians and Aromanians have no schools in maternal language in the spaces they live in Bulgaria. Bulgaria did not adhere to the "European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages".

Aromanians of Greece and the cultural appropriation of their heritage

The greatest community of Vlachs or Aromanians of all Balkans lives in Greece. But Aromanians have no schools in their maternal language.

Their language is very close to Romanian language. Vlachs in Greece call themselves Aromanians (and other variants), Megleno-Romanians and Sarakatsani (Sărăcăceani). They are called Βλαχοι (vlahoi) by Greeks. Aromanians of Greece speak (besides Greek) Aromanian (Farşerot, Pindean and Gramoştean dialects).

The Megleno-Romanians speak the MeglenoRomanian dialect. The Sarakatsani are totally assimilated and they speak only Greek.

Aromanians’ Pantheon has many personalities who have acted as the backbone of "Hellenism": Evanghelie Zappa (Evangelos Zappas), promotor of Olimpic games; Ianaki and Milton Manakia, photography and cinema pioneers of the Balkans; Ioannis Vlachos, also known as Daskalogiannis, hero of Crete; Georgios Sinas and his son, Simon Sinas, financed the construction of the Academy of Athens and other cultural buildings; Ioannis Kolettis (1773-1847) was prime minister of Greece; George Averoff was the author of a lot of infrastructure projects for the Greek communities; Rigas Feraios, a pioneer of the Greek War of Independence; Michael Tossizza and Apostol Arsaki offered money for schools after the creation of Modern Greek statehood; Aristotle Valaoritis, a kind of national poet of Modern Greece; Spyridon Trikoupis, statesman and historian, and Charilaos (1832–1896), his son, prime minister of Greece.

This list is only a part of the list of the Aromanian personalities. More details of the history and the culture of the Aromanians are presented in http://www.farsarotul.org/newslett.htm

In Metsovo (Aromanian: Aminciu) there are the oldest monasteries: St. Nicholas (15th century), the church of St. Paraskeva (16th century), the monastery of the Dormition of the Mother of God and two other Orthodox churches: St. Nicholas and St. Demetrius, founded in the 18th centuryIn Syrrako, there are three Orthodox churches: St. Nicolas (18th century), Dormition of the Mother of God (Panagia, 18th century) and St. George (18th century.).

In Kalarities, there are the Church of St. Nicolas (15th century) and the Church of theTrinity, (19th century), surrounded by cemeteries with the tombstones of the Aromanians. In Samarina there are the Orthodox church of the Transfiguration, built in 1813, the Orthodox Church of St. Athanasius (1849), the Orthodox Church of St. Elijah (1795), the Orthodox Church of the Dormition of the Mother of God, also called the Great Panagia (1819), the Church of the Nativity of the Mother of God, called the Little Panagia and and the Orthodox Church of St. Kosmas (1890).

Vlachs/Aromanians are not recognised as a minority in Greece. All heritage of Aromanians is considered to be Greek.

Vlachs of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro and the cultural appropriation of their heritage

The Vlachs of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro were Slavicized around 10th -11th century and became bilingually. Finally, they lost their maternal language in Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia but they managed to influence the local folklore. They spoke a language close to Romanian.

The most important material heritage of the Vlachs of Western Balkans are the medieval necropolises with petroglyphs, called „Stecci” by the Slavs. Most known are in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Radimlja, Boljuni, Blidinje, Ljubinje, Bileca, Vlahovici, Kruševo, etc. Some are in Montenegro: near Žabljak and Plužine. Some are in Serbia: near Perućac, Bajina Bašta, Rastište and Prijepolje.

The Vlach tombstones with petroglyphs appeared in the 11th or 12th century mainly in Herzegovina and partially in Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro and the apparition of funerary monuments ceased during the Ottoman occupation in the 16th century when many Vlachs were Islamized.

Turks called Vlachs “Karavlachs”. Some necropolises joined UNESCO's World Heritage List but without any mention of Vlachs contribution. Majority of Slavic educational media (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro) presents the medieval necropolises with petroglyphs as the art of the “Bogomils” or of the „Bosnian” church, appropriating the heritage of the Vlachs.

There are no Vlach organizations in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro to defend their heritage. Marian Wenzel, a scholar who studied the necropolises for a long time, showed that the tombstones with petroglyphs „were initially erected by feudal aristocracy, and that the custom was later adopted and the decoration much elaborated by certain groups known as Vlachs who were organized on a “cătun” (small village in Romanian and Albanian) basis.”.

The same idea was initially published by Marian Wenzel in a scientific journal. Many other scholars wrote about the Vlach origin of the tombstones: I. Mužić, E. Kurtovic, O. Ciobanu, etc.

Ilona Czamańska wrote about a known theory about the origin of the dwellers of Bosnia and Herzegovina: „The majority of Serbs from the Republika Srpska of modern Bosnia is of Vlach origin, as well as the majority of the population from Bosnia and Herzegovina in general.” This theory is supported by Vuk Stefanović Karadžić, a Serbian philologist and linguist, by Croat historian Nenad Moacanin and other scholars.

Historian Silviu Dragomir wrote a lot of books about the Vlachs of the Balkans. He described numerous documents about the presence of Vlachs in Montenegro starting with the XIIth century. Also he commented several toponyms and data connected to Vlachs: mounts like Durmitor and Visitor, churches like Vlaška Crkva in Donji Kraj and the ballad of Radule Vlah and other stories.

The heritage of Vlachs in Montenegro is rapidly vanishing, caused by a lack of general care. Supporting the Vlach presence in Western Balkans, Karl Kaser published a map of medieval extended Vlach families of Herzegovina and Dalmatia.

The great number of Vlachs made the Serbian ruler Dušan to add them in his title: „Imperator Raxie et Romanie, dispotus Larte et Blahie comes”

Serbia has a large Romanian/Vlach minority in Voivodina, Banat and Timoc. But in Timoc, there are no schools in maternal language. In the case of Vlachs/Romanians, Serbia uses a separation between Vlachs and Romanians for political reasons and even a new alpahabet with cyrilic letters was invented for local dwellers in order to make Vlachs different from Romanians.

Serbia also has an Aromanian minority ("Cinciari" in Serbian) in Southern areas, who has no schools in maternal language.

Recently, a lot of Serbian personalities recognised the paramount importance of Vlach substrate in all Slavic countries [https://portalanalitika.me/clanak/242602/cosovic-na-balkanudominantna-etnicka-vlasko-morlacka-komponenta (accessed July, 2019)].

Vlachs of Croatia and the cultural appropriation of their heritage

Vlachs of Croatia are called Morlachs. They were an autochtonous population of Croatia.

Vlachs were known as Morlachs in Croatia and especially in Dalmatia. They were Slavicized around the 10th-11th centuries and became bilingual. The word Morlach derived from Italian Morlacco, being connected to Greek Μαυροβλάχοι, a translation of Turkish Karavlach. Kara (black) means North in Turkish geography. Morlachs means Northern Vlachs.

During Middle Ages, the Vlachs in Croatia were about 50% of all dwellers.

The most important material heritage of the Vlachs in Croatia are the medieval necropolises with petroglyphs, emerged especially in the spaces of Dalmatia and in former territories occupied by Turks. Most known are near Cista Velika, Dubravka and Konavle. Many Croat scholars wrote about the Vlach origin of the necropolises.

Another cultural heritage of the Vlachs in Croatia is the folklore that was strongly appropriated by Croats.

Alberto Fortis, an Italian naturalist and cartographer travelled in Dalmatia and wrote "Viaggio in Dalmazia" (Travel into Dalmatia), published in 1774. The book depicted "Morlachia", the rural Dalmatia and the Morlachs. It contains a famous Morlach ballad called "The Mourning Song of the Noble Wife of the Hasan Aga".

Many Morlachs were Islamized under Turkish occupation and worn Islamic names. Also many adhered to Catholicism. Fortis wrote that the Morlachs preserved their old customs and clothes and call themselves Vlachs. He also published several specimens of Morlach songs. Viaggio in Dalmazia played an important role in bringing the Morlachian folklore to the attention of Europe during the rise of Romantic notions about folklore. The ballad was subsequently translated into German, by Goethe in 1775, into English by Walter Scott under the title "Lamentation of the Faithful Wife of Asan Aga",into Russian by Pushkin in 1835, and into French by Prosper Mérimée in 1827.

Fortis treated the Morlachs life and customs in exotic and stereotypical terms (noble savages in the middle of Europe), but with empathy for them, initiating the "Morlacchism", a literary current in the 19th century.

Giovanni Lovrich wrote about the neolatin origin of Morlachs making connections with Valacchia (Romanians). However, despite numerous data about Morlachs, Slavic media in Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia presents the Morlach ballad discovered by Fortis and their folklore as a Slavic creation neglecting the Morlachs.

Even the memory of Vlach scientist Nikola Tesla was appropriated by Croats and Serbs.

“Ojkanje” is a tradition of polyphonic folk singing in Croatia, characteristic for the regions of the Dalmatian hinterland, Velebit and Lika and can be found in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia. Some narrative songs are accompanied with the gusle, a single-stringed musical instrument known as "lahuta" in Albanian and "lăuta" in Romanian. Giovanni Lovrich mentions “ojkanje” as part of Morlach culture.

Today, the Croatian census mentioned only 20 vlachs/morlachs living in Croatia.

Conclusions

Several researchers have become interested in the Vlach culture and people and they are investigating their language, culture and also their place and heritage in the contemporary world.

The history of Vlachs/Romanians in Bulgarian media is distorted and appropriated. Despite the evidences of Vlach origin of the Asan/Asen family, and of the main contribution of Vlachs/Romanians to the Bulgarian kingdom in the 12th13th centuries, Bulgarian historiography and mass media in Bulgaria practiced an intense cultural appropriation and even in some cases the existence of Vlachs in the history of Bulgaria was denied.

All heritage of Aromanians in Greece is in danger to disappear since they are not recognised as a minority in Greece.

Worst situations are in Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina where tangible and intangible heritage of Vlachs is already appropriated.

Despite the Recommendation 1333/1997 of the Council of Europe who granted Vlachs/Aromanians legal recognition, their situation was not improved. Vlachs faced with the situation in which their heritage is rapidly vanishing, which is caused by a lack of general care in Balkan countries.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has adopted several texts, the Recommendation 928/1981 on the educational and cultural problems of minority languages and dialects in Europe, and the Recommendation 1283/1996 on history and the learning of history in Europe. However, nothing seems to have changed in connection with the cultural appropriation of Vlachs’ heritage in some countries of Balkans.