Mccann's A People Uncounted: An Analysis

When there is a discussion of war, it usually involves the battles fought, strategies faced, and the leaders behind it. These topics are commonly spoken about so when there is another event rising, scholars and leaders can look back on this common history to make decisions. The true importance of war comes from what is unspoken. The unspoken aspects of war are the events that people want to forget, or the events they do not respect. The 2011 documentary, A People Uncounted, spoke of the atrocities the Roma population faced during the Holocaust, yet still remain almost unrecognized as survivors. Having three quarters of a population executed during the Holocaust, and many people around the world not knowing they were even there shows the kind …show more content…
What goes overlooked is the lives of the people who endure the war. These lives are most important because they are the ones who have the story to tell. They are the first hand source of the events that happened, and should be listened to, rather than ignored. Too often throughout history are the stories of surviving cultures ignored, like the case of the Romani in the Holocaust. McCann’s novel, Zoli, describes “things in life have no real beginning, though our stories about them always do” (273). History is made up of stories, and scholars critique those stories to take a critical perspective of war. When parts of a story are commonly overlooked, scholars either look at this as either unimportant to the story or the most important part of the story. Critique is recognizing the significance of the missing information, such as the Roma being excluded from most Holocaust memorials, and applying it to a greater question, why? The woman who hid her identity during A People Uncounted would support the fact that Roma are not recognized because there is a stigma about being Roma. Though it is important to tell the story, the stigma takes the power away from those involved, making some unwilling to