Figure 1.--This photograph is unidentified, but is apparently two Wehrmacht officers with a Gypsey family. We do not know where the photograph was taken, but looks to have been taken during World War II, perhaps 1942. It looks rather like the northern Caucasus.

The Jews were the best known, but not the only NAZI targets. There were also the Gypsies. The NAZI antipathy toward the Jews was less intense than that toward the Jews. It was also less racially based. NAZI pseudo science claimed that Jews were diseased carriers and polluters of the Aryan races. The attitude toward the Gypsies was more that they were useless people, much like the handicapped people targeted by the T-34 program. The NAZIs were probably incluenced by complaints by civic officials of gypsies, especially petty crime. I believe the arrest of the gypsies began NAZI officials had really decided what to do with them. I'm not sure when the decession was taken to begin killing them. The NAZIs begin arresting German gypsies and confining them to the Dachau concentration camp (July 12, 1936). Confinement conditions were not as punative as they would later be for Jews. The SS sent German gypsies and gypsies from German-occupied countries to Auschwitz-Birkenau, to the so-called ‘gypsy camp’ (March 1942). The SS liquidated the gypsy camp in Auschwitz-Birkenau (August 1, 1944). All 6,000 gypsies at Auschwitz were gassed. This was one of the last actions at Auschwitz before the SS began destroying as the Red Army approached.

The Gypsey People

The Gypsies or Roma as they preferred to be called are nomadic people found tgroughtout Europe since 15th century. They are believed to have at least in part originated in India and speak an Indo-Iranian language known as Romany. The Roma have resisted assimilation. They are generally seen as traveling in caravans and made a living through trading. There impacy was especially important in Hungary and Romania as well as various other parts of the Audto-Hungarian Empire. The most typical dress is the brightly woman's colored outfit. omen suit. There is not an actual traditional children clothes. Often children wear old clothes and go barefoot. In folk festival they wear very colored clothes.

NAZI Attitudes

The Jews were the best known, but not the only NAZI targets. There were also the Gypsies. The German antipathy toward the Jews was less intense than that toward the Jews. It was also less racially based. There were laws which targetted gypsies before the NAZIs seized power. These laws seem to have appeared after World War I. Bavaria enacted athe Law for the Combating of Gypsies, Travellers and the Workshy (1926). Gypsies had to obtain documents proving regular employment. Those without such documents could be sentenced to a 2 year sentence in the workhouse. NAZI pseudo science claimed that Jews were diseased carriers and polluters of the Aryan races. The attitude toward the Gypsies was more that they were useless people, much like the handicapped people targeted by the T-34 program. [Kuper, p. 94.] Many saw Gypsies as anti-socials. [Burleigh and Wippermann] The NAZIs were probably incluenced by complaints by civic officials of gypsies, especially petty crime. Eventually NAZI racial policy, however, emerged as the deciding factor in policies toward gypsies.

Initial Arrests

A major NAZI iniative after seizing power was to take control over the police and centralize police functions (1933). This meant that actions against the Gypseys was taken out of local hands and the decessions made in Berlin. Himmler seems to have taken a personal interest in the Gypseys. He set up the Reich Central Office for the Fight Against the Gypsy Nuisance (1936). Here he used two earlier NAZI laws decreed in 1933--the Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Progeny and the Law Against Dangerous Habitual Criminals). These laws were used as the authority arresting Gypseys. The initial arrests were apparently men who were loitering or unemployed or perhaps suspected of criminal actibity. Many were reportedly sterilized. At this stage I do not think that children were sterilized, although my information is still limited. The initial arrest of the Gypsies began before NAZI officials had really decided what to do with them.

NAZI Pseudo Science

The leading NAZI scentist who addressed the racial status of Gypies was Dr. Robert Ritter at the University of Teubingen. Ritter was not a medical doctor nor did he have any academic training in genetics. He was a psychologist. It is interesting that the NAZIs who were obsessed with race commonly drew their racial doctrine from men who had no real academic training in genetics. Ritter was working on the question of "criminal biology." This was a field that was not just limited to America. Researchers in America and other European countries also addressed the question of crime and heredity. It was often mixed up with the Eugenics Movement. Ritter was an enterprising, but little known academican and realized that the NAZI focus on race provided real opportunities to gain the attention of Germany's new leaders. In this he was successful and became one of Germany's most prominent "scientific experts" on race with all the status and financial rewards that this conferred. The Gypseys were seen as part of the Aryan people who migrated from India. The NAZIs thus had to explain their current "inferrior" status. Ritter offered the theory that NAZI officials could use to justify their actions on a racial basis. Ritter suggested as the Gypseys migrated north and westward that they intermingled with inferior peoples (Persians, Armenians, Slavs, and others). (Note that Persians (Iranians) were very sympathetic toward the NAIs in World War II. Here the NAZI hatred of the Jews and hostility toward the British were the dominant factor. The Iranians apparently had no idea of the full ramifications of NAZI racial policy.) Ritter claimed that the Aryan blood became diluted and the Gypsies acquired te characterstics of the inferior peoples which predisposed them to criminal and other anti-social behavior. Ritter did not recommend that the Gypsies be killed, but he did suggest that they be isolated from Germany society and the sterilization of those who had been especially taintedcwith impure blood. Himmler learned of Ritter's work and he order an assessment of the available research on Gypsies (1937).

NAZI Policy

The NAZIs begin arresting German Gypsies and confining them to the Dachau concentration camp (July 12, 1936). I think that these arrests for the first time included whole families, but this needs to be confirmed. Gypsies were not specifically identified as non-Aryan in the initial Nuremberg Laws (1935). The NAZIs later defined them "unassimilable with Aryan blood" (1937). The NAZIs began arresting and confining whole families. This was never done to the Jews. Many Jewish men were arrested, especially after Kristalnacht (1938), but not families. Confinement conditions for the NAZIs in the camps were not as punative as they would later be for Jews in the NAZI gettos and camps opened in occupied Poland.

Decession

I'm not sure when the the NAZIs made the decession to begin killing Jews. It seems to have been an after thought to utilize the killing machine set up for the Jews. The NAZIs set up a gypsey camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau (March 1942). Himmler appears to have vasilated as to the appropriate policies toward Gypsies. Some reports suggest that he considered sparing some gypsy tribes considered "pure gypsies". The task of deporting the Gypsies interned in German concentration camps was given to Himler (1942). He finally ordered all gypsies in Germany deported to Auschwitz (December 16, 1942). This meant the decession had been made to kill them. There were executions in German camps, but the German camps did not have the facilities for killing large numbers of people and disposing of the bodies.

NAZI-occupied Europe

I am not sure to what extent the SS round up Gypsies in German-occupied countries and transported them to death camps. As far as I can tell, there was no major effirt to do this, but there were killings of foreign gypsies who fell into their hands. This is a topic that I have not yet persued.

Romania

Romanian Gypsyes were targeted during Wrld War II, but not to the same extent as the Jews. There was never any anti-Gypsey laws passed. The major action targeting the Gypsies was ordered by Marshal Ion Antonescu. He personally ordered the deportation of Gypsies to the Ukranine during 1942. This was a Romanian operation nd not carried out under German pressure. The Romanians deported 25,000 gypseys to camps in the Ukraine. The orders targeted nomadic gypsies, but settled gypsies and even soldiers in uniform on home leave as well as Gypsey-looking Romaniabs were caught up in the sweep. Plans involved depoting more, but were cancelled. Armed Gyseys in the Army may have been a factor here. There were no further deportments. The SS reported executed 11,000 of these unfortunate people at the Trihati camp. Many died of typhoid, starvation and maltreatment. Only about 6,000 survived and managed to make it back to Romania.

Killing

The SS liquidated the gypsy camp in Auschwitz-Birkenau (August 1, 1944). All 6,000 gypsies at Auschwitz were gassed. This was one of the last actions at Auschwitz before the SS began destroying as the Red Army approached. Estimates of the number of gypsies killed by the NAZIs vary. Sir Martin Gilbert offers a figure of 0.2 million. Yoors estimates 0.5-0.6 million [Yoors, p. 34.] Most other authors offer estimates netween these two estimates.

Sources

Burleigh, Michael and Wolfgang Wippermann. (New York: Cambridge, 1991).

Gilbert, Martin. Auschwitz and the Allies (New York: Henry Holt, 1981).

Kuper, Leo. Genocide: Its Political Use in the Twentieth Century (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981), 256p.

Yoors, Jan. The Gypsies (1971).

Created: 11:48 PM 11/1/2005
Last updated: 7:01 AM 7/25/2009