The Roma genocide was carried out by the Nazis during the Second World War, from 1939 to 1945. It was held in Germany, in the occupied states, as well as in countries that were considered allies of the Third Reich. The destruction of this people has become part of the unified policy of the National Socialists, who sought to eliminate certain peoples, political opponents, terminally ill, homosexuals, drug addicts, and mentally unstable people. According to the latest data, the number of victims among the gypsy population ranged from two hundred thousand to one and a half million people. There were even more victims. In 2012, a memorial was opened in Berlin dedicated to Roma who were victims of genocide in Nazi Germany.
Terminology
Even in modern science there is no single term that defines the genocide of Roma. Although there are several options for designating repression against this particular people.
For example, Gypsy activist Yanko Hancock proposed designating the genocide of Gypsies with the term “paimos”. The fact is that one of the meanings of this word is “rape” or “abuse”. In this understanding, it was often used among gypsy activists. At the same time, scientists are still debating how ethical this term can be considered.
The start of the persecution
From the point of view of Nazi theory, Roma were perceived as a threat to the racial purity of the German nation. According to official propaganda, the Germans were representatives of the purebred Aryan race, which was originally from India. Moreover, it is known that theorists of Nazism had to deal with a certain difficulty due to the fact that the Gypsies were even more direct natives of this state. Moreover, they were also considered close to the current population of this country, they even speak the language belonging to the Indo-Aryan group. So it turned out that gypsies can be considered Aryans no less than the Germans themselves.
But still managed to find a way out. It was officially declared by Nazi propaganda that the gypsies who live in Europe are the result of a mixture of the Aryan tribe with the lowest races from around the world. This supposedly explains their vagrancy, serves as a proof of the asociality of this people. Moreover, even sedentary gypsies were recognized as potentially prone to offenses of this kind of behavior because of their nationality. As a result, a special commission issued official demands in which it strongly recommended that Roma be separated from the rest of the German people.
The legislative base for the start of the Roma genocide was the law on the fight against them, parasites and tramps, which was adopted in 1926 in Bavaria. By its analogue, legal acts were tightened in all regions of Germany.
The next step was the period that began in 1935, when the police, as well as the departments responsible for social security, in many cities began to forcibly transfer Gypsies to forced labor camps. Often they were surrounded by barbed wire. The people there were obliged to obey a strict camp order. For example, in July 1936, during the Olympic Games in Berlin, the Gypsies were expelled from the city, they were sent to the site, which later received the name "Marzan Halt Site". So in the future the Nazi concentration camp began to be called for the detention of these prisoners.
A few months earlier, the provisions of the "Nuremberg Racial Laws", which until then only applied to Jews, began to apply to Roma. From now on, these nations were officially forbidden to marry Germans, to vote in elections, they were deprived of citizenship of the Third Reich.
The Minister of the Interior, by the name of Frick, allowed the chief of police in Berlin to hold a general day of raid on Gypsies. At least one and a half thousand prisoners were in the Marzan camp. In fact, it was a drive that became the first station on the path to destruction. Most of the prisoners who got into him were sent to the Auschwitz camp and destroyed.
In May 1938, the Reichsfuhrer SS Heinrich Himmler ordered the creation of a special department within the Berlin Criminal Investigation Directorate to deal with the “Gypsy threat”. It is believed that this completed the first phase of the persecution of Roma. Its main results were the creation of pseudoscientific tools, the concentration and selection of gypsies in the camps, the creation of a well-functioning and centralized apparatus designed to coordinate further criminal projects throughout the state at all levels.
It is believed that the first law that was directly imposed against immigrants from the Indo-Aryan group was Himmler’s circular on the fight against the Gypsy threat, signed in December 1938. It contained information on the need to resolve the so-called Gypsy issue based on racial principles.
Deportation and sterilization
The destruction of the gypsies actually began with their sterilization, which was massively carried out in the second half of the 30s of the XX century. This procedure was carried out by injecting the uterus with a dirty needle. However, medical assistance was not provided after this, although serious complications were possible. As a rule, this led to a very painful inflammatory process, which sometimes led to blood poisoning and even death. This procedure was subjected not only to adult women, but also to girls.
In April 1940, the first deportations of Roma and Sinti peoples to Poland began. This is considered the beginning of the Roma genocide during World War II. There they were sent to Jewish ghettos and concentration camps.
Shortly thereafter, an order was issued to force the Polish Gypsies to a settled position. They confiscated property, settling in Jewish ghettos. The largest gypsy territory outside of Germany was located in the Polish city of Lodz. She was isolated from the Jewish ghetto.
The first Gypsies began to be massively brought here in the fall of 1941. This was personally led by the head of the Gestapo department, Adolf Eichmann, who was responsible for the final resolution of the German question. At first, almost five thousand gypsies were sent from Austria, half of whom were children. Many of them arrived in Lodz severely exhausted and sick. The ghetto lasted only two months, after which the destruction of the gypsies began to be carried out in the Helmno death camp. From Warsaw, representatives of this people, together with the Jews, were sent to Treblinka. This was the genocide of Roma during the Second World War. However, the persecution did not end there. And they were not limited only to these states.
Violence in the occupied territories of the Soviet Union
Already in the fall of 1941, the genocide of Roma along with the mass executions of Jews was laid in the occupied regions of the USSR. Einsatzkommandy destroyed all the camps that they met on their way. So, in December 1941, the Einsatzkommand, led by SS gruppenführer Otto Olendorf, carried out mass executions of gypsies on the Crimean peninsula, not only nomadic but also settled families were destroyed.
In the spring of 1942, this practice began to be applied throughout the occupied territory, so the genocide of Roma in Russia began. Punishers were mainly guided by the principle of blood. That is, the executions of gypsy collective farmers, artists or city workers did not fit into the framework of the fight against tabor crime. In fact, the determination of nationality was sufficient to impose a death sentence.
Over time, the genocide of Roma in Russia was supplemented by actions carried out as part of the "anti-partisan war." So, in 1943 and 1944, representatives of this people died along with the Slavs during the burning of villages, which, according to the Germans, assisted the partisans, as well as in the fight against the underground.
During the Second World Genocide, Roma continued throughout the occupied territory of the USSR. The most massive executions were recorded in Western Ukraine, in the Leningrad, Smolensk and Pskov regions. According to authoritative sources, about 30 thousand representatives of this nationality were killed.
Reprisal against German gypsies
German gypsies began to be massively arrested in the spring of 1943. Even the German army, the owners of military awards, were in prison. All of them were sent to Auschwitz.
The Roma genocide during the Second World War was carried out in concentration camps. Mostly German Gypsy-Sinti, whom the Nazis considered more civilized, were left alive. Russian, Polish, Serbian, Lithuanian Hungarian representatives were killed in gas chambers as soon as they arrived in a concentration camp.
However, the German Gypsies who survived en masse died of disease and starvation. Disabled people were also driven into gas chambers, so the gypsies were destroyed. Years of war have become black for this people. Of course, the Jews suffered even more, against whom the Nazis launched a massive campaign designed to finally solve the Jewish question. The extermination of Jews and gypsies is one of the most tragic pages in the history of this war.
Croatian genocide
During World War II, Croatia actively collaborated with Nazi Germany and was considered its ally. Therefore, all these years the genocide of Roma continued in this country.
In Croatia, there was a whole system of death camps called Jasenovac. It was located just a few tens of kilometers from Zagreb. Here, by order of the Minister of the Interior of the Croatian revolutionary movement Andriy Artukovich, not only Gypsies, but also Jews and Serbs were taken en masse from August 1941.
Experiments on people
The destruction of the gypsies by the Nazis was accompanied by medical experiments that were carried out on them in concentration camps. The Germans had a special interest in them, since they also belonged to the Indo-Aryan race.
So, among gypsies people with blue eyes were often met. In Dachau, their eyes were removed to understand this phenomenon and study it. In the same concentration camp, on the orders of Himmler, experience was set up on 40 representatives of Roma on dehydration of the body. Other experiments were also carried out, which often led to the death or disability of the subjects.
According to studies, half of all Roma were killed in the occupied territories in the USSR, about 70 percent of representatives of this nationality were killed in Poland, 90 percent in Croatia, and 97 in Estonia.
Famous Roma victims of genocide
Among the victims of the genocide were many famous representatives of the gypsy people. For example, it was Johann Trollmann - a German boxer who in 1933 became the country's light heavyweight champion. In 1938 he was sterilized, but the next year he was drafted into the army, leaving his parents hostage.
In 1941, he was injured, was found unfit for military service and sent to a concentration camp in Neuengam. In 1943 he was killed.
Django Reinhardt was a jazz guitarist, French by nationality. In music, he was considered a true virtuoso. When the Nazis occupied France, its popularity became incredible, as the German command did not recognize jazz. Therefore, every speech of Reinhardt became a challenge to the invaders, giving confidence to the French.
Despite this, he managed to survive the war. During the years of occupation, several times with his family made unsuccessful attempts to escape from the occupied country. The fact that he survived is explained by the patronage of influential Nazis who secretly loved jazz. In 1945, this style of performance became a symbol of resistance, the popularity of Django became incredible.
But since 1946, he was out of work after the advent of a new genre - bebop. In 1953, the guitarist died either from a stroke, or from a heart attack. His relatives claim that the musician’s health was undermined during the hungry years of the war.
Mateo Maximov was one of the most popular gypsy writers who translated the Bible into gypsy. He was born in Spain, but after the Civil War broke out there, he left for relatives in France. In 1938, he was arrested during a conflict between two gypsy clans. These events of his life are described in the story "Ursitori".
When the Second World War began, the French government accused refugees from Spain (and these were mainly Jews and Gypsies) of spying for the Nazis. In 1940, Maximov was arrested, he was sent to Tarb camp. It is noteworthy that the conditions in the French camps were milder than in the German ones. The government did not set a goal to destroy the gypsies; they were kept for what they considered useless tramps. At the same time, they were allowed to leave the camp in search of work and food, leaving their families hostage. Maximov decided that if he succeeds in publishing his story, he will be recognized as useful to society and released. The author even managed to sign a contract with a major French publishing house, but as a result, Ursitori was published only in 1946.
When the war ended, Maximov was the first of the Gypsies to file a lawsuit against Germany demanding that he be recognized as a victim of racial persecution. After 14 years, he won the court.
Bronislava Weiss, known under the pseudonym Papusha, was a famous gypsy poetess. She lived in Poland, during the war years she hid in the Volyn forest. She managed to survive, she died in 1987.
Organizers of the genocide
Witnesses of the Roma genocide among the organizers name several people who were responsible for this area of work among the Nazis. First of all, this is the German psychologist Robert Ritter. He was the first to justify the need for the persecution of Roma, considering them an inferior nation.
Initially, he was engaged in child psychology, even defended his thesis in Munich in 1927. In 1936, he was appointed head of the station for biological research on population and eugenics at the Imperial Department of Health. In this post, he remained until the end of 1943.
In 1941, based on his research, practical measures were introduced against the gypsy population. After the war, he was under investigation, but as a result he was released, the case was closed. It is known that some of its employees, who claimed that gypsies were inferior, were able to continue their work and build a scientific career. Ritter himself committed suicide in 1951.
Another German psychologist, the famous initiator of the Roma genocide in Germany, is Eva Justin. In 1934, she met Ritter, who at that time was already participating in experiments on the exterminated, contributing to their genocide. Over time, she became his deputy.
Her dissertation on the fate of gypsy children and their descendants, who were brought up in a strange environment, became popular. It was based on a study of 41 children of semi-Gypsy origin, who were brought up without contact with national culture. Justin concluded that it is impossible to grow full-fledged members of German society from gypsies, since they are naturally lazy, weak-minded and prone to vagrancy. According to her conclusions, adult gypsies are also not able to comprehend science and do not want to work, therefore they are harmful elements for the German population. For this work, she became a Ph.D.
After the war, Justin managed to escape imprisonment and political persecution. In 1947, she got a job as a child psychologist. In 1958, an investigation into her racial crimes was initiated, but the case was closed after the statute of limitations. In 1966, she died of cancer.
Persecution of Gypsies in Culture
The issue of Gypsy genocide has been discussed so far. It is noteworthy that the UN still does not consider representatives of this people to be victims of genocide. At the same time, Russia is turning to this problem now. For example, recently the Soviet and Russian actor Alexander Adabashyan spoke very unambiguously about the genocide of Roma. He drew up an appeal in which he emphasized that Russia should draw the attention of the world community to these facts.
In culture, genocide is reflected in songs, tales, and stories of gypsies from different countries. For example, in 1993 in France, a documentary film by a gypsy director Tony Gatlif came out entitled Good Way. The picture tells in detail about the fate and wanderings of the gypsy people. In one of the most memorable scenes, an elderly gypsy sings a song that is dedicated to her son, tortured to death in a concentration camp.
In 2009, Gatlif removes the drama "By Himself," which is entirely devoted to genocide. The picture is based on real events, the action takes place in France in 1943. It tells about the camp, which is trying to hide from the Nazi soldiers.
The tape of the Russian director and actor Duphuni Vishnevsky "Sinful Apostles of Love", which was published in 1995, is dedicated to the persecution of this people in the occupied territories of the Soviet Union.
The repertoire of the famous Romen Theater has the play “We Are Gypsies,” in which the theme of genocide is clearly reflected in the dramatic mass scene, which becomes the climax in the work. Also in the USSR sounded the song of the guitarist and singer of the trio "Romain" Igráf Joshki, popular in the 70s. It is called "Echelons of Gypsies."
In 2012, the Romen Theater premiered yet another performance about the persecution of an entire nationality during World War II. It is called "Gypsy Paradise", based on the play by Starchevsky, written based on the famous novel by Romanian writer Zacharias Stancu "Tabor". The work is based on real events.
The most famous example of the reflection of persecution in world cinema is the Polish military drama by Alexander Ramati, “And the violins were silent,” which was released in 1988. The film tells about the Mirghov family who live in occupied Warsaw.
When repressions against Jews intensify, they learn that they are preparing to persecute Gypsies as well. They flee to Hungary, but hopes for a quiet life in this country are crumbling when the Nazis enter there. The family of the main characters is sent to the Auschwitz camp, where they meet with Dr. Mengele, who was in their house in Warsaw.