Gypsies: Roma, Sinti, and Lalleri

Hitler considered the nomadic people of Romani descent to be racially inferior and degenerates. These people, the Roma, the Sinti, and the Lalleri, (also collectively referred to as Gypsies), were some of the first people rounded up and segregated from German society (1)(2)(3). They were considered asocials (mainly slackers and inherently petty criminals) and were put in specialized forced labor camps, which unfortunately changed from transient camps to permanent ones before they were deported to ghettos and concentration camps (4)(5)(6). “The next largest contingent in the camp were the Gypsies. Long before the war they Gypsies were rounded up and put into concentration camps during the campaign against the asocials (7),” remarked Rudolph Hoss, Commandant of Auschwitz, in his memoirs.

At first, mixed Roma-German people were exempt from persecution, but lated they were seen as dangerous while pure blooded ‘Gypsies’ were spared (8). The Nuremberg laws, originally designating what constituted Jewish blood, were suddenly applied to Roma peoples as well (9). Many were imprisoned without a legitimate crime being listed.

Many Roma had to endure forced sterilization and hard labor, ridicule and lack of adequate supplies, disease, deportation, shootings, and gassings (10)(11). Hoss wrote “Himmler learned about the death rate [of the Gypsies], which, compared to the whole camp, was still relatively low, even though the death rate among the children was exceptionally high. I do not believe that many of the newborns survived the first weeks. Himmler saw everything in detail, as it really was. Then he ordered me to gas them. Those who were still able to work were to be selected, just as was done with the Jews. (12).”

In the end, an exact death toll is uncertain for Roma peoples. Some of the figures are listed as: about half a million “almost the entire Eastern European Gypsy populations (13)”, 2220,000 “about twenty-five percent of all European Roma (14)”, among other more generalized or regional figures. After World War II ended, the discrimination continued, and what occurred to the Gypsies in the camps was considered legal as they were “criminals”. It wasn’t until the 1970s that the Roma were acknowledged as true victims of the Holocaust with rights to restitution, but by then most of the survivors had died (15).

Sources:

(1) Hoss, Rudolph, and Primo Levi. Death Dealer: the Memoirs of the SS Kommandant at Auschwitz. Edited by Steven Paskuly. Translated by Andrew Pollinger. New York City: Da Capo Press, 1992, page 135.

(2) Terese Pencak Schwartz. Holocaust: Non-Jewish Victims. http://www.holocaustforgotten.com/romgypsies.htm (accessed April 15, 2011).

(3) United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/artcle.php?ModuleId=10005219 (accessed April 13, 2011).

(4) Terese Pencak Schwartz. Holocaust: Non-Jewish Victims. http://www.holocaustforgotten.com/romgypsies.htm (accessed April 15, 2011).

(5) United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/artcle.php?ModuleId=10005219 (accessed April 13, 2011).

(6) United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007329 (accessed April 13, 2011).

(7) United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/artcle.php?ModuleId=10005219 (accessed April 13, 2011).

(8) United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007329 (accessed April 13, 2011).

(9) Hoss, Rudolph, and Primo Levi. Death Dealer: the Memoirs of the SS Kommandant at Auschwitz. Edited by Steven Paskuly. Translated by Andrew Pollinger. New York City: Da Capo Press, 1992, page 135.

(10) United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/artcle.php?ModuleId=10005219 (accessed April 13, 2011).

(11) United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007329 (accessed April 13, 2011).

(12) Hoss, Rudolph, and Primo Levi. Death Dealer: the Memoirs of the SS Kommandant at Auschwitz. Edited by Steven Paskuly. Translated by Andrew Pollinger. New York City: Da Capo Press, 1992, page 136.

(13) Terese Pencak Schwartz. Holocaust: Non-Jewish Victims. http://www.holocaustforgotten.com/romgypsies.htm (accessed April 15, 2011).

(14) United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/artcle.php?ModuleId=10005219 (accessed April 13, 2011).

(15) United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/artcle.php?ModuleId=10005219 (accessed April 13, 2011).