Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-42gr6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T17:01:38.340Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Romani Pořajmos: The Nazi Genocide of Europe's Gypsies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Henry R. Huttenbach
Henry R. Huttenbach*
Affiliation:
The City College of New York
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The Nazi assault on Gypsies as an undesirable group was launched in the first months of the Third Reich. By the end of 1933, the outlines of a policy of total removal and, if possible, extinction were in place. Over the course of the first year of Hitler's rule, Gypsies had been numbered among those destined for mass sterilization. The goal of preventing their propagation had been pronounced on July 14 when the new cabinet issued a statement (with the force of law) proclaiming the concept of Lebensunwertesleben—life unworthy of living—a category of person that, at the time, specifically and indiscriminately included and embraced all Gypsies. Shortly thereafter, exploratory contacts were made with the League of Nations to assess the practicability of allocating one or two Polynesian islands to which the Gypsies could be deported. By September 1933, the Ministry of Interior announced a more realizable preliminary plan to arrest persons with no fixed and permanent addresses (i.e. primarily Gypsies) and to incarcerate them in special detention camps as a means of removing them from the mainstream of society. There the Gypsies would be rendered preemptively criminally harmless, (since they were described as a potential detriment to the general German population), and biologically “futureless” (zukunftloss) by way of mass sterilization.

In retrospect, the central ingredients for a formula of genocide, for the complete extermination of the Gypsies, were all in place: an ideology which deprived them of the basic right to life; a process of law by edict, which subjected them to totalitarian rule; a hypothetical plan to deport them abroad, and a more concrete one to isolate them from the citizenry, by segregating them in prison-like compounds, deprived of all civil rights; and a technology of physical mutilation that would deny them progeny and a link with a biological future, by literally destroying the unconceived next generation. Thus, a skeletal blueprint for the genocide of Gypsies by the racial architects of the Nazi regime had been drawn up by the end of 1933 well before the first Gypsies in Germany were rounded up in January 1934.

Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 19 , Issue 3: Special Issue - The Gypsies in Eastern Europe , Fall 1991 , pp. 373 - 394
Copyright
Copyright © 1991 by the Association for the Study of the Nationalities of the USSR and Eastern Europe, Inc. 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Notes

1. Bock, Gisela, “Racism and Sexism in Nazi Germany,” Signs Vol. 8, No. 3, p. 408 Google Scholar

2. Shoemaker, Henry W., “Banishment to Polynesia,” Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, Third Series, Vol. 12, No. 3, pp. 158'160.Google Scholar

3. Hancock, Ian, “Gypsy History in Germany and Neighboring Lands: A Chronology Leading to the Holocaust,” an article in this isssue of Nationalities Papers. Henceforth Chronology. Google Scholar

4. Reichsgesetzbuch, 1934/1, No. 531.Google Scholar

5. Tyrnauer, Gabrielle, “Germany and Gypsies,” Genocide and Human Rights, J.N. Porter, editor, (Washington, D.C., 1982), p. 18. Henceforth GHR. Google Scholar

6. Doring, Hans-Joachim, Die Zigeuner im Nationalsozialistischen Staat, (Hamburg, 1964), p. 37.Google Scholar

7. Kenrick, Donald and Puxon, Grattan, The Destiny of Europe's Gypsies, (New York, 1972)Google Scholar

8. Hancock, Ian, Chronology. Google Scholar

9. Hochman, J.S., Geschichte der Zigeunerverfolgung in Deutschland, (Frankfurt, 1981), p. 102.Google Scholar

10. Hancock, Ian, Chronology. Google Scholar

11. Brandis, Emil, Ehegesetze von 1935 erläutert (Berlin, 1936).Google Scholar

12. For example see: Clébert, Jean Paul, The Gypsies (London, 1963), p. 31; and François de Vaux de Foletier, Mille ans d’ histoire des Tsiganes, (Paris, 1970).Google Scholar

13. For example see: Block, Martin, Zigeuner (Leipzig, 1936), p. 54; Kenrick and Puxon, op cit., pp. 28, 44 and 46i, and Vaux de Foletier, op cit., p. 61.Google Scholar

14. Hancock, Ian, Chronology. Google Scholar

15. Grellmann, Heinrich, Die Zigeuner (Leipzig, 1983), p. 7.Google Scholar

16. For example see: Kenrick and Puxon, op cit., pp. 46, 50, 56 and 60.Google Scholar

17. Bock, op cit., p. 401. The concept was introduced by Karl Binding and Alfred Hoche, Die Freigabe der Vernichtung lebensunwertes Lebens, (Leipzig, 1920).Google Scholar

18. Hancock, Ian, Chronology. Google Scholar

19. Fein, Helen, Accounting for Genocide, (New york, 1979), p. 28.Google Scholar

20. Tyrnauer, Gabrielle, The Fate of Gypsies during the Holocaust, (Washington, 1985). p. 19.Google Scholar

21. Hochmann, J.S., Zigeuner und Zigeunerwissenschaft, (Marburg, 1980), p. 201.Google Scholar

22. Tyrnauer, GHR, p. 23.Google Scholar

23. Tyrnauer, GHR, p. 19.Google Scholar

24. Vossen, Rudiger, Zigeuner (Hamburg, 1983), p. 70.Google Scholar

25. Friedman, Philip, “The Extermination of the Gypsies,” GHR, p. 153.Google Scholar

26. Klee, Ernst, Euthenasie im NS-Staat: die Vernichtung lebensunwertes Lebens (Frankfurt, 1983), p. 64; and H. Buchheim, “Die Aktion ‘Arbeitscheu Reich,’ in Gutachten des Instituts für Zeitgerschichte, Munich II, (Stuttgart, 1966), p. 191.Google Scholar

27. Tyrnauer, GHR, p. 19.Google Scholar

28. Hohmann, Zigeuner und Zigeunerwissenschaft, p. 201.Google Scholar

29. Hilberg, Raul, The Destruction of European Jews, (New York, 1979). p. 137.Google Scholar

30. Arad, Yitzhak, Belzec Sobibor, Treblinka: The Operation Reinhard Death Camps (Bloomington, 1987), p. 151.Google Scholar

31. Hausner, Gideon, Justice in Jerusalem (New York, 1966), p. 59.Google Scholar

32. Hausner, op cit., p. 66.Google Scholar

33. Arad, op cit., p. 151.Google Scholar

34. Hilberg, op cit., p. 143.Google Scholar

35. Gilbert, Martin, The Holocaust, (New York, 1985), p. 244; and Friedman, GHR, p. 154.Google Scholar

36. Fein, op cit., p. 140.Google Scholar

37. Kenrick and Puxon, op cit., p. 88.Google Scholar

38. Gilbert, op Cit., pp. 251 and 256.Google Scholar

39. Ficowski, Jerzy, “The Fate of Polish Gypsies,” in GHR, p. 166.Google Scholar

40. Czerniakow, Adam, The Warsaw Diary, Raul Hilberg et al., editors, (New York, 1979), pp. 346-7, 351, 364-8, and 375.Google Scholar

41. Doring, op cit., p. 152.Google Scholar

42. Yad Vashem Studies, No. 7, pp. 177'178.Google Scholar

43. Wiemick, Jakob, A Yor in Treblinka (New York, 1944), p. 35.Google Scholar

44. Sereni, Gitta, Into the Darkness, (London, 1974), p. 212.Google Scholar

45. Freiberg, Dov, Testimony in Yad Vashem Archives, A-361.Google Scholar

46. Arad, op cit., p. 153.Google Scholar

47. Ibid. Google Scholar

48. Conot, Robert E., Justice at Nuremberg (New York, 1983), p. 375.Google Scholar

49. Friedman, GHR, p. 154.Google Scholar

50. Lifton, Robert J., The Nazi Doctors (New York, 1986), p. 323; Gerald Reitlinger, The Final Solution, 2nd Edition (London, n.d.), pp. 215'218.Google Scholar

51. Tyrnauer, GHR, p. 28.Google Scholar

52. Ferencz, Benjamin B., Less than Slaves, (Cambridge, 1979), p. 18; and Conot, op cit., p. 375.Google Scholar

53. Hoess, Rudolf Franz, Commandant of Auschwitz (New York, 1959), pp. 139'140; and Conot, op cit., p. 375. For details see Anita Geiges and Bernhard Wette Zigeuner Heute (Bornheim, 1979), pp. 254-258. There has been an uncorroborated report by an Auschwitz survivor that during the Zigeunernacht, Gypsies were not gassed but burned alive in the crematoria. (I owe this information to Professor Ian Hancock in a letter dated February 26, 1989.)Google Scholar

54. Yates, Dora E., “Hitler and the Gypsies,” in GHR, p. 164.Google Scholar

55. Hoess, op cit. Google Scholar

56. Yates, GHR, pp. 163'164.Google Scholar

57. Lifton, op cit., pp. 348'349.Google Scholar

58. Lifton, op cit., p. 185.Google Scholar

59. Lifton, op cit., p. 460.Google Scholar

60. Lifton, op cit., pp. 348'349, 353, 357, and 361-362.Google Scholar

61. Ficowski, GHR, p. 166.Google Scholar

62. Klee, op cit., p. 367.Google Scholar

63. Hilberg, op cit., p. 241, note 82.Google Scholar

64. Ibidem. Google Scholar

65. Yates, GHR, p. 160.Google Scholar

66. Friedman, GHR, p. 156.Google Scholar

67. Ibidem. Google Scholar

68. Hilberg, op cit., pp. 437'438.Google Scholar

69. Friedman, GHR, p. 154.Google Scholar

70. International Military Tribunal, (Nuremberg Documents); NOKW802. Henceforth IMT. Google Scholar

71. IMT: NOKW-1486.Google Scholar

72. Fein, op cit., pp. 102'103; and Klee, op cit., p. 358.Google Scholar

73. Yates, op cit., pp. 62'63; Kenrick and Puxon estimate 500 survivors: op cit., p. 183.Google Scholar

74. Vrissakis, Joannis, “Nazis and the Greek Roma: A Personal Testimonial,” as told to Ian Hancock (five typed pages, no date).Google Scholar

75. Hilberg, op cit., pp. 137'138.Google Scholar

76. Kenrick and Puxon, op cit., p. 89.Google Scholar

77. Kueppers, H., “Die Beschäftigung von Zigeunern,” Reichsarbeitsblatt, V (March 25, 1942), p. 177.Google Scholar

78. IMT: NG-558.Google Scholar

79. IMT: PS-682; Vol. 33 (Red), p. 496.Google Scholar

80. Klee, op cit., pp. 358'359.Google Scholar

81. Hilberg, op cit., p. 295; and Klee, op cit., pp. 358'359.Google Scholar

82. Klee, op cit., p. 358.Google Scholar

83. Kenrick and Puxon, op cit., p. 183.Google Scholar

84. Klee, op cit., p. 361.Google Scholar

85. Thurner, Erika, Kurzgeschichte der nationalsozialistischen Zigeunerlagers in Lackenbach, 1940–1945, (Eisenstadt, 1984).Google Scholar

86. Tillon, Germaine, Ravensbruck, (New York, 1975), p. 31.Google Scholar

87. Ibid., p. 27, note.Google Scholar

89. Ibid., p. 31.Google Scholar

90. Ibid., p. 32.Google Scholar

91. Ibid., p. 105.Google Scholar

92. Ibid., p. 240.Google Scholar

93. Ibid., pp. 129 and 240.Google Scholar

94. Ibid., p. 241.Google Scholar

95. Yates, GHR, p. 160.Google Scholar

96. Friedman, GHR, p. 156.Google Scholar

97. Ibidem.Google Scholar

98. Ibidem.Google Scholar

99. Gilbert, op cit., p. 824.Google Scholar

101. Friedman, GHR, p. 156.Google Scholar

100. Friedman, GHR, p. 152.Google Scholar

101. Letter (17 November 1989) by William A. Duna to U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, p. 2.Google Scholar

102. Puggiole, Sylvia, “Swiss Government Apologies to Gypsies, “ documentary broadcast by National Public Radio, 5 December, 1987; and Sylvia Sobeck Menschen zwischen Macht und Ohnmacht cited by Ian Hancock, “Uniqueness of the Victims: Gypsles, Jews and the Holocaust, “ Without Prejudice, Vol. I, No. 2, p. 55, note 41.Google Scholar

103. Ibid., p. 55.Google Scholar

104. Castles, Stephen, Here for Good: Western Europe’ s New Ethnic Minorities (London, 1984), p. 197.Google Scholar

105. Letter (14 December 1984) by Simon Wiesenthal to Holocaust Memorial Council, cited by Ian Hancock, “Uniqueness,” p. 55.Google Scholar

106. Margot Strom and William Parson, Facing History and Ourselves, (Brookline, MA, 1978), p. 22; Wolf in der Maur, Die Zigeuner (Vienna, 1969), p. 168; and G. von Soest, Aspekte zur Sozialarbeit (Weinheim, 1979).Google Scholar

107. Hausner, op cit., pp. 300'301.Google Scholar

108. Ibid., p. 397.Google Scholar

109. Ibid., p. 424.Google Scholar