Stankiewitz (2013) reports on the still poorly acknowledged destruction of Rroma under National Socialism. In the centre he presents the now eighty years old Hugo Höllenreiner, who is one of the few survivors of this crime of the State. Speaking at a memorial in the Munich town hall, Höllenreiner calls the horrors of the past back to life. About half a million Rroma were victims of systematic extermination policies of the National Socialists. Food for thoughts is the fact that theses crimes were only very insufficiently investigated. Stankiewitz emphasizes the often misinterpreted fact that the apparent wandering of the Rroma is not a willed way of life, but rather is the result from the fact that they were not allowed to settle anywhere. Forced to constantly wander, the stereotype of the vagabond Rroma was created. He notes:

It is certain in any case that the immigrant groups and extended families – like the Jews – were not allowed to settle, and he could only exercise certain professions. Thus, the stereotypes of the eternally wandering, nomadic, asocial, or the “free, funny gypsy life” were created. A kitschy representation in art, literature, film and operetta (“The Gypsy Baron”) which is maintained to this day.

At the end of the 19th Century, a systematic monitoring service on Rroma was established. The former police director Alfred Dillmann even set up a “Gypsy Police”, which was to be dedicated on the “containment of dangerous vagrancy”. In inflammatory articles published in the March 1912, “The Gypsy plague”, Rroma were accused of introducing epidemics and of terrorist activities. In Bavaria, in 1926, the “Gypsy and work-avoiders” laws, which among other things criminalised the “travel in hordes” were introduced. Besides this, however, there were always well integrated Rroma who were valued and respected in their professions,   mostly artisanal ones.

With the rise of the Nazis, the systematic criminalization of the Rroma in Germany began. Eugenicists such as Josef Mengele measured the physiognomy of members of the Rroma and presented abstruse theories of racial inferiority and relationships between physique and behaviour. Rroma were identified black triangles, the Rroma equivalent of the Jewish star,  and branded as anti-social and deported to concentration camps. After the war reparation were not paid, as it was claimed that no racial persecution had existed. Databases on travellers were continued well after the War and only disbanded in the 1970s. Stankiewitz concludes:

After the war, the persecuted Sinti and Roma had no political advocates in contrast to other groups of victims. The Höllreiner family, those who survived, were never compensated for their stolen property and for the time in camps. A reparation was out of the question after the Federal Court in 1956 decided that deportations of Rroma were not a racial persecution, but a “crime-preventive measure”.

Source:

• Stankiewitz, Karl (2013) Es begann in Bayern. Vom Leidensweg der Sinti und Roma. In: Kulturvollzug vom 15.4.2013. 

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