| Before
the Nazis came to power the Sinti and Roma suffered discrimination
in Germany. The German word for Gypsy, Zigeuner, is derived
from a root which means "untouchable." They had
limited legal rights. Even under the Weimar Republic, when Romani
received full citizenship rights for the first time, there was
routine discrimination. Arbitrary arrest and preventative detention
was commonplace. When
the Nazis came to power, the Romani were included as
"asocials" under the law and were included
with Jews and the handicapped in the early discriminatory
laws.
Under
the 1935 Nuremberg Laws For the Protection of German Blood,
the Romani were classified with Jews and Blacks as racially
distinctive minorities with "alien" blood. As a
result of these laws they were systematically deprived of
their civil rights.
Part
of the Romani Genocide
exhibit |
