| The
mass murder of the Sinti and Roma people, called Gypsies or
Romani, parallels closely that of the Jews. Hitler's Germany
resolved The "Gypsy Plague" by a nearly successful
attempt to exterminate them as a people. Who
were the Romani? In Germany and Austria at the time of the
Holocaust approximately 30,000-35,000 people belonged to the
Romani ethnic minority. This group had migrated to Europe
from northern India in around 1400 and was made up of many
tribes. The popular collective term "Gypsies" refers
to all of these tribes. The Sinti was the largest tribe in
Germany and the Roma the largest in Austria and Eastern Europe.
They spoke a common language called Romani, a language based
on Sanskrit.
Though
traditionally living a nomadic lifestyle and making a living
as craftsmen and entertainers, the Romani had become more
settled in the early 1900s.
Part
of the Romani Holocaust
exhibit |
