Gypsies and Jews under the Nazis

Holocaust and Genocide Studies

Volumn 13, Issue 3, 1999, Pages 383-404

  Lewy, Guenter ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; CONTRACEPTION; ECONOMICS; EDUCATION; ETHNOLOGY; EUROPE; GIPSY; HISTORY; HOLOCAUST; HOMICIDE; JEW; LEGAL ASPECT; POLITICAL SYSTEM; PRISON; PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECT; SOCIAL CONTROL; SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY; VICTIM; WAR;

CONCENTRATION CAMPS; CRIME VICTIMS; EUROPE; GYPSIES; HISTORY, 20TH CENTURY; HOLOCAUST; HOMICIDE; JEWS; NATIONAL SOCIALISM; PREJUDICE; SOCIAL CONTROL POLICIES; STERILIZATION, INVOLUNTARY; WORLD WAR II;

EID: 63849123930     PISSN: 87566583     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/hgs/13.3.383     Document Type: Article

References (90)

1. Donald Kenrick and Grattan Puxon, The Destiny of Europe's Gypsies (New York: Basic Books, 1972)
2. Donald Kenrick and Grattan Puxon, Gypsies under the Swastika (Hatfield: University of Hertfordshire Press, 1995)
3. Michael Zimmermann, Rassenutopie und Genozid: Die nationalsozialistische Lösung der Zigeunerfrage (Hamburg: Christians Verlag, 1996)
4. Lucy S. Dawidowicz, "Thinking about the Six Million: Facts, Figures, Perspectives," in John K. Roth and Michael Berenbaum, eds., Holocaust: Religious and Philosophical Implications (New York: Paragon, 1989), p. 60
5. RKPA, "Auswertung der rassenbiologischen Gutachten über zigeunerische Personen," September 20, 1941, Erlasssammlung Nr. 15. This collection of decrees, entitled Vorbeugende Verbrechensbekämpfung, was issued by the RKPA in 1941. There is no pagination; the decrees are ordered chronologically. A copy can be found at the Institut für Zeitgeschichte in Munich
6. Staatsarchiv (hereafter STA) Munich, Pol Dir München, Nr. 7033
7. I have found one such case in a Kripo file for Gypsies: Korseda M., said to belong to a family of Gypsy-like itinerants and considered asocial, was sent to Ravensbrück in June 1939 and to the woman's camp of Auschwitz in March 1942. Landeshauptarchiv (hereafter LHA) Potsdam, Rep. 30 Berlin C, Nr. 90
8. Report of rural police post Wildshut, Dokumentationsarchiv des österreichischen Widerstandes Vienna, Nr. 15061/8
9. Heinz Caprez, "Jenische als Naziopfer: Beschwerliche Suche nach Überlebenden," Beobachter, November 28, 1997, p. 49
10. The figure of 2,500 may not be precise. A tabulation found in the files of the Ritter Institute in Berlin, in charge of research on the "Gypsy problem," speaks of 2,330 deported Gypsies. Bundesarchiv (hereafter BA) Berlin, ZSg. 142/22. A summary of evacuations by Heydrich's office gives the figure of 2,800 deported to the East between May 11 and November 15, 1940. Nuremberg document NO-5150, National Archives Washington (hereafter NA), RG 238, box 89
11. Zentrale Stelle der Landesjustizverwaltungen (hereafter ZSL), Ludwigsburg, 415 AR 930/61, p. 86
12. Kripo Cologne to RKPA, August 21, 1940, Hauptstaatsarchiv (hereafter HSTA) Düsseldorf, BR 2034, Nr. 1115
13. Archiwum Akt Nowych, Reg. GG 433, Bl. 10, cited by Zimmermann, Rassenutopie und Genozid, p. 183
14. Ventzki to Übelhör, September 24, 1941, NA, Microfilm Publication T 175, roll 54, frames 2568677, 2568682-83
15. A detailed statistical report on arrivals was compiled by the German authorities in Litzmannstadt. A facsimile can be found in Romani Rose, ed., Der Nationakozialistische Völkermord an den Sinti und Roma (Heidelberg: Dokumentations-und Kulturzentrum deutscher Sinti und Roma, 1995), pp. 101-3
16. Lucjan Dobroszycki, ed., The Chronicle of the Łódź Ghetto, 1941-1944 (New Haven, CT.: Yale University Press, 1984), p. 82
17. Arbeitsamt Litzmannstadt to the Ghettoverwaltung Litzmannstadt, November 22, 1942, reprinted in Elisabeth Klamper, ed., Archives of the Holocaust, vol. 19, doc. 75, p. 188
18. Dobroszycki, ed., Chronicle, p. 86
19. Omer Bartov, Hitler's Army: Soldiers, Nazis, and War in the Third Reich (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), p. 24
20. Christian Streit, Keine Kameraden: Die Wehrmacht und die sowjetischen Kriegsgefangenen 1941-1945 (Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlagsanstalt, 1978), p. 177
21. Cf. Paul Weindling, "Understanding Nazi Racism: Precursors and Perpetrators," in Michael Burleigh, ed., Confronting the Nazi Past: New Debates in Modern German History (New York: St. Martin's, 1996), p. 79
22. Christopher Browning, Path to Genocide: Essays on Launching the Final Solution (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992), p. 160
23. Isaiah Trunk, Judenrat: The Jewish Councils in Eastern Europe under Nazi Occupation (New York: Macmillan, 1972), p. 159
24. Ereignismeldung UdSSR Nr. 92, September 23, 1941, Nuremberg document NO-3143, NA, RG 238, box 58
25. Ereignismeldung UdSSR Nr. 165, February 6, 1942, Nuremberg document NO-3401, NA, RG 238, box 65
26. Ereignismeldung UdSSR Nr. 195, April 24, 1942, NA, T 175, roll 235, fr. 2724320
27. Plans for such a remedy to the problem of overcrowding are said to have been discussed as early as July 1941. Cf. Eberhard Jäckel and Jürgen Rohwer, eds., Der Mord an den Juden im Zweiten Weltkrieg: Entschlussbildung und Verwirklichung (Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlagsanstalt, 1985), p. 42. See also the April 15, 1945 confession by Dr. Wilhelm Gustav Schübbe who worked as surgeon in the Erwin Peter hospital of Litzmannstadt, NA, RG 153, box 575
28. BA Dahlwitz-Hoppegarten, R 090, Nr. 147
29. ZSL Ludwigsburg, II 207 AR-Z 101/1967, 2: 328-29
30. Christopher Browning, "Wehrmacht Reprisal Policy and the Mass Murder of Jews in Serbia," Militärgeschichtliche Mitteilungen 33 (1983), p. 31
31. "Einweisung von Zigeunermischlingen, Rom-Zigeunern und balkanischen Zigeunern in ein Konzentrationslager," January 29, 1943, Erlasssammlung Nr. 15
32. The decree is also reprinted in Hans-Joachim Döring, Die Zigeuner im nationakozialistischen Staat, (Hamburg: Kriminalistik Verlag, 1964), pp. 214-18
33. LHA Magdeburg, C 29 Anh. II, Nr. 130
34. Mayor Breitscheid to Landrat in Dillenburg, March 13, 1941, HSA Wiesbaden, Abt. 410, Nr. 488
35. Kripo Frankfurt to Landrat in Dillenburg, May 5, 1941, op. cit
36. Kripo Frankfurt to Landrat in Dillenburg, March 3, 1943, ibid., Abt. 410, Nr. 489
37. Landrat in Dillenburg to Kripo Frankfurt, March 5, 1943, ibid
38. The figure of 1,097 appears in a memo entitled "Historisches zur Zigeunerfrage" composed in the RKPA, probably with the help of Ritter. The estimate of those to be added appears in a hand-written memo of Eva Justin. See Zimmermann, Rassenutopie und Genozid, pp. 151, 299
39. Ian Hancock, "Responses to the Porrajmos: The Romani Holocaust," in Alan S. Rosenbaum, ed., Is the Holocaust Unique? Perspectives on Comparative Genocide (Boulder, CO, 1996), p. 47
40. Wolfgang Wippermann, ed., Kontroversen um Hitler (Frankfurt/M., 1986), p. 48
41. Memo of Minister of Nutrition and Agriculture, November 14, 1942, BA Berlin, R 14, Nr. 156. The meeting referred to in this memo took place on November 4
42. Hans Buchheim of the IfZ in Munich estimated that the decree of October 13, 1942, providing for the acceptance of "good Mischlinge" into the "racially pure" clans, could have benefited 6,000 Gypsies (ZSL Ludwigsburg, 414 AR 540/83, vol. 4, p. 586)
43. Bernhard Streck, "Zigeuner in Auschwitz: Chronik des Lagers B II e," in Mark Münzel and Bernhard Streck, eds., Kumpania und Kontrolle: Moderne Behinderungen zigeunerischen Lebens (Giessen: Focus, 1981), p. 115
44. Danuta Czech, Auschwitz Chronicle: 1939-45 (New York: Henry Holt, 1990), p. 339
45. For example, Martin Gilbert writes in his Atlas of the Holocaust (New York: William Morrow, 1993), p. 141: "Following a decree of 16 December 1942, all German Gypsies were deported to Auschwitz."
46. See also Henry Friedlander, Origins of Nazi Genocide: From Euthanasia to the Final Solution (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1995), p. 293
47. Wolfgang Wippermann, Wie die Zigeuner: Antisemitismus und Antitsiganismus im Vergleich (Berlin: Elefanten Press, 1997), p. 167
48. Selma Steinmetz, Österreichs Zigeuner im NS-Staat (Vienna: Europa, 1966), p. 14
49. Sybil Milton, "Correspondence on 'Gypsies and the Holocaust,'" History Teacher 25 (1992), p. 519
50. On the other hand, Yehuda Bauer writes that "only a minority" of German and Austrian Gypsies were sent to Auschwitz: "Gypsies," in Yisrael Gutman and Michael Berenbaum, eds., Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, published in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 1994), p. 451
51. Johannes Rau, "Damit es niemals wieder so wird: Der Völkermord an Sinti und Roma," AVS-Informationsdienst 16:2 (February 1995), pp. 2-3
52. Nili Keren, "The Family Camp," in Gutman and Berenbaum, p. 429
53. Bauer, "Gypsies," in Gutman and Berenbaum, p. 451
54. Pohl to Brandt, April 9, 1943, Brandt to Pohl, April 15, 1943, Bundesarchiv Berlin, NS 19/180, pp. 3-4
55. Rudolf Höss, (trans. Constantin Fitzgibbon) Commandant of Auschwitz: The Autobiography of Rudolf Höss, (Cleveland: World, 1959), p. 139
56. We have several eyewitness accounts of life in the Gypsy family camp. A valuable recent addition to the memoir literature is Walter Stanoski Winter, WinterZeit: Erinnerungen eines deutschen Sinto, der Auschwitz überlebt hat (Hamburg: Ergebnisse Verlag, 1999)
57. Helena Kubica, "The Crimes of Josef Mengele," in Gutman and Berenbaum, p. 323
58. Miklos Nyiszli, Auschwitz: An Eyewitness Account of Mengele's Infamous Death Camp (New York: Seaver, 1986), pp. 53-55
59. Tadeusz Szymanski, "The 'Hospital' in the Family Camp for Gypsies in Auschwitz-Birkenau," in Nazi Medicine, ed. International Auschwitz Committee (New York: Howard Fertig, 1986), part 3, p. 25
60. Randolph Braham, "Hungarian Jews," in Gutman and Berenbaum, p. 465
61. Krystyna Zywulska, I Came Back (London: Dennis Dobson, 1951), p. 179
62. testimony of Erich Bruchwalski, ZSL Ludvvigsburg, 402 AR-Z 47/84, vol. 3
63. Waclaw Dlugoborski, "On the History of the Gypsy Camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau," in State Museum of Auschwitz-Birkenau, Memorial Book: The Gypsies at Auschwitz-Birkenau, vol. 1 (Munich: K. G. Saur, 1993), p. 3
64. This tabulation is based on figures provided by Dlugoborski, p. 4
65. Streck, "Zigeuner in Auschwitz," p. 128
66. Zimmermann, Rassenutopie und Genozid, p. 494, n. 212
67. Slightly different figures are given by Szymanski, "The 'Hospital' in the Family Camp for Gypsies in Auschwitz-Birkenau," pp. 41-43
68. The difficulty of arriving at more precise numbers is stressed by Franciszek Piper, head of historical research at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, in "The Number of Victims," in Gutman and Berenbaum, p. 70
69. Höss, Commandant of Auschwitz, p. 115
70. Kenrick and Puxon, Destiny of European Gypsies, give a figure of 21,500 (p. 183)
71. Zimmerman, Rassenutopie und Genozid, estimates the number of dead as about 23,000 (pp. 381-82)
72. "Letter to the Editor," Frankfurter Rundschau, February 20, 1997
73. Romani Rose and Walter Weiss, Sinti und Roma im "Dritten Reich": Das Programm der Vernichtung durch Arbeit (Göttingen: Lamuv, 1991), p. 176
74. Rose, Der nationalsozialistische Völkermord, p. 189
75. For example, Roman Herzog, the president of the Federal Republic, condemned the crimes against the Gypsies as "genocide" on March 16, 1997 (Tagesspiegel, March 17, 1997)
76. Brenda Davis Lutz and James M. Lutz, "Gypsies as Victims of the Holocaust," Holocaust and Genocide Studies 9:3 (1995), p. 356
77. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, 9 December 1948 (London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, March 1966)
78. cited by George Andreopoulos, ed., Genocide: Conceptual and Historical Dimensions (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1994), p. 48
79. This important point is raised by Steven T. Katz, The Holocaust in Historical Context, vol. 1 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), p. 128
80. Döring, Zigeuner im nationalsozialistischen Staat, p. 168
81. Ludwig Eiber, "Ich wusste es wird schlimm": Die Verfolgung der Sinti und Roma in München (Munich: Buchendorfer, 1993), p. 94
82. Sybil Milton, "Gypsies and the Holocaust" (an exchange with Yehuda Bauer), The History Teacher 25 (1992), p. 516
83. Yehuda Bauer, ibid., p. 513
84. Zigeuner-Personenakten can be found in the Brandenburgisches Landeshauptarchiv in Potsdam, in the Landeshauptarchiv of Sachsen-Anhalt in Magdeburg, and in the Nordrhein-Westfälisches Hautpstaatsarchiv in Düsseldorf. I consulted about 1,000 such files in 1996
85. For a review of the scholarship see Ulrich Herbert, " Vernichtungspolitik: Neue Antworten und Fragen zur Geschichte des 'Holocaust,'" in idem., ed., Nationakozialistische Vernichtungspolitik 1939-1945: Neue Fragen und Kontroversen (Frankfurt: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, 1998), pp. 9-66. An English translation is to be published by Bergbahn in 1999
86. Several such utterances are quoted in Christian Gerlach, "Die Wannsee-Konferenz, das Schicksal der deutschen Juden und Hitlers politische Grundsatzentscheidung, alle Juden zu ermorden," Werkstatt-Geschichte 18 (1997), pp. 24-25, 35-37
87. For other examples see Götz Aly and Susanne Heim, Vordenker der Vernichtung: Auschwitz und die deutschen Pläne für eine neue europäische Ordnung (Hamburg: Hoffmann und Campe, 1991)
88. Steven T. Katz, "Essay: Quantity and Interpretation-Issues in the Comparative Historical Analysis of the Holocaust," Holocaust and Genocide Studies 4:2 (1989), p. 145
89. Ehe Wiesel, Preface to Report to the President [Carter], (Washington: President's Commission on the Holocaust, 1979), p. iii
90. quoted in Michael Berenbaum, ed., A Mosaic of Victims: Non-Jews Persecuted and Murdered by the Nazis (New York: New York University Press, 1990), p. xii