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ROMANI PEOPLE

This is a resource list for Roma and allies.
We are considered "the most hated people in Europe," and are often forgotten in the United States. We need your help.

The Romani

A lot of times, when we think of an ethnic group we tend to associate it with a nationality. The Finnish live in Finland. Somalis live in Somalia. Romani live in...the world. The Romani people, historically called Gitanos, Kale, Manush, or (pejoratively) Gypsies, are a major ethnic group. There are an estimated 12 million Romani people, but rather than being confined within specific political borders, the Romani are stateless people, or an ethnic group that does not exclusively identify with any country. This has made them subject to a fair amount of persecution over the years. But just because they're not associated with any specific country, don't make the mistake of thinking that they're without a home. Their home is simply wherever they are, and that seems to work just fine for the Romani.

History of the Romani

As a nearly nomadic society, Romani have popped up throughout the historical record for centuries. However, since the Romani have been frequently marginalized and ignored as outsiders, this record is sporadic at best. Genetic and linguistic evidence strongly suggests that the Romani ethnic group developed in northwestern India, near the modern-day state of Punjab. Either voluntarily or as slaves, the Romani seem to have left India around 500 CE and migrated into Central Asia and the Middle East. Genetic evidence suggests that nearly half of their population did not survive the migration. From the Middle East, the Romani slowly made their way north and west, reaching Bulgaria around 1100 CE and from there spreading across Europe.

As the Romani entered Europe, they maintained a cultural preference for wandering and frequent relocation maintained by Romani networks that stretched across the continent. Many of their customs were not indigenous to Europe, their language was not European, and they moved around a lot, all of which resulted in the Romani developing a reputation of being outsiders. They became highly marginalized, excluded from mainstream cultures and governments. During times of stress, many European communities openly blamed the Romani, accusing them of various acts of malicious magic throughout the centuries. Even into the post-industrial world, the Romani are often viewed with prejudice or suspicion and blamed for bringing poverty or crime into areas. Nevertheless, many Romani have had major impacts on European cultures over the centuries, both genetically and culturally. Traditions like flamenco music in Spain, or street performance in France and Italy trace their roots back to Romani populations.

Distribution Today

So, where are the Romani today? The majority live in Southern and Eastern Europe, stretching roughly from Spain and France across the Mediterranean and into the Balkans. One of the largest and most concentrated populations live in the nation of Romania. However, being a highly-mobile culture means that Romani can realistically be found throughout the world. There are an estimated 1 million Romani in the United States, and Brazil also hosts a large population.

Romani Culture

Romani culture varies by location, but everywhere is characterized by a mixture of traditional Romani customs and practices of the people around whom the Romani live. For example, it is believed that the Romani originally practiced the Hindu religion, but modern populations in Europe are generally Catholic while those in the Middle East as Muslims. In both cases, religious practices are infused with traditional Romani rituals and beliefs that bear many similarities to Hindu practices in northwestern India. The Romani have adopted Catholicism so widely that they even have their own patron saint, the Blessed Ceferino Giménez Malla, a Spanish Romani activist who was killed during the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s.

The last image is actually the most striking, however, because it depicts a Romani woman undergoing a DNA test.
Some of the countries in which the Nazis invaded had "Gypsy control" policies in place since the 1920s. In Austria and Germany, in particular, the governments had actually compiled "registration" cards for all of the Romani people living in their respective territories.
In 1935, the Nazis implemented a Eugenics research program, which had the purpose of proving that Romani people were an "inferior race". This resulted in Nazi scientists traveling within Nazi occupied Europe and documenting the local Romani communities. The Nazis kept impeccable records, so much so, that historians have been able to reconstruct how big pre-war Romani communities were, and where they were located.
The Nazis also implemented something akin to the "one drop rule". If they determined that just one of your eight grandparents was Romani, then you were Romani and you were targeted for the "Final Solution". They documented all of this.
In the 1940s, it became illegal for any Romani person living in Nazi occupied Europe to travel.
So, by the time the "Final Solution" was implemented in 1941, the whereabouts of Romani people who had not already been interned or deported were well known. The Nazis had documented where Romani communities were, how many people lived there, and who qualified as a "Gypsy half-breed" according to their standards.
In the summer of 1941, the Nazis began systematically murdering Romani people through a series of mass shootings carried out by the SS. In 1942, the "Gypsy camp" at Auschwitz was "liquidated".
While some Romani people certainly escaped and survived, many were not so fortunate.
90%-95% of Roma and Sinti in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia were killed.
583 of them survived, only about 100 of whom were Bohemian Roma.
80% of the Roma, Sinti, and Lovari that had lived in Austria were killed.
600-700 of them survived.
Nearly 22,000 of the original 23,000 Romani persons sent to Auschwitz died in Auschwitz.
2,897 Romani persons were killed in Auschwitz in a single day in 1944.
3,500 Romani men, women, and children were subjected to Nazi medical experiments.
Nearly all 25,000 Romani people living in Croatia were murdered.
15,000-20,000 of them were deported to and later died in Jasenovac.
About 10% of the Serbian Roma population died in Jasenovac, alone.
Nazis likely killed at least one third of all Serbian Roma by their own estimates.
In 1930, there were 242,656 Roma living in Romania. By 1948, there 53,425.
At least 25,000 Roma in Transnistria were documented to have been starved to death by the Nazis
At least 28,000 Hungarian Roma died.
At least 30% of Hungarian Roma were interned for forced labor.
It is estimated that some 3,000 Hungarian Roma survived the Holocaust.
Anywhere from 6,000 to 30,000 Romani people are believed to have been interned in Vichy France, although very few died.
It is estimated that the pre-war population of Romani people in Europe was around one million. Conservative estimates claim the Nazis killed approximately 500,000 Romani people.
Liberal estimates maintain that at least 800,000 Romani people died during the Holocaust.
That means somewhere between 50% and 80% of European Romani people died during the Holocaust
That gives you an idea of just how utterly devastating the Holocaust was to Romani people in Europe.
It would have been impossible for Romani people to have fled Nazi occupied Europe. Even Romani people who fled to places like France were interned, and some were deported to Dachau where they died.
In fact, one of the well documented migrations of Romani people occurred after the war ended during which many European Romani families moved to the United States, Britain, and even to the British Mandate of Palestine.
Please stop rewriting Romani history to make your "Gypsy" ancestry story seem more unique and legitimate.
It's infuriating, and it's disrespectful. Most importantly, though, it is wrong.