after the second World War...

During this century in Spain, General Franco continued the persecution as did the nazis throughout the areas of Europe controlled by nazi Germany. Since 1975 (when Franco died), the Spanish government's policy has been much more sympathetic toward them, especially in social welfare and social services. Since 1983, it has operated a special program of compensatory education to promote educational rights for the disadvantaged, including gypsy communities.
Gitanos and hungaros (Hungarians emanating from central Europe) make up the two major groups of Spanish gypsies who now live predominantly in southern Spain. Many of them have integrated into the social structure despite being generally poor and largely illiterate. Traditionally they worked as blacksmiths, horse traders, musicians, dancers and fortunetellers.
Others still had to beg and steal, especially the hungaros who were poorer than the gitanos and lived an exclusively nomadic lifestyle, usually in tents or shacks (casitas) on the outskirts of the larger cities. They were much more of a problem for Spanish authorities. Many gitanos denied the hungaros the status of being in their same ethnic group, but the authorities and outsiders still tend to regard them all collectively as gypsies.
Gypsies have a distinctive cultural and linguistic heritage, so the challenge is to see how preservation and integration can succeed without persecution.

further torture of the gypsies

Marzahn (in Berlin) the first gypsy internment camp, (date unknown)

The german concentration camp of Belzec, where at least 2500 german gypsies were executed during the second world war.

The Germans considered the Gypsies an inferior race in a sense on parallel with the Jews, hence they were subject to cruelty and hard work and jailed in concentration camps all over Germany.

In ausweitz the gypsies were sectioned apart from other prisoners and dwarf gypsies and twins were used for experiments. A SS Capitán Dr. Josef Méngele was in charge of these experiments.

The Gypsy section of the camp was plagued by various epedimies such as typhoid, and in August 1944 the SS moved around 1500 gypsies who were still capable enough to work from Ausweitz, the remaining 3,000 were assasinated.

Altogether at least 19000 of the 23000 gypsies at Ausweitz died.

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In Ausweitz-Birkenau more than 20000 gypsies died. In one day alone, 3rd of August 1944, the remaining 2,897 inhabitants of the german gypsy barracks of Ausweitz including women and children were executed.





It is not known the exact total of victims, it is estimated between 50.000 - 80.000 ( Denis Peschanski, French camps, intenment 1938 -46, up to 1.500.000.....

According to wikepedia some 800,00 gypsies were victims of the holocaust.

There are no proven statistics of the true amount of gypsies who died during the Holocaust but it is thought that between 25 - 50% of the total european gypsy population was wiped out.

After the war ended the discrimination against the gypsy population continued. It was decided that all the methods taken against the gypsies, the imprisonment, sterilization, deportation , were considered politically correct and the gypsies had no right to restitution.

The criminal police of Bavaria investigated the files of the case of Robert Ritter,

including his treatment of the Gypsies in Germany. Ritter was the racial Nazi of the Gypsies, he retained his credentials and returned to his original work as a child pysciatrist. The forces to come about and bring Ritter to trial for his involvement in the extermination of the Gypsies ended with his suicide in 1950.

In 1982 Chancellor Helmut Kohl acknowledged at last the attrocities commited by the Nazis against the Gypsies during the second World War, at this time the majority of the gypsy population who had rights to restitution under the german law, had now died.

I am becoming more and more interested in the phlight of the gypsies through the ages especially during the second world war, am putting a halt to my posts until I read further, so far have been reading up in spanish and translating now I find I want to read in english to get a better depth into the history.

map of the gypsies journey across europe during the 12th to 15th centuries

According to wikepedia the first gypsies arrived in spain n 1415, and on the 8th May 1425 they settled in zaragoza.

When America was discovered in 1492 the gypsy population were now well emerged all over europe and in many countries were being persecuted severely tortured , expulsed and enslaved. In Romania enslavement of the gypsies was not abolished until 1864.....
to be continued

history of spanish gypsies continued

A historian George Borrow said "perhaps there isn't a country that has made as many laws to put down and extinguish the name, race and way of life of the gypsies like Spain.

During the second world war the nazis practiced sterilisation on the gypsies of eastern and central europe, which was forwarned from the regional assembly of castile in 1594,the intention to separate gypsy men and women with the intencion to obtain the extinction of the gypsy race.

I am finding it hard to translate my findings from spanish to english, suffice to say that the gypsies have been a persecuted race, I need to research my findings in more depth before I can comment further,,, so to be yet continued,,, for now I'll search for more photos.

history of spanish gypsies continued

I don't have time this morning to write any more about history I have added one photo of spanish gypsies, will continue with this theme this evening (HOPEFULLY!)