After the Second World War began, one group subjected to complete extermination was Sinti and Roma.
Before the war, more than 20,000 of them had lived in the Third Reich. Already in 1926, legal regulations pertaining to ‘Gypsies, peddlers and people shirking work’ were introduced in Bavaria. On that basis, unemployed Roma people were sent to resocialisation centres. The nomadic style of some Sinti and Roma was one of the arguments used to label them anti-social and to oppose mixed marriages in Germany. Ingrained stereotypes associated with, for example, criminality influenced their negative perception. From 1933 on, such legislation extended to the entire Third Reich.
Discover the teaching resources to learn about Roma and Sinti genocide – its stages, victims and atfermarch.
Read article ‘The Genocide of the Sinti and Roma: Why Should We Remember It Today?’
