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Romani (Gypsy) women and child. Romania, 1930s.

Roma (Gypsies) in Prewar Europe

Roma (Gypsies) originated in the Punjab region of northern India as a nomadic people and entered Europe between the eighth and tenth centuries C.E. They were called "Gypsies" because Europeans mistakenly believed they came from Egypt. This minority is made up of distinct groups called "tribes" or "nations."

Most of the Roma in Germany and the countries occupied by Germany during World War II belonged to the Sinti and Roma family groupings. Both groups spoke dialects of a common language called Romani, based on Sanskrit (the classical language of India). The term "Roma" has come to include both the Sinti and Roma groupings, though some Roma prefer being known as "Gypsies." Some Roma are Christian and some are Muslim, having converted during the course of their migrations through Persia, Asia Minor, and the Balkans.

For centuries, Roma were scorned and persecuted across Europe. Zigeuner, the German word for Gypsy, derives from a Greek root meaning untouchable.

Roma (Gypsies) in Prewar Europe
  • Romani (Gypsy) woman's skirt

    This taffeta and cotton skirt dates from the 1920s. It belonged to a Romani (Gypsy) woman who was born in Frankfurt, Germany, and who lived in Germany before the war. She was arrested by the Nazis and interned in the Auschwitz, Ravensbrück, Mauthausen, and Bergen-Belsen camps. She died in Bergen-Belsen in March 1945, shortly before the camp's liberation. Her husband and two of her six children were also killed in the camps.

  • Two Romani (Gypsy) artisans

    Two Romani (Gypsy) artisans. Ploesti, Romania, 1930s.

  • Romani (Gypsy) women and child

    Romani (Gypsy) women and child. Romania, 1930s.

  • A photographer with a group of nomadic Roma (Gypsies)

    Photographer J. Kolarcik sits with a group of nomadic Roma (Gypsies). This photograph was probably taken in Czechoslovakia, 1939.

  • Prewar Romani (Gypsy) life

    Roma (Gypsies) celebrate with music, dancing, and singing in the mountains near Zagreb, Yugoslavia. During World War II, Roma in Yugoslavia were exterminated by Croatian nationalists and by the Germans.

  • Roma (Gypsies) in Romania

    About a million Roma (Gypsies) lived in Europe before World War II. The largest Romani community—of about 300,000—was in Romania. This film shows a Romani (Gypsy) community in Moreni, a small town northwest of Bucharest. Many Roma led a nomadic lifestyle and often worked as small traders, craftsmen, merchants, laborers, and muscians.

  • Romani (Gypsy) campsite near Berlin

    This film excerpt from Groß-Stadt Zigeuner (1932) by filmmaker László Moholy-Nagy shows a Romani (Gypsy) campsite near Berlin, Germany, in the last year of the Weimar Republic. Although Roma (Gypsies) had faced persecution in Germany even before the Nazi rise to power in 1933, the Nazis regarded them as racial enemies to be identified and killed. Tens of thousands of Roma were killed by the Einsatzgruppen in eastern Europe or were deported to killing centers in occupied Poland.

  • Romani (Gypsy) musician's violin used in a prewar musical band

    Violin owned by Rita Prigmore and originally used by her father, who played with his four brothers in a band in Germany before World War II. Rita and her family were members of the Sinti group of Roma (Gypsies). She and her twin sister Rolanda were born in 1943. Rolanda died as a result of medical experiments on twins in the clinic where they were born. Rita and her mother survived the war and moved to the United States, before returning to Germany to run a Sinti human rights organization that sought to raise consciousness about the fate of Roma during the Holocaust.

  • Blacksmith's bellows used in a Romani (Gypsy) encampment

    These blacksmith's bellows were used by Romani (Gypsy) artisan Juri Cervenuak in Trebisov, Slovakia, in 1939. Many Roma traditionally worked as craftsmen and were blacksmiths, cobblers, tinsmiths, horse dealers, and toolmakers. 
     

Many Roma traditionally worked as craftsmen and were blacksmiths, cobblers, tinsmiths, horse dealers, and toolmakers. Others were performers such as musicians, circus animal trainers, and dancers. By the 1920s, there were also a number of Romani shopkeepers. Some Roma, such as those employed in the German postal service, were civil servants. The number of truly nomadic Roma was on the decline in many places by the early 1900s, although many so-called sedentary Roma often moved seasonally, depending on their occupations.

In 1939, about 1 to 1.5 million Roma lived in Europe. About half of all European Roma lived in eastern Europe, especially in the Soviet Union and Romania. Hungary, Yugoslavia, and Bulgaria also had large Romani communities. In prewar Germany there were at most 35,000 Roma, most of whom held German citizenship. In Austria, there were approximately 11,000 Roma. Relatively few Roma lived in western Europe.

Last Edited: Mar 19, 2021
Author(s): United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC

Critical Thinking Questions

  • Investigate how Roma were treated in Europe before 1933. How did the Nazis build on existing attitudes?
  • What information in this and other articles counters stereotypes of “Gypsies” that persist today?
  • How are the Roma treated in countries in Europe today? How have neighboring countries and the world community responded?

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