Porajmos Anti-Romanyism

german nazi deportation of sinti , roma asperg, 1940

persecution of romani people reached peak during world war ii in porajmos (literally, devouring), descriptive neologism nazi genocide of romanis during holocaust. because romani communities of eastern europe less organized jewish communities, more difficult assess actual number of victims. historians estimate 220,000 500,000 romani killed nazis , collaborators, or more 25% of fewer 1 million roma in europe @ time.

nazi racial ideology put romani, jews , blacks @ bottom of racial scale. german nuremberg laws of 1935 stripped jews of citizenship, confiscated property , criminalized sexual relationship , marriage aryans. these laws extended romani , afro-germans. nazi policy towards roma complicated pseudohistoric racialist theories, contradictory. while considered roma grossly inferior, believed roma people had distant aryan roots had been corrupted. nomadic roma, example bohemian roma, considered more degenerate settled roma, , persecution more intense.

in protectorate of bohemia , moravia, nazi genocide of romani thorough exterminated majority of bohemian romani speakers, leading language s extinction in 1970 death of last known speaker, hana Šebková. in denmark, greece , small number of other countries, resistance native population thwarted planned nazi deportations , extermination of romani. in conquered countries (e.g., baltic states), local cooperation nazis expediated murder of local romani. in croatia, croatian collaborators of ustaše, vicious minor remnant of croatian romani (and jews) survived killings.

in 1982, west germany formally recognized genocide had been committed against romani. before had claimed that, unlike jews, roma , sinti not targeted racial reasons, criminal reasons, invoking antiziganist stereotype. in modern holocaust scholarship porajmos has been increasingly recognized genocide committed simultaneously shoah.