Gypsies In Nazi Germany

Written history seems to have more credibility than does oral history. Over time, oral history transforms from what it initially starts with. For example, Nazi Germany slaughtered more than just Jews, but there are more accounts of the Jewish atrocities because there are more written records from the Jews. We do not have enough records of the mass murders of the Gypsies because of their oral culture. As time passed, their oral history faded. In fact, when people think of the Holocaust it always seems Nazis only targeted the Jews, but in reality a great number of Gypsies also lost their lives. Many textual records that we do have are not even written by Gypsies, so they do not depict the true experiences of being a Gypsy in Nazi Germany. In

The Germans/Europeans accused the Gypsies of being spies and thieves; consequently, many resented the presence of Gypsies in Europe. Such resentment prompted countries to ban their nomadic life. In the movie, however, the stories about those who survived the Holocaust show that Gypsies had no intention to harm the European society. Departing from their nomadic lifestyle to settle down, many Gypsies cooperated with the laws towards them to settle down. Aiming to eliminate everyone that did not fit the so called “Aryan” race, Nazi Germany accused the Gypsies of being traitors and destroying the pure Aryan culture. The texts give us the example of the laws passed against the Gypsies without any indication of how these laws affected them. The movie shows us how the laws affected the Gypsies from their

In his book, Lewy claims that the killing of a half million Gypsies was not a genocide but an exaggeration, “because the policies towards the Gypsies was not motivated by Nazi race theory, it cannot be compared with that of the Jews and therefore they do not qualify for inclusion in the Holocaust.” In fact, the Nazis spared the lives of many pure Gypsies. Living like nomads, pure Gypsies comprised a small portion of the race. Through the many years of roaming, the Gypsies mixed with other races, so the sparing of the pure Gypsies is small compared to the genocide of the mixed (Porraimos). The movie shows that by the end of the war approximately 600,000 gypsies died out. That is a large number, which cannot be forgotten. While the movie shows the killing of Gypsies as Porraimos, the texts describe it as a