Lyly Lieu

Guffey/Katkin

English 10

2 May 2011

Holocaust Essay - Outline

Thesis: The Gypsies, or Roma, had suffered through discrimination and hardships throughout the

many events laid out in history, including those before, during and after the Holocaust.

I. Early History/Before the Holocaust

A. The history of Gypsies

1. Gypsies have been discriminated against ever since their arrival to Europe,

playing a great part in the hardships they had suffered through.

a. “Gypsies are dark-haired, dark-skinned people who are believed to have

originated from India.” (Schmittron, 193)

b. Gypsies are a group of people who could have been easily identified by

their, what is believed to be Indian, appearance.

c. Upon arriving in Eastern Europe in the early 1300’s, the Gypsies were

automatically labeled as strange and different. The unwelcoming reaction

from the Eastern Europeans made the Gypsies unwanted, despite traveling

for centuries in hope to carry out better lives (Friedman, 8).

d. The discrimination the Gypsies faced had started very early in history,

long before the Holocaust or Hitler’s time. Their physical appearance

played the key part to the hatred that these individuals had faced.
 2. Discrimination against the Gypsies has been around since very early history.

The prejudice they were exposed to led them right into the hands of Hitler and the

Holocaust later on during World War II.

B. Gypsies and Jews

1. Based on many characteristics, Gypsies were much like the Jews and that could

have later on lead them to being one of the number of groups that were victims of

the Holocaust.

a. The Gypsies were natural scapegoats, those who were made to bear the

blame for others, and outsiders, much like Jews. The Jews were labeled

outsiders because of their religious beliefs, while Gypsies were given that

label because of other reasons beyond their religious beliefs (Friedman, 8).

b. Gypsies have been classified as a group that other individuals can put

blame on, even if they had not had a thing to do with it. This label has

been put upon them since the beginning of history, very similar to what

the Jews have gone been put through throughout history, as well. The Jews

had been blamed for just because they were not Christian. The Gypsies are

blamed for their race, religion, beliefs and life styles.

c. Anti-Gypsy laws first became official in 1899, in the German state of

Bavaria. Bavaria had set up a Gypsy Affairs Office and it controlled the

anti-Gypsy rules and regulations until Adolf Hitler’s group, the Nazis,

later on gained power in 1920 (“Karl Stojka”).

d. Along with the many anti-Jew laws that existed in Germany, and

probably other European countries as well, there were also laws that
 regulated against the Gypsies as well. These laws were around even before

Hitler’s time, showing that not only the infamous dictator had a hatred

towards this group of individuals.

e. In 1933, the Nazis’ had first suggested a plan that would have resulted

in sending 30,000 Gypsies out to sea and sinking the ships. That plan was

later on abolished and abandoned (Friedman, 9).

f. The hatred for Gypsies started to grow tremendously as the Nazis gained

power in Germany. They would have been willing to do anything for this

group of “inferiors” to be terminated from society.

2. Based on the many similarities of the discrimination that both the Gypsies and

Jews have gone through foreshadowed their fate later on as the Nazis and Hitler

had taken power over Germany and spreading their beliefs to other individuals.

C. Nuremberg Laws and Persecutions

1. When Hitler and the Nazis officially held power over Germany in World War

II, the hardships the Gypsies were about to face were just about to start, and the

Holocaust had not even began yet.

a. Gypsies, like Jews, were forbidden from marrying Germans under the

Nuremberg laws. This prohibition was in hope to keep the German race

pure and to protect the German blood. Later on in 1936, Gypsies had to be

registered, along with the Jews. The registration documents were used

during the deportation of Jews and Gypsies (“Karl Stojka”).

b. Even though the Nuremberg laws were known to limit Jews from many

of the rights, it had also extended to limit the Gypsies. These laws that
 were in hope to keep the German race pure isolated these two groups of

individuals to a large extent.

c. Before the Jewish had been rounded up in large numbers, Gypsies and

Homosexuals had suffered through many brutal persecutions because of

the inferiority of their race and society’s general hatred for them

(Friedman, 14).

d. Before the Jewish had even been gathered up to meet their fate, the

Gypsies had been sent off to be persecuted first along with the

homosexuals as well.

e. Gypsies, like the Jews, were ordered to be executed completely. Not one

individual classified under the group were to survive. They were

considered socially inferior, their race was impure and even criminals.

After a series of medical experiments that were forced upon them, it was

declared that their blood was not the same as, what was considered,

normal blood (Friedman, 8).

f. The racism and discrimination that was set upon the Gypsies had

intensified as Hitler’s power started to increase. Further stereotypes and

labels were set on this group of individuals.

2. Once the Nuremberg laws had been passed, it was official that the Gypsies

were about to face something great that would later proclaim their race’s fate.

Once the persecutions were performed, it was official that something was going to

result in either the suffering or termination of their group.

II. During the Holocaust

A. The Final Solution

1. The Final Solution was Hitler’s plan to annihilate the Jewish as well as Gyspy

race in order to form a perfect Germany. Through out the time period he used to

finalize this solution, the Gypsies suffered to survive and reclaim what was theirs.

a. The deportation of the Gypsies to the east, first to ghettos and then to

death camps, began in May 1940. Gypsies were among those killed by gas

in mobile vans in Chelmo, Poland, in December 1941 (Cook).

b. Much like the Jews, the Gypsies were forced out of their homes and

sent to locations, known as ghettos, where they were closed in and isolated

from the rest of the world. The murders were just on the verge of

beginning with these mobile gas chambers roaming around.

c. Before Hitler’s decision to go through with the Final Solution, the

Gypsies who had not been killed by the Einsatzgruppen were sent to

ghettos, where they would await for Hitler’s decision on the Final Solution

(Friedman, 8). The Einsatzgruppen were special task forces or German

Operational groups who were ordered to kill Gypsies and Jews (Cook).

d. As the many Gypsies awaited to see how their fates would play out

under the rule of the new and powerful dictator, many other individuals

classified as Gypsies were put to death with the many Jewish.

e. Anyone who was, what Hitler and Heinrich Himmler considered,

inferior or “racially inferior” were to be put to death in hopes to build a

much more superior and pure race. Along with the Gypsies, those who

were considered inferior included the physically and mentally

 handicapped, homosexuals and Jehovah’s witnesses (Schmittron, 225-

226).

f. According to Hitler and Himmler, anyone who would contaminate the

new master race’s blood had to be executed. Those who had to be killed

were people who had been looked down upon for their characteristics and

beliefs, whether if dealt with religion or how they had chosen to live life.

2. This had only sparked the beginning of what was going to be in store for the

Gypsies later on. They were deprived from their homes and everything they had

owned and along with that, dealing with the hardships to stay alive at this point.

B. Gypsies in Auschwitz

1. Once Hitler had finalized the Final Solution, the Gypsies were going to be sent

to death camps to be, literally, worked to death. The hatred for Gypsies now had

increased to such a great extent.

a. All Gypsies were to be sent to Auschwitz-Birkanau, a concentration

camp in Poland. This was decided by Himmler on December 16, 1942

(“Karl Stojka”).

b. Auschwitz was the largest death camp during the Holocaust, with the

Gypsies being sent there, it could have been inferred something drastic

was going to happen to the individuals of that race.

c. In Auschwitz, a Gypsy camp was set up. Though, later on, the camp

was liquidated because on the pressure being put on Himmler by Martin

Burmann. That resulted in the murders on 2,897 Gypsy men, women in

children in the gas chambers located in Auschwitz (Cook).

 d. Because the smaller Gypsy camp in Auschwitz had to be taken down,

instead of letting these people go free, they were executed instead. It was

evident that Hitler was willing to do anything to execute those of these

impure races, Gypsies being one of the main ones.

e. Heinrich Himmler was the head of the Nazi SS. He, in particular, was

more passionate when it came to the hatred of Gypsies. He has once stated

his desire for “the Gypsies disappear from the face of Earth” while Joseph

Goebbels, another Nazi, stated that like the Jews, “Gypsies should simply

be executed.” (Cook).

f. Compared to many people, Himmler had a very strong hatred for the

Gypsies. His opinions about the value of Gypsies was very low, making

him Hitler’s perfect choice to be in charge of keeping the Gypsies in order

at Auschwitz.

2. Gypsies who were being sent to Auschwitz had not thought that many of their

race would be killed in front of them. This is only one example of the hardships

they had suffered through the Holocaust.

C. Medical Experimentation

1. Medical experimentations that Gypsies were forced to undergo were one of the

torturous things that Gypsies faced while in the death camps. The medical

experiments were one of the hardships and sufferings that the Gypsies had to face.

a. Doctor Josef Mengle was the infamous doctor who was assigned to

select those fit enough to work, go directly to gas chambers or used as

experiments. He sent his products of investigation, or human body parts to

 the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute Scientific Research team, which he was a part

of (Friedman).

b. Doctor Mengle, one could say, determined the fates of the Gypsies in

the death camps. They could die straightaway or work to their death.

There were a select number of individuals who would have to pose as lab

animals under the doctor’s hands.

c. Upon arriving to camps or, in many cases, even before being sent off,

Gypsies were sterilized. In the death and concentration camps, Gypsies

had been sent off to gas chambers and those who were not were used for

medical experiments. The experiments included sterilization without the

use of anesthesia (Friedman).

d. Not being able to choose or decide what they would want, the Gypsies

were sent one way or another, though both ended in a painful death. The

Gypsies were not able to try and talk their way out of the death camps.

2. Medical experiments were among the number of tactics that the Gypsies faced

and suffered through during the Holocaust.

III. After the Holocaust

A. Number of Gypsies Killed

1. After the Holocaust had ended and the camps had been liberated, the total

number of Gypsies who had been killed during this event has been rounded up

and reflects their hardships.

a. When the Allies had started to arrive closer to the camps, the conditions

within them had grown worse. The Nazis forced the remaining Jews along
 with the Gypsies to go on death marches from one death camp to another

in hopes of not being found by the Ally troops (“Karl Stojka”).

b. As the end of the Holocaust was nearing, the Gypsies were still forced

to suffer on the thin brink between life and death, making it even harder

since it was frigid winters they had to run through.

c. Along with the Nazis, Gypsies were also killed by Romanian and

Croatian German Allies. The estimated number of Gypsies killed by Nazis

and their allies was 220,000 and 1.5 million people (Cook).

d. The large number of innocent people who were killed shows how much

these individuals had gone through.

2. The amount of individuals who had died during the Holocaust later increased

during the death marches through the below freezing winter nights. Later, the

number of people who had died clarified and represents the number of people

who were executed for being a Gypsy.

B. Years Later

1. Even though years have passed, the Gypsies still are suffering to fit into society

without being discriminated against or hated just because of their race and beliefs.

a. Many people have said that the Holocaust had never happened, that it

was only an invention. These people also consider the white race superior

over others. Though Hitler is dead and the Nazi regime came to an end, his

ideals are still followed and praised. The German scientists who studied

and taught “racial science” still taught the subject after the war. Laws for

sterilizations are also still on the books in West Germany (Friedman).

 b. The beliefs that some people follow are astonishing, such as this. The

hatred for Gypsies is still in existence.

c. The government of West Germany never acknowledged the suffering

Gypsies had gone through during the Holocaust. Even though

approximately half a million people were murdered by the Germans, more

are found out about as Nazi records are discovered. Many laws that restrict

the movements of Gypsies are still in effect in a number of countries,

including the United States. Many states in the United States require

Gypsies to be licensed (Friedman)

d. Discrimination against the Gypsies is still as alive as it was during

World War II, though less intense. Even countries like the United States,

which has gone through Civil Rights movements and acts itself, still

discriminate against the Gypsies, though they had liberated them from the

death camps. The hatred for Gypsies is still very intense in West Germany.

2. Even though it has been half a century since the end of the Holocaust, the

Gypsies are still suffering and trying to get through with their lives like others.