From Mother Theresa to fortune-tellers, the Gypsies are amazing people. But where did they come from and why have they been so persecuted throughout the years? I found myself asking these questions one day when trying to trace back my last name Tello, to its earliest origins. I traced it back as far as I could, ending up with ancestors who lived in the South of Spain. But then I found out it would be impossible to be sure of my background because of the great number of Gypsy families who would sometimes adopt other families last name when they moved on to another country. The possibility of being from a Gypsy background led me a to an extent research on their lifestyle and history. So in this page I will try and answer both these questions, first by giving you , the reader, a more broader insight of what their origin, customs, religion, then by reporting their struggle to keep their migrating traditions in a sedentary world.

Origins

Although the Gypsies have been in Europe for more than 500 years, only in the late 18^th century was their original homeland definitively identified as northwestern India, through the discovery of the relationship between the Gypsy language, Romany, and the Indo-European dialects of the region. For almost a century and a half there have been suggestions that the Banjara – a mixed race of roving traders forming one of what used to be called the ‘criminal wandering tribes of India’ – are close relations to the Gypsies. But this suggestion does not hold truth because there are no similarities in language between both groups. The most recent speculations suggest that the Gypsies are descendants of the Kshatriyas - the warriors who formed the second rank among the four castes of Hindu society, but nothing has been confirmed about their origin yet (Fraser, 26).

Customs

From a variety of sources I have learned something about Gypsy livelihoods: begging and fortune telling are the ones most commonly mentioned, but we must realize most of these sources are commentaries written by educated men with different customs who disapproved of Gypsy traditions. But mostly, Gypsies made their living horse-dealing, metal work, healing (herbal and spiritual), fortune-telling, and playing music and dancing. A most common characteristic of Gypsies all over the world is a strong sense of group cohesion and exclusivity stressing the sacredness of Gypsy traditions in opposition to the outside world.

The Gypsies are family oriented, with elderly occupying positions of respect and authority. Marriages are usually arranged and represent the desire to create alliances between families or clans rather than a personal attraction. A strict sexual morality prevails; it is still common for unmarried girls to be chaperoned (Block, 33).

Politics

Internally, matters of justice and discipline were largely left in their own hands. The various Gypsy tribes are divided into clans, each composed of a number of families related by common descent or historic association. Clans have nominal leaders, who sometimes adopt the title king or queen. Such titles do not signify positions of generalized political leadership but are simply bestowed as signs of respect or to impress outsiders (Block, 69). But most Gypsies, up until the 19^th century, were slaves (usually those who couldn’t pay their tribute to the Crown). Masters could put their Gypsies to the death with impunity, and any lapses were often met with fierce punishment.

Religion

Gypsies are mostly differentiated from one another in the area of religion, as they have usually adopted the faiths of the countries in which they live. Among the Gypsies can be found Roman Catholics, Hindu, Eastern Orthodox, Protestants, and Muslims. They have little recourse to the clergy, however, preferring to carry out religious rituals in their own homes or in the context of folk observances (Block, 109).

History of Persecution

The Gypsies apparently left their homeland in Northern India in several waves, beginning as early as the 15^th century. The most important migrations began in the 11^th century as the result of Muslim invasions of India. The Gypsies initially traveled westward across Iran into Asia Minor and the Byzantine Empire; from there the majority proceeded into Europe by way of Greece during the early 14^th century. Perhaps their dark skins, long hair, earrings and outlandish style of dressing seemed ugly or even offensive to the settle societies they traveled through. Or maybe it was because their nomadic and an unhibited, flamboyant lifestyle; truth is, wherever they went they were usually not welcomed.

The earliest records of the prejudice the Gypsies suffered goes back to the 14^th and 15^th century when Gypsies would have to carry ‘letters of recommendation’ (signed by their old masters) in order not to be imprisoned when entering another country. One of the earliest crimes against Gypsies happened in Hungary, in 1514 a group of Gypsy metal workers who were put to work under terrible conditions, rose against their lords led by Gyorgey Dozsa. The revolt was brutally suppressed by the voivode of Transylvania, Janos Zapolya, who ordered the Gypsies to fashion a throne, crown and ornamental scepter of iron. Once these had been made red hot, Zapolya set Dozsa upon the throne, pressed the glowing crown on to his head and forced the scepter into his hand, his followers were then compelled to eat his flesh ( Fraser, 107).

In other countries like England, since 1530, Gypsies were prohibited from entering the boarders. If they did, their goods were to be forfeit to the crown and they were ordered to quit the country within 15 days or be imprisoned. In Scotland, the Gypsies were banished from the kingdom in 1541, they had 30 days to leave the country on pain of death. In Scandinavia, priests were forbidden to deal with Gypsies, they were not to baptize their children nor bury their dead (Hancock, 57).

Gypsies in Auschwitz

For Nazi Germany the Gypsies became a racist dilemma. The Gypsies were Aryans, but in the Nazi mind there were contradictions between what they regarded as the superiority of the Aryan race and their image of the Gypsies. At a conference held in Berlin on January 30, 1940, a decision was taken to expel 30,000 Gypsies from Germany to the territories of occupied Poland. The reports of the SS Einsatzgruppen (special task forces) which operated in the occupied territories of the Soviet Union mention the murder of thousands of Gypsies along with the massive extermination of the Jews in these areas. The deportations and executions of the Gypsies came under Heinrich Himmler’s authority. On December 16, 1942, Himmler Issued an order to send all Gypsies to the concentration camps, with a few exceptions . The deported Gypsies were sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where a special Gypsy camp was erected. Over 20,000 Gypsies from Germany and some other parts of Europe were sent to this camp. According to the Institut Fuer Zeitgeschicthe, In Munich, at least 4000 gypsies were murdered by gas at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

The Citizenship Law of 1943 omitted any mention of Gypsies since they were not expected to exist much longer. And though Himmler decreed the transport of Gypsies to Auschwitz on December 16 1942, he did not authorize their extermination until 1944. Most died there and in other camps of starvation, diseases, and torture from abuse as live experimental subjects. By the end of the war, 15,000 of the 20,000 Gypsies who had been in Germany in 1939 had died (*).

Present Distribution

The total number of Gypsies in the world today is estimated between 3 million and 6 million. Census figures are not precise because Gypsies often are not counted. By far the largest concentrations are found in the Balkans, central Europe, Russia, and other successor republics of the Soviet Union, with smaller numbers scattered throughout Western Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and the Americas.

Although Gypsies first appeared in America as cheap labor workers during the colonial period, they began to migrate in significant numbers from Russia and the Balkans during the late 19^th century. Evidence suggests that fewer than 100,000 Gypsies live in the United States and Canada. Although many western European Gypsies are still nomadic the vast majority elsewhere are sedentary. Of the more than 1 million in Eastern Europe and the Balkans, for example, probably no more than 10 percent are nomads. In the United States, Gypsies traveled about in rural areas until the Great Depression of the 1930s, when most settled in large cities on both coasts.

Gypsies are fragmented into groups sometimes referred to as tribes, generally defined by geographic area of settlement or recent origin. The European tribes include the Gitanos of Spain, the Manouche of France, the Sinte of Germany and central Europe, the Romnichals of Great Britain, the Boyash of Romania, and the Rom of Eastern Europe and the Balkans. The Rom also make up the single largest group in the United Sates ( Yoors, 88).

Present Persecution

In present days, is hard to imagine that the Gypsies would still be suffering any kind of persecution, but sadly even today Gypsies are victims of horrific crimes. On the web, I found the page of the Association of Gypsies/Romani International, a posting named "Anti-Facist Update" which explains that last November the National Front , an extremist race-hate group, marched in Dover to demand the removal of Roma (Gypsy) asylum-seekers who had recently come to town from eastern Europe. But they were forced to abandon their march when confronted by opponents who had gathered from all over the country. It also has many other articles denouncing many race-hate crimes like the murder of a 26-year-old Romany woman by three skinheads. She was found dead on February 17, 1998, after being pushed into the river Labe in Vrchlabi, East Bohemia. She left behind a husband and six children.

Though there are many Gypsies all over the world, many are still persecuted and discriminated against. There are many governmental organizations that are trying to achieve co-existence, in mutual respect, between the Gypsies and other citizens in Europe and the world. But even they agree that there is still within their community antisocial, marginal and even criminal behavior whose motivation would take too long to understand. Most Gypsies complain that as long as the media –press, radio and television –uses the word Gypsy to fit the description of any person implicated in a criminal incident, inevitably part of the European society will continue to think that all Gypsies are the same and that delinquency is part of their way of life.

The truth is that there are criminals in all parts of the world, in all different races, and the only way we can differ from them is by respecting one another no matter race, religion, gender or personal beliefs.

If you liked what you read so far, and would like to find some more information on the Gypsies, check out these web pages I found:

 The Gypsies of India

Gypsies and the Holocaust

Gypsies in the Middle East

The Balkan Gypsies

The Zott Gypsies of the Middle East

Association of Gypsies/ Romany International

Sources

(*) Excerpted from: Belzec, Sobidor, Trebinka- "The Operation Reinhard Death Camps". Indiana University Press; Yitzhak Arad, 1987.

Fraser , Angus. The Gypsies.

Block, Martin. Gypsies: Their life and their Customs.

Hancock, Ian. The Pariah Syndrome: An Account of Gypsy Slavery and Persecution.

Yoors, Jan. The Gypsies.

This page was created for educational purposes by Cynthia Tello. If you would like to send any messages or opinions, Don’t.