LL-L 'History' 2006.08.18 (02) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 18 August 2006 * Volume 02
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From: R. F. Hahn [sassisch at yahoo.com]
Subject: History

Folks,

Here's a bit more about the history of Roma ("Gypsy") people in the Lowlands,
with some references to neighboring where relevant.

First of all and incidentally as to my list of select name, also Elvis Presley
was of part Roma descent (as well as of Cherokee descent).

Oh, and Django Reinhardt was actually born in Belgium (Ouchie).

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

***

TIMELINE

1407: Roma are recorded at Hildesheim.

1416: Roma are expelled from the Meissen region.

1419: Roma are recorded in Antwerp.

1420: Roma are recorded in Deventer.

1449: Roma are driven out of Frankfurt on Main.

1471: The first anti-Gypsy laws are passed in Lucerne.

1472: Duke Friedrich of the Rhine Palatinate asks that Roma pilgrims be assisted.

1482. The first anti-Gypsy laws are passed in Brandenburg.

1496-1498: The _Reichstag_ of Landau and Freiburg declares Roma traitors to
Christian countries, spies of Turks and transmitters of the plague.

1498: Four "Gypsies" accompany Christopher Columbus on his third voyage to America.

1500: Following a decree by Maximilian I, the Augsburg _Reichstag_ declares Roma
traitors to the Christian world and accuses them of witchcraft, kidnapping of
children, and banditry.

1504. Roma are prohibited by Louis XII from living in France. The punishment is
banishment.

1505. Roma are recorded in Scotland, probably from Spain.

1510: The Grand Council of France denies Roma residence, punishment for a first
offence being banishment. for a second offence hanging. 

1512: Roma are first recorded in Sweden. 30 families, lead by a "Count
Anthonius," arrive in Stockholm, saying they were from "Little Egypt." They are
welcomed given lodging and money. A few years later, King Gustav Vasa (1521-1560)
suspects that the Roma are spies and orders their expulsion.

1525: Charles V issues an edict in the Netherlands ordering all those that call
themselves "Egyptians" had two days to leave the country.

1526: The first anti-Gypsy laws are passed in the Netherlands.

1530: The first law expelling Gypsies from England is introduced. Henry VIII
forbids the transportation of Gypsies into England. The fine is forty pounds for
a ship's owner or captain, while the Gypsy passengers are to be hanged.

1531: The Augsburg _Reichstag_ prohibits issuing passports to Roma.

1536: The first anti-Gypsy laws are passed in Denmark. 

1539: Roma are banned from France. The penalty is banishment, for a second
offence various forms of corporal punishment.

1540: Permission for Roma to live under their own laws in Scotland. 

1541: The first anti-Gypsy laws are passed in Scotland.

1547: Edward VI of England orders that Roma be rounded up and branded with a "V"
on their chests, then enslaved for two years. Recaptured escapees are to be
branded with an "S" and enslaved for life.

1547: Publication of the first extant introduction to Romany (in _The Fyrst Boke
of the Introduction of Knowledge_, an encyclopedia by Andrew Boorde, England).

1554: A decree by Philip and Mary that being a Gypsy carries the death penalty,
applying also to anyone who "shall become of the fellowship or company of Egyptians."

1557: Under Sigismund Augustus, Roma are expelled from Poland.

1559: Roma are recorded on the Finnish island of Ã
land.

1560: The archbishop of the Swedish Lutheran Church forbids pastors to have any
dealings with Roma. Roma children are not to be baptized, and dead Roma are not
to be buried. 

1561: Roma are prohibited by Charles IX of France from residence. The punishment
is banishment. A second offence results in the galleys and corporal punishment.
Men, women and children have their heads shaved.

1562: An Act is passed in England "for further punishment of Vagabonds, calling
themselves Egyptians." Any Roma born in England and Wales is not compelled to
leave the country if they quit "their idle and ungodly life and company." All
others should suffer death and loss of lands and goods.

1568: Pope Pius V orders the expulsion of all Roma from the domain of the Roman
Catholic Church.

1573: Roma in Scotland are ordered to leave the country or settle down.

1578: At the General Warsaw Seym, King Stephen Báthory pronounces an edict
threatening sanctions against anyone who harbours Roma on their lands. They are
punished as accomplices of outlaws.

1579: Augustus, Elector of Saxony, orders the confiscation of Romani passports
and banishes them from Saxony.

1579: Roma presence is recorded in Wales.

1589: In Denmark, the death penalty is ordered for any Roma not leaving the country.

1596: 106 men and women are condemned to death at York just for being Gypsies,
but only nine are executed. The others prove they were born in England.

1606: Roma are prohibited by Henry IV of France from any gathering of more than
three or four. Roma are punished as "vagabonds and evil-doers."

1637: The first anti-Gypsy law in Sweden is enacted. All Roma are to be expelled
from the country within one year. If any Roma are found in Sweden after that date
the men will be hanged and the women and children will be driven out from the
country.

1646: An ordinance passed in Berne gives anyone the right "personally to kill or
liquidate by _bastinado_ or firearms" Roma or "heathen" malefactors.

1647: Roma are punished by the Louis XIV regency of France for being "Bohemians."
Punishment is the galleys.

1652: Matiasz Korolewicz is conferred the title "King of the Gypsies" by the
Polish Royal Chancery.

1650s: Last known execution for being Gypsies, in Suffolk, England. Others are
banished to America.

1660: Roma are prohibited from residence in France by Louis XIV. Punishment is
banishment. A second offense results in the galleys or corporal punishment.

1660-1800: The identity of the English Gypsy Romanichal group has been formed.
They survive by working for local people who know them.

1661: Johann Georg II, Elector of Saxony, imposes the death penalty to any Roma
caught in his territory.

1666: Roma are punished by Louis XIV of France for being "Bohemians." Men are
sent to the galleys. Women and girls are flogged, branded and banished.

1682: Louis XIV reiterates his previous policy: punishment for being "Bohemian."
Men are sentenced to the galleys for life on the first offence. Women's heads are
shaved and children are sent to the poor house. For a second offence, women are
branded and banished.

1686: Friedrich Wilhelm, Elector of Brandenburg, orders that Roma are denied
trade and shelter.

1686: The Swedish Lutheran Church changes its mind: Roma are tolerated and their
children may be baptized.

1710: Prince Adolf Friedrich of Mecklenburg-Strelitz orders that all Roma may be
flogged, branded, expelled, or executed if they return. Children under ten are to
be removed and raised by Christian families.

1711: Elector Friedrich Augustus I of Saxony authorizes the shooting of Roma if
they resist arrest.

1714: British merchants and planters apply to the Privy Council that Roma be
shipped off to the Caribbean, avowedly to be used as slaves.

1714: In Mainz (Mayence), all Roma are to be executed without trial on the
grounds that their way of life is outlawed.

1714: Roma music bands are recorded in the Austro-Hungarian court of Esterházi.
They accompany the dancing of soldiers playing verbunkos, in recruiting efforts
for Nicolas the Magnificent's military operations.

1715: Ten Roma in Scotland are recorded deported to Virginia.

1719-: In France, sentencing for being Roma is altered from the galleys to
deportation to French colonies.

1721: Emperor Karl VI of the Austro-Hungarian empire orders the extermination of
Roma throughout his domain.

1723: Roma are prohibited from residence in the Lorraine, gathering in the woods
or main roads. Punishment is banishment. Communities are encouraged "to gather,
march in formation and open fire on them." 

1724: All vagabonds and vagrants are prohibited by Louis XV of France from
residence and nomadism and gathering of more than four adults in a house. Adult
men are sentenced to the galleys for five years. All others are flogged and sent
to the poor house.

1725: Friedrich Wilhelm I condemns any Roma over eighteen caught in his
territory, man or woman, to be hanged without trial. 

1726: Charles VI passes a law that any Rom found in the country are to be killed
instantly. Romani women and children are to have their ears cut off and whipped
all the way to the border.

1728: Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle) passes an ordinance condemning Roma to death.
"Captured Gypsies, whether they resist or not, shall be put to death immediately.
However, those seized who do not resort to counter-attack shall be granted no
more than a half an hour to kneel, if they so wish, beg God Almighty to forgive
them their sins and to prepare themselves for death."

1734: Friedrich Wilhelm I decrees that any Roma caught in his territory, man or
woman, will be hanged without trial. A reward is offered.

1740: Charles VI orders that anyone caught aiding Roma be punished.

1748: All Swedish laws concerning Gypsies are combined as one law intending to
prevent further immigration and to force Roma to settle.

1780: English anti-Gypsy laws are gradually repealed, though not totally.

1783: Heinrich Grellman of Göttingen University writes _Die Zigeuner_. Drawing on
the works of previous writers, he links India as the original homeland of the
Gypsies through their language.

Early 1800s: "Gypsy hunts" (_Heidenjachten_) are a common and popular sport in
Germany.

1803: Napolean Bonaparte prohibits residence of Roma in France. Children, women
and the aged are sentenced to the poor house. Young men are given their choice of
joining the navy or army. Adult men are sent to forced labour.

1811: Trinity Cooper, a Roma girl aged thirteen, demands to be let into a charity
school for "ragged children" in Clapham, near London, with her two brothers. They
are finally admitted.

1816: John Hoyland, a Quaker, writes the first serious book calling for better
treatment for Roma in England. Several charitable projects follow; but many Roma
are transported as criminals to Australia.

1822: In the United Kingdom, the Turnpike Act is introduced. Roma found camping
on the roadside are fined.

1830s: First wooden horse-drawn covered waggons for Roma are developed in England.

1830: Authorities in Nordhausen, Germany, remove Roma children from their
families for fostering with non-Roma. 

1837: George Borrow translates Saint Luke's Gospel into Romany.

1868: Richard Liebich's Dutch work on Roma introduces the phrase "lives unworthy
of life" with specific reference to them, and later uses as a racial category
against Roma in Nazi Germany.

1870: Imperial Chancellor Otto von Bismarck circulates a letter dated November
18th demanding the "complete prohibition of foreign Gypsies crossing the German
border," and that "they will be transported by the closest route to their country
of origin." He also states that Roma in Germany be asked to show documentary
proof of citizenship, and that if this is not forthcoming, they be denied
travelling passes.

1880s: The agricultural depression in England brings poverty to many Roma, who
move to squatter areas near towns.

1884: The Swedish Romni Sonya Kavalevsky is appointed professor of mathematics at
Stockholm University becoming the first female professor in Scandinavia.

1885: Unsuccessful attempts in Britain to introduce the Moveable Dwellings Bills
in Parliament to regulate Roma life.

1885: Roma are excluded by United States immigration policy; many are returned to
Europe.

1886: Chancellor von Bismarck issues a directive to the governments of all
regions of Germany alerting them to "complaints about the mischief caused by
bands of Gypsies travelling in the Reich, and their increasing molestation of the
population," and states that foreign Roma are to be dealt with in particular.
This leads to the creation of many regional policies designed to deport
non-German-born Roma.

1906: Prussia introduces "Gypsy licenses," required by all those wanting to stay
there. These are given out only if the applicant has a fixed domicile, no serious
criminal convictions, educational provision for their children, and proper tax
accounts. Those qualifying are nevertheless not allowed to settle locally.

1907: Many Roma in Germany leave for other countries in Western Europe.

1908: The Children's Act in England makes education compulsory for traveling
Gypsy children, but only for half the year. This is continued in the the 1944
Education Act, but many Gypsy children still have no schooling.

1914: A new law prohibits all further immigration of Roma into Sweden. The law is
very efficient and Roma in Sweden are isolated from their relatives in other
European countries. The law remains in effect until 1954. Norway and Denmark have
similar laws during the same period.

1914: Norway gives some thirty Roma Norwegian citizenship.

1918: In the Netherlands, the Caravan and House Boat Law introduces controls over
the movements of nomads.

1919: Article 108 of the National Constitution of the Weimar Republic guarantees
Roma and Sinti full and equal citizenship rights, but these are come to be ignored. 

1920: On July 27th, the Minister of Public Welfare in Düsseldorf forbids Roma and
Sinti from entering any public washing or recreational facilities (swimming
pools, public baths, spas, parks).

1920: In Germany, psychiatrist Karl Binding and magistrate Alfred Hoche argue for
the killing of those who are "Ballastexistenzen," i.e. whose lives are seen
merely as ballast, or dead weight, within humanity; this includes Roma. The
concept of Lebensunwertesleben, or "lives unworthy (or undeserving) of life,"
becomes central to Nazi race policy in 1933, when a law incorporating this same
phrase is issued by Hitler on July 14th that year.

1926: The Swiss Pro Juventute Foundation begins, "in keeping with the theories of
eugenics and progress," to take children away from Roma without their consent, to
change their names, and to put them into foster homes. This program continues
until 1973, and is not brought to light until the 1980s. Switzerland has
apologized to the Roma, but adamantly refuses to allow them access to the records
which will help them locate the children taken from them.

1926: The Bavarian "Law for Combatting Gypsies, Vagabonds and Idlers" proposed at
the 1925 conference is passed. It is justified in the legislative assembly thus:
"[Gypsies] are by nature opposed to all work, and find it especially difficult to
tolerate any restriction of their nomadic life; nothing, therefore, hits them
harder than loss of liberty, coupled with forced labor." The law requires the
registration of all Roma and Sinti, settled or not, with the police, registry
office and unemployment agency in each district. Bavarian State Counselor Hermann
Reich praises "the enactment of the Gypsy law. . . This law gives the police the
legal hold it needs for thorough-going action against this constant danger to the
security of the nation."

1927: Steve Kaslov founds the Roma Red Dress Association in the United States;
Kaslov meets with President Franklin Roosevelt for support of Roma rights.

1927: R. L. Turner proves that the phonetics of the Romani language had earlier
been linked with the central group of Hindi languages in India.

1927: a Prussian ministerial decree is issued requiring all Roma to be registered
through documentation "in the same manner as individuals being sought by means of
wanted posters, witnesses, photographs and fingerprints." Infants are to be
fingerprinted, and those over the age of six to carry identity cards bearing
their photograph as well. Between November 23rd and 26th, armed raids are carried
out by the police on Roma communities throughout Prussia to enforce the decree of
November 3rd. Eight thousand are processed as a result.

1927: Bavaria institutes a law forbidding Roma and Sinti to travel in family
groups, or to own firearms. Those over sixteen are liable for inprisonment in
work camps, while those without proof of Bavarian birth are expelled from Bavaria. 

1928: In Bavaria, an ordinance is approved placing Sinti and Roma under permanent
police surveillance. In May, the same law is reissued and reaffirmed. The act is
in direct violation of the provisions of the Weimar Constitution.

1928: Hans F. Günther writes that "it was the Gypsies who introduced foreign
blood into Europe."

1929: The jurisdiction of the Munich office is extended to include the whole of
Germany; the German Criminal Police Commission renames it The Central Office for
the Fight Against the Gypsies in Germany. On April 16th and 17th, police
departments everywhere are told to send fingerprints and other data on Roma both
to this office and to the International Criminology Bureau (Interpol)
headquarters in Vienna. Working closely together, they enforce restrictions on
travel for Roma without documents, and impose up to two years' detention in
"rehabilitation camps" on Roma sixteen years and older.

1930: The Norwegian journalist Scharfenberg recommends that all Roma be sterilized.

1930: Ten days before Hitler is elected Chancellor of The Third Reich on January
30th, officials in Burgenland call for the withdrawal of all civil rights for
Roma, and the introduction of clubbing as a punishment.

1930: The Law to Legalize Eugenic Sterilization is introduced by the National
Socialists (Nazi Party) in Germany.

1930: Hitler's cabinet passes the law against "lives not deserving of life"
(_Lebensunwertesleben_), called The Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily
Diseased Offspring. It orders sterilization for certain categories of people,
"specifically Gypsies and most of the Germans of black color" (called the
"Rhineland Bastards," i.e. those resulting from unions between German women and
the Senegalese and other African troops brought in from the French colonies to
patrol the Ruhr Valley during the First World War, as well as residents in Europe
from Germany's ex-colonies in Africa). It also affectes Jews, the disabled, and
others seen as "asocial" (social misfits).

1930: The Law for the Revocation of German Citizenship is implemented against
Roma without proof of German birth, as well as "Eastern Jews" (nearly 20 percent
of all Jews in Germany in 1933).

1930: The Sinto boxer, Johann Trollman, is stripped of his title as
light-heavyweight champion of Germany for "racial reasons."

1933: The Oberwarth District Prefect in Germany submits a petition demanding that
the League of Nations investigate the possibility of establishing a colony for
the resettlement of European Gypsies in the Polynesian Islands.

1933: Reichsminister for the Interior and Propaganda of Germany calls for the
apprehension and arrest of Roma and Sinti, according to the "Law Against Habitual
Criminals." Many Roma are sent to concentration camps as a result, and made to do
penal labor.

1934: Sweden passes a law on sterilization, which becomes harsher in 194l.
Anyone, including Roma, seen as leading "a socially undesirable life" are to be
sterilised. Allthough the law does not explicitly say so, it suggests that
Gypsies and "Tattare" (Norwegian "Wanderer") are not socially desirable and thus
must be sterilised to keep the Swedish race clean.

1934: Roma in Germany are selected for transfer to camps for processing, which
includes sterilization by injection or castration. Over the next three years,
these camps will be established at Dachau, Dieselstrasse, Sachsenhausen, Marzahn
and Vennhausen.

1934: The Law for the Revocation of German Citizenship is reinstituted, and again
directed at Roma, Eastern Jews, stateless persons and other "undesirable foreigners."

1934: Two laws issued in Nuremburg forbid Germans from marrying "Jews, Negroes
and Gypsies."

1934: The Düsseldorf District Administrative Court in Germany prohibits Roma from
obtaining licenses allowing them to engage in itinerant trade.

1935: Some five hundred Roma and Sinti are arrested because they are "Gypsies"
and are incarcerated in a camp on Venloerstrasse in Cologne, Germany. This
detention center is surrounded by barbed wire and patrolled by armed police.

1935: Roma and Sinti become subject to the restrictions of the National
Citizenship Law (the _Reichsbürgergesetz_), and the Nuremberg Law for the
"Protection of German Blood and German Honor," which forbids intermarriage or
sexual relationships between Aryan and non-Aryan peoples. It states: "A marriage
cannot be concluded when the expected result will put the purity of German blood
of future generations in danger." A policy statement issued by the Nazi Party
reads "In Europe generally, only Jews and Gypsies come under consideration as
members of an alien people." Gypsies, Jews and Blacks are considered "racially
distinctive" minorities with "alien blood." On September 17th, the National
Citizenship Law relegates Jews and Roma to the status of second class citizens,
and deprives them of their civil rights.

1935: The Central Reich Bureau and the Prussian Ministry of the Interior
circulate an order to local vital statistics registration offices throughout
Germany, prohibiting mixed marriages, specifically between "Gypsies, Black
people, and their bastard offspring."

1935: All Roma in the town of Gelsenkirchen, Germany, are incarcerated in camps
on Crangerstraße and Reginenstraße, which are patrolled by the police, armed
soldiers and dogs.

1936: On March 4th, a memorandum to the State Secretary of the Interior, Hans
Pfundtner, addresses the creation of a national Gypsy law
(_Reichzigeunergesetz_), the purpose of which is to deal with the complete
registration of the Romani population, their sterilization, the restriction on
their movement and means of livelihood, and the expulsion of all foreign-born and
stateless Roma.

1936: Roma and Jews in Germany both have their voting rights taken from them.

1936: "Action against the Gypsies" is instituted in Frankfurt am Main, when the
City Council votes to put all Roma into an internment camp. The camp, on
Dieselstrasse, is selected on September 22nd this year, and arrests and
internment begin a year later.

1936: The main Nazi institution to deal with Roma, the Racial Hygiene and
Criminal Biology and Research Unit (which is Department 13 of the National
Ministry of Health) is established under the directorship of Dr. Robert Ritter at
Berlin-Dahlem. The National Interior Ministry supervises this entire project,
partially funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemainschaft (the German Research
Foundation). Its expressed purpose is to determine whether the Romani people and
the Afro-Europeans are Aryans or sub-humans (Untermenschen). By early 1942,
Ritter has documented the genealogy of almost the entire German Roma and Sinti
population.

1936: A circular issued by the National and the Prussian Ministries of the
Interior instructs police to renew their efforts to "fight against the Gypsy
plague." Information about Roma should no longer be sent to Vienna, but to the
Munich Centre for the Fight Against the Gypsy Nuisance.

1936: The same ministries release a second circular, signed by Himmler which
states that "Gypsies live by theft, lying and begging, and are a plague ... It
will be difficult for Gypsies to get used to an orderly, civilized way of life."
Also on this day, a decree issued by the National and Prussian Ministry of the
Interior brings into existence the Central Office to Combat the Gypsy Menace.
This office in Munich becomes the headquarters of a national data bank on
Gypsies, and represents all German police agencies together with the Interpol
International Center in Vienna. Interpol is located in the police headquarters on
Roßauerlände in Vienna.

1936: several hundred Roma and Sinti are transported to Dachau by order of the
Minister of the Interior as "dependents of the Munich Centre for the Fight
Against the Gypsy Nuisance." Attempts to escape are punishable by death.

1936: Dr. Hans Globke, Head of Service for the Ministry of the Interior for the
Third Reich, who serves on the panel on racial legislation, declares that "in
Europe, only Jews and Gypsies are of foreign blood," while race hygienist Dr.
Robert Körber writes in Volk und Staat that "The Jews and the Gypsies are today
remote from us because of their Asiatic ancestry, just as ours is Nordic." This
sentiment is reiterated by Dr. E. Brandis, who writes that "only the Gypsies are
to be considered as an alien people in Europe (beside the Jews)."

1936: Dr. Claus Eichen publishes his book _Rassenwahn: Briefe über die
Raßenfrage_ (Delusions of race: Notes on the race question) in which he justifies
sterilization of "asocial" and "criminal" elements in German society.

1936: Interpol in Vienna establishes the Centre for Combatting the Gypsy Menace,
which has grown out of the earlier Bureau of Gypsy Affairs.

1936: In Leipzig, Martin Block publishes his general study of Gypsies, and
justifies Nazi racist attitudes by speaking of the "nauseating Gypsy smell," and
the "involuntary feeling of mistrust or repulsion one feels in their presence."

1936: In Berlin, Roma and Sinti are cleared off the streets away from public view
because of the upcoming Olympic games. Fifty years later, the police in Spain do
the same thing in preparation for the Olympic Games in Madrid.

1937: An editorial in the _Hamburger Tageblatt_ in August by Georg Nawrocki,
takes the Weimar Republic to task for its lenient attitude towards Roma and
Sinti: "It was in keeping with the inner weakness and mendacity of the Weimar
Republic that it showed no instinct for tackling the Gypsy question. For it, the
Sinti were a criminal concern at best -- we, on the other hand, see the Gypsy
question above all as a racial problem, which must be solved, and which is being
solved." .

1937: Roma and Sinti in Frankfurt are arrested and incarcerated in the
Dieselstrasse camp.

1938: _Zigeuneraufrämungswoche_, "Gypsy Clean-up Week," is in effect, and
hundreds of Roma and Sinti throughout Germany and Austria are rounded up, beaten
and imprisoned. This is the third such public action by the German state. Like
Kristallnacht ("Crystal Night," or the "Night of Broken Glass" on November 9th
this same year) for the Jews, it is a public sanctioning and approval of the
official attitude towards members of an "inferior race."

1938: Roma and Sinti are no longer allowed to vote in Germany. After March 23rd,
Jews are also no longer allowed to vote.

1938: Heinrich Himmler issues a decree entitled _Bekämpfung der Zigeunerplage_
(Combatting the Gypsy Plague) stating that Roma of mixed blood are the most
predisposed to criminality, and that police departments should systematically
send data on Roma and Sinti in their areas to the Reich Central Office. 

1939-1945: Nazis compile lists of British Roma for internment. The British
government creates caravan sites for families of Roma in the army or doing farm
labor. These sites are closed after the war.

1940: Robert Ritter publishes a report in which he states that "we have been able
to establish that more than 90% of the so-called 'native' [i.e. German-born]
Gypsies are of mixed blood ... Furthermore, the results of our investigations
have allowed us to characterize the Gypsies as being a people of entirely
primitive ethnological origins, whose mental backwardness makes them incapable of
real social adaptation ... The Gypsy question can only be solved when the main
body of asocial and worthless Gypsy individuals of mixed blood is collected
together in large labor camps and kept working there, and when the further
breeding of this population of mixed blood is permanently stopped."

1940: The French government opens internment camps for nomads.

1940: In Austria, internment camps are built at Maxglan, Slazburg, and Lackenbach.

1940: At Buchenwald, 250 Romani children are used as guinea-pigs to test the
Zyklon-B gas crystals. 

1941: Heinrich Himmler issues a decree in Germany stating the criteria for racial
and biological evaluation. An individual's Gypsy genealogy is to be investigated
over three generations (compared to two generations for one's Jewish genealogy).
He implements a system of classification based on degree of Romani genetic
descent: <Z> means "pure Gypsy," <ZM+> means more than half Gypsy, <ZM> means
half Gypsy, <ZM-> means less than half Gypsy and <NZ> means non-Gypsy. Having two
great-grandparents who were even only part-Gypsy (i.e. if one were of 25 percent
or less Roma ancestry) counts as <ZM->.

1941: Romani children are excluded from all German schools.

1941: In Poland, a Roma camp is set up in the Jewish ghetto of Lodz for 5.000
inmates. 

1942: Heinrich Himmler issues the order to deport the Gypsies in Greater Germany
to the concentration camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

1942: In Poland, all Gypsies from the Lodz ghtetto are transported and gassed at
Chelmo.

1943: Nazi leader Himmler orders all Roma camps closed, resulting in the
liquidation of the Romani prisoners.

1944: _Zigeunernacht_, literally, Gypsy Night. On August 2, four thousand Roma
are gassed and cremated in a single action at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

1933-1945: _O Porraimos_, the Great Devouring. Up to 1,500,000 Sinti and Roma are
killed in Europe by the Nazi regime and its puppet states. Determining the
percentage or number of Roma who died in the Holocaust is not easy. Much of the
Nazi documentation still remains to be analyzed, and many murders were not
recorded, since they took place in the fields and forests where Roma were
apprehended.

1979: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is founded by President Carter.
There is no Romani representation on the 65-member Holocaust Memorial Council.

1987: The United States Holocaust Memorial Council appoints its first Rom member,
William Duna, seven years after its creation.

1995: The writer Philomina Franz, a World War II concentration camp survivor, is
awarded the German Federal Cross of Merit, the highest civil award which Germany
confers. She is the first Sinti awarded the prize for her "activities
endeavouring after understanding and conciliation."

1997: Ian Hancock receives the Thorolf Rafto Prize for Human Rights on behalf of
the Roma people. Later that year he is appointed by U.S. President Clinton as the
only Romani representative on the 65-member U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council. He
becomes only the second Roma representative on the Council in the USHMC's 17-year
history.

1997: In Britain, Roma refugees from the Slovak Republic arrive in Dover seeking
asylum and receive mainly negative reactions and scepticism from local residents
and the national news media.

1998: In the United States, New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman signs into
law Assembly Bill 2654, repealing that state's anti-Roma law adopted in 1917.
Governor Whitman's signature effectively rescinds the last anti-Roma law on the
books of any American state.

***

Edited excerpts of http://www.geocities.com/~Patrin/timeline.htm

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