Germany and Its Gypsies: A Post-Auschwitz Ordeal

2. Policy toward Gypsies until the Collapse of the Third Reich

2 Policy toward Gypsies until the Collapse of the Third Reich the so-called golden age and era of deportation and persecution G roups of Gypsies first arrived in the German-speaking domain of Europe at the beginning of the fifteenth century. Contemporary chronicles report that these groups were headed by leaders bearing aristocratic titles, who carried patronage letters (Schutzbriefe) from Christian rulers. The patronage letters seemed to confirm the Gypsies’ claim that they were undertaking a seven-year repentance voyage that had been imposed on them for abandoning Christianity. The letters requested that they receive assistance wherever they went, and these groups roamed throughout western Europe. Gypsies’ pretension to be pilgrims and the patronage letters protected and helped them for a few decades, a period later referred to as the Gypsies’ golden age in Europe. For example , in 1418 the “needy people of little Egypt” received sums of money from the town of Frankfurt to buy bread. By the middle of the century, however, attitudes toward them changed for the worse throughout the continent. Contemporary reports indicate that by 1449 they were being expelled from Frankfurt, and by 1463 the people of Bamberg were willing to give an amount of money to a group of Gypsies to prevent them from entering the town.1 These events set in motion a pattern of behavior that was to become the official policy of the Holy Roman Empire over the next 300 years. 25 Germany and Its Gypsies Between 1497 and 1774, 146 decrees were enacted against Gypsies, most of which ordered their deportation from the domain of the German nation . The first such decree was published in the principality of Brandenburg in 1482, following an abuse of the emperor’s patronage letter. A few years later, in 1497, the Reichstag of the Holy Roman Empire followed suit, ruling that Gypsies would not be permitted to pass through or be tolerated within the boundaries of the empire since they were suspected of spying for the Turks. This declaration was repeated in the Reichstag’s decree of 1500 and again in a further decree of the Reichstag published in Augsburg in 1530, about a year after the Turks had been turned back at the gates of Vienna. The decree stated explicitly that Gypsies were spies for the Turks and thus enemies of Christianity. The decrees gave Gypsies a specified period of time to leave the boundaries of the German nation, after which it was stated that they would no longer be protected by the law and would be included in the category of Vogelfrei —“free as a bird.” This means that the empire’s subjects would be allowed to hurt them, even to kill them, whether or not they were thought to have committed a specific crime. These decrees were published in the framework of decisions concerning other fringe groups in society, like beggars and vagrants. The Reichstag decision of 1551 targeting Gypsies was similar to the attitude prevailing toward Jews. However, the need to publish six different decrees between 1497 and 1551, repeating the instructions of the previous ones, indicates the inefficiency of these decrees. In 1571, a German who stabbed a Gypsy with a knife was acquitted in Frankfurt, on the grounds of a Reichstag decree, and a similar such acquittal followed an incident in Breslau in 1584.2 In the course of the sixteenth century the German principalities followed the Reichstag’s decrees and ordered the expulsion of Gypsies from their domain; these decrees also contained threats toward any Gypsy who dared reenter the boundaries of the principality. The reason the Reichstag had cited in its decisions for the deportation of Gypsies— that they were collaborators with the Turks—did not appear in the principalities ’ enactments, however. (In many principalities, the enactment was directed not only toward Gypsies but also toward vagrants and beggars, and, in the principality of Wittgenstein, also toward Jews.) Similar to the Reichstag’s course of action, some principalities also published further decrees about Gypsies during the course of the sixteenth century, repeating the language of the previous ones, and this, too, is probably an indication that the previous decrees were not being effectively enforced .3 The substantial changes that took place in central Europe over the course of the Thirty Years War diverted the attention of the authorities 26 Policy toward Gypsies until Collapse of Third Reich away...