Porajmos The Gypsy Holocaust

Pajamos is the Gypsies term for the Holocaust. It means devouring or destruction.

Gypsies are the only other “official” victims of the Holocaust. The Nazis had a plan to exterminate the Roma and Sinti people. About 250,000 Gypsies were killed in the Holocaust. Some estimates are as high as 600,000. As a result of their wandering lifestyle, it is hard to get a precise number. Even Gypsies who were assimilated were not spared, for the most part.

By the laws the Nazis made, Gypsies should be considered Aryan. As a result of their wandering and asocial lifestyle though, they were persecuted and killed. A person was considered a Gypsy if they had a Gypsy grandparent or if 2 or more of their grandparents were part-Gypsy. The most dangerous Gypsies were those of mixed blood. According to the Nazi Dr. Ritter, about 90% of Gypsies were of mixed blood.



The treatment of the Gypsies was fairly consistent in every country. Germany decided to deport her 30,000 Gypsies. About 20,000 of these German Gypsies were gassed. Gypsies married to Germans were exempt but their children over 12 were sterilized.

There was a family camp for Gypsies in Auschwitz but on August 6th, 1944 they were mostly all gassed. A few were sent away as forced laborers but most were gassed. Many gypsies were used for experiments, just like the Jews were also used. The most common was the sterilization of women.

Gypsies were locked in the ghettos too. In the Lodz ghetto, 5007 gypsies were detained. They were kept in a separate section away from the Jews. The conditions were worse then that of the Jews. Half of the gypsies died with in the first month. None of these gypsies survived however. When the Germans ordered deportations to Chelmno to start in the beginning of 1942, the remaining gypsies were among the first victims. At Chelmno, they were gassed on arrival with carbon monoxide gas.

Jewish Resistance

The notion that the Jews were “slaughtered like sheep” is very common. Jews were heavily involved with resistance. A famous resistance group was the Belski brothers. Hiding in the forests of Belorussia, they saved over 1100 Jews. They recused any Jew who was willing to leave from the ghetto and took them to their camp in the woods. They had many guerilla operations and collaborated with the Russian soldiers who were attacking Nazis from behind the lines.

Another famous resistance movement was the Warsaw ghetto uprising. During the groβaktion (Great Action in German. Roundups of Jews for deportation or mass killings were called actions. They were also referred to as ‘pogroms’ but this was usually called and done by Eastern Europeans. i.e. Poles, Russians, etc.) From July 22nd, 1942 (Tisha B’Av) until September 21st (Yom Kippur), at least 300,000 Jews were sent to their deaths at Treblinka. About 6000 Jews were deported each day. Adam Czerniaków, head of the Warsaw Judenrat (Jewish Council), commited suicide when he was told by the Germans to make the deportation lists. The leaders of the Jewish resistance groups decided that they would resist instead of letting any more Jews be deported. Fighting started on April 19th, 1943. The battle lasted until May 16th, 1943. The Jews of the Warsaw ghetto resisted the Nazis longer then the county of Poland who only lasted 37 days. Even after the ghetto uprising was “ended” some Jews continued to fight. A lot of Jews fought during the Warsaw uprising, which happened the next year, even though some had to hid their Jewishness fro, their Polish countrymen.

In every country and in every ghetto, Jews resisted. Some resisted spiritually or passively. Religious services and education lessons were forbidden by the Nazis. Schools and religious services were held in secret. Children who possessed non-Jewish looks mostly, but various Jews, were taken to the Aryan side and hidden from the Nazis. Many organizations made false documents for Jews to hide with.

Movies

Defiance
movie about the Belski brothers.

Uprising
Movie about the warsaw ghetto uprising

Mobile Killing Squads (Graphic Content)

The First Jews were not killed in the gas chambers. About two of the six million Jews did not even make it to the camps; others didn’t even make it to the ghettos.

Einsatzgruppen-Mobile Killing squads

Hitler and the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union on June 22nd, 1941. Following closely behind was the mobile squads. They mostly operated in the same fashion throughout Eastern Europe. (Eastern Europe refers to anything east of The Third Reich, which is Germany, Austria, Luxembourg, parts of Czechoslovak, and parts of Western Poland.) Most Jews killed by the Einsatzgruppen did not live in a ghetto, or merely stayed for two to six weeks in “destructive ghettos.” The men were taken to dig their own graves or Eastern Europeans were used for this task. Some times, pre-dug pits, like anti-tank pits from the war, were used or even wells if they could fit. Almost always, men were taken to the its first because if the woman were taken first the men would be more likely to resist. The Jews were either shot and buried where they fell or were “sardine packed,” meaning they laid down tightly to one another and were shot in the back of the head or neck. This was more time consuming but it saved bullets and space.

(A Young Jewish Boy about to be killed while his family lies dead in front of him)


Experiments were done to kill the Jews more efficiently. Hand grenades were used to in few instances but this was messy and took more of an emotional toll on the murderers. In other cases, entire villages were buried alive. Occasionally, Jews were trapped in a building and burned alive. To save bullets, children were often bonneted. Some times, rocks were used to smash the victims’ heads. This was another way to try and save bullets. Some women were raped prior to being killed.

Sometimes, selections were made prior to the killings. Others, everyone was murdered regardless of gender or age. Not all murderers were SS or SD members. Although most were, some were ethnic Germans (citizens of German blood living in another country) or local collaborators. One famous Pogrom by non-Germans during the Holocaust was the Jedwabne pogrom. The Poles turned on their neighbors and burned them alive. They tried to blame it on the Germans but it was later proven that the act was committed and initiated by Poles.

There are survivors of the mobile killing squads. One Jewish woman managed to escape out the burning building and survived the Holocaust. I once watched a video of a survivor telling of how when she was seven, she was not shot but was buried and managed to use plant roots to climb out of the grave. One exceptional story is of a five year old Jewish Belorussian boy whose mother warned them that they were going to be killed. Wanting to live, he escaped but watched his mother and two younger siblings murder. He was them saved by Latvian and German Nazis.

The Mascot By Alez Kurzem Story of the Jewish boy hidden by Nazis

Polish Sub-Humans

Did you know that as many Polish Gentiles were murdered by the Nazis than Polish Jews? Did you know that there was a mass genocide planned for the Polish people just like the Jews? The only reason the Poles were not exterminated is because they were suppose to be dealt with after the war was over. Adolf Hitler himself wrote to his generals in the Eastern Front to kill "without pity or mercy, all men, women, and children of Polish descent or language." Heinrich Himmler wrote "All Poles will disappear from the world. [...] It is essential that the great German people should consider it as its major task to destroy all Poles." Poles in the land incorporated into the Third Reich were evacuated and dumped into the General Government, which was the rest of Poland excluding the eastern part that was occupied by the Soviet Union From September 1939 until the Germans invaded the Soviets on June 22nd, 1941. Ethnic Germans from the Baltic states were given the homes. When the Germans invaded Poland, they declared a "total war" and purposely bombed schools, hospitals, churches, landmarks, farms, civilian factories, and highly-populated cities. The mobile killing squads first killed Poles. Some Jews were murdered too but they were murdered for being Polish intellects, not because they were Jewish. Auschwitz is the most known Nazi camp, but the first victims were not Jewish. For almost a year, no Jewish inmates were sent to Auschwitz to be gassed. Polish victims were the ones who built the camp. Besides being targeted by the Nazis, Poles were also killed by the Soviets. The most known massacre by the Soviet Red Army is the Katyn Massacre. A movie was made about this. http://www.holocaust-trc.org/poles.htm http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005473 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Holocaust_in_Poland http://fcit.usf.edu/holocaust/people/VictPole.htm http://remember.org/forgotten/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_crimes_against_ethnic_Poles http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyn_massacre http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0879843/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rescue_of_Jews_by_Poles_during_the_Holocaust