Porajmos: The Gypsy Holocaust Quiz | World War II

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. The most commonly spoken language among Holocaust Gypsy victims was Romani, a dialect related to the Sanskrit of the Gypsies' historical South Asian homeland. While groups commemorating the Jewish deaths of the period characteristically use the Hebrew term "Shoah (extermination)", Gypsies often use the Romany term "Porajmos". What is the English translation of "Porajmos"?

Answer: Devouring

"Total destruction by fire" is the meaning of the Greek-derived term "Holocaust". Another Romani term often used for the fascist depredations is "Samudaripen (mass killing)".

"Insurrection" is the English translation of "Ustashe", the Croatian fascist party that fought on the Axis side in World War II and ran the Jasenovac death camp.

2. In the mid-1930s, Nazi "race scientists" grappled with the problem of Gypsy ethnicity. Since Gypsies were ultimately from South Asian stock, they were technically Aryans, and thus privileged under the Aryan supremacist doctrine of the party. What addition to the official Nazi party doctrine brought Gypsy persecution in line with the party's racial policies?

Answer: All of these

At one point (1942-1943), Heinrich Himmler did propose a separate living space for "pure Aryan" Gypsies (specifically the German Gypsies known as the Sinti), as well as programs to preserve and regulate the Gypsy way of life. In the end, however, the Sinti were by and large victims of genocide along with the more populous Roma.

3. One factor that helped the fascists track the Gypsies was their amenability to researchers; since they made their living interacting with people daily (as opposed to the industrial work of the more sedentary peoples), Gypsies tended to be very open about things like travel routes and genealogy. After the Holocaust, this trend sharply reversed, and Gypsies in general became very reluctant to divulge anything to outsiders.

Answer: True

In 1937, anthropologist Robert Ritter was charged with coordinating German research into Gypsy populations and determining which people should be exterminated according to Nazi ideology. Following the far-reaching Gypsy censuses of the preceding decades, Ritter's studies were so extensive, and post-war Gypsy reticence was so intense, that scholars would use Nazi-era research as primary source material for twenty years following the Porajmos. Conversely, Gypsies today have become very reluctant to speak with researchers (or at least confide in them), making rapport building even more important in this field than in other areas of ethnography. Most scholars in this area today admit that they must use extreme discretion in deciding what information to believe.

4. Which of these Northern European countries' Gypsy population did not suffer massive losses under the fascists?

Answer: Denmark

As was the case with Jewish targets of the Holocaust, the Danish rank and file were steadfast in their opposition to Nazi depredations against Gypsies. While thousands of Jews were smuggled out of Denmark in private boats, Danish resistance to the Porajmos took the form of non-cooperation with German anthropologists in their efforts to identify Gypsy populations. Unable to discern who the targets of their ethnic cleansing were, those seeking to deport the Gypsies made little progress in the land of King Christian.

5. Which of these Southern European countries' Gypsy population did not suffer substantial losses under the fascists?

Answer: Bulgaria

Though allied with the fascist cause in many ways, Bulgaria is famous in Holocaust history for allowing none of her Jews to be deported. Likewise, the Gypsies fared far better in Bulgaria than in Croatia, Romania, and Hungary, where both German forces and local fascist governments deported (or murdered domestically) between 28,000 and 36,000 Gypsies apiece.

6. What Austrian concentration camp was built specifically for Gypsies?

Answer: Lackenbach

Dachau was the earliest German concentration camp, Ravensbruck was its counterpart for women, and Jasenovac was a Croatian camp that saw the execution of Serbs, Jews, and Gypsies numbering in the thousands. Lackenbach was an Austrian camp opened in 1940 following that country's 1938 incorporation into the German Reich.

It would hold over 2,000 prisoners, many of whom were later deported to the death camps in Poland.

7. Starting in 1939, peripatetic (traveling) people were required to carry special identity papers easily distinguishable by their formats. What color were the vast majority of Gypsies' papers?

Answer: Brown and blue striped

This striping indicated that they were "mixed" Gypsies. According to racist, rabidly anti-miscengenistic Nazi ideology, these were the Gypsies most likely to become habitual criminals. About 10% of Gypsies (mostly the German Sinti, as opposed to the Balkan Rom and other Gypsy sub-groups) were declared racially "pure" Gypsies by Ritter and his agents and were not as assiduously targeted for removal, though they were forbidden to marry outside of their ethnic group; these people received brown papers. Grey papers signified a "vagabond" who was not a Gypsy.

8. One particularly chilling aspect of the fascist racial ideology was its constant contention that it has the support of empirical science. Indeed, the ostensibly meticulous classification schema of fascist scientists did convey very strict guidelines as to who would and would not be considered a Gypsy. Under the Nazi system most often employed, how many Gypsy ancestors would a person have to have to be considered a Gypsy?

Answer: Two great-grandparents

This was in contrast to Nazi standards for Jewish status, which called for a stricter requirement of one Jewish grandparent for a targeted person to receive that designation.

9. Perhaps the most iconic camp of the Holocaust played an active role in the mass murder of Gypsies as well as Jews and other targeted groups. This large complex in Poland was actually three camps in one and included 40 barrack blocks where Gypsies were interred with their families. What was the name of this place, which now stands as a somber museum and gathering place for those who commemorate the Holocaust?

Answer: Auschwitz-Birkenau

In the 17 months of Gypsy internment there, approximately 23,000 Gypsies came to Auchwitz-Birkenau. 20,078 did not leave.

10. Estimates of total Gypsies killed by German and other fascist forces in World War II vary a great deal more than those for Jewish deaths, largely because of the unsettled nature of Gypsy life that is the hallmark of the people. Which of the following is a reasonable estimate of how many Gypsies perished in the Porajmos?

Answer: 275,000

The problem of estimating this total is exemplified anecdotally by the difficulty American soldiers, especially the jazz fans among them, had in locating Gypsy guitar great Django Reinhart. In the days just after the invasion, Django had gone "deep underground" and was passing for a traveling "gadzo" - a non-Gypsy. Many Gypsies who took the same route may be today counted among the lost. Conversely, because of the inherent difficulty in documenting peripatetic peoples, it is entirely likely that this estimate, taken from Robert Vossen's "Ziguener" (Frankfurt am Main, 1983) may indeed be far too low.

Thanks especially to the late Angus Frazer's "The Gypsies" (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 1995 ed.) for most of the information in this quiz. I look forward to any constructive criticism, especially correction notices as they are needed. Please note that any communication from Holocaust deniers will be ignored.

Source: Author stuthehistoryguy

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor bloomsby before going online.
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Porajmos: The Gypsy Holocaust Trivia Quiz

Though less well-known than the campaigns against the Jews, the mass exterminations of European Gypsies during World War II were no less systematically brutal. I hope this quiz helps make this neglected example of inhumanity more clear.

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