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The Nazi Period in the Baltic States Michael Zimmermann

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The Nazi Period in the Baltic States Michael Zimmermann ProJECT EDUCATION of ROMA | HISTorY ROMA CHILDREN COUNCIL CONSEIL OF EUROPE DE L´EUROPE IN EUroPE THE NAZI PERIOD 5.4 IN THE BALTIC STATES The Nazi Period in the Baltic States Michael Zimmermann A Dichotomous Feature of Persecution | Mobile Killing Units | Latvia | Estonia | Auschwitz-Birkenau In the Baltic States the killing of Roma started immediately after the German attack in 1941. SS and German military murdered the Roma who fell into their hands. Later on, when the mobile forces were transformed into stationary units and augmented by police units, they proceeded with support from civil occupation authorities. In Estonia only 5 to 10 percent of the pre-war Roma population survived the German occupation. INTroDUCTION OCCUPIED SOVIET UNION TALLINN Frontline, AUTUMN 1942 Autumn 1942 3 The German attack on the Soviet Union Ill. 1 (based upon Kenrick / Puxon 1995, p. 88, Route of the and the Baltic States in summer 1941 and Zimmermann 1999, p. 141) Einsatzgruppen from the very start had the character of A, B, C, D a racist war of conquest and extermina- 1 REICHSkoMMISSARIAT A OSTLAND MoSKAU tion. For this campaign four task forces 3 1 VAZMA (“Einsatzgruppen”) – mobile killing REICH MINSK 1 2 Under German units of the SS (“Schutzstaffel”, pro- SMOLENSK WARSCHAU civilian rule tective squadron) – were created. The 3 Under German “Einsatzgruppen” together with other GOMEL military rule SS units, German military and civil oc- GENERAL- B GOUVERNEMENT ROWNO 3 cupying forces murdered the Roma who 2 fell into their hands, but did not search KIEW 3 MILITARY TErrITorIES 2 REICHSkoMMISSARIAT for them with the zeal employed in fer- UkrAINE reting out Jews and communists. Howe- C CHArkoW ver, when the “Einsatzgruppen” were sacred. In Estonia more than 90 percent D transformed into locally fixed units of the 750-850 Roma were murdered. of the Security Police (“Sicherheits- The case of Lithuania needs further in- ODESSA 2 polizei”) and augmented by units of vestigation, but historians estimate that the German Order Police (“Ordnungs- the vast majority of the Roma populati- polizei”), as in the Baltic region, they on living there were shot. In addition, 3 proceeded to systematically kill Roma. in early 1944 2,000-3,000 Roma were 3 From 1941 to 1943, in Latvia probab- deported to Auschwitz Birkenau from ly a half of the 3,800 Roma were mas- Belarus and Lithuania. B L A C K S E A tures: the primary target of “Gypsy” pure”. However, in the German-occu- A DICHOTOMOUS persecution in Germany were the puta- pied territories precisely the reverse FEATURE OF PERSECUTION tive “Zigeunermischlinge”, “Gypsies” policy prevailed after 1939: wandering of “mixed blood” who, according to the Roma were in greater peril than the se- National Socialist persecution of the racial hygienics theorist Robert Ritter, dentary Roma. Roma hinged on the conception that the had “deviated from their original biolo- This dichotomous feature of behaviour of social groups was rooted gical nature.” The domestic policy did “Gypsy” persecution in turn derived in biological parameters and genetic not target the small group of itinerant from emphasising differing facets of factors. With respect to the Roma, this Roma, who married only among them- the hostile image of the “Gypsy Other”. racist notion had two characteristic fea- selves and were classified as “racially Within the Reich proper it was believed A Dichotomous Feature of Persecution Mobile Killing Units Latvia Estonia Auschwitz-Birkenau Ill. 2 Ill. 3 One of Robert Ritter’s forms for recording biological data on An “Einsatzgruppe” report filing 16,152 people killed, including Roma. Roma. (from Hancock 2002, p. 44) (from Kenrick / Puxon 1995, p. 91) that the main folk-racial threat stemmed tensive social contacts with the majority itinerant Roma. It was argued that their from the “Gypsy Mischlinge”, partial- population. Outside the Reich, especial- “mobile” life style merely camouflaged ly or totally sedentary in lifestyle, who ly in the occupied Eastern Territories, spying activities against the Germans were allegedly “degenerating” the “Ger- the phantasmal construct of the “Gypsy in the service of the “Jewish-Bolshevik man folk body” through their more in- Other” was projected mainly onto the world enemy”. [Ill. 2] men. They were to kill over a million Soviet state and communist party burea- MOBILE KILLING UNITS people. [Ill. 1] ucracy, the Jewish intelligentsia and any The “Einsatzgruppen” used broad Jews considered ready to offer resistance. guidelines to select the targets for their Yet already during the first month of the Historians investigating the policies of killings. Precise definitions did not inte- Soviet campaign, the “Einsatzgruppen” the National Socialists towards Roma rest them. Task Force A, which carried radicalised their actions. Now they began are in agreement that it was the Second out murders in the Baltic states and the to murder as many people of the Jewish World War – set in motion by the Nazi northern parts of Russia, calculated the population as possible. Simultaneously, regime on September 1, 1939, with its number of its victims up to February 1, the killing was extended to the Roma. attack on Poland – that led to an immen- 1942, at 240,410. Together with 218,000 In the USSR and the Baltic States se increase in oppression and persecuti- Jews shot and another 5,500 killed in German “Wehrmacht” (military) units on ending in genocide. In particular, the pogroms, they listed categories of dead were often not directly involved in the German attack on the Soviet Union in as “Lithuanians crossing the border, extermination of Roma. But the Mili- the summer of 1941, from the very start communists, partisans, mentally ill and tary Police, the Secret Military Police had the character of a racist war of con- others”. The composition of the 311 and in particular the army’s rear area quest and extermination. For this cam- “others” was not further detailed. Roma “Sicherungsdivisionen” in particular paign four “Einsatzgruppen” (A, B, C, may have been classified among the handed over “itinerant Gypsies” to the and D), mobile killing units of the SS, “partisans” and “others”. [Ill. 3] “Einsatzgruppen” to be shot. Over and were created. They received their pri- Roma were indeed among the above, “Wehrmacht” units provided con- mal instructions from the Reich Security victims of the “Einsatzgruppen” and other siderable organisational and technical Main Office. In all, the four task forces SS units on Soviet and Baltic soil. Their assistance in conjunction with the exe- A, B, C and D comprised some 3,000 initial target group had been Jews in the cutions perpetrated by the “Einsatzgrup- COUNCIL OF EUROPE ROMA | HISTorY ProJECT EDUCATION of ROMA CHILDREN IN EUroPE THE NAZI PERIOD 5.4 IN THE BALTIC STATES THE IMAGE of THE “ENEMY” The activity of the “Einsatzgruppen” and other SS units was based on a hierarchi- cally articulated image of the enemy. At its apex were Jews and communists and their phantasmal meld in the form of a “Jewish-Bolshevik world conspiracy”. In this ideological pyramid, “Gypsies” occupied a subordinate though not in- significant rung. They figured as “ra- cially inferior”, purportedly “asocial”, as “partisans”, “spies”, and “agents” of the imaginary “Jewish world ene- my”. Viewed by the “Einsatzgruppen” as Ill. 5 fifth-column informers in the service of Hinrich Lohse’s letter of December 1941. In rationalisation of the racially motivated kil- “Jewish Bolshevism”, they in particular ling of Roma in Libau, Lohse described the “Gypsies wandering around in the country” targeted travelling Roma whenever the as acting as carriers of infectious illnesses, in addition to being “unreliable elements who killing units learned of their existence. would neither obey the orders of the German authorities, nor be willing to carry out useful Regarded solely as auxiliaries of the work.” Further, he claimed, there was well-founded suspicion that they were harming the “world enemy”, their liquidation was not German cause through passing on information. Labelled in this way as spies, antisocials given first priority. and a menace to the people’s health, the “Gypsies” were presented by Lohse as fit for Ill. 4 slaughter: “I declare that they should be treated in the same way as Jews.” (from Zimmermann 1999, p. 143) (Detail) pen”. The “Einsatzgruppen” murdered communists. However, when the mobile Order Police, and could count on sup- the Roma who fell into their hands, but “Einsatzgruppen” were transformed into port from civil occupation authorities, as did not search for them with the zeal stationary units of the Security Police in the Baltic region, they proceeded to employed in ferreting out Jews and and augmented by units of the German systematically kill Roma. [Ills. 4, 5] Lohse’s circular of December 4, lice about the definition of the murder LATVIA 1941, had neither defined how a person victims led Karl Friedrich Knecht, the should be classified as a “Gypsy” nor Commander of the Order Police for Lat- whether the phrase “Gypsies wandering via, to issue an explanatory circular in While we are so far insufficiently infor- around in the country” meant also seden- March and again in April 1942. Accor- med about the killing of Roma in Lithua- tary Roma. The German Security Police in ding to this circular, it had been decided, nia, we know precisely that in Latvia the Latvia interpreted the statement of the sta- after discussion with the commander of systematic murder of Roma started on te governor in the sense that “settled Gyp- the Security Police in Latvia, that in fu- December 4, 1941, with the shooting of sies who have regular work and who were ture “only wandering Gypsies” should some one hundred Roma from the town of not a danger to society in a political or be arrested and handed over to the Se- Libau.
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