Roma and Sinti Before the War

Roma and Sinti are the largest European minority, but they do not have a country of their own. Roma and Sinti have lived in Europe for over 1,000 years. Originally coming from India, they speak a language related to other Indian languages sometimes referred to as Romany, Romanes or Sinti Tikkes. Roma and Sinti is the real name of the so called “Gypsies”.

Posed photograph of a Roma wedding in Stegersbach in the south of Burgenland produced for reporters from the Austrian state broadcasting company RAVAG.

A1. Settlements

© Department of Contemporary History, University of Vienna, Austria

The Sinto Max Bamberger (on the right) with his family in a photograph taken in 1935.

A2. Middle Class

© Documentation and Cultural Centre of German Sinti and Roma, Heidelberg, Germany.

A3. Itinerant Craftsmen and Artisans

© German Federal Archives, Koblenz, Germany.

The Hungarian Béla Ruha Gypsy Orchestra in a hotel in The Hague, Netherlands in the 1930s.

A4. Professional Musicians

© Museum of Ethnography, Budapest, Hungary.

All helping with the preparations ...” Photo of a family making bricks in East Slovakia.

© Prešov District Museum, Slovakia.

Photograph of a police raid on the Roma settlement in the village of Gritsch in Burgenland, Austria. All the people living in the house had to stand outside with their equipment. The photograph was taken as a record of the work of the police.

© Burgenland Regional Archives, Eisenstadt, Austria.

Photograph of Karl Stojka at the age of nine taken in Vienna in 1940.

A7. School Child

© German Federal Archives Berlin Lichterfelde, Germany.

Czech postcard from the early 20th century.

A8. Fatal Stereotype

© Museum of Roma Culture, Brno, Czech Republic.

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