Why did Hitler want to kill gypsies?

Answer 1

This is a tricky one, so bear with me... Gypsies (or Romani/Roma as they are officially known) are a nomadic people in Europe who originated from the Indian subcontinent. The Nazis rigidly categorized humanity, in their minds, into distinct groups based on blood, or race. Indians, and Iranians, were viewed favorably by the Nazis because they are directly related to Europeans in terms of their language (i.e. the Indo-European language group... Indo meaning Indian). We currently believe today that the Indo-Europeans originated in the Caucuses (hence the term Caucasian) and spread out from there northwards into Russia and Europe, and southwards, into Iran and India. The Nazis believed that the Indo-Europeans (i.e. Aryans) had originated either in Germany, Scandinavia, India, or Tibet, rather than the Caucuses, and engaged in various archaeological expeditions in those regions to prove their case. Separate from these Indo-Europeans, or Aryans, was the Semitic race, consisting of Jews, Arabs, and various other Near-Eastern peoples, whom the Nazis viewed as inferior. Got all that?

Even though the Gypsies originated in India, an Aryan-region, the Nazis had deduced in their minds that thru their wanderings over the centuries, and carefree nomadic lifestyle, they had intermixed with various Semitic peoples and had corrupted their "pure Aryan blood". Those Gypsies whom the Nazis deemed as "pure", or "uncorrupted", were allowed to carry out their lives under the supervision of the Nazi government, but were not killed. However, Gypsies deemed as "impure", or "too Semitic", of which there were many, were shipped off to concentration camps where they were massacred. Heinrich Himmler, lord of the SS, is said to have grappled with this decision in his mind, having had a close affinity for the land of India, and the Hindu religion. He was even said to have carried the Hindu holy book, Bhagavad Gita, in his pocket. It was Himmler who supposedly decided that the Gypsies weren't Aryan enough, and decided to round them up and exterminate them. Similar to the Holocaust, this genocide is referred to as the Porajmos by the Roma people, and as many as 1.5 million Gypsies were killed.

Answer 2

Hilter wanted to make a purified Germany, and according to his doctrine Romani were not "pure."

Hitler did not like the Gypsies and he thought they were an "untouchable" race. Hitler also wanted to kill them because the Gypsies (Roma and Sinti) spoke their own languages, had their own culture, and were darker complected.

In Europe there has been a lot of prejudice against the Roma (Gypsies) ever since they first arrived from northern India in the late Middle Ages. In Wallachia and Moldavia (now in Romania), for example, Gypsies were the only race that could be owned as slaves, until the 1850s. The same applied in some other countries (though not as long). Even in areas where there was no slavery, attitudes were influenced by this.

The Nazis had all the traditional prejudices and hatreds in an intensified form. The belief that the Gypsies led a nomadic existence also encouraged prejudice. Ironically, the Gypsies probably had a better claim than anyone else in Europe to be genuine descendants of the ancient Aryans, but that did not help them.

There are arguably strategic reasons for targeting this population: Hitler wanted Germany to have an empire, the way Britain and France did, though his would have stretched into Eastern Europe. A lot of colonization was defended on the basis that the colonized people (African, Latin American, Asian...etc) were supposedly inferior, savage races that needed civilizing.

If you want to 'civilize' people, why kill them? The real intention is to steal the resources. That is what King Leopold's "Civilizing Mission" in the Congo was about, for example, or why "bringing Christianity" to the indigenous South Americans in practice meant reducing them to slavery. In the case of Eastern Europe, Hitler was among others after "the granary of Europe" that was Poland's agricultural base.]

Hitler had sought to rely on similar prejudices regarding Jews and Gypsies, strengthening these prejudices with fake "science".

Eastern Europe had large Romani (Gypsy) populations in the country, and large Jewish populations in the cities. So he could use his racist rhetoric as ideological rationales for invading and conquering Czechoslovakia, Poland, and further on.

Answer 3

Hitler saw the Romani (incorrectly called Gypsies) as an inferior race of people who were parasitic on the accomplishments of Aryan Europeans. Hitler argued that they were filthy, lazy, and theft-prone. In fact, many of the negative views towards Romani persist to this day in Europe, where it is called Anti-Ziganism or Anti-Romaniism.

Answer 4

Hitler hated just about every culture.

Because he lived next to gypsies and they shot his dog

Answer 5

There was - and still is - a lot of prejudice against gypsies in Europe. In parts of the Balkans they used to be slaves ... Hitler hated all the traditional "outsider" groups.

Answer 6

he didn't the Gypsies were more of Himmler's project, the interesting thing is that he played favourites and only persecuted certain types of gypsy