| Until
late 1937 the Nazis were inconsistent in their treatment of
the Romani. They sometimes treated them as a "criminal"
anti-social class and sometimes as an inferior racial minority.
Then in a decree of December 1937 they were declared to
be "inveterate criminals". In 1938 SS Chief
Heinrich Himmler concluded in his Circular
of December 8, that "the proper method of attacking
the Gypsy problem seems to be to treat it as a matter of race."
Even
so, there is evidence that suggests that the Nazis had not
quite decided on the final solution to the "Gypsy
Plague" as late as December 1942. The Auschwitz Decree
in December decided the fate of the Romani. This decree led
to their transfer to and eventual murder at Birkenau.
Part
of The Romani Holocaust
exhibit |
