# Help with researching Jewish-Romani connections



## WolfSpirit0909 (Feb 27, 2020)

Where can I research more about Jews and Gypsy Romas having interactions  before WWII and after WWI? What it would of been like had they been married or became a couple? How could they avoid taboo? I know that there were many Jewish and Romanis living in Germany before the start of WWII, but that's about all I know.


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## CupofJoe (Feb 27, 2020)

I found this
Roma (Gypsies) in Prewar Europe
and this
Persecution of Roma (Gypsies) in Prewar Germany, 1933–1939


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## olive (Feb 27, 2020)

Do you know Zaharia Stancu's novel, _The Gypsy Tribe? _The time period is not exactly what you want but apparently, it was criticised for perpetuating the stereotype, not using the words gypsy or Romani and avoiding what happened to Romani people during WWII, I'm thinking maybe the research(es) made on the novel could lead you somewhere about the subject matter you research through literature.  I found something like this:  The Deportation to Transnistria and the Exoticization of the Roma in Zaharia Stancu’s Novel The Gypsy Tribe It also has some related resource links below.
This looks interesting: Gypsy Identities 1500-2000: From Egipcyans and Moon-men to the Ethnic Romany

I've read that book as a kid 30 years ago and the translation is 'My Gypsy' in my mother language, so obviously it wasn't translated that way later on. I was affected very much and I remember his vivid description of their life, the relationships between men and women, how they lived and so on. traditions and codes. It might be helpful. They are not a group of people to be affected by any taboo, they are themselves treated as a taboo though.


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## WolfSpirit0909 (Feb 27, 2020)

CupofJoe said:


> I found this
> Roma (Gypsies) in Prewar Europe
> and this
> Persecution of Roma (Gypsies) in Prewar Germany, 1933–1939



Thank you.



olive said:


> Do you know Zaharia Stancu's novel, _The Gypsy Tribe? _The time period is not exactly what you want but apparently, it was criticised for perpetuating the stereotype, not using the words gypsy or Romani and avoiding what happened to Romani people during WWII, I'm thinking maybe the research(es) made on the novel could lead you somewhere about the subject matter you research through literature.  I found something like this:  The Deportation to Transnistria and the Exoticization of the Roma in Zaharia Stancu’s Novel The Gypsy Tribe It also has some related resource links below.
> This looks interesting: Gypsy Identities 1500-2000: From Egipcyans and Moon-men to the Ethnic Romany
> 
> I've read that book as a kid 30 years ago and the translation is 'My Gypsy' in my mother language, so obviously it wasn't translated that way later on. I was affected very much and I remember his vivid description of their life, the relationships between men and women, how they lived and so on. traditions and codes. It might be helpful. They are not a group of people to be affected by any taboo, they are themselves treated as a taboo though.



I appreciate this. Though the first link you sent me isn't working. What about with Jewish and Romanis interacting? Like say if a Jewish woman married a Romani man or vice versa? Are there any articles I can research where this has happened before? Because I can't seem to find them anywhere.


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## olive (Feb 27, 2020)

I fixed the link. The book is not in my shelves right now, unfortunately. But the thing is the lack of traditional religions, faith and rules were the key in the story and the society I read. That's what I remember. Romani tribes have been pushed out of their lands for a long time and really looked at as something out of any society, considering they're also forced nomads, I really don't think an ordinary taboo would affect these people. They're wild, tough. Actually the question maybe would they take anyone else in? They must have had a very closed society. Just guessing.

Maybe you could find the pdf online? Look for that.


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## WolfSpirit0909 (Feb 27, 2020)

Ok thank you so much for the help


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## sknox (Feb 28, 2020)

When you're dealing with close personal relationships across cultures, you really need to be reading deeply. That means any of the very many books on Romani in the 20thc and on Jews in the 20thc, as well as on European cultural history between the wars. It's, how you say, a non-trivial undertaking.


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## WolfSpirit0909 (Feb 28, 2020)

Most definitely. If I come up with a good reason on how they met might work without too much extensive research. I know that's a bad thing to say, I will be doing as much digging as I can. Unfortunately, there isn't much information on Roma-Jewish groups. It is science fiction and I can just make up that a Jewish Polish German met a Romani and had their daughter together. But this would be much easier and require less digging if I just said they were both escapees during the Holocaust and met up that way. But that won't work for the story I'm writing.


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## Star-child (Feb 28, 2020)

While treated the same by the Nazis, I sort of doubt conservative rural Jews or well assimilated urban Jews would view Romanis with any more more welcome than their gentile neighbors.


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## sknox (Feb 28, 2020)

I too wonder about the likelihood of any serious interaction, unless you want to do a Romeo and Juliet sort of thing. Why did you pick these two cultural groups? I'd be more inclined to choose cultural groups about whom I knew more.


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