After the establishment of the so-called Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia on 16 March 1939, legislation and practice towards Roma and Sinti was adapted step-by-step to the regulations already in force in Germany. As in other occupied countries and regions, the German occupation authorities built upon structures of discrimination and legal measures already in place, as well as on the existing bureaucracy.
Parallel Administrative Structures
A characteristic feature of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was the existence of two parallel administrative structures that are usually characterised as a ‘Czech’ and an ‘occupiers’ structure. Studies that allow for a detailed assessment of the relationship between them remain a desideratum of research, though some progress has been made in recent years. As a rule, though, the Czech authorities needed German approval for everything they did and the work of Czech civil servants was directly supervised by German officials. The overall aim of the National Socialists in the Protectorate was its complete integration into the German Reich. Gradually, the administrative and legislative apparatus was to be adjusted, so that in the end it would fit seamlessly into the Reich’s structures.
Reich Protector
The German occupation administration was headed by the Reich Protector [Reichsprotektor], officially the direct representative of the Reich in the Protectorate. This position was initially given to Konstantin Freiherr von Neurath (1873–1956), who was replaced by Reinhard Heydrich (1904–1942) at the end of September 1941. Since von Neurath was officially sent on leave for health reasons, Heydrich and his successors held the title of ‘Deputy Reich Protektor’, but this did not affect their actual power. After Heydrich’s death on 4 June 1942, as the result of an attack by the Czechoslovak resistance on 27 May 1942, Kurt Daluege (1897–1946) took over until August 1943. The last Reich Protector was Wilhelm Frick (1877–1946), but he did not exercise significant power, since Karl Hermann Frank (1898–1946), appointed German Minister of State for Bohemia and Moravia in 1943, was pulling the strings by then. Whether any of them took a special interest in the persecution of Roma and Sinti in the Protectorate beyond the general National Socialist stance towards this part of the population has so far not been subject of detailed research. August Lyss (1888–1973) is one less senior German official who is known to have been dispatched from the German Reich to the Protectorate to continue his work on the deportation of Roma and Sinti to Auschwitz-Birkenau. But it was Heydrich who initiated the extensive reforms of the administrative apparatus, especially in the police and security agencies, through which the ostensible autonomy of the Czech authorities in the Protectorate was finally ended in early summer of 1942.
Occupation Policy
Generally, the National Socialists regarded the territory of the Protectorate as an integral part of the German Reich which needed to be fully integrated. This vision had serious consequences for the whole population of the Protectorate, since the National Socialists did not regard any part of the population as equal to the Germans in terms of their racial categories.
The full ‘Germanisation’ of Bohemia and Moravia was postponed until after the war, but several measures were implemented that aimed to categorise each individual member of the Czech population in terms of the National Socialist racist ideology. Its geographical location and industrial infrastructure made the Protectorate very valuable to the German occupiers. Discrimination and repression against the Czech population, including several massacres, were characteristic of the occupation, but peaceful and productive conditions in the Protectorate were essential for the occupiers. This led to ever-changing measures which alternated between bloody repression and privilege.
Probably the best known instance of German repression against the Czech population is the complete destruction of the village of Lidice. In revenge for the assassination of Heydrich, German constabulary officers of the Polizeikompanie Halle shot all 173 men over 16 in the village, while 184 women were deported to Ravensbrück concentration camp. The fate of the children of the village depended on their ‘racial assessment’. 17 of them were categorised as ‘eindeutschungsfähig’ [fit for Germanisation]and given to SS families for adoption, but most of the children of Lidice, a group of 82, were murdered at the Kulmhof extermination camp in July 1942. In addition to the German constabulary, Wehrmacht soldiers and Protectorate police forces were involved, supervised by a staff made up mainly of Gestapo under the command of Horst Böhme (1909-1945), Befehlshaber der Sicherheitspolizei (BdS) [Commander of the Security Police]. In total, it is estimated that at least 32,000 people lost their lives as a result of repressive measures, after being sent to concentration camps or as a result of forced labour.
Persecution and Murder of Jews
The Jewish population of the Protectorate, including refugees from the German Reich who had come to Czechoslovakia before 1939 to seek shelter from persecution, became the target of National Socialist antisemitic measures transferred from the German Reich to the Protectorate immediately after its establishment. The measures taken followed the pattern that prevailed in the German Reich. Exclusion from public life and most professions was first meant to pressure Jewish people to emigrate. After the ban on emigration in autumn 1941, there were still about 84,000 people categorised as ‘Jewish’ living in the Protectorate. In October and November 1941, about 6,000 of them were deported to the Litzmannstadt Ghetto in occupied Poland. Beginning in the end of November 1941, most transports went to the newly established Theresienstadt Ghetto on the territory of the Protectorate, just a few kilometres away from the border with Germany. In total, about 155,000 Jews from the Protectorate, Germany, Austria and other countries were deported to Theresienstadt. 35,000 died there, while another 88,000 were deported further, mostly to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Of those deportees, about 5,000 survived the war.
Forced Settlement of Sinti and Roma
While organising the ghettoisation and deportation of the Jewish population in the Protectorate, Heydrich also suggested during a meeting in Prague on 10 October 1941 that the ‘Gypsies due to be evacuated’ be deported to Riga.1Heim et al., Deutsches Reich und Protektorat Böhmen und Mähren, Dok. 244, 656–660, hier 660; Zimmermann, Rassenutopie, 219. By this time, several other measures targeting Roma and Sinti in the Protectorate had already been taken, starting at the end of November 1939.
A first decree directly regarding the persecution of Roma and Sinti in the Protectorate was issued by the Protectorate Minister of the Interior, Josef Ježek (1884–1969), on 30 November 1939. Basing the definition of the targeted group on the Czechoslovak law No. 177/1927 Coll., it ordered that by 1 January 1940 all ‘wandering Gypsies’ must settle down either in their home towns or, if they had no permanent residence (as was often the case due to previous measures of discrimination), wherever they were staying on that date. The same decree prohibited travelling for those once registered as ‘travelling Gypsies’, irrespective of any licences they might have acquired for doing so. Still, many towns and villages simply refused to allow Roma in and sent them away. In March 1940 the regional authorities ordered the Gendarmerie to supervise the process of forced settlement and to intervene in case of refusals. Forced settlement had varying effects, depending on the personal plans and wishes of individuals. On the one hand, it meant a loss of self-determination for those who did not want to settle down, while on the other, those who had been denied the right to settle until then now had a chance to take up residence. The authorities and the media considered this measure a success; an outcome often praised in the newspapers was the clearly unexpected success of Roma and Sinti children in schools, which more of them now attended. While many newspaper articles promoted the image of a successfully completed project of ‘re-education’ and ‘civilisation’, further measures followed.
Foundations for the Genocide
On 9 March 1942, the Protectorate Government issued the Decree No. 89/42 Coll. on the ‘Preventive Fight against Crime’ (with an effective date of 1 January 1942). This decree was largely a copy of the order of the same name issued in the German Reich by Heinrich Himmler (1900–1945) in 1937, with a few adjustments to the specific circumstances of the Protectorate. It left the authority to impose ‘preventive custody’ on individuals with the German Kriminalzentrale [Criminal Police Headquarters] in Prague and designated not the concentration camps in the German Reich but in the first instance detention facilities within the Protectorate as places where those interned on the basis of this decree should be held. The German Criminal Police Headquarters in Prague, however, retained the right to order the removal of people to camps within the Reich if they saw fit. Decree No. 89/42 also made the Criminal Police Headquarters in Prague the sole authority that could allow Roma and Sinti who were engaged in an itinerant trade to continue to travel.
The intertwining of the persecution of ‘asocials’ and ‘Gypsies’ is thus also reflected in the National Socialist approach in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. Among those who were deported as ‘asocials’ from the Protectorate to Auschwitz I concentration camp, Roma and Sinti constituted a small group. But two such transports that consisted mostly of elderly people left directly from the ‘Zigeunerlager’ in December 1942 to Auschwitz. Through the administrative reorganisation of competences concerning ‘Gypsies’, all of which were now in the hands of the Criminal Police Headquarters in Prague, the decree on the ‘Preventive Fight against Crime’ laid the foundations for the genocide that followed.
Registration and Internment
Only a few months later, on 24 June 1942, Protectorate Minister of the Interior Richard Bienert (1881–1949) issued the ‘Decree on Combating the Gypsy Menace’ accompanied by the implementing order of 10 July 1942. This decree, too, was very similar to the one of the same name issued in the German Reich in December 1938. Based on these regulations, another registration of ‘Gypsies, Gypsy Mischlinge and people living in Gypsy fashion’ took place during 1 to 3 August 1942. Czech gendarmes carrying out the registration had to create extensive documentation, especially in relation to ancestry and family relationships, which would be forwarded to the German Criminal Police in the Protectorate. The categorisation of people as either ‘racial Gypsies’, ‘Gypsy Mischlinge’ or ‘racial non-Gypsies’ as well as the decision on who would be sent to the ‘Zigeunerlager’ was taken by Czech gendarmes. Their decisions about internment were carried out immediately. Their decisions about racial categorisation were subject to review by the German Criminal Police and could be – and in some cases were – revised later. Of the 11,886 people surveyed by the Czech gendarmes, 5,860 were considered ‘racial Gypsies’ or ‘Mischlinge’. About 2,000 of them were immediately sent to the ‘Zigeunerlager’ Lety near Pisek and Hodonin near Kunstadt, which had been established specifically for this purpose. The others were informed in writing that if they left their place of residence without permission from the Criminal Police Headquarters in Prague, or if they did not carry out their work properly, they would be taken into ‘preventive custody’; they were then left to return into their lives as before.
In both camps, the living conditions were intolerable because of overcrowding and a lack of food and water. Commanded and guarded by Czech gendarmes, the camps were still run under German supervision. Eventually, in both camps diseases broke out and spread. Several hundred prisoners died of typhoid.
Deportations
Deportations of people labelled as ‘Gypsies’ from the Protectorate started in March 1943 and were based on Himmler’s Auschwitz Decree. In six mass transports from March 1943 to January 1944, in total more than 4,500 Roma and Sinti were deported from the Protectorate to Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp. The majority of those interned in Auschwitz-Birkenau were deported in May and August 1943. A small number of people were not deported but released from the camps Lety near Pisek and Hodonin near Kunstadt as ‘racial non-Gypsies’. The grounds on which this decision was made remain unclear in research so far. On the basis mainly of survivor reports, it has been repeatedly claimed that German policemen made the decision, acting solely on the appearance of an individual. What remains unclear is the role played by the extensive genealogical documentation created during the registration in August 1942 and passed on to the German Criminal Police and the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA). At least for the Lety near Pisek camp, it is also documented that the Racial Hygiene Research Unit in Berlin requested and received further information, especially about women and twins in the camp. Some of those who were initially released were nevertheless later deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau as ‘Gypsies’. In Moravia, the German Criminal Police criticised the large number of people (about 600) registered as ‘Gypsies’ but exempted from the first wave of deportations in spring 1943, and this intervention resulted in their subsequent deportation to Auschwitz-Birkenau. An exact number of survivors has yet to be established; estimates vary between 500 and 1,000 people.
Survival
The exact number of those who remained in the Protectorate after the last deportations is also not known. Ctibor Nečas (1933–2017) suggested a figure of about 300. About 200 people who were officially exempted from deportation by the German Criminal Police were probably subjected to forced sterilisation. Some survived in hiding, either in the Protectorate or in the Slovak State; chances of survival in Slovakia were higher than in the Protectorate, thanks to the difference in policies towards Roma and Sinti. In total, 174 escape attempts from Lety near Pisek and Hodonin near Kunstadt are documented. Perhaps 40 of these attempts were successful or have yet to be proven otherwise. Unsuccessful attempts ended either with the death of the escapees ‘on the run’ or with return to the camp, where the unlucky escapees faced punishment that left them seriously injured and sometimes led to their death in the short or medium term.
Individual cases are known in which Roma from the Bohemian Lands survived the persecution because they were not identified as such or because they had a social status that gave them access to the help of powerful or influential people. Bribing officials is also often mentioned as a means of escape, especially from the ‘Zigeunerlager’. It has not been established yet whether officials took money from those who had been categorised as ‘racial non-Gypsies’ by the Criminal Police Headquarters in Prague and therefore would be released from the camps anyway, or whether a bribe could lead to such a categorisation.
Resistance
Protest against or resistance directly aimed at the persecution of Roma and Sinti in the Protectorate has not been documented so far. Non-Roma from the Protectorate seem to have tried to intervene only to improve conditions in the camps, not to challenge their existence or purpose, or the internments and deportations themselves. Their motivations for this were no doubt diverse, and it has to be taken into account that members of the majority population of the Protectorate were themselves victims of National Socialist terror and oppression.
Those Roma of whom we know that they chose to fight fought on behalf of the general resistance against the Nazis in the Protectorate. The best known is Josef Serinek (1900-1974), who founded and led a group of partisans. A still uncertain number of Roma and Sinti from the Protectorate fought as soldiers in regular armies during World War II and so took part in the liberation of Europe from National Socialism.
