Who were the Roma victims of the Nazis? A case study of Estonia

ABSTRACT

This article documents the mass murder of the Roma community in Nazi-occupied Estonia. Using the statistical data assembled by the police, it paints a collective picture of the minority destroyed.

KEYWORDS:

• Roma
• mass murder
• Nazi genocide
• death statistics
• Estonia

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. I am grateful to Urmas Sutrop for sending me a copy of the book.

2. Reich Criminal Police, Decree on the Preventing Crime Fighting by the Police, 14 December 1937, Eesti Rahvusarhiiv (Estonian National Archives, hereafter: ERA), R-59/1/3. For details, see: (Lewy 2000), 24–6.

3. German 18th Army to Economic Commando Tallinn, 27 August 1941, Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv (German Federal Archives-Military Archives, hereafter: BA-MA), RW-46/299.

4. Viljandi Police Prefecture to police commissars, 19 September 1941, ERA, R-62/1/1.

5. Head of the Army Group North Rear Areas, report, 18 September 1941, BA-MA, RH-22/254.

6. Pärnu prison to the Estonian Auxiliary Police (Omakaitse), 30 September and 6 October 1941, ERA, R-932/1/1.

7. Local Military Commandant’s Office in Paide, order, 1 December 1941, ERA, R-89/1/1.

8. Commissariat General Ostland to Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories, 2 July 1942, Bundesarchiv (German Federal Archives, hereafter: BA), R-90/147.

9. German Security Police in Estonia, presentation of SS Lieutenant Bergmann, 27 May 1942, ERA, R-819/1/11.

10. Estonian Security Police HQ to police branch office, 10 June 1942, ERA, R-59/1/3.

11. Estonian Security Police in Narva, list of Roma arrested on 1 November 1941, ERA, R-59/1/40.

12. Head of the Estonian Political Police in Narva to Narva Police Prefecture, 28 November 1941, ERA, R-59/1/40.

13. Estonian Security Police in Narva, activity report for the period 28 December 1941–8 January 1942, ERA, R-59/1/88.

14. Estonian Security Police in Narva, activity report for the period 8 April–18 April 1942, ERA, R-59/1/88.

15. Estonian Security Police in Narva, list of Narva Roma sent into the custody of the Estonian Security Police in Rakvere, 4 February 1943, ERA, R-59/1/69.

16. ‘Ich habe keine Ahnung, warum er in Haft sein soll’, Lonny Indus to Commissar General of Estonia, 2 November 1942, Rom Archive, voi_00005, https://www.romarchive.eu/en/collection/ich-habe-keine-ahnung-warum-er-in-haft-sein-soll/ (original from: ERA, R-59/2/7).

17. Estonian Security Police in Tartu to the police branch offices, 24 January 1942, ERA, R-60/1/2a.

18. Harku Prison to the Estonian Security Police, 18 July 1942, ERA, R-64/1/70.

19. Estonian Security Police to the German Security Police, 30 October 1942, ERA, R-64/1/101; Ministry of State Security of Estonian SSR, interrogation of Alexander Kroon, 26 April 1948, ERA, 1243/1; ibid., interrogation of Nikolai Kiim, 7 June 1948, ERA, 1243/2.

20. Estonian Security Police to the police branch offices, 11 June 1942, ERA, R-64/1/47.

21. Tallinn Central Prison to the Estonian Security Police, 8–10, 12, 14, 20, 22 February 1943, ERA, R-64/1/106.

22. Commander of the German Security Police in Estonia, order no. 9546, 22 January 1943, ERA, R-59/1/70.

23. Tallinn Central Prison to the Estonian Security Police, 18 February 1943 and 23 February 1943, ERA, R-64/1/101.

24. Commander of the German Security Police in Estonia to the police branch offices in Pärnu, Tartu, and Narva, 22 January 1943, ERA, R-59/1/69.

25. Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories to Commissariats General Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Belorussia, 23 May 1943, BA, R-90/147.

26. Commander in Chief of the Security Police and SD in the Ostland to Reich Commissariat Ostland, 19 October 1943, BA, R-90/147.

27. Reich Commissariat Ostland, interoffice correspondence, 23 October 1943, BA, R-90/147.

28. Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories to Commissariats General in Ostland, Ukraine, and Belorussia, 15 November 1943, BA, R-90/147.

29. Estonian Political Police in Haapsalu to the Estonian Security Police HQ, 24 September 1943, ERA, R-64/1/189.

30. Tallinn Central Prison to the Estonian Security Police, 24 March 1944, ERA, R-294/1/8.

31. (Weiss-Wendt 2009), 147. This is probably the same instance related in the SS Einsatzgruppen report no. 165 from 6 February 1942, according to which 38 Jews and Roma were executed at Loknia on 1 February 1942.

32. Commissariat General Estonia, number of Roma in Estonia according to the census of 1 December 1941, ERA, R-65/1/68.

33. Estonian Security Police in Narva, Jõhvi, and Kiviõli, reports on foreign nationals, 18 April 1942, ERA, R-59/1/88.

34. Estonian Security Police in Petseri, list of Roma in Senno parish, no date, ERA, R-63/1/8; list of Roma in Roodva parish, no date, ERA, R-63/1/8; list of Roma in Petseri parish, no date; idem., list of Roma who have settled in Senno parish, no date, ERA, R-63/1/8.

35. Estonian Security Police in Petseri, list of Roma in Petseri province, compiled from the data received by 15 February 1942, no date, ERA, R-63/1/8.

36. Estonian Security Police in Petseri, list of Roma in Petseri province, 13 January 1943, ERA, R-63/1/8.

37. Hence the existence of a special ‘Gypsy family camp’ at Auschwitz-Birkenau, which had accommodated a total of 22,643 Roma from central and western Europe of whom an estimated 19,529 perished.

38. Estonian Security Police in Narva, confiscation acts for the property owned by Anton Koslosvski and Viilep Indus, 4 February 1943, ERA, R-59/1/69.

39. Estonian Security Police in Petseri, list of property belonging to the Roma expelled from Sukhlovo village in Vilo parish, 7 February 1943, ERA, R-63/1/8.

40. Estonian Security Police in Kiviõli, list of local Roma dispatched into the custody of the Estonian Security Police in Rakvere, 6 February 1943, ERA, R-59/1/69.

41. ‘Früher bekam ich Unterstützung von der Stadtverwaltung, jetzt bekomme ich nichts’, Charlotte Koslovski to the Rakvere City Housing Commission, 7 January 1942, Rom Archive, voi_00053, https://www.romarchive.eu/en/collection/frueher-bekam-ich-unterstuetzung-von-der-stadtverwaltung-jetzt-bekomme-ich-nichts/ (original from: ERA, 3734/4/406).

42. Estonian Security Police in Narva, list of property belonging to Jaan Tants, 3 February 1943, ERA, R-59/1/69.

43. Estonian Security Police in Petseri, list of property belonging to Nikolai Koslovski, 7 February 1943, ERA, R-63/1/8.

44. Estonian Security Police in Petseri, list of property belonging to Nikolai Koslovski and Nikander Koslovski, 7 February 1943, ERA, R-63/1/8.

45. Estonian Security Police in Petseri, list of property belonging to Konstantin Ivanov, 7 February 1943, ERA, R-63/1/8. According to Ariste, a majority of Roma in Estonia were Russian Orthodox.

46. Estonian Security Police in Petseri, list of property belonging to Evgenia Ivanov, 7 February 1943, ERA, R-63/1/8.

47. Pärnu Criminal Court, case file of Karl Koslovski, 23 March–16 April 1942, ERA, R-2121/3/15.

48. Rakvere Prison to the Estonian Security Police in Rakvere, 10 March 1943, ERA, R-64/1/106.

49. ‘Die letzte Zeit arbeitete ich am Bahnhof von Tapa’, Estonian Security Police in Paide, interrogation of Karl Siimann, 1 June 1942, Rom Archive, voi_00046, https://www.romarchive.eu/en/collection/die-letzte-zeit-arbeitete-ich-am-bahnhof-von-tapa/ (original form: ERA, R-56/3/50).

50. Estonian Security Police in Tallinn-Harju, cable no. 16 and 17 April 1942, ERA, R-62/1/24.

51. Estonian Security Police HQ, log, 6 June 1942, ERA, R-64/1/740.

52. Estonian Criminal Police in Tartu, extraordinary search warrant, 17 February 1943, ERA, R-62/1/25.

53. Tallinn Central Prison to the Estonian Security Police, 9 August 1943, ERA; R-64/1/101.

54. Tallinn Central Prison to the Estonian Security Police, 28 December 1943, ERA, R-64/1/101.

55. Tallinn Central Prison to the Estonian Security Police, 11 August 1943, ERA, R-64/1/101.

56. Pärnu Criminal Court, case file of Karl Koslovski and Richard Eamest, 20 January–18 March 1942, ERA, R-2121/3/9.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anton Weiss-Wendt

Anton Weiss-Wendt is Research Professor at the Norwegian Center for Holocaust and Minority Studies in Oslo. He holds a PhD in modern Jewish history from Brandeis University. He is the author or editor of eleven books, including The Soviet Union and the Gutting of the UN Genocide Convention (2017); A Rhetorical Crime: Genocide in the Geopolitical Discourse of the Cold War (2018); Putin’s Russia and the Falsification of History: Reasserting Control over the Past (2020), and (with Nanci Adler) The Future of the Soviet Past: The Politics of History in Putin’s Russia (2021).