The Roma in Sweden

History of the Roma in Sweden and Europe

The linguistic affinity between Romany and other IndoAryan (Indic) languages has enabled the Roma to be identified as a people of Indian origin. For several centuries, their culture and language have been influenced by, and has influenced, diverse European cultures.

The Roma are a people who emigrated from Punjab in northwest India roughly a millennium ago. The first Roma reached Europe in the 14th century, and by 1387 there were many settled communities of Roma throughout the Balkans, living under very arduous conditions. They earned their living as blacksmiths and coppersmiths, horse dealers, musicians and so forth.

In Eastern Europe, the Roma were being sold as slaves by the late 14th century. They were not liberated until 1860.

The second world war was one of the most painful periods in the Roma's history. In the 1930s there were Roma throughout Europe, including some 30,000 in Germany. Discrimination and persecution was (indeed, still is) ubiquitous. After gaining power in Germany in 1933, the Nazis began regular persecution of Roma just as of Jews. During the Third Reich, more than 500,000 Roma were officially exterminated, but according to Dr Mark Munzel of the Frankfurt Ethnological Museum as many as 4,000,000 Roma may have perished in the Holocaust.

Swedish history, too, contains murky chapters regarding the treatment of Roma. They were subjected to constant persecution by the Church as well as the state. From 1914 to 1954, Roma immigration was prohibited outright.

Information Inputs on Roma History and Culture

In recent years, the Roma's civic rights have attracted attention in Sweden and been, for example the focus of the Ministry of Culture's Roma working group. The Roma National Union in Sweden provides information for schools, clubs and societies, organisations and public agencies, for example, concerning

Testimonies of Roma Survivors

In cooperation with Living History, during autumn 1999, the Roma National Union embarked on a prestudy for an interview survey of Roma survivors of the Holocaust. This project to compile documentation of surviving Roma is the first of its kind in Sweden. The plan is to interview as many people as possible during 2000 and document the interviews in writing and in audio and video recordings. The finished material can then be used in the Roma's work of informing people about the Holocaust and by researchers. The material should also be useful at the future Forum for Living History.

For further information:
The Roma National Union (Romernas Riksförbund), Sockengatan 83, SE-252 51 Helsingborg, Sweden.