Antigypsyism and Educational History

This article aims to place the new RomnoKher study in a broader historical context and to question the current empirical findings on their historical prerequisites. To demonstrate that anti-Gypsyism is an integral part of the history of education, basic patterns of anti-Gypsy knowledge production are illustrated in the first section using selected historical textbooks and reference books. The second section takes a change of perspective and focuses on severe discrimination and experiences of violence by Sinti and Roma in schools during the time of National Socialism. For this purpose, autobiographical testimonies of survivors were evaluated. Subsequently, those factors are named that have conditioned the continued exclusion of Sinti and Roma in the education system of the Federal Republic and which in turn are closely related to the persecution suffered in the Nazi state. In conclusion, some guidelines for anti-Gypsyism-critical educational practice are formulated.