Sinti Facts for Kids

Quick facts for kids
Sinti
Total population
≈ 20ll 500,000
Languages
Sinte Romani
Related ethnic groups
Other Indo-Aryan peoples, especially Roma (Manouche)

Sinti people in Rhine Province, Germany, 1935.

The Sinti (also Sinta or Sinte; masc. sing. Sinto; fem. sing. Sintesa) are a subgroup of Romani people. They are found mostly in Germany, France and Italy and Central Europe, numbering some 200,000 people. They were traditionally itinerant, but today only a small percentage of Sinti remain unsettled. In earlier times, they frequently lived on the outskirts of communities.

The Sinti of Central Europe are closely related to the group known as Manouche in France. They speak the Sinti-Manouche variety of Romani, which exhibits strong German influence.

Etymology and origin
History
- The Holocaust
Notable people
Images for kids
See also

Etymology and origin

The origin of the Sinti people, as with the broader Romani people, lies generally in the Indian subcontinent. While people from the western Indian subcontinent's Sindh region were mentioned in 1100 by Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Maydani, it is unclear whether the Sindhi people were the ancestors of modern Sinti, though it is clear that Sinti and other Romani people originated in the northern Indian subcontinent.

The origin of the name is disputed. Scholar Jan Kochanowski, and many Sinti themselves, believed it derives from Sindhi, the name of a people of Sindh in medieval India (a region now in southeast Pakistan). Scholar Yaron Matras argued that Sinti is a later term in use by the Sinti from only the 18th century on, and is likely a European loanword. This view is shared by Romani linguist Ronald Lee who stated the name's origin probably lies in the German word Reisende meaning 'travellers'.

A recent study by Estonian and Indian researchers found genetic similarities between European Romani men and Indian men in their sample. Linguist N. B. G. Kazi stated that all Romani people are from Sindh.

History

The Sinti are a subgroup of Romani people mostly found in Germany. They arrived in Austria and Germany in the Late Middle Ages as part of the Romani emigration from the Indian Subcontinent, eventually splitting into two groups: Eftavagarja ("the Seven Caravans") and Estraxarja ("from Austria"). They arrived in Germany before 1540. The two groups expanded, the Eftavagarja into France and Portugal, where they are called "Manouches", and to the Balkans, where they are called "Ciganos" (from Byzantine Greek "τσιγγάνος" and "Ἀτσίγγανος", deriving from Ancient Greek "ἀθίγγανος", meaning "untouchable" ); and the Estraxarja into Italy and Central Europe, mainly what are now Croatia, Slovenia, Hungary, Romania, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, eventually adopting various regional names.

The Holocaust

Johann Trollmann, a German Sinti boxer, 1928

The Sinti migrated to Germany in the early 15th century. Despite their long presence, they were still generally regarded as beggars and thieves, and, by 1899, the police kept a central register on Sinti, Roma, and Yenish peoples. Nazi Germany considered them racially inferior (see Nazism and race), and persecuted them throughout Germany during the Nazi period – the Nuremberg Laws of 1935 often being interpreted to apply to them as well as the Jews.

Adolf Eichmann recommended that Nazi Germany solve the "Gypsy Question" simultaneously with the Jewish Question, resulting in the deportation of the Sinti to clear room to build homes for ethnic Germans. Some were sent to the territory of Poland, or elsewhere, including some deported to the territory of Yugoslavia by the Hamburg Police in 1939. Others were confined to designated areas, and many were eventually murdered in gas chambers. Many Sinti and Roma were taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where they were put in a special section, called the "gypsy camp". On 2 August 1944, the "gypsy camp" was closed, and approximately 4,000 Sinti and Roma were gassed during the night of 2–3 August and burnt in the crematoria. The date 2 August is commemorated as Roma and Sinti Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Memorial in Nuremberg opposite Frauentorgraben 49, where on 15 September 1935 the Nuremberg Laws were adopted in the ballroom of the Industrial & Cultural Association clubhouse

In the concentration camps, the Sinti were forced to wear either a black triangle, indicating their classification as "asocial", or a brown triangle, specifically reserved for Sinti, Roma, and Yenish peoples.