Jean Reinhardt, known by his Romani nickname Django, was a Romani-Belgian jazz guitarist and composer. He was one of the first major jazz talents to emerge in Europe and has been hailed as one of its most significant exponents.
The Romani, colloquially known as the Roma, are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group, traditionally nomadic itinerants. They live in Europe and Anatolia, and have diaspora populations located worldwide, with significant concentrations in the Americas.
The Romani Holocaust or the Romani genocide—also known as the Porajmos, the Pharrajimos meaning the hard times, and the Samudaripen —was the effort by Nazi Germany and its World War II allies to commit ethnic cleansing and eventually genocide against Europe's Romani people during the Holocaust era.
The Sinti are a subgroup of Romani people mostly found in Germany and Central Europe that number around 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. 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 region of Sindh were mentioned in 1100 by the Arab chronicler Meidani, it is unclear if the Sindhi people are the ancestors of modern-day Sinti, though what is clear is that the Sinti, as with other Romani people, generally originate in the northern Indian subcontinent.
Romani people (Roma; Romi, traditionally Țigani, constitute one of Romania's largest minorities. According to the 2011 census, their number was 621.573 people or 3.3% of the total population, being the second-largest ethnic minority in Romania after Hungarians. There are different estimates about the size of the total population of people with Romani ancestry in Romania, varying from 4.6 per cent to over 10 percent of the population, because many people of Romani descent do not declare themselves Romani. For example, the Council of Europe estimates that approximately 1.85 million Roma live in Romania, a figure equivalent to 8.32% of the population.
Leopold Engleitner was an Austrian conscientious objector, as one of Jehovah's Witnesses, and a concentration camp survivor who spoke publicly and with students about his experiences. He was the subject of the documentary Unbroken Will. Before his death Engleitner was the world's oldest known male concentration camp survivor, and the oldest male Austrian.
René Balcer is a Canadian-American television writer, director, producer, and showrunner.
The Romani people, also referred to as Roma, Sinti or Kale, depending on the sub-group, are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group which primarily lives in Europe. The Romani may have migrated from what is the modern Indian state of Rajasthan, migrating to the northwest around 250 BCE. Their subsequent westward migration, possibly in waves, is now believed to have occurred beginning in about 500 CE. It has also been suggested that emigration from India may have taken place in the context of the raids by Mahmud of Ghazni. As these soldiers were defeated, they were moved west with their families into the Byzantine Empire. The author Ralph Lilley Turner theorised a central Indian origin of Romani followed by a migration to Northwest India as it shares a number of ancient isoglosses with Central Indo-Aryan languages in relation to realization of some sounds of Old Indo-Aryan. This is lent further credence by its sharing exactly the same pattern of northwestern languages such as Kashmiri and Shina through the adoption of oblique enclitic pronouns as person markers. The overall morphology suggests that Romani participated in some of the significant developments leading toward the emergence of New Indo-Aryan languages, thus indicating that the proto-Romani did not leave the Indian subcontinent until late in the second half of the first millennium.
Many fictional depictions of the Romani in literature and art present Romanticized narratives of their supposed mystical powers of fortune telling, and their supposed irascible or passionate temper paired with an indomitable love of freedom and a habit of criminality. Critics of how Romani people have been portrayed in popular culture point out similarities to portrayals of Jewish people, with both groups stereotyped negatively as wandering, spreading disease, abducting children, and violating and murdering others.
Esma Redžepova-Teodosievska was a Macedonian Romani vocalist, songwriter and humanitarian. Because of her prolific repertoire, which included hundreds of songs, and because of her contribution to Romani culture and its promotion, she was nicknamed the Queen of the Gypsies.
Anti-Romani sentiment is a form of anti-Indian sentiment which consists of hostility, prejudice, discrimination or racism which is specifically directed at Romani people. Non-Romani itinerant groups in Europe such as the Yenish, Irish and Highland Travellers are often given the name "gypsy" and confused with the Romani people. As a result, sentiments which were originally directed at the Romani people are also directed at other traveler groups and they are often referred to as "antigypsy" sentiments.
Romani people in Hungary are Hungarian citizens of Romani descent. According to the 2011 census, they comprise 3.18% of the total population, which alone makes them the largest minority in the country, although various estimations have put the number of Romani people as high as 8% of the total population. They are sometimes referred as Hungarian Gypsies, but that is considered to be a racial slur.
The Romani people in Turkey or Turks of Romani Background are Turkish citizen and the biggest subgroup of the Turkish Roma, they are Sunni muslims, mostly of Sufism branch, who speak Turkish as their first language, in their own accent, and take the Turkish culture, many deny their Romani Background over centuries in order to establish a Turkish Identity to become more recognized by the Host population and declare themselves to be Turks of Oghuz Turks Ancestry. Especially some of them claimed to be Members of the Yörüks, Amuca tribe, Gajal or Tahtacı. In Turkey, since 1996, they named official as Romanlar and not as Roma. They are also called Şopar in Rumelian Romani dialect or Manuş (Human), and Çingene (Gypsy) in Turkish, while once in Ottoman Turkish they was named Cingân (Gypsy), Kıptî (Copts) and Mısırlı (Egyptians). As Gastarbeiter some Turkish Roma came to Germany and Austria and other European Countrys and fully assimilated in Turks in European communities.
Big Fat Gypsy Weddings is a British documentary series broadcast on Channel 4, that explored the lives and traditions of several British Traveller families as they prepared to unite one of their members in marriage. The series also featured Romanichal in several episodes, and has been criticised by some Romani for not accurately representing England’s Romani and Travelling community. It was first broadcast in February 2010 as a one-off documentary called My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding, filmed as part of the Cutting Edge series and voted Most Groundbreaking Show in the Cultural Diversity Awards 2010. A series of 5 episodes were later commissioned, and the series first aired in January 2011. A second series began airing in February 2012. A third series was not commissioned, rather the show ended with eleven stand-alone specials.
Korkoro is a 2009 French drama film written and directed by Tony Gatlif, starring Francophone actors Marc Lavoine, Marie-Josée Croze and James Thiérrée. The film's cast were of many nationalities such as Albanian, Kosovar, Georgian, Serbian, French, Norwegian, and nine Romani people Gatlif recruited in Transylvania.
It is estimated that there are one million Romani people in the United States. Though the Romani population in the United States has largely assimilated into American society, the largest concentrations are in Southern California, the Pacific Northwest, Texas, Louisiana, Florida and the Northeast as well as in cities such as Chicago and St. Louis. There is also a substantial Romani community in Miami and Las Vegas. Around 200,000 Roma live in California, and about 50,000 live in Los Angeles. They are sometimes referred as "American Gypsies.” Some of the Romani population view the reference as a term of endearment which can be explored more at the https://www.gypsyloresociety.org/ and there are some that view the reference to be a racial slur.
The Romani people in Canada are citizens of Canada who are of Romani descent. According to the 2011 Census there were 5,255 Canadians who claimed Romani ancestry. They are sometimes referred as "Gypsies", but that is considered to be a racial slur.
David M. Crowe, Jr. is a Presidential Fellow at Chapman University and Professor Emeritus of History and Law at Elon University. He is a specialist in international criminal law, the Holocaust, the history of the Romani people in Eastern Europe and Russia, and 20th century China. He has served as an expert witness in court cases in the United States and Canada, and testified before the U.S. Congress’ Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe and the New York City Council’s Committee on Immigration. His numerous books have been translated into six languages.
Gilad Margalit was an Israeli historian, writer, and professor in the Department of General History at the University of Haifa.
The Romani people, also known as the Roma, qualify as an ethnic minority group in Poland of Indo-Aryan origins. The Council of Europe regards the endonym "Roma" more appropriate when referencing the people, and "Romani" when referencing cultural characteristics. The term Cyganie is considered an exonym in Poland.
