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A QUESTION OF RACE. THE ‘GYPSIES’
In Italy, in the fascist journal La Difesa della Razza and in texts on Social Medicine, essays were repeatedly published on the social dangerousness of 'gypsies', to be considered 'an unfavourable racial contribution to the Italic race'.
1940 opened with an article by Guido Landra, later Director of the Demography and Race Office at the Ministry of the Interior, which placed the 'gypsy question' in the context of ‘mestizaje’, or racial danger to the surrounding society. In that same year, the project of fascist concentration camps to be reserved for the ‘resolution’ if the 'gypsy question' also began.
In 1942, a communication from the Italian Foreign Office informed the Office for Demography and Race in Rome that in Germany the 'equating of gypsies with Jews living in Germany' had taken place.
Document exploring the equating of gypsies to Jews living in Germany
“Gypsies living in the Reich have been equated with Jews”
“The anti-Semitic laws currently in force will apply to them”
“Gypsies are considered to be not only those who are 100% Gypsies, but also those who have some Gypsy blood”
An article by Guido Landra on the dangers of gypsy cross-breeding
”There are many racially diverse individuals living in Germany. First and foremost, one must consider the gypsies”
”There is still a serious problem of half-breeds in Europe”
”It is therefore necessary that mestizos are identified in time and the necessary measures are taken to prevent the blood of old Europe from being irreparably poisoned”
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