Central Europe
From the 14th to the 19th centuries a line was drawn across central Europe. On the one side was the Ottoman Empire and on the other the Holy Roman Empire. These two powers were often at war with one another.
Romani people lived on both sides of this borderline. On the Ottoman side they were valued as skilled craftsmen and musicians on the other side they were accused of being Ottoman spies and of being godless and immoral.
An excerpt from an eye-witness account
A travel account from a French 19th century author reveals the terrible impression made upon her by the “stealing” of Romani children:
“On one particular day – a terrible day for those people, a day that they recall with horror – soldiers suddenly appeared with trucks and took away all the Romani children. They took all, from newly weaned babies to recently married couples still in their wedding garb. There is no describing the desperation felt by these poor people. The parents threw themselves on the ground before the soldiers and clung to the carriages that carried their children away. They were rebuffed with staves and rifle butts, and as they were unable to accompany the trucks carrying off the dearest they possessed – their little children – several of these parents chose immediately to take their own lives. The ‘Gypsies’ could not be convinced of the advantages of the sacrifice that they were forced to endure.”
Source: Mayerhofer, Claudia (1988).