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| Victims of experimentation |
During the Holocaust, the handicapped were one of the first but not the only victims of this mass genocide. After the handicapped, the next targeted victims were the Jews and Gypsies. Nazi ideology and race science not only had always targeted the handicapped but also members of so-called alien and inferior races. Unfortunately, in Germany and in Central Europe, the Jews and Gypsies were considered these “alien races.” Although both these groups had lived in Europe for centuries and were citizens, the public still considered them part of this alien race. The Nazi’s considered this the “Gypsy problem” and it stressed different reasons for imposing measures on the Gypsy population. Local and state police officials alleged the asocial conduct of the Gypsies and the prevention of crime. “Party stalwarts and many "race scientists" invoked the racial factor and the need to protect the "purity" of "German blood,” (Henry Friedlander). Although some Gypsies were considered part of a mixed ancestry, socially adjusted Gypsies could and were exempted from measures such as deportation and sterilization. Despite Nazi fixation upon racial criteria and characteristics, social adjustment could be over rid by racial origin. “In fact, in many instances when the racial makeup of an individual could not be ascertained with certitude, social status became normative and was relied upon to determine the degree of racial purity or contamination, thus in effect reversing the causal chain,” (Henry Friedlander). However, the very use of this criteria shows that social conduct played an important role in the policies toward the Gypsies.
