The Nazi persecution of the gypsies / Guenter Lewy. Lewy, Guenter, 1923-

New York : Oxford University Press, c2000.

ix, 306 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.

"In The Nazi Persecution of the Gypsies, Guenter Lewy draws upon thousands of documents - many never before published - from German and Austrian archives to create the most comprehensive and accurate picture available of the fate of the Gypsies under the Nazi regime. Lewy traces the escalating vilification of the Gypsies as the Nazis instigated a widespread crackdown on the "work-shy" and "itinerants." But he shows that Nazi policy towards Gypsies was confused and changeable. At first, local officials persecuted Gypsies, and those who behaved in gypsy-like fashion, for antisocial tendencies. Later, with the rise of race obsession, Gypsies were seen as a threat to German racial purity, though Himmler himself wavered, trying to separate out and save those he considered "pure Gypsies" descended from Aryan roots in India. Indeed, Lewy challenges much existing scholarship in showing that, however much the Gypsies were persecuted, there was no general program of extermination analogous to the "final solution" for the Jews."--BOOK JACKET.