Roma Gypsy or African?

[Andylong677]

Hi all,

I have greatly benefited by reading the posts on this forum, so thought I might try to get some advice myself.

I recently obtained this photo with a batch of other German photographs. The seller told me he got the lot as a batch from Romania and thought they were gypsies.

However the boy seems too dark skinned to be a Roma Gypsy. Anyone any idea where in the world it would of been taken? The seller had other photos of groups of similar people in tents guarded by German soldiers, so assume it was an internment camp somewhere?

Is the writing above him Spanish?

Thanks for your help

[Sid Guttridge]

Hi Andylong677,

The language on the container behind appears to be Italian.

In the early 1930s the Italians finally managed to suppress Senussi resistance in Libya and interned tens of thousands of them in camps for years. It was part of a policy if cutting off the fighters from their families and civil supporters.

My guess is that this photo is from an internment camp in eastern Libya in the early-mid 1930s.

Try: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacification_of_Libya

Cheers,

Sid.

P.S. The Gypsies originated in India, so skin shade is not necessarily a useful guide here.

[Andylong677]

Hi Sid

Thanks for the quick and knowledgeable reply.

Many thanks

Andy

[history1]

Calling them G....y/G...s is considered being pejorative and offending nowadays in the part of the world where I live. Use Roma/Sinti instead if possible. TIA.

[Hans1906]

@ Andylong677,

I get nervous, to read in this forum the term "Gypsy", the term "Zigeuner", and anything related to this former "language".

I was in person not aware about the "Porajmos", the extermination of the Roma and Sinti, and what happend at all.

In my photo collections, there a a few photos from the former victims of the german Ideology.
Photo of the three boys was taken by a german soldier of the "Marineartillerie" on the way to the peninsula Krim,
described as "Zigeunerkinder", smoking cigarettes...

It is a photo from a series of 3 photos of these young boys, probably taken by the photographer of more than 200 pictures,
on the way to Sewastopol.

This one photo is enough, the other two photos of the three young boys, I do not like to share, sorry.

I found the whole set of photos in a trashcan , in the year 2008, the heritage of a german soldier, on the way Sewastopol,
his hobby was taking pictures, back then...

The soldier, taking more than 200 photos, he passed away in the 1970s.

Hans

P.S. The photo of the three boys was abused several times online, for several reasons...