Abstract:
The article analyzes Polish police narratives about Roma in the interwar period, revealing attitudes and possible practices. According to police journals and manuals, Roma were mobile and prone to theft and fraud. Their traditional crafts were merely a smoke screen for illegal activities. Countermeasures included searching caravans, meticulously checking identity documents, and indiscriminately fingerprinting Roma suspects. The narrative was part of a wider professional police discourse and is likely to be an indicator of practices towards Roma. The Polish police followed contemporary European expertise on Roma from the fields of criminalistics and criminology. In the absence of discriminatory laws against Roma in Poland, the police appear to have operated in a virtual 'state of exception', circumventing the law. This was one of two options used in Europe at the time, the other being discriminatory laws.

Piotr Wawrzeniuk (Swedish Defence University)

Jennifer Illuzzi (Providence College, USA)