As far as the historiography on the Nazi genocide of Roma is concerned, the situation in the German occupied territories of the Soviet Union during World War II belongs to the most neglected topics. At the same time, this very region plays a key role for the evaluation of Nazi genocidal policy. The German assault on the Soviet Union marked the transition toward a systematic physical extermination of Jews, “Gypsies,” and other so-called undesirable elements. Furthermore, the Soviet Roma doubtlessly represent a substantial share of the total number of people that were killed by the Nazis as “Gypsies.”

The same can be said, however, about Yugoslavia, which in regard to Jews and Roma foreshadowed to a certain degree the development of Operation Barbarossa. As early as the end of May 1941, the Wehrmacht in occupied Serbia united the status of “Gypsies” with that of Jews and shot “Gypsy” and Jewish hostages in combined retaliatory actions for partisan attacks on army units. On July 25, 1941, the status of Roma who were “integrated” and “sedentary since 1850 [sic]” was softened—an idea that seemed to be copied a few months later in some regions of the occupied Soviet territories. Furthermore, the Ustasha transformed Croatia into one of the largest killing grounds of Roma outside of the Soviet Union.

Until today, the state of research on the Soviet case—although often used as evidence in the discussion about the comparability or incomparability of the Nazi genocide of Roma and the Holocaust—has been rather insufficient.