The genesis of the 1927 Czechoslovak anti-Gypsy law

The author deals with the situation of the Roma minority in Czechoslovakia between the two world wars. In the introduction, he briefly reviews the results of Czech and Slovak research on Roma studies. He points out the difficulties of collecting statistical data on the Roma. Special attention is paid to the so-called Slovak Roma population and the social consequences. It deals in detail with the origins of the so-called Gypsy Law of 1927, the parliamentary debate and the future of Czechoslovak Roma policy. The author concludes that the Roma in Czechoslovakia were politically, economically and socially marginalised. Masaryk’s ideas had no positive impact on the Roma policy of Czechoslovak governments. The mechanisms of Czechoslovak parliamentarism, the organs of power-sharing, which bore the marks of both modernity and unconventionality, were unable to innovate, on the contrary, they failed to apply the Masarykian policy of tolerance and continued to discriminate against the Roma.