En förunderlig fara - statens syn på zigenare i det svenska samhället under 1930-40-talen

Abstract

The purpose of my essay is to analyse the antiziganism imparted by the Swedish Governement during the 1930´s and 1940´s. The starting points are the text in the first published chapter of the Governement´s White Paper and other political texts refered to concerning surveys of the gypsies. My sources will be these texts important for the time period of my essay. The White Paper recites in chronological order for the repeatedly made surveys and registrations of the gypsies made by the authorities during the 1900´s. My analysis will apply the theories of Michel Foucault being about biopower/biopolitics and the method for ideological analysis by Sven-Eric Liedman. I have shown how the Swedish Governement instituted a number of excluding measures on the gypsies. The Governement defined the gypsies, as a deviant and lower class race, entirely separate from the pure Swedish race. I have shown the Governement´s interest in spreading “antiziganism” to other citizens and its willingness to eliminate the gypsies by forced sterilisation and forced fostering of their children. “Swedish” standards were set by the Governement and, through these standards the police found substantial grounds to keep records of particular individual gypsies and to share this information between and outside authorities. I have in my analysis defined and shown that the Governement´s ideology was nationalism, regardless of party in governmental power. The Swedish Governement regarded the gypsies as a danger, a peculiar sort of danger, that should be combated and “antiziganism” was the weapon.