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Ethnic Minorities in Europe; the Yenish (Yeniche) People.

By Dr David Murphy.

Following the announcement of the Irish State’s recognition of Traveller ethnicity in March, several other groups were in touch with Travellers ’ Voice magazine to offer their congratulations to Irish Travellers. One of the groups was the European Yenish Union; Yenish activists also went through a similar experience of lobbying the Swiss government for ethnic recognition, here’s a bit of information about this interesting European ethnic minority.

The Yenish in Switzerland are a people with nomadic origins, numbering approximately 35000, with between three to five thousand living a nomadic existence. During the winter months families live in Swiss municipalities where children go to school, but during the summer months, families travel in extended clan groups with private tutors to continue their children’s education.

The Yenish speak their own language and have a distinct culture and patterns of marriage that are unique to their ethnic group. The Yenish language was first documented in the 18 th century and is derived from German but features many variations, including using original words and unusual metaphors to express points of view. There are also many Judeo-Latin, Romani and Yiddish derived words in the Yenish language and many Yenish phrases have entered into everyday German conversation in a manner similar to the way we use Cockney phrases.

The Yenish are also one of the largest nomadic populations in Europe with numbers estimated to be around 700 , 000, with 200 , 000 living in Germany as well as significant populations in Holland, Belgium, France and as far afield as Pennsylvania in the US.

Yenish people claim that they are descended from the ancient Celtic Helveti tribe who settled in the mountainous regions of Switzerland and engaged in warfare with the Roman Empire in the century following the birth of Christ. Some scholars dispute the ancient origins of the Yenish, saying that the Yenish as a people date back to the beginnings of the 19 th century. It would be interesting to see if these modern claims could be challenged through genetic research, as happened with Irish Travellers who can confidently date their origins back to medieval if not ancient times.

Kinder der Landstrasse / Children of the Road.

The treatment of the Yenish by the Swiss state is similar to the discriminatory treatment of nomadic groups around the world. In 1926 the Swiss set up a foundation named the Oeuvre d’entraide aux Enfants de la Grand-route (Assisting Children of the Highway) headed by Alfred Siegfried to (in Siegried’s words) “prevent the foundation of undesirable families” who were later characterised as “mentally deficient.” This led to horrendous persecution with families being forcibly separated and the children adopted, a policy that continued until 1973. During the fifty years of the Ouevre’s existence, reporter Laurence Jourdan claims, “over six hundred Yenish children were forcibly taken from their parents.” The film Kinder der Landstrasse ( Children of the Road ; 1992) documents this tragic period in Yenish history and it has many similarities to the Magdalene Laundries’ scandal in Ireland and the forced assimilation of Travellers who were separated from their families at a young age.

In 1986 Councilor Alfons Egli made an apology, on behalf of the Swiss Federal Government for their contribution to the ill treatment of the Yenish people. However it wasn’t until 1996 that the Swiss government conducted an official investigation into the Oeuvre and in 1998 it was revealed that there was still over 100 people still in institutions as a result of the actions of the Oeuvre.

In 1972 the mistreatment of Yenish people by the state gained international recognition following the publishing of Yenish people’s stories in the Beobachter newspaper. There was an international outcry and great shame at the mobilisation of the state, church, business and educational institutions who facilitated and ignored the forced adoption of Yenish children. The 1948 UN Genocide Convention defines the forcible transferring of children of a “national, ethnic, racial or religious group to another group” in the intent to destroy, in whole or in part; as  genocide ” and this, along with public shame and pressure brought an end to the forced adoptions and the beginning of a programme of reparations for survivors.

In 1975 the Yenish were officially recognised as an independent ethnic group, and in 1992 the Yenish language was included in a protective European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. This charter ‘recognises the Yenish language as an expression of cultural wealth’ and demands that Swiss policy and legislation tries to protect, promote and preserve it. In 1995 the Swiss government set up the Foundation for the Future of the Swiss Travelling Community.

Yenish protests in 2014:

Another similarity the Yenish in Switzerland share with Irish Travellers is a lack of suitable accommodation for nomadic members of the community and in 2014 this situation led to a dramatic confrontation in the Swiss capital city of Bern. Yenish protesters occupied a plot of land in the city in protest at the lack of suitable accommodation. This led to a confrontation with Swiss police and tearful scenes as families were removed from the area.

Some famous Yenish People:

Stephan Eicher was born in 1960 and became famous in German speaking countries through his music in the 1980s. Eicher is multi lingual and sings in French, German, English, Swiss, Italian and Romanche. His first success was the song Eisbär on the album Grauzone which he composed with his brother Martin.

Mariella Mehr was born in Zurich 1947 and is a survivor of the Ouevre (state forced adoption of Yenish children). When she was young, Mehr was transferred between 16 different orphanages as well as spending periods in mental institutions and prison. Inspired by her own experiences, Mehr writes about, and from the perspective of societies’ outsiders and people who have experienced damaging and oppressive treatment. Mehr began working in journalism in the 1970s writing about Roma, Yenish and social justice issues. Mehr is the author of over 12 books including Kinder der Landstrasse (Children of the Road) an autobiography which describes life in the state orphanages. Mehr has won multiple awards for her writing and in 1998 was awarded an honorary Doctorate from the University of Basel.

Rafael Van Der Vart is a footballer who was born in Holland in 1983 and grew up in a trailer park where he perfected his skills. Van der Vart said in an interview about his childhood “That was the way my family lived. My father was born there and it is a lifestyle. Maybe it is not a normal lifestyle but I always liked it. I always played football on the street. It was an easy life, then I was 10 years old and went to Ajax and played there for almost 12 years”. Van de Vart has played for some of the best teams in the world including Ajax, Real Madrid, Tottenham Hotspur, Hamburger SV and 13 years on the national team for Holland.

Yenish on Film.

1957:  Es geschah am hellichten Tag

1979:  Das gefrorene Herz

1992:  Kinder der Landstrasse ( Children of the Road is about the states forced adoption program)

2008:  Hunkeler macht Sachen (A gritty crime thriller).

Author:  Website Editor

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Die letzten freien Menschen (“The Last Free People”, DOC 1991) // Scapegoating the Yenish

A mustachioed Yenish man rings doorbells, offering to sharpen knives and scissors, buy up old furniture. Negotiations with hagglers are friendly; he lands an old kitchen cabinet and wardrobe, which is duly strapped to the back of his car. We visit his child in school, follow his family caravan on the road, and hear him and his wife explaining the Yenish traveller culture and economy: “I couldn’t live in a block of flats with a landlord and a co-tenant… I’m a free man.”

This first half of Die letzten freien Menschen is a kind of social anthropology film, following two or three Yenish families in their daily life, interviewing them, and accompanying them on their yearly pilgrimage to Sainte-Marie-de-la-Mer in the South of France.

Then things take a very dark turn.

An elderly woman, Maria Mayer, recounts her childhood from 1923-1943 as a victim of the Swiss ethnic cleansing programme Kinder der Landstrasse (“Children of the Country Road”). After the death of her mother, Maria is removed from her father and siblings as a little girl. She is destined to be molested by a teacher, bullied ceaselessly by a foster brother, sent to a children’s home and finally, at the outbreak of the Second World War, locked up in a prison. The director gives Maria a full twenty minutes to tell her awful story, interspersed with location shots from the scenes of her torment, and letters about her written by Dr Alfred Siegfried, the monstrous figurehead of this eugenics movement.

Finally, the end of the Kinder der Landstrasse programme is related by a Yenish mother who fought to get her children back in 1971, and the journalist who covered the story and kept on fighting.

Swiss tourist guides don’t mention the Yenish.

Worth a watch?

Much of Die letzten freien Menschen is meant as historical evidence and victim testimony, so don’t expect dynamic direction, symbolism or edited-in character arcs à la Mais im Bundeshuus . But that’s okay. The structure is episodic and logical, and I liked that the daily life in the here-and-now is up front as well as the sins of the past.

Having said that, there’s plenty missing from that first section: it’s frustrating that we don’t see the Yenish travellers interacting with each other naturally, nor the daily lives role of the women.

But the bartering of the knife sharpeners is touching, and the story of Maria Mayer, when it eventually comes is one the most powerful stories I’ve seen recounted by a real-life trauma survivor. For that section alone the film is well worth the time of anyone with an interest in travellers, or those who want a blatant example of how messed up Swiss society can get.

Maria Mayer in the 1920s (in the checked dress); and in 1991, holding a photograph of Bellechasse prison, where she was forced to live for four years during WW2.

Swissness Difficulty Level Matterhorn (Advanced). Do not attempt with the proper tools and training: good experience of Swiss German and an interest in this dark chapter in Swiss history.

Language Mostly Swiss German. I can’t find a version with G or other subtitles – if you can, let me know!

Availability Die letzten freien Menschen is free on YouTube. A commenter has brought to my attention that DVDs are also available at http://www.filmarts.ch .

Swissness Lab Report: Scapegoating the Yenish

The Yenish are travelling people related to the Roma and Sinti –what we English speakers used to called gypsies. Today 30,000 of them live in Switzerland , although many of them are now sedentary.

This minority occupies a particularly dark spot in the Swiss cultural consciousness – more so than, say, the Roma people in the UK. Between the 1920s and the 1970s, the foundation Pro Juventute systematically removed Yenish children like Maria Mayer from their families and rehoused them in children’s homes, juvenile prisons, psychiatric hospitals, or foster families.

Like the Verdingsystem , these acts were committed in the name of benevolent social work. “Vagrancy” was a key word; alchoholism was frequently invoked. In reality, the Swiss government was sanctioning a form of ethnic cleansing in order to eliminate the Yenish travelling culture from Switzerland. They gave their victims the (cloyingly sweet) name Kinder der Landstrasse – “Children of the Country Road”. My Bernese housemate has a Yenish uncle who was fostered in this way.

The existence of the Kinder der Landstrasse programme is a sticky wicket for the foreigner in search of the Helvetic truths. Maybe a little Q&A can help clear things up things.

Why were the Yenish so harshly scapegoated?

According to the Swiss historian Sara Galle, the Yenish were painted as a danger to both children and to society in general – “they stole, the were dirty, and led profligate lives”. But the intensity of the state’s discrimination is best seen in the context of its welfare benefits provisions. The Yenish, according to Galle, “were made scapegoats for the failed social policies”.

Like, a bad welfare state? But the Swiss got rich after the war, didn’t they?

I was wondering about this, as my rummaging about the history of women’s rights also revealed long delays in the development of social security here in a period (after WW2) when everything was going pretty peachy for the Swiss. A government-supported historical overview of social provisions in Switzerland confirms this:

Despite the singular period of expansion, social security in Switzerland remained patchy for a long time . Compared to other industrialized countries, the social expenditure ratio remained rather low until 1990. Well until the 1970s, social insurance schemes remained minimal , for example in the domain of unemployment. There was still no mandatory health insurance; the introduction of maternity insurance and family allowances was delayed for decades, although they had been approved in principle in 1945. https://www.historyofsocialsecurity.ch/synthesis/1948-1990 (my emphasis)

Why was social security so “patchy”?

The answer, Galle states, surely lies again in the Swiss Gemeinde (Commune) mentality again . The glacial rate of change in Swiss consensus democracy , combined with its then bottom-up approach to the welfare state, meant that: “for a long time, the Communes, i.e. the lowest level of power, were solely responsible for taking care of the poor – and were often overwhelmed”.

Okay, so Weak Social State + Vulnerable “Others” = Institutionalized Scapegoating . But what about everyday human empathy? Citizens weren’t blind – and Pro Juventute didn’t attempt to hide its actions. Were the Swiss evil to stand by and do nothing?

As the film shows, the Yenish travelling culture makes it easy for conservative folk to accept bullshit arguments.

For a start, their children go to school less because they take longer summers; they are likely to change schools; and they are more likely to have poor academic achievement – a Yenish father states that his sons only need “reading, writing, and counting” to fulfil their future jobs, which in his case will be “sharpening razors, peelers and knives, and trading in furniture”.

A Yenish child is inspected by Dr Siegfried, 1953; another Yenish child filmed in the documentary, 1991.

As for the parents, well, the travelling life is strongly linked to rural areas; and it is exactly there that the Gemeinde mentality is strongest. The Yenish male breadwinners would presumably not be present in regional political meetings or weekly bar meetings; the womenfolk would have few ties to local mums and women’s associations. This would lead to little understanding or empathy between the parties.

In some areas, then, a fundamental clash of values combines with a lack of platform of exchange to foster empathy. This would have made it very easy for Swiss citizens to believe the lies spread by proponents of the Kinder der Landstrasse scheme about them being dirty, alcoholic, profligate and not paying taxes. All of these stereotypes are debunked by the documentary.

The worst and most ominous lie, though, is repeated throughout Maria Mayer’s story. In the letters written by Dr Siegfried to her various caregivers and institutions, emphasis is constantly placed on the fact that the poor girl has a “ schlechtes Erbteil ” – literally, bad inherited traits. This is the Hitlerian language of eugenics. The Doctor warns Maria’s future guardians that she is difficult child and apologizes in behalf of her genetic background as a Yenish child.

According to Sara Galle, a vicious spiral took over. The children acted out because of their mistreatment; their misbehaviour was quickly branded as a symptom of bad genes or, later, just being raised badly; this confirmed to everybody that the Yenish lifestyle should be eliminated, and yet more children were taken away. The treatment becomes the cause, for fifty years.

How did the government make it up to the victims?

As we have seen in Swissness Lab Reports for Der Verdingbub and De la cuisine au parlement , the Swiss path from acknowledging an injustice, undoing it, and achieving parity can be long and arduous.

So… (deep breath):

• In 1972, the scandal breaks out. One year later, the Kinder der Landstrasse programme is stopped.
• But only in the mid-Eighties comes more action. 1986, all the Pro Juventute files on children, like the letters of Dr Siegfried on Maria Mayer, are made available; at the same time, the President of Switzerland makes an official apology. Shortly afterwards, reparation money is released: 11 million Swiss Francs, up to 20,000 each for 2200 individuals.
• In the wake of this official acknowledgement and apology, foundations and institutions are founded to support the Yenish and preserve their cutlure.
• In 1992, one year after this documentary, the film Kinder der Landstrasse comes out, the most expensive Swiss film up to that point.
• In 1998, the Swiss government signed a European convention on the protection of national minorities, including “travellers”; around 20 years later, this was officially changed to “Yenish” and “Sinti.”

Collecting blades to sharpen in the “service bus” .

So all is well nowadays?

In 2019, the Swiss media reported that the number of officially designated “short stay areas” for travellers was much too low. And sites in Switzerland are managed and controlled by the police, which leads to discrimination – in France, for example, they are managed by the local government.

So, when push comes to shove, who was responsible, and were they punished?

According to the Beobachter journalist Hans Caprez, who broke the story in 1972 and is interviewed extensively in The Last Free People , four parties were responsible:

• The employees of Pro Juventute, especially the ideologues behind them, like Dr Siegfried.
• The Canton and relevant local authorities for collaborating and processing the children through their systems.
• The Federal Government, because it subsidized Pro Juventute and was responsible for holding them to account; furthermore, a Federal Councillor was for some time was president of the foundation.
• Those Swiss people who were aware of the problem but who ignored it or collaborated in it due to “latent racism”.

SMD is yet to see how any of these parties were punished in any way, apart from having to divert funds towards reparations and cultural foundations. (If you know better, let me know in the comments.)

Perhaps the most shocking is that the foundation Pro Juventute still exists as a charitable foundation supporting children; they didn’t even bother renaming it. In fact, until watching these films, SMD was far more familiar with the term “Pro Juventute” than the term “Yenish”, because they advertise a lot on public transport.

To this foreigner trying to identify with the Yenish, it sort of makes you feel like a Jewish person forced to see Swastikas on bus station billboards every day.

But as I’m finding out, the Swiss way of approaching its problematic elements is very difficult to figure out.

References: This interview with Swiss historian Sara Galle (German) was used extensively in the Swissness Lab this week. The leading foundation for Yenish rights has published an overview of the Kinder der Landstrasse programme (German). And here is a breakdown of some current (2019) problems for the Yenish (English).

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2 thoughts on “ die letzten freien menschen (“the last free people”, doc 1991) // scapegoating the yenish ”.

The DOC «Die letzten freien Menschen» von Oliver Matthias Meyer is avaiable as DVD Special Edition at http://www.filmarts.ch

Thanks for that, I’ve added it to the review!

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Jenisch (also Yenish) is the secret or in-group speech of a population in southwest Germany, Switzerland, and Austria, who call themselves Jenische . This population appears to have been formed around the seventeenth century, as a network of travelling families engaged in various itinerant service occupations. This population became sedentary in the eighteenth century, when persecution of Travellers forced them to seek permanent dwellings and protection, and when individual families were offered settlement rights, often in rural villages that were in private ownership, in exchange for tax revenue. The Jenische kept their occupation profile, continued to intermarry within the group and to maintain a network of contacts with other Jenisch communities throughout the area, but they also continued to absorb other travellers and members of minority communities such as Gypsies and Jews who, for some reason or other, had left their own communities. This dynamic structure remains characteristic of the Jenisch minority: On the one hand, it is a very isolated and closed minority, living within a tight network of dispersed and isolated communities that are spread over a large territory. On the other hand, it is an open society that absorbs newcomers and new customs.

This dynamism characterises the Jenisch speech, too. Jenisch is a limited lexicon, usually comprising several hundred lexical items in the vocabulary of any individual speaker or user. The words are inserted into dialectal German conversation in order to exclude outsiders or to flag group solidarity and group membership. Jenisch varieties differ considerably in the composition of their vocabulary. There is, to some extent, a 'core' vocabulary that is widely understood by all people who identify as Jenisch. But there are numerous local varieties, and the precise composition of the vocabulary of any one community or even of any one individual will depend on the history of their contact networks, on the history and origins of the families that make up the community, and on the influences that they have been subjected to. Typically, Jenisch varieties consist of a core of words that go back to the historical Rotwelsch or 'Cant'. These words are often figurative and metaphorical formations (e.g. Zündling lit. 'lighter' for 'fire'), or words of obscure origin, which take on a German-like structure (such as Blamm 'beer'). In addition, there are many words of Hebrew origin, adopted from the secret language of Jewish traders, as well as many words of Romani origin, adopted from the everyday language of the Gypsies.

The following examples were recorded in 1996 in the village of Unterdeufstetten, on the border between Württemberg and Bavaria, in southwest Germany. The history of the Jenisch people in this village is well documented. They were settled here in the late eighteenth century, and have since absorbed numerous people from different regions, many of them Romanies. Some 30% of the vocabulary derives from Romani, and another 10-15% is of Hebrew origin, with the rest being primarily Rotwelsch, though some French loans also occur:

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The cultural genocide committed against the Yenish people in Switzerland is a crime that remains unpunished

A montage of archive photographs, from left to right: Yenish children in a caravan in the 1930s; Alfred Siegfried, director of Pro Juventute, with abducted Yenish children; Alfred Siegfried was head of Pro Juventute until 1957; Yenish children being taken into a home by an employee of Pro Juventute.

It was only 50 years ago that Switzerland ended its practice of forcibly separating Yenish children from their families simply because they were “Travellers”. This nomadic community, which speaks its own language, a mixture of local German dialect and Yiddish, and has lived in Switzerland, Germany, Austria and Alsace for over 400 years, was persecuted from 1926 to 1972 by a private children’s charity, Pro Juventute, with the complicity of the Swiss Confederation.

According to historians, the ostensibly charitable organisation forcibly separated 600 Yenish children from their parents with the help of the Swiss police and placed them in homes and foster families as far away from their families as possible.

“My mother was barely five years old when the police came looking for her in her father’s caravan. These protectors of the established order and their henchmen said the gypsies’ [sic] lifestyle was antisocial and harmful to society,” recounts Mariella Mehr in her 1981 autobiography Steinzeit ( Stone Age ). Like hundreds of other Yenish families, the famous Swiss writer saw her life turned upside down by Pro Juventute. She was moved from one foster home to the next before ending up in prison at the age of 20.

With generous funding from the Swiss state, Pro Juventute acted with total impunity until 1972, when the scandal was finally exposed by Swiss journalist Hans Caprez in the magazine Der Schweizerische Beobachter .

While the foundation still exists to this day, none of its directors have ever been prosecuted. According to Willi Wottreng, director of the Radgenossenschaft der Landstrasse, a victims’ association founded in 1974, Pro Juventute attempted to destroy Yenish culture through violence and family separation under the guise of social action. Yenish children were subject to physical abuse, humiliation and forced farm labour in the religious households and peasant families where they were placed.

“Girls and boys were raped, malnourished, ostracised and forbidden from speaking their language. Those were the worst forms of repression. In addition to the direct victims, children and grandchildren are often affected in various ways by the consequences of their parents’ abductions,” says Wottreng, who fights to bring these crimes to light.

Internment and forced sterilisation

Pro Juventute continued its racist practices until the 1970s against a background of deafening silence. These practices were based on the eugenic theories of ‘mental hygiene’ that were in vogue in Swiss psychiatry in the 1920s and which resembled those found in Nazi ideology. The foundation considered Yenish children to be ‘abnormal’ from birth and believed that they must be settled by force. “If you hope to win the battle against vagrancy, you must endeavour to break up the bands of travelling people. You must, however hard it may seem, break apart family ties,” wrote Pro Juventute founder Alfred Siegfried in 1943.

A notorious paedophile, Siegfried is believed to have abused several Yenish childen. He died in 1973 without ever being brought to justice or even making so much as a public apology. As Thomas Huonker, a Swiss historian who has worked extensively on the issue, tells Equal Times : “All this was part of an institutionalised anti-Gypsyism, according to which the existence of Gypsies was fundamentally incompatible with the order and security of Switzerland”. In 1973, after Pro Juventute ceased its criminal activities, the country finally opened its borders to foreign Travellers, who had previously been banned from entering.

Guided by its ideology of eugenics and a notion of child protection tantamount to incarceration, Pro Juventute went as far as to place children into psychiatric hospitals where they were the victims of barbaric medical procedures.

Those considered to be ‘the most unruly’ were subjected to forced electroshocks. “I wasn’t sick, I wasn’t crazy, and yet you put me through all of this. I stood up for myself and that was enough to turn you into raging beasts,” Mehr, who was placed in the Waldheim mental institution at the age of 15, goes onto write in Steinzeit .

“Psychiatry played an essential role. Many of the children who were taken were subjected to expert psychiatric assessments. Pro Juventute regularly used the threats of assessment and internment to put pressure on uncooperative children,” explains Walter Leimbruger, professor of cultural anthropology at the University of Basel.

The abuse of the Yenish people included unthinkable acts of abuse. According to Wottreng, young girls under the care of Pro Juventute were the victims of forced sterilisations : “The authorities would tell them they could only get married if they got sterilised”. In the absence of records, it is impossible to say how many women were victims of these forced sterilisations.

While data may be lacking, Thomas Huonker affirms that “many Swiss psychiatric institutions carried out sterilisations which are clearly of a forced nature”. In the medical files of Yenish patients found at the Burgholzli clinic, where the first sterilisation experiments first took place in 1880 and continued until the second half of the 20th century, some entries read: “Sick since birth”.

The question of a trial remains open

The damage inflicted by the abductions of Yenish children lives on a half a century later. Now grown, many Yenish were never able to reunite with their families. Pro Juventute’s archives long remained undisclosed, preventing the victims from learning their parents’ identity. In 1987, after years of struggle, the Radgenossenschaft der Landstrasse finally succeeded in having Pro Juventute’s archives transferred to the Swiss government. That same year, the foundation paid lip service to the Yenish after years of downplaying the facts for fear of having to pay financial compensation to its victims. In 2017, 30 years later, Switzerland finally created a compensation fund of 300 million Swiss francs.

Survivors had until 1 March 2018 to submit a file to claim compensation of 20,000 Swiss francs (€7,400 according to the exchange rate at the time). Several members of the Yenish community, including writers Mariella Mehr and Peter Paul Moser , both now deceased, have expressed regret that there has never been a trial of the leaders of Pro Juventute.

The group’s last director, the nun Clara Reust, an open racist as evidenced by her correspondence, was never investigated.

“There is no statute of limitations on cultural genocide. The question of a trial remains open,” says Wottreng in a reference to the 1948 UN Genocide Convention, which lists children forcibly transferred from one group to another group under its criteria for defining genocide. Switzerland didn’t ratify the convention until 1999.

According to official figures from the Swiss Confederation, around 30,000 Yenish currently live in Switzerland, the vast majority of whom have settled. The Future for the Swiss Travelling Community foundation estimates that 5,000 people still live a nomadic lifestyle. Those who have remained on the road are fighting for official parking areas for their caravans, the other major struggle of the Radgenossenschaft der Landstrasse.

In a May 2022 report, the foundation describes a serious lack of pitch and parking provisions , which makes it difficult for the Yenish to “lead a traditional yet protected way of life”. Wottreng remains optimistic: “Despite what Pro Juventute wanted, the crimes suffered by the Yenish people have made them more aware of their identity and more protective of it”.

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Who are the Swiss travelling community the Yéniche?

18/05/2015 By Pamela Taylor

Amnesty International (AI) has pressured Swiss authorities to find fixed places for both Yéniche and Roma communities, noting that Switzerland has failed to honour a 2003 court ruling that all travellers be provided with places to live that respect their cultures. AI is also calling for an independent investigation into a police crackdown on the Yéniche who went to Bern in late April 2014 demanding a place to stay. “It was a perfectly peaceful demonstration yet the police detained 100 Yéniche in a school gym for several hours,” said Denise Graf of AI’s Bern office. “They stamped their hands with indelible ink and used dogs to guard them.” The group is now back in Nidau awaiting a decision by cantonal authorities on where they can go. “They need places to stay,” said Graf, “otherwise they sleep in their cars”.

An estimated 35,000 Yéniche are legally registered as citizens in Switzerland, most of them in Canton Graubünden . Although Yéniche are often confused with Roma, some ethnologists believe they are descendents of the Celts. Others hypothesize that traces of Yéniche in Switzerland dating back to the 11th century connect them to groups from the Middle Ages who spoke Rotwelsch, a so-called “thieves’ argot”. This group reportedly descends from Yiddish-speaking Ashkenazi merchants, beggars and bandits. Today the Yéniche represent the third-largest nomadic people in Europe, living mostly in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgian Wallonia and parts of France. Most are practising Catholics.

For nearly half a century, up until the 1970s, Switzerland had a settlement campaign for the Yéniche to combat “vagrancy”. This included a policy known as Kinder der Landstrasse (Children of the road) that forced their children to be adopted by “ordinary” Swiss citizens in an effort to eliminate Yéniche culture. Other children were put in orphanages and even prisons. Today the Yéniche are an official national minority and most have become citizens, with about 5,000 remaining semi-nomadic.

Those who continue to pursue seasonal wanderings are often confused with Roma, partly because they live on the margins of society, but also because they pursue similar jobs as weavers, scrap dealers or tool grinders. The Yéniche say their language is different and that their encampments are well off the main roads, unlike the Roma who prefer to be near highways.

By Pamela Taylor

Pamela Taylor is a Geneva-based writer with a long career as a journalist for National Public Radio, Voice of America, AFP’s English Service, and others, in Central Europe, Bosnia and Kosovo

More on this: We have never spoken so much about the Yèniche in this canton (24 heures – in French) Lausanne offers 5 months of respite to the Yéniche (24 heures – in French) A temporary solution for the Yéniche (Le Matin – in French) New provisional solution for the Yéniche in the canton of Vaud (RTS – in French)

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• RTL Lëtzebuerg

The Yenish – A community in Luxembourg and their fascinating language

Yenish, around 1900 / © Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Although the Yenish reside right here in Luxembourg, many people are unaware of their culture and, in particular, their highly interesting language, which, despite being closely related, is entirely incomprehensible to many Luxembourgers.

Officially, the Yenish are called d'Jéinesch in Luxembourgish. However, that is probably not what most people know them by. If, instead, you mention the word Lompekréimer ("ragmen"), chances are that people will either remember them from their childhood or have memories of parents or grandparents telling them stories about their encounters with them.

In this article, we will meet the Yenish and learn about their history, both abroad and in Luxembourg – and if you make it all the way to the end, we will even learn a bit of Yenish, which is sure to earn you the respect of both your expat and Luxembourgish friends.

I. Who are the Yenish?

The Yenish are an itinerant group who live across Western Europe, mostly in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Belgium, and parts of France. As a distinct group, the Yenish first emerged towards the end of the 18 th century.

Yenish in the Muotathal (Switzerland), around 1890 / © Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Yenish have faced some persecution under Nazi Germany, as part of the Nazis' oppression of Romani people, which also targeted other itinerant communities.

Between the 1920s and 1970s, the Swiss government ran a programme called Kinder der Landstrasse ("Children of the Road"), under which the authorities institutionalised Yenish parents and placed their children for adoption by the Swiss population. The programme was eventually criticised for violating the fundamental rights of the Yenish and traumatising nearly 600 children. It was discontinued in 1973.

II. The Yenish in Luxembourg

The Yenish community in Luxembourg was and to some extent still is concentrated in the Pfaffenthal (Luxembourg City), Esch-sur-Alzette, Fond de Heiderscheid, and Weimerskirch.

The Yenish were originally travellers, or people with professions outside of mainstream society that required them to travel from town to town, such as showpeople, tinkers, and door-to-door salesmen.

Many older Luxembourg residents still remember the Yenish as the Lompekréimer ("ragmen"), although they typically referred to themselves as Lakerten (with Laken meaning "rag" or "towel").

The Yenish used to travel across the Grand Duchy trading rags or old iron for a range of household items (porcelain, sewing kits, etc.).

III. The Yenish language

Yenish has been documented since the 18th century. From a linguistic standpoint, it is a jargon rather than a language, with a large number of unique specialised words. It has no grammar or basic vocabulary of its own.

Yenish speakers typically speak their local dialect, which they supplement with Yenish vocabulary. The latter contains many peculiar metaphors and metonyms and is influenced by Yiddish, Romani, and other minority languages.

For English speakers, particularly those from the UK, a good comparison for the relationship between Yenish and the standard language is the relationship between Cockney and standard English.

In Luxembourg, Yenish was dubbed – somewhat derogatorily, it must be noted – Geheimsprooch ("secret language").

According to local researcher Romain Pansin, the Yenish did use their vocabulary as well as a variety of hand gestures to secretly communicate with one another about, for instance, the value of the products they were dealing with.

There are many different varieties of the Yenish language. The Yenish spoken in Weimerskirch was referred to as Lakerschmus .

Besides Luxembourg, the Yenish jargon is now only used in a few isolated locations, such as certain neighbourhoods of Berlin, in Münster, and in several villages in the German Eifel region.

The use of the Yenish language declined over time as their traditional professions faded and living conditions improved. In Luxembourg, there are, however, still initiatives aimed at preserving Yenish culture and language, such as the Yenish Federation in Luxembourg.

It should also be mentioned that some families continue to speak Yenish amongst themselves and believe that their language should only ever be passed down among their people.

There have been some academic studies on the Yenish language in Luxembourg, notably by Professor Joseph Tockert in the 1930s. Researchers from the University of Luxembourg have proposed another theory regarding the origin of the Yenish spoken in Luxembourg: They theorise that it may have originated among the people who lived inside the old Fortress of Luxembourg.

IV. Learn (a bit of) Yenish with RTL Today!

Intrigued by the fascinating history of the Yenish? Rightly so! As a special little treat, we are ever so slightly going to dip our toes into the charming world of the Yenish language.

Let's start with two nearly identical words: Lösch and Löscht . Despite the fact that they only differ by a single letter, they actually mean two very different things: A Lösch is a lantern, while a Löscht is a door. In comparison, a lantern in Luxembourgish is called a Lanter and a door a Dier .

Now let's add a verb to the mix, the imperative of a verb to be precise: Kuff generally carries a meaning of stopping, closing, or putting out. So, a correct Yenish sentence would for instance be:

Kuff d'Löscht! ("Close the door!")

In Luxembourgish, this sentence would be Maach d'Dier zou! Already you can see that Yenish is quite different from standard Luxembourgish!

Since Kuff not only means closing but also "putting out," we can also use it in a sentence with the other word we learned, Lösch :

Kuff d'Lösch aus! ("Put the lantern out!")

Again, in Luxembourgish we would say: Maach d'Lanter aus!

Sticking with Kuff , we can also use this verb to make one of the most beloved Yenish expressions of all:

Kuff d'Schmull! ("Shut up!")

And just in case you really need to tell someone to zip it in Luxembourgish, you should go for: Hal de Mond (literally: "Hold the mouth").

Alright, now that we're a bit warmed up, how about we learn how to navigate around our home in Yenish? This will also allow us to appreciate just how logical Yenish is structured.

A "house" is called a Beies in Yenish. A Kusch is a "small house" and also a "room" – makes sense right? Now, let's look at a couple more Yenish nouns:

Glëmmerech --> "oven" (LU: Uewen )

Limm --> "bread" (LU: Brout )

Using these two, we can build two Yenish words for "kitchen" and "baking room": Glëmmerkusch and Limmerkusch , so literally "oven room" and "bread room." You can get the other rooms in your home by simply adding different Yenish words to -kusch . For example, Schlummerkusch ("bedroom") or Schondkusch ("bathroom").

Can't get enough of Yenish? Here is a selection of some more Yenish words and phrases, translated into both English and Luxembourgish.

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• World History
• European History

The Yenish/Yeniche People

• Thread starter ThatGuy
• Start date Jun 7, 2017
• Tags yenish or yeniche
• Jun 7, 2017

Hello. I've recently found out about these interesting people and would like to know more. For example, their mysterious origins. Some believe they are descended from the Celtic Helvetti tribe while others propose they are descended from peasants fleeing their lords estates, persecutions, etc. Are they their own distinct ethnicity? How many are still nomadic? What are their interactions like with the other nomadic people of Europe like the Romani? Also, were they persecuted during the Holocaust like the Romani were since they too were nomadic peoples?  

ThatGuy said: Hello. I've recently found out about these interesting people and would like to know more. For example, their mysterious origins. Some believe they are descended from the Celtic Helvetti tribe while others propose they are descended from peasants fleeing their lords estates, persecutions, etc. Are they their own distinct ethnicity? How many are still nomadic? What are their interactions like with the other nomadic people of Europe like the Romani? Also, were they persecuted during the Holocaust like the Romani were since they too were nomadic peoples? Click to expand...

PaulRyckier

Isleifson said: Click to expand...

• Jun 8, 2017

PaulRyckier said: My friend Isleifson alias Laumesfeld, each day you surprise me more . I don't know why but all the youtubes remain black from Historum on my computer, but I found a trick to put them in my favourites and then I can look at them... Kind regards from Paul, a friend from the borderland between the former Germanized Europe and the Latinized Europe. (unbelievable how that language border has nearly hold for 2000 years) Click to expand...

Shtajerc said: It's the first time I hear about them. I looked them up and from what I gather, they're not Romani. Btw, the Romani poeple were persecuted by the Nazis because of their race and their origin outside of Europe, less so because they were nomads. I don't know whether they faced Nazi violence or not. I think the Yenish could be called gypsies as well, because of their way of life, but they're different from the Romanis and Sintis. The Yenish don't speak a real language but a type of argot that is based on German with lots of words mixed in from various German dialects, Yidish and Romani. That makes sense, since they travelled around and lived on the margine of society, so they would often have contact with criminals, Jews and Romani gypsies. It's heavily marked by their social status. Whether or not they're an ethnicity, it's hard to say. Imo they're not, not in the same way the Dutch, Slovenes or the Portugese are, for example. They live spread over a broad area, so do they have a common history, do they feel that they're all one group? I don't know how the stance is on other similar groups. Are Irish Travellers an ethnicity of their own? The Romani and Sinti people are. Everything about the Yenish seems to be a gray zone. Click to expand...

Thank you Isleifson for the videos. Do you have any family stories about the Yenish culture/family members. Also do you know how they were treated by the Nazis? I know that Switzerland treated them fairly poorly for quite a while. It seems unbelievable to me that a group like the Nazis just let a people like the Yenish live in peace. Also, is there any major differences in the Yenish populations from country to country?  

ThatGuy said: Yes, the Yenish certainly are a gray zone as you say. They're probably a mix of different people. I think in Romania/other part of E.Europe they'll known as Rhineland Gypsies so certainly some people view them as "gypsies." I know the Nazis went after the Romani and Sinti because of racial reasons, but IIRC they're nomadic lifestyle was seen as a reflection of their supposedly inferior/anti-social behavior so I was wondering if they felt the same about the Yeniche. Wouldn't surprise me if it is true. P.S. I think the Irish Travelers are considered their own ethnicity (at least in England). They supposedly split off from the rest of the Irish population around 1500 years away. Click to expand...

• Jun 9, 2017
• Last edited: Jun 9, 2017

Shtajerc said: I'm sure their nomadic lifestyle didn't help them in the case of nazi violence, I'm just saying that it wasn't the primary cause why the nazis went after them. It doesn't surprise me that they called them "gypsies" in Romania, it's because of their way of life. I don't know nearly enough about the Irish Travelers, I believe you. Click to expand...

ThatGuy said: Thank you Isleifson for the videos. Do you have any family stories about the Yenish culture/family members. Also do you know how they were treated by the Nazis? I know that Switzerland treated them fairly poorly for quite a while. It seems unbelievable to me that a group like the Nazis just let a people like the Yenish live in peace. Also, is there any major differences in the Yenish populations from country to country? Click to expand...

Ficino said: There are no Yenish in Romania, some mistakenly believed the Gabor Gypsies ( The Gábor in Transylvania / Romania ) to be Yenish, but they aren't, they are ethnically Rroma like the rest of the people called Gypsies here. Click to expand...

Isleifson said: I had a look on the Gabor. They are sitting everywhere in Transylvania along the roads, selling goods made of brass and copper. They know her trade. And they don't seem to beg and steel. Click to expand...

Ficino said: I'm not sure what you wanted to mean, there are various Gypsy tribes/castes here (the Gabors being one of them), letting aside a more and more increasing number of tribeless/casteless Gypsies. It's obvious that not all the Gypsies beg and steal, and there are honest Gabors the same as there are dishonest ones. Click to expand...

Isleifson said: I am talking about the one's with the big black hats. We used to call them Kaldesh. Click to expand...

Shtajerc said: Another prove that Wikipedia isn't to be trusted all too much. Thanks for the info. Click to expand...

See also - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yenish_people  

PaulRyckier said: Kind regards from Paul, a friend from the borderland between the former Germanized Europe and the Latinized Europe. (unbelievable how that language border has nearly hold for 2000 years) Click to expand...

• Jun 10, 2017

Carolus said: In my understanding the the Yenish people are not really a people in an ethnical sense, but they were a group of the poorer parts of the society who started travelling from place to place to make their living, a kind of wandering workers. off-topic: the linguistical border between the Germanic and Romance groups in Central Europe exists for only about 1,000 years . After the fall of the Roman Empire the Germanic tribes expanded westwards and formerly Latin-speaking areas became germanized (partly due to immigration of Germanic tribes, but also of assimilation). If there is an interest in the history of the Germanic/Romance language border, someone might open a new thread on this. Click to expand...

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