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The ‘travellers’ at home across Switzerland

This series of pictures shows daily life in the Jenish community over the years.

But who are these ‘travellers’, as they’re often called?

Gypsy: The term has been considered discriminatory since World War II, as the Nazis killed hundreds of thousands of Roma people. Today, many of the Jenish, Sinti and Roma proudly call themselves gypsies.

Roma is the generic term for various peoples that speak Romany or belong to the Romani people, which originally came from India and Persia. It is estimated that there are between eight and ten million Roma.

Sinti are the descendants of those Romani people who emigrated to central Europe in the 15th century. They primarily live in France, Italy and Germany. In France they are called Manuches.

The Jenish population primarily live in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and France. The roughly 100,000 people speak their own language. Jenisch is an idiom derived from Yiddish, which varies depending on region and family.

(Photos: Keystone/RDB)

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