Whenever someone reminds me that the Holocaust didn't just target Jews, but also gypsies and communists, my reaction is usually, "So are you trying to say Hitler wasn't all bad, then?"

Obviously, it's an exaggeration. People should not be murdered or persecuted as a result of their ethnic background, particularly innocent children. I'm not so sure about the communists, but that's not the point of this post.

This post IS about the gypsies, however. Every time I read about anti-gypsy sentiment in Europe (like CNN.com's story from today - see below), a part of me asks if they are like the gypsies (or, if you want to be PC, Roma) that were everywhere in Russia in the early 1990s. The reason I wonder is because, while nothing excuses physical violence against the helpless (I feel terrible for that poor little three-year-old girl), I can still understand the animus to a certain extent if gypsies in Europe proper behave like they used to in Russia.

In the 1990s in Russia, the gypsies were everywhere. The children (some of the dirtiest, foulest-smelling children outside of Third World slums you can imagine) would gather together in groups of 12 or more that would accost people arriving at train stations, airports or tourist sites and try to engage in pickpocketing. Any attempt at grabbing them to stop them from running away with wallets or passports or hitting them to keep them away from pockets would result in the arrival of several men who would then attack the people who had "attacked" their children.

The women would be located a ways away, usually begging (usually with infants too small to join the children picking pockets). Actually, the closer explanation is "aggressive panhandling". Given how superstitious people in Russia can be, the idea that the gypsy woman is trying to yank some hairs off your head if you don't give her money is very disconcerting.

A few blocks from this, the men would be engaging in shell games, money changing scams and some semi-legal petty trading at the market or bazaar.

In short, when people in Russia referred to "gypsies" they were not talking about simply an ethnicity, but an entire way of life that centered around lying, cheating, stealing and leeching off other people (including the government).

As a result, every time I hear about "anti-Roma violence" in Europe, be it in Italy, the Czech Republic, Slovakia or elsewhere, my initial reaction is, "That's terrible - but if the 'Roma' are acting like the gypsies in Russia, I can sort of understand why people don't want them living near them."

Is this the case? Are people just so terrified about being politically correct and/or not sounding like Nazis that they won't talk about the reprehensible lifestyle that accompanies these people? Or are Western European Roma simply trying to get jobs and live normal lives, but shut out for ethnic reasons?

In Russia, the government has cracked down on the gypsies and so the activities that I saw in the early and mid-1990s are largely a thing of the past.