And the Violins Stopped Playing (Polish: I Skrzypce Przestały Grać) (1988) is a Polish/American historical drama film written, produced and directed by Alexander Ramati and based upon his biographical novel about an actual group of Romani people who were forced to flee from persecution by the Nazi Germany regime at the height of the Porajmos (Romani holocaust), during World War II.

[1][2][3] The story opens in 1941 in Warsaw, Poland, with Dymitr Mirga (Horst Buchholz), a prominent Romani violin player, entertaining a group of Germans—German military and SS officers—in a restaurant.

Dymitr immediately realizes the truth, and asks the head of the Romani community to lead its evacuation into Hungary, which at that time was still independent.

Dymitr's small company eventually performs the sacrifice of selling their jewels to buy horses from another Romani community, allowing their group to move more quickly.

A Nazi column takes the captive Romani to Auschwitz, where the infamous Dr Mengele (Marcin Tronski) has been conducting medical experiments on prisoners.

As three Romani carriages head off into a sunset, carrying—presumably—Roman, his friend and his younger sister, the narrator concludes that the "Gypsy nation has yet to receive any compensation."