26 February 1943: First transport of Roma and Sinti reaches Auschwitz
On 26 February 1943, the first transport of Roma and Sinti people from Germany arrived at the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp complex.
Romani prisoners in a camp © USHMM
This followed an order in January 1943 specifying that all Roma and Sinti living within the Third Reich were to be deported there. They were put in an area of the camp which became known as the ‘Gypsy family camp’.
Otto Rosenberg was sent to Auschwitz with his Sinti family, and wrote about his experiences:
Sorting began immediately. The Jews over there, the Sinti over there, the Poles over there and so forth. Everything was organised. You were taken to a doctor. He gave a signal, mostly with a bell… You had to roll up your sleeve and a Pole – his name was Bogdan – tattooed a number on your arm with a sort of pen. Z 6084 was my number.
It is estimated that as many as 23,000 Roma and Sinti were deported to the Auschwitz camp complex, and that over 20,000 of them were murdered.
On 2 August 1944, SS soldiers murdered all of those who were still in the so-called ‘Gypsy Camp’; thousands of Roma and Sinti people were sent to the gas chambers.
Historians estimate that between 200,000 and 500,000 Roma and Sinti people were murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators, or died as a result of starvation or disease.