Resources

Franziska was a German woman who was persecuted by the Nazis – because she was deaf. Under the 'Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring', more than 400,000 people were sterilised by the Nazis between 1933 and 1939 due to alleged genetic diseases. Under this law, every person diagnosed with schizophrenia, hereditary blindness, or any other condition that was believed to be genetic was forcefully sterilised; they would no longer be able to produce offspring. Franziska Mikus was one of more than 10,000 deaf victims.

Pierre Seel grew up in France, and was imprisoned by the Nazis for being gay at the age of 17. This life story explains how Pierre spoke out about his persecution.

Helene Melanie Lebel was one of approximately 250,000 people murdered by the Nazis because they were physically or mentally disabled.

Baronita Adam is a member of the Roma community. Through a project with the Roma Support Group, she has spoken about the prejudice she has faced in her lifetime, and shared her mother’s memories of being targeted by the Nazis and imprisoned in a concentration camp.

Józef Sadowski is the only known survivor of the Roma genocide living in the UK today. In this film for Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, Józef shares his story and considers the prejudice Roma people have continued to face.

Louisa Gould hid a Russian prisoner of war in her home on the island of Jersey. She was arrested and sent to a concentration camp where she ultimately paid with her life.

Despite being both gay and Jewish, Gad Beck survived the entire duration of Nazi rule living in Berlin. He was 19 when, in 1941, his friends and neighbours began to be rounded up and deported. He made the decision to actively resist Nazi persecution, assuming a leading role in the Chug Chaluzi Jewish resistance group.

Born in 1927, Otto Rosenberg grew up in Berlin with his grandmother and two siblings. His family were Sinti, a Romani population of central Europe. Otto remembers living on private rented ‘lots’ of land that his family shared with the caravans and houses of extended family and other members of the Sinti community.

Researching her family history, Sigrid Falkenstein found her aunt’s name – Anna Lehnkering – on a list of 30,000 people who were murdered by the Nazis as part of the Aktion T4 project in the year 1940/1941. This spurred Sigrid on to find out more both about her Aunt and Aktion T4, the Nazi programme for sterilising and murdering those with mental or physical disabilities.

The only known voluntary inmate of Auschwitz, who spent two and a half years gathering intelligence from within the camp.