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Life in the Camps, the Zigeunerlager

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Summary

• The Gypsy Camp at Auschwitz  and the presence of Roma in Jewish concentration camps. Known as «Familienzigeunerlager», or more simply «Zigeunerlager», the section for Gypsies at the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp was established between the end of February and the beginning of March 1943, following the enforcement of a decree, signed on 29 January 1943 by Heinrich Himmler.... (Claudio Vercelli)
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Chronology

• In Reich-occupied territories 1942, December 16: Himmler signs the "Auschwitz Decree" ordering the deportation of Gypsies to Auschwitz. 1943 February - 1944 August: Zigeunerlager (or Gypsy Camp) is in operation at Auschwitz. Documentation reveals the registration of 20,943 Roma and Sinti (10,094 men and 10,888 women and children). However, it is estimated that in actual fact 23,000 Gypsies were detained. 1943 March: deportation to Auschwitz begins...

• Italy:  1943: deportations of Roma and Sinti to Third Reich concentration camps begin... 
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Historical Documents

• Third Reich,  Decree ordering internment of Roma in Auschwitz, 29 January 1943.

• Third Reich, Gypsies in the extermination camp of Auschwitz in the memoirs of the camp commandant Rudolf Hoess.

 
 
     


Further Reading


» Documented massacres committed by the Einsatzgruppen under the auspices of the German army on the eastern front.

» Porrajmos – Council of Europe (Ideological Basis – Criminal Police and "Ethnogenetic Registration of Gysies" – The First Deportations and Internment in Collecting Camps – Labour Camps – Mass Executions – The Ghetto Lodz – The "Auschwitz Erlass (Auschwit Decree) – Victims – The Survivors).

» Concentration Camps – Council of Europe (Forced Labour – "Gypsy" camp Lackenback - Ghetto Lodz and Extermination Camp Chelmno – Concentration Camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau – Persecution in German Occupied Territories).

» The Nazi Period in Italy – Council of Europe (The Race Question – From Theory to Practice – Internment – The Camp – After the Armistice).

» Internment in France 1940-1946 - Council of Europe (Identifying "Gipsies" and Tracking their Movements Compulsory Residence Orders for "Nomads" in the Third Reich – Internment in the Unoccupied Zone – Internment in the Occupied Zone – After the Liberation – Daily Life in the Camps – Cases of Deportation from French Internment Camps).

» The Nazi Period in the Baltic States - Council of Europe (A Dichotomous Feature of Persecution – Mobile Killing Units – Latvia – Estonia – Auschwitz-Birkenau).

» Deportations from Romania -  Council of Europe (The Deportation of Itinerant Roma, July-August 1942 - The Deportation of Sedentary Roma Deemed “Undesirable”, September 1942 - The Treatment of the Roma in Transnistria – The Postwar Years and the Treatment of the Roma Deportations in War Crimes Trials – The Future of the Past: The Recognition of Slavery and the Holocaust against Roma).

» Boursier G., "Bambini nei lager", in école n.74, gennaio 2000.

» Asséo H., "Contrepoint : la question tsigane dans les camps allemands", in Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales, 1993, Volume 48, Numéro 3, pp. 567 – 582.

» Poesie - Porrajmos. Toninato P., "Le mille voci della poesia romanì", in d'Isola, Sullam, Baldoni, Baldini, Frasanito, "Alla periferia del mondo. Il popolo dei rom e sinti escluso dalla storia", Milano, Fondazione Franceschi, 2003, pp. 91-97. Poesie rom nate dall'esperienza dei lager.

» Link utili: tsiganes-nomades-un-malentendu-europeen.com, romasinti.eu.

» Porrajmos Italia: