The Genocide

Between 1941 and 1945 a large proportion of the Central European Roma and Sinti populations was murdered by National Socialists or by members of fascist governments and movements allied with the Third Reich. Among the Roma and Sinti the tragedy is sometimes referred to as Pharrajimos - the Great Devouring - or as Samurdaripen - the great Killing. Close to half a million Roma and Sinti perished during the Holocaust.

Austrian Roma at Dachau concentration camp photographed for the SS by Friedrich Franz Bauer.

D1. Concentration Camps

© Archives of the Dachau Memorial Site, Germany.

Inside a hut - clothes were spread out to dry overnight with the help of the stove in the middle of the picture. This is the only known photograph of the “Gypsy” camp in AuschwitzBirkenau.

D3. Auschwitz-Birkenau

© German Federal Archives, Koblenz, Germany.

German children in the orphanage in Mulfi ngen, Germany, in the care of the Sisters of St Joseph.

© Documentation Centre of German Sinti and Roma, Heidelberg, Germany.

Front cover of the first edition of Alex Wedding’s book Ede and Unku designed by John Heartfield with photos of Erna Lauenburger and her friend Ede.

D5. Medical Experiments

© Malik Verlag Berlin, Germany

Anuta Branzan (second right) and her sisters in 1942. An aunt had the photograph taken a few days before their deportation, to have a memento of her nieces.

D6. Forced Relocation

© Private collection of Michelle Kelso, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

D7. Death Marches

© Private collection of Szabolcs Szita, Budapest, Hungary

Jews and Roma taken as hostages being led to their execution by German soldiers in Šabac.

D8. Shooting Of Hostages

© Yad Vashem Archives, Jerusalem, Israel.

Picture of Anna Maria Steinbach

D9. Anna Maria "Settela" Steinbach

© Archives of the Westerbork Memorial Site, Netherlands.

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