D1 Concentration Camps

The fi rst groups of Roma and Sinti were deported to concentration camps in 1938, but in 1939 mass deportations began to Dachau, Buchenwald and Ravensbrück, where thousands of Austrian Roma and Sinti were sent as slave labour. As able-bodied breadwinners were deported, their families were left dependent on poor relief - which made the local authorities press for even more people to be deported! The prisoners in the concentration camps were divided into categories by the SS, and symbols were sewn onto their clothing to indicate their category. Roma and Sinti usually had to wear the black triangle used for “anti-social” prisoners. Some camps had a separate “Gypsy” category with a brown triangle.