E2 Political intervention

On 16 December 1942, Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler ordered the deportation of all Sinti and Roma still living in the German Reich to the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp. On 5 April 1943, Oskar Wilhelm Rose, who was living in hiding with false papers, asked for a meeting with Munich Cardinal Michael Faulhaber, an act that meant he would be risking his own life. His attempt to persuade the cardinal to intervene against the deportations of the predominantly Catholic Sinti and Roma was unsuccessful. The cardinal noted in his diary: “A gypsy named Adler, Catholic, at the secretary’s office – The 14,000 gypsies in the territory of the Reich are to be collected in a camp and sterilised, the Church is to intervene. Without a doubt, he will look to me for help. – No, I can’t promise any help.”