I1 AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU (PL)

On 16 December 1942, Heinrich Himmler ordered that all “Gypsies” still living in the German Reich must be deported to Auschwitz. This Auschwitz Decree marked the final phase of a plan for the extermination of the “Gypsies”. For the German, Austrian and Czech Roma and Sinti, mass deportation to AuschwitzBirkenau began in April 1943. More than 20,000 Roma and Sinti were crammed into 32 wooden huts in the “Gypsy family camp” at Auschwitz. By July 1944 about 70 per cent of them were dead. Those still able to work were transferred to other concentration camps. The remaining 2,879 prisoners were gassed during the night of 2 August 1944.