The "Gypsy Camp" at Auschwitz-Birkenau
On May 7, 1943, about 860 men, women and children categorized as gypsies and gypsy half-breeds
arrived at the concentration
and extermination camp Auschwitz near the Polish city of Oświęcim, to where they were deported from Moravia and the "gypsy camp" Lety u Písku in Bohemia, by
then Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia
. On this occasion, and to commemorate their fates, we publish a text by the historian
Michal Schuster on the history of the gypsy camp
in Auschwitz-Birkenau.
The so-called gypsy family camp
, which operated as part of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp, was
an integral part of the Nazi genocide of Roma and Sinti and others identified as gypsies and gypsy half-breeds
. During its
existence from February 1943 to August 1944, about 23,000 men, women and children from various parts of Europe passed through
the camp. The article also focuses on the fates of Roma and Sinti from Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia. About 5,500 people from
this group were imprisoned in the camp, most of them did not survive. (more...)
“Jewish Homes” in Prague, Autumn 1940
When the Jews of Prague picked up the community’s official newspaper, The Jewish Bulletin, on Friday the 13th of September
1940, they could not have missed the announcement printed in bold type on the righthand side of the front page. The “New
Regulation for Jewish Renters in Prague” succinctly stated that the SS Central Office for Jewish Emigration had decreed:
“Jews in Prague are no longer permitted to rent vacant residential properties.” From then on, Jews in the capital would
only be allowed to move into residences currently or previously occupied by other Jews. This is how the American historian
Benjamin Frommer presents his article for holocaust.cz. From today's point of view, what may seem like a minor Holocaust event
was part of a pervasive process of systematically depriving people identified as Jews of their rights, freedoms, and dignity.
This is not with weapons in hand, but with a large number of partial bureaucratic rules
, regulations and guidelines, the overall
aim of which may not be easily recognizable.
Expansion of the Database of victims: we have made available also data on the victims of the Nazi’s racist persecution of Roma, Sinti and other people labelled as gypsies
during World War II on the territory of today’s Czech Republic
We have added the data of 329 victims of the national socialist persecution of people labelled as gypsies
on the grounds
of today’s Czech Republic to the database of victims on our website holocaust.cz. All 329 people died in the so-called gypsy camp
in Lety
u Písku. The national socialist persecution of people labelled as gypsies
hit most of the Roma and Sinti present on the
territory of today’s Czech Republic during World War II. The public part of the database contains basic data of those who
died during the whole period the camp existed, from August, 1942 till August, 1943: Name, date and place of birth, duration
of imprisonment and date and place of death. Furthr data on prisoners of this camp are available only to registered users
of the database due to privacy reasons. Questions concerning the database or individual victims can be addressed directly
to Institut Terezínské iniciativy staff at database@terezinstudies.cz.
The project Database of victims of the national socialist persecution of „gypsies“ has been supported by Bader Philantropies during the years 2016-2020.
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