TheGypsy family camp (German:Zigeunerfamilienlager) wasSection B-IIe of theAuschwitz II-Birkenau concentration camp, whereRomani families deported to the camp were held together, instead of being separated as was typical at Auschwitz.[1]
On 10 December 1942,Heinrich Himmler issued an order to send all Romani (German:Zigeuner, "Gypsies") to concentration camps, including Auschwitz.[2] A separate camp was set up at Auschwitz II-Birkenau, classed as Section B-IIe and known as theZigeunerfamilienlager ("Gypsy family camp"). The first transport ofGerman Roma arrived on 26 February 1943, and was housed in Section B-IIe. Approximately 23,000 Roma had been brought to Auschwitz by 1944, of whom 20,000 died there.[3] One transport of 1,700Polish Sinti and Roma were killed in the gas chambers upon arrival, as they were suspected to be ill withspotted fever.[4]
Roma andSinti prisoners were used primarily for construction work.[4] Thousands died of typhus andnoma due to overcrowding, poor sanitary conditions, and malnutrition.[3] Anywhere from 1,400 to 3,000 prisoners were transferred to other concentration camps before the murder of the remaining population.[a]
On 2 August 1944, theSS cleared the Gypsy camp. A witness in another part of the camp later told of the inmates unsuccessfully battling the SS with improvised weapons before being loaded into trucks. The surviving population (estimated at 2,897 to 5,600) was then killed en masse in the gas chambers.[6][7]
One of the few survivors wasMargarethe Kraus, who was subjected to medical experimentation and whose parents were murdered. She was subsequently moved toRavensbruck.[8]
TheRomani Holocaust, murder of the Romani people by the Nazis during World War II, is sometimes known by theRomani language wordPorajmos (devouring).[9]
