• Memorial to the victims of the »Gypsy Camp« in Auschwitz-Birkenau
Since the beginning of the 1970s a memorial on the site of the former extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau remembers the victims of the »Gypsy Camp« which existed there in 1943/44. It is one of the most important places of remembrance on the National Socialist genocide of the Sinti and Roma.
Image: Auschwitz-Birkenau, 2010, Site of the former »Gypsy Camp«, Stiftung Denkmal
Auschwitz-Birkenau, 2010, Site of the former »Gypsy Camp«, Stiftung Denkmal

Image: Auschwitz-Birkenau, 2010, Memorial for the victims of the »Gypsy Camp«, Dokumentations- und Kulturzentrum Deutscher Sinti und Roma
Auschwitz-Birkenau, 2010, Memorial for the victims of the »Gypsy Camp«, Dokumentations- und Kulturzentrum Deutscher Sinti und Roma
After coming to power in 1933, the National Socialists intensified the persecution of Sinti and Roma. In 1938 National Socialist authorities put thousands of Sinti and Roma from Germany and Austria to concentration camps. In December 1942 »Reichsführer-SS« Heinrich Himmler ordered the deportation of the Sinti and Roma living in the German Reich to the Auschwitz concentration camp. Subsequently a section of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp was designated as a »Gypsy Camp«.
The first transport of Sinti and Roma arrived in February 26, 1943. The camp consisted of 32 windowless barracks, which the prisoners had to built themselves. In contrast to other groups of prisoners families in the »Gypsy Camp« could stay together. Irrespective of their number every family was allotted one plank bed and two blankets. The prisoners, even the children, had to conduct forced labour within the camp. They were chronically malnourished and their living conditions were so catastrophic that the majority of prisoners perished of hunger or diseases. The SS also conducted »selections« in the camp where a great number of prisoners were either relocated to other concentration camps or murdered in the nearby gas chambers.
In May 1944 the camp's command decided to liquidate the »Gypsy Camp«. The prisoners, however, put up resistance so that the SS cancelled the action for the moment. Beginning of August 1944, however, the »Gypsy Camp« was ultimately dissolved: 1,408 prisoners fit for work were relocated to other places, the remaining 2,897 Sinti and Roma were murdered by the SS in gas chambers despite the victims' desperate resistance.
Image: Auschwitz-Birkenau, 2010, Site of the former »Gypsy Camp«, Stiftung Denkmal
Auschwitz-Birkenau, 2010, Site of the former »Gypsy Camp«, Stiftung Denkmal

Image: Auschwitz-Birkenau, 2010, Memorial for the victims of the »Gypsy Camp«, Dokumentations- und Kulturzentrum Deutscher Sinti und Roma
Auschwitz-Birkenau, 2010, Memorial for the victims of the »Gypsy Camp«, Dokumentations- und Kulturzentrum Deutscher Sinti und Roma
An estimated 23,000 Sinti and Roma were deported to the »Gypsy Camp« in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Most of the victims, about 60%, came from the German Reich including Austria, about 22% from the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and about six per cent from Poland. All in all the victims came from at least 11 different countries.
The SS murdered approximately 5,600 prisoners of the »Gypsy Camp« in the gas chambers of Auswitz-Birkenau, another 13,600 perished as a result of the catastrophic conditions in the camp. Some thousand survived for the moment because they were relocated to other camps.
Image: Hohenasperg, 1940, Deportation of German Sinti to occupied Poland, Bundesarchiv, R 165 Bild-244-48
Hohenasperg, 1940, Deportation of German Sinti to occupied Poland, Bundesarchiv, R 165 Bild-244-48

Image: Auschwitz-Birkenau, 2009, Commemoration ceremony at the memorial, RomaTrial e.V
Auschwitz-Birkenau, 2009, Commemoration ceremony at the memorial, RomaTrial e.V
For a long time there were no memorials at the historical site of the »Gypsy Camp« remembering the Sinti and Roma who were imprisoned and murdered there, particularly since the site of the extermination camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau had only been used very rarely for commemorative ceremonies after the war. This changed in 1973 when the memorial for victims of the »Gypsy Camp« was erected among the ruined barracks. The memorial was initiated by the brothers Vinzenz und Oskar Rose. Vinzenz Rose himself had been prisoner at the »Gypsy Camp« in Auschwitz – he lost his wife and daughter there. Since the early 1950s he campaigned for the recognition of the genocide of the Sinti and Roma which was only achieved in the 1980s. The means for the memorial were mainly paid for out of his own pocket. In Germany he did not find any official support whereas the Polish authorities involved merely tolerated the project.
The memorial consists of an obelisk in front of a tiled wall which was constructed using stones from the ruins of all former barracks of the »gypsy camp«. It stands on the site of the block in which Rose's parents had been incarcerated. On the wall the following German inscription can be found: »Memorial to the Sinti of the concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. Many thousands of Sinti – men, women and children, the prisoners and tortured victims of German Fascism – were atrociously tortured, gassed and murdered.«
As can be deduced from the inscription the memorial had above all been erected in the memory of the German Sinti who had made up the majority of prisoners in the »Auschwitz Gypsy Camp«. By now, however, the memorial comes across as a site of remembrance for all Sinti and Roma who were imprisoned and murdered there. Since 1994 an annual commemoration ceremony takes place at the memorial on August 2, remembering the victims on the anniversary of the liquidation of the »Gypsy Camp«.
In 2001 a permanent exhibition on the genocide of the European Sinti and Roma was opened in Block 13 of the former Auschwitz main camp.
Image: Auschwitz-Birkenau, 2009, German inscription from 1973 on the memorial, RomaTrial e.V.
Auschwitz-Birkenau, 2009, German inscription from 1973 on the memorial, RomaTrial e.V.

Image: Auschwitz, undated, View of the permanent exhibition in Block 13 of the former main camp, Dokumentations- und Kulturzentrum Deutscher Sinti und Roma, Lossen Fotografie Heidelberg
Auschwitz, undated, View of the permanent exhibition in Block 13 of the former main camp, Dokumentations- und Kulturzentrum Deutscher Sinti und Roma, Lossen Fotografie Heidelberg
Name
Pomnik ofiar »Zigeunerlager« na terenie byłego obozu koncentracyjnego Auschwitz-Birkenau
Address
Ofiar Faszyzmu 12
32-600 (Brzezinka) Oświęcim
Open
The memorial is located on the site of the former extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau and is accessible during the opening times of the Museum and Memorial Auschwitz-Birkenau:

December to February daily 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.,
March, November daily 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.,
May, September daily 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.,
June, July and August daily 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Closed on January 1, December 25 and Easter Monday
Possibilities
Annual commemoration ceremony on August 2, permanent exhibition on the genocide of the Sinti and Roma in Block 13 of the main camp (Auschwitz I).