WWII Roma persecution. History. Bergen Belsen. Roma, Sinti, Zigeun, Gypsy Groups

At Bergen Belsen Concentration Camp near Celle, Germany (near Hannover) there are prominent and multiple memorials for Jewish victims of the Holocaust.  There also is, however, if you look closely, a specific memorial to all those others murdered in such masses:

• Bergen Belsen:  Germany permitted the tearing down of all the original structures, or was it done so fast that no active "choice" was made?  Instead of seeing what it was like, however, it is a huge memorial park with a perimeter pathway, leading around, and around and pathways across, easy to get lost. 
• There is a Documentation Center of photos, films, exhibits. 
• Then, after following markers on relief maps that say, "You are here," there may be -- finally finally - large markers, an Obelisk, a tall Cross, and buildings nearby signifying the Documentation Center and a religious center.

Here is one we nearly missed, a memorial flush to the ground:  the main site for Bergen Belsen is at Germany Road Ways, Bergen Belsen.  These markers are worth repeating here:  Memorialized are the Jews, the Sinti, the Roma, the Zigeun, the Homosexuelle, the Jehovah's Witnesses.  Try to make out the groups:

The Remembrance stones are on most every marker at Bergen Belsen.

Memorial Marker, Sinti, Roma, Zigeun, Homosexuelle, Jehovas, Bergen Belsen Concentration Camp

There was an entire Gypsy Camp, Zigeunerlager, at Bergen Belsen, see photo at http://www.bergenbelsen.co.uk/pages/Database/CampAreaPhotographs.asp?CampAreaID=23&PhotographsID=652/.  

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The photograph, aerial, was taken in 1944.  There is no trace we could see of the Zigeunerlager now, as all was razed and the Bergen Belsen area is now a nature-type walk, with memorials and huge burial mounds, pits beneath, filled. 

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See the photos also at the American Holocaust Museum in Washington DC, at http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005224/; 

See also http://www.bergenbelsen.co.uk/pages/Camp%20Development/ASP/CampAreas/DevelopmentCampAreaPhotographs1945_1949.asp?CampAreaID=23&index=1/  Click on the sequential photos, a series of photos.

There are also testimonies and videos, this from Yale: http://www.library.yale.edu/testimonies/excerpts/annaw.html

Overall, some 5,000,000 non-Jews were killed, says this site, including some 500,000 or about half the Eastern European population of Gypsies were killed, because of their ethnicity, see Holocaust Non-Jewish Victims, http://www.holocaustforgotten.com/romgypsies.htm/  The site also refers to this book, not read by me yet, see The Nazi Persecution of the Gypsies, by Guenter Lewy 2001.

Too hard to read? Try a close-up:

Bergen-Belsen, Close-up, Memorial to Gypsy Groups,  Celle, Germany (near Hanover)

Resources:

Have to get back to read these, but here is a beginning list:

• Gypsies, Second World War, at http://books.google.com/books?id=5U_Auv-u0PIC&pg=PA127&lpg=PA127&dq=Bergen+Belsen+gypsy+camp&source=bl&ots=BfSNVlHp2r&sig=6Aw_8g_5_IY0vqk-V67my6Ci-M4&hl=en&ei=64I7Te-VCYiq8AaXnOHECg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CEkQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=Bergen%20Belsen%20gypsy%20camp&f=false/
• A researcher blog, Joedresch's Blog, see it, at http://joedresch.wordpress.com/category/bergen-belsen/

Roma, Gypsies, at Mauthausen Concentration Camp, Austria WWII

Mauthausen Concentration Camp, near Linz, Austria, originally was populated with criminals deemed detrimental to the commonweal, in 1938.  That category then broadened to include ethnic minorities, and "undesirables;"  German Sinti were decimated.

We understand there is a Documentation and Cultural Center of German Sinti and Roma in Heidelburg, Germany, see this general overview we just found (we have not been there) at ://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documentation_and_Cultural_Centre_of_German_Sinti_and_Roma/  We were at the Nazi Documentation Center in Nuremberg, however, and if this is of the same calibre and thoroughness, it is worth at least a full day's visit.
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Mauthausen was built by prisoners from Dachau, Germany, see http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/mauthausen.html. A year later, not only criminals but racial, religious, national and political groups seen as undesirable groups were designated as detriments, and imprisoned at Mauthausen. By 1939 there were already 300 gypsies from the Burgenland area there. See "Gypsies in the Holocaust" at ://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/gypsies.html

Memorial, Mother Germany, Mauthausen Concentration Camp, Mauthausen, Austria

The Mauthausen concept included this main camp, and 49 "permanent sub-camps". In looking at death statistics, other concentration camp complexes or hubs like this only counted the deaths at the main camp. Say 35,000 for the main camp, and 2,000,000 including the larger complex. Maybe "just" 100,000+.  Or 200,000. The records were intact upon liberation, but somehow nobody was made to put the figures together, so nobody did. See Death Statistics for Mauthausen at ://www.scrapbookpages.com/Mauthausen/KZMauthausen/History/deathstatistics.html/.  See the breakdowns by group.
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Exhibit, Zigeuner (Gypsies) at Mauthausen KC, Mauthausen, Austria. Photographs, text.

Data on the Roma genocide:  See the Holocaust Encyclopedia at ://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005219/  There are also photographs there.
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Wall Plaque Memorial, Roma and Sinti, (Gypsy groups), Mauthausen Concentration Camp, Mauthausen, Austria


Guard tower, barbed wire, wall, Mauthausen Concentration Camp, Mauthausen, Austria

Death by execution (shooting), disease (especially typhus), gas, hanging, malnutrition, exhaustion, at a rate of some 300 deaths per day upon liberation. This was a punishment-labor and death camp where trying to get down the long staircase into the quarry and breaking rocks killed many itself.  Many more, the exhibits state, were simply pushed off the cliff above into the quarry - those killed in that way were called "the parachutists."

Many deaths were not recorded toward the end of the war because the Austrian police had taken over and most of the staff escaped. See ://www.scrapbookpages.com/Mauthausen/KZMauthausen/History/deathstatistics.html/  Three thousand more died after the Americans took over, including the handover to the Russians soon after liberation, from similar causes to before - exhaustion, disease, but now there is note of inmates killing each other (no further information on that), and the starving dying of sudden abundance of over-rich food.

A crematory oven, two layers. Mauthausen Concentration Camp, Mauthausen, Austria

The Gypsies.  Records are sparse, compared to the fates of other populations. How many were executed at gullies, and pushed in, and never arriving at the camp. As a refresher course in the variety among this population, read the Summary for Gypsies, not only listing how they were killed in the camps, but their identifications.  See the "Sinti" and "Roma" specified in particular at Mauthausen.  See ://summary.jeetu.co.in/s/Gypsies/.

The listing of Gypsy groups is similar to earlier posts here from other sources, but this is more extensive:

• "Romanichal , the Gitanoes , the Sinti , the Rudari , the Manush , the Boyash , the Ungaritza , the Luri , the Bashald , the Romungro , and the Xoraxai ."  

Add the four Rom tribe-nations:

• the "Kalderash , the Machavaya , the Lovari , and the Churari ." 

 Other names for the Romani:

• "Gypsies, Tsigani, Tzigane, Cigano, Zigeuner, and more. 

•  Roma linguistically are in three basic groups:  Domari in the Middle East, and East Europe; Lomarven of Centrare divided into three populations:  "the Domari of the Middle East and Eastern Europe, the Lomarvren of Central Europe, and the Romani of Western Europe.

Tens of thousands. How many. Mother Germany. Mother Austria. Beyond comprehension. Are we also so seeded.
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Bucolic view of the killing quarry down there, here at the cliff-top, Mauthausen Concentration Camp, Mauthausen, Austria