View source for Gypsy family camp (Auschwitz)

{{Short description|Part of the Auschwitz II-Birkenau concentration camp}}
The '''Gypsy family camp''' ({{langx|de|Zigeunerfamilienlager}}) was '''Section B-IIe''' of the [[Auschwitz II-Birkenau|Auschwitz II-Birkenau concentration camp]], where [[Romani people|Romani]] families deported to the camp were held together, instead of being separated as was typical at Auschwitz.{{sfn|Bauer|1998|p=447}}
==History==
On 10 December 1942, [[Heinrich Himmler]] issued an order to send all Romani ({{langx|de|Zigeuner}}, "Gypsies") to concentration camps, including Auschwitz.{{sfn|Longerich|2012|p=670}} A separate camp was set up at Auschwitz II-Birkenau, classed as Section B-IIe and known as the {{lang|de|Zigeunerfamilienlager}} ("Gypsy family camp"). The first transport of [[Romani people|German 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.{{sfn|Rees|2005|p=248}} One transport of 1,700 [[Romani people in Poland|Polish Sinti and Roma]] were killed in the gas chambers upon arrival, as they were suspected to be ill with [[spotted fever]].{{sfn|Steinbacher|2005|p=110}}
Roma and [[Sinti]] prisoners were used primarily for construction work.{{sfn|Steinbacher|2005|p=110}} Thousands died of typhus and [[Noma (disease)|noma]] due to overcrowding, poor sanitary conditions, and malnutrition.{{sfn|Rees|2005|p=248}} Anywhere from 1,400 to 3,000 prisoners were transferred to other concentration camps before the murder of the remaining population.{{efn|Steinbacher gives a figure of "about 3,000";{{sfn|Steinbacher|2005|p=111}} Rees states that 1,400 were transferred.{{sfn|Rees|2005|p=251}}}}
On 2 August 1944, the [[Schutzstaffel|SS]] 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.{{sfn|Rees|2005|p=251}}{{sfn|Epstein|2015|p=165}} The murder of the Romani people by the Nazis during World War II is known in the [[Romani language]] as the [[Porajmos]] (devouring).{{sfn|Hancock|1997|p=339}}
One of the few survivors was [[Margarethe Kraus]], who was subjected to medical experimentation and whose parents were murdered. She was subsequently moved to [[Ravensbruck]].<ref>{{Cite web|last=Katz|first=Brigit|title=London Library Spotlights Nazi Persecution of the Roma and Sinti|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/exhibition-spotlights-nazi-persecution-roma-and-sinti-holocausts-forgotten-victims-180973505/|access-date=2021-04-05|website=Smithsonian Magazine|language=en}}</ref>
==References==
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* {{cite book | last = Bauer | first = Yehuda | authorlink = Yehuda Bauer | editor1-last = Gutman | editor1-first = Yisrael | editor2-last = Berenbaum | editor2-first = Michael | editor2-link = Michael Berenbaum | title = Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp | chapter = Gypsies | pages = 441–455 | year = 1998 |orig-year=1994 | publisher = Indiana University Press | location = Bloomington }}
* {{cite book | last = Epstein | first = Catherine | title = Nazi Germany: Confronting the Myths | year = 2015 | publisher = John Wiley & Sons | isbn = 978-1-118-29479-6 }}
* {{Cite journal | last = Hancock | first = Ian | authorlink = Ian Hancock | title = A Glossary of Romani Terms | year= 1997 | journal = [[American Journal of Comparative Law]] | volume = 45 | issue = 2 | pages = 329–344 | jstor = 840853  | doi = 10.2307/840853| hdl = 2152/31217 }}
* {{cite book | last = Longerich | first = Peter | year = 2012 | title = Heinrich Himmler: A Life | publisher = Oxford University Press | location = Oxford; New York | isbn = 978-0-19-959232-6  }}
* {{cite book | last = Rees | first = Laurence | authorlink = Laurence Rees | title = Auschwitz: A New History | year = 2005 | publisher = Public Affairs, member of Perseus Books Group | location = New York | isbn = 1-58648-303-X  | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/auschwitznewhist00rees }}
* {{cite book | last = Steinbacher | first = Sybille | title = Auschwitz: A History | year = 2005 | origyear = 2004 | publisher = Verlag C. H. Beck | location = Munich | isbn = 0-06-082581-2  | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/auschwitzhistory00stei }}
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[[Category:Auschwitz concentration camp]]
[[Category:Romani genocide]]