August- The Center is spotlighting the Roma Gypsies with a photo exhibit
August 2– Roma Genocide Remembrance Day
In May 1944, the Nazis
started to plan the liquidation of the “Gypsy camp” The prisoners of the camp
were ordered to stay in the barracks and were surrounded by 60 SS men. When the
SS men tried to force the prisoners out of the barracks they faced a rebellion
of Roma men, women and children, armed with nothing more but sticks, tools and
stones, and eventually the SS had to withdraw. The resistance of Roma prisoners
gave them only a few additional months of life.
The Nazi also feared
that an insurrection could spread to other parts of the camp and they planned
the “Final Solution” on August 2nd. On orders from SS leader Heinrich Himmler,
a ban on leaving the barracks was imposed on the evening of August 2 in the
“Gypsy Camp”. Despite resistance by the Roma, 2,897 men, women, and children
were loaded on trucks. After the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp in
1945 only 4 Roma remained alive.
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