Roma and Travellers: 16 May 1944 – a day to remember

Soon after the start of the Second World War in 1939, the Νazi Regime decided to remove all Roma and Sinti from the territory of the Third Reich. They were ordered to resettle and were placed in Jewish ghettos and camps for Jews. The first deportation took place on 16 May 1940 from Ravensburg to camps in occupied Poland. On 16 December 1942, the deportation of all remaining Sinti and Roma was ordered. The Gypsy family camp known as the “Zigeunerlager” was set up in Auschwitz-Birkenau sector BIIe.[1] The Zigeunerlager was a "mixed" camp, with men, women and children imprisoned together. On 15 May 1944, the 6000 Roma in the camp were warned that the Nazis were planning their execution. On 16 May 1944, more than 600 Roma prisoners did not show up for the usual morning roll call but barricaded themselves into their barracks. They had broken into an equipment warehouse and armed themselves with hammers, pickaxes and shovels, and taken apart the wooden sections of the bunks they slept on to make weapons. As a result of their defiance, no Roma or Sinti died in the gas chambers on that day. This act of resistance troubled the Nazi Regime. Fearing a camp-wide revolt, 3000 Roma were transferred to other camps. On 2 August 1944, the Nazis gassed the remaining 3000 Roma prisoners in the Blle camp. The courageous revolt of 16 May 1944 – a fight for the right to life and humanity - is widely referred to as Romani Resistance Day. The Council of Europe Youth Department has dedicated an...