Gypsy camp Magdeburg Holzweg

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The Magdeburg Holzweg gypsy camp was set up in May 1935 by the city of Magdeburg and became increasingly compulsory in the course of National Socialism . The camp was dissolved on March 1, 1943 by deporting the residents to the " Auschwitz Gypsy Camp " due to the Auschwitz decree .

Construction and operation of the warehouse

The Magdeburg Holzweg gypsy camp was created in May 1935 by the city of Magdeburg , where an existing rest area was relocated. At almost the same time, similar camps were set up in other cities, such as the gypsy camp in Cologne-Bickendorf or in Düsseldorf , Frankfurt / M , Hamburg and Essen . The camp on the Sülze river between Holzweg and Ebendorfer Chaussee was about 3000 m². The hygienic conditions on the unpaved area remained miserable.

The reason for the plant was the better control of the " Gypsies " and their separation from the majority population . The police intensified their surveillance by systematically taking photos and fingerprints , for which the residents were summoned to the police headquarters . Chief Criminal Secretary Paul Becherer was the "clerk for Gypsy affairs" at the Magdeburg police. Becherer was also responsible for checking residents who were obliged to work.

Both travelers who were deprived of their horses after the briefing, i.e. the opportunity to continue their journey, and people who previously lived in Magdeburg rental apartments were instructed. The field police were initially responsible for controlling the camp .

After the assessment decree of October 17, 1939, the situation worsened. With the beginning of the war in 1939, the camp was transformed into a special camp of the SS. With the decree of October 1939, most of the camp residents lost their regular income. At the end of November 1939 - at least four years after the camp opened - a city council suggested that the camps be fortified and two barracks built, as the conditions there were "partly inhumane". At the intervention of the Deputy Police President of Magdeburg, this expansion was not carried out, as deportation to the Generalgouvernement was to be expected shortly and Magdeburg would become “gypsy-free”. The fixing decree had also announced the solution of the "Gypsy question on an imperial scale" and the imminent deportation. Despite the deportation promised by the chief of police, the city administration decided to temporarily improve the living conditions of the 36-40 families. Three families and some women with children were moved to a barrack on Windmühlenstrasse. The threat to the camp on Holzweg from flooding from the Sülze river also delayed improvements. The problem was solved with minimal effort by raising the level of the site and moving a barrack which, contrary to the instructions, was only given a concrete floor for reasons of cost because of the children living in it. Another barracks was built in September 1940 and most of the derelict wagons were scrapped and burned by the field police.

The preparation of the first mass deportation, which was already well advanced in its planning, was not carried out due to the intervention of the occupying authorities of the General Government . The arrival or removal from the camp was controlled by the police; violators were threatened with imprisonment in the concentration camp.

The Race Hygiene Research Center , which is responsible nationwide for the “assessment” of “Gypsies”, examined over 36 camp residents from February 2 to 4, 1940 alone.

The end of the camp in 1943

The Auschwitz Decree and the following implementing provisions (“Schnellbrief”) issued by the Reich Criminal Police Office (RKPA) on January 29, 1943 stipulated that “Gypsies were to be sent to a concentration camp in a matter of a few weeks. [...] The induction takes place in the concentration camp (gypsy camp) Auschwitz regardless of the degree of mixed race. "

A few days before the deportation, in 1965 a.o. a. the survivors Kurt Ansin and Otto Weinlich in talks with Reimar Gilsenbach , Robert Ritter , accompanied by Eva Justin , visited the camp to supplement the "Gypsy files". Copies can be found in the preserved Gypsy personnel files in the Magdeburg State Archives .

The Magdeburg police had been informed of the imminent deportation since January 1943, and they began to fill out individual papers. On March 1, 1943, the camp was closed by the police and the Gestapo, and everyone was deported to the " Auschwitz Gypsy Camp ". Eyewitnesses report that the camp was surrounded by police officers with sharp dogs early in the morning, and that the residents were driven from infants to old men onto 10-15 trucks. From the train station they were transported on to Auschwitz by train. As stragglers of the deportation in March, five men arrived on October 22, 1943, they are recorded in the main book of the "Gypsy camp Auschwitz" under the numbers Z 8834-8838, and two women (Z 9529, Z 5430) from Magdeburg Auschwitz.

The death reports from the Auschwitz concentration camp were reported back to the Magdeburg police, and the police then closed the relevant personal files.

Family members who u. a. were in Buchenwald concentration camp, were also deported to Auschwitz a little later.

Memory of the camp and its residents

Memorial for Magdeburg Victims of Porajmos (2014)
Inscription of the memorial (2013)

The best-known resident of the camp was Erna Lauenburger , who was the model for Unku in the children's book Ede und Unku by Grete Weiskopf , published in 1931 . This book became school reading in the GDR , the fate of Erna Lauenburger and the other Sinti in the book, of whom only one survived, was ignored. In 1981 the book was filmed by DEFA under the title Als Unku Ede's girlfriend was , the film shows swastika graffiti "Jews and Gypsies out". Like the book, the film only deals with the Berlin period. In 2009 the film “ What happened to Unku - The short life of Erna Lauenburger ” premiered, in it the Magdeburg time of Erna Lauenburger is also discussed.

In 1998 a memorial designed by the Magdeburg sculptor Wolfgang Roßdeutscher was erected in the park at Fürstenwall to commemorate 470 Magdeburg Sinti and Roma who were murdered in concentration camps . 300 small urn stones with names and dates of death of deported Magdeburg Sinti and Roma were placed on the base of the monument after the monument was unveiled. The urn stones are now in Magdeburg Cathedral.

There are also graves for:

  • Wilhelm Rose, b. April 27, 1882, murdered February 24, 1942
  • Fritz Rose, b. November 30, 1919, murdered June 20, 1942
  • Emil Rose, b. April 15, 1922, murdered June 20, 1942

The city of Magdeburg remembered the camp and its residents with lectures.

literature

  • Reimar Gilsenbach: How Lolitschai got her doctorate , in: Wolfgang Ayaß : Enemy declaration and prevention. Forensic biology, gypsy research and anti-social policy . Berlin 1988. pp. 101-134
  • Joachim S. Hohmann: History of the Gypsy persecution in Germany . Frankfurt am Main, Peter Lang, 1988.
  • Lutz Miehe: 'Unwanted national comrades'. The gypsy camp on the outskirts of the city of Magdeburg during the time of National Socialism in Life in the City , in: Eva Labouvie: A culture and gender history of Magdeburg . Böhlau Verlag, Cologne Weimar 2004, ISBN 978-3412078041
  • Lutz Miehe: The ' Aktion Arbeitsscheu Reich ' in June 1938 and the persecution of the 'Gypsies' in Magdeburg , in: Steffi Kaltenborn: City history in the Nazi era: case studies from Saxony-Anhalt and comparative perspectives . LIT Verlag Münster, 2005

Web links

Commons : Memorial for the Sinti and Roma in Magdeburg  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Miehe 2004, p. 321
  2. ↑ Miehe 2004, p. 321
  3. ↑ Miehe 2004, pp. 321, 330.
  4. ↑ Miehe 2004, p. 330.
  5. ↑ Miehe 2005, p. 110
  6. ↑ Miehe 2005, p. 110
  7. ↑ Exhibition panels Ministry of the Interior Saxony-Anhalt ( PDF ) accessed on June 9, 2011.
  8. ↑ Miehe 2004, p. 321.
  9. ↑ Miehe 2004, p. 321.
  10. ↑ Miehe 2004, p. 330
  11. ↑ Miehe 2004, p. 227
  12. ↑ Miehe 2004, p. 228
  13. ↑ Miehe 2004, p. 330
  14. ↑ Miehe 2004, p. 330
  15. ↑ Miehe 2004, p. 331
  16. ↑ Miehe 2004, p. 331
  17. ↑ Miehe 2004, p. 331
  18. ↑ Miehe 2004, p. 331
  19. ↑ Miehe 2004, p. 331.
  20. ↑ Hohmann 1988, p. 191.
  21. ↑ Miehe 2004, p. 327.
  22. ↑ Miehe 2004, p. 325.
  23. ↑ Complete wording of the express letter from January 29, 1943 in: Udo Engbring-Romang, The persecution of the Sinti and Roma in Hesse between 1870 and 1950, Frankfurt (Main), pp. 342–347. See also: Michael Zimmermann, Rassenutopie und Genozid. The National Socialist "Solution to the Gypsy Question", Hamburg 1996, p. 301ff. The original source z. E.g .: Institute for Contemporary History, Munich, under the signature Dc 17.02, Bl. 322-327.
  24. ↑ Gilsenbach 1988, p. 110 (footnote 23) p. 132.
  25. ↑ Exhibition panels Ministry of the Interior Saxony-Anhalt ( PDF ) accessed on June 9, 2011
  26. ↑ Miehe 2005, p. 119.
  27. ^ Reimar Gilsenbach: L Doktor p. 110, Miehe 2004 p. 334f
  28. ↑ According to Anita Geiggers, Bernd W. Wette: Zigeuner heute. Bornheim-Merten 1979, p. 234
  29. ↑ Exhibition panels Ministry of the Interior Saxony-Anhalt ( PDF ) accessed on June 9, 2011
  30. ↑ Miehe 2005, pp. 119f.
  31. ↑ Shortly before the end of the sequence When Unku was Ede's girlfriend (1980)
  32. ↑ film premiere (2009)
  33. ↑ www.gedenkorte.sintiundroma.de Magdeburg, Hegelstrasse
  34. ↑ www.gedenkorte.sintiundroma.de Magdeburg, Hegelstrasse
  35. ↑ www.gedenkorte.sintiundroma.de Magdeburg, Hegelstrasse
  36. ↑ Lutz Miehe, for example, gave a lecture on November 10, 2005

Coordinates: 52 ° 10 ′ 5.4 ″  N , 11 ° 36 ′ 1 ″  E