Gypsy forced camp in Ravensburg

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On January 27, 1999 inaugurated memorial in memory of Sinti from Ravensburg who were deported from Ravensburg and murdered in Auschwitz in front of the church of the Sankt Jodok parish, whose members were the deportees

The so-called gypsy forced camp in Ravensburg was a municipal camp for Sinti under police control during the National Socialist era , which was occupied by men, women and children. Such camps were set up nationwide from May 1935, and at the beginning of the war they were placed under the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA). Characteristics of these camps were, among other things, forced labor , loss of freedom and the threat of concentration camp detention if the camp regulations were violated. In March 1943, 34 residents of this camp were deported to the " Auschwitz Gypsy Camp " by the police and local police officers ; only a few survived.

camp

The camp consisted of hastily erected barracks . These were placed on the bank of the river Schussen opposite the city on a parcel called Ummenwinkel. It was surrounded by a two meter high barbed wire fence, which was controlled by dog ​​handlers. The night curfew, the ban on keeping domestic animals, compulsory work and permanent controls should serve the purpose of " getting rid of the gypsy plague," as the prosecuting authorities put it. Furthermore, sterilization orders were issued for residents of the camp .

Adolf Würth from the Racial Hygiene Research Center examined 40 people in April 1937 and 35 people in July 1938 in Ravensburg.

Deportation in 1943

On March 13, 1943, criminal investigators and local police officers picked up 34 children, men and women from the camp and the Ravensburg train station and deported them on March 15, 1943 from the Ravensburg train station via the Stuttgart freight station to the " Auschwitz gypsy camp ". Hildegard Franz , who grew up in Ravensburg, reports on the deportation:

“They brought in many, many people from all over the place, several hundred people. The police and the Gestapo marched up and down with their rifles ready to fire. Nobody can imagine what was going on there. On the same day our transport went from Stuttgart to Auschwitz, but now in cattle wagons. I don't remember how long the trip took. It was two or three nights. We arrived in Auschwitz-Birkenau late in the evening or at night, it was already dark. After opening the wagons, you could see the headlights everywhere, which illuminated everything. "

- Hildegard Franz

On April 26, 1943, the tax office informed Weingarten that an application had been made to auction “household effects of the gypsies moved to Auschwitz” and that the rooms would be free for further use from next week.

After 1945

Survivors returned to their home in Ravensburg on foot from the liberated concentration camps or from the death march near Meerane in 1945.

On January 27, 1999, a memorial was inaugurated for the 34 Ravensburg Sinti who were deported from Ravensburg to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp on March 13, 1943 and murdered in 1943 and 1944. January 27, 1945 is the day of the liberation of Auschwitz.

In addition, other Ravensburger Sinti were killed in the Nazi genocide. Some fled to Austria and were deported from there. Anton Köhler, who was born in Ravensburg, was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau by the Kripo along with other Sinti children from St. Joseph's Foster Care in Mulfingen.

literature

  • Magdalena Guttenberger, Manuel Werner: "The children of Auschwitz sing so loud". The shaken life of the Sintiza Martha Guttenberger from Ummenwinkel , Norderstedt 2020, pp. 171–270, ISBN 978-3-7504-7043-9
  • Dorothea Kiderlen: "Duesch halt fescht d'Zähn 'zammabeißa ..." - Persecution and extermination of the Ravensburger Sinti , in: Persecution and extermination of the Ravensburger Sinti , in: Peter Eitel (Ed.): Ravensburg in the Third Reich. Contributions to the history of the city . 2nd edition Ravensburg 1998, pp. 342-360.
  • Florian Lindemann : The Sinti from Ummenwinkel. A social hotspot is recovering. Beltz, Weinheim 1991, ISBN 3-407-62132-9 .
  • Esther Sattig: The Ravensburg Ummenwinkel gypsy camp. The persecution of the Upper Swabian Sinti. Berlin: Metropol Verlag 2016. ISBN 978-3-86331-258-9
  • Sophie Trapp: "My siblings came to the camp and I was left alone" , in: ... got away. Reports and testimonies from Sinti who survived Nazi persecution. Edited by Daniel Strauss, Berlin 2000, pp. 216–219.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Wolfgang Benz / Barbara Distel: Page no longer available , search in web archives: The place of terror. History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps p. 10 (PDF; 310 kB); Paul Sauer: Württemberg under National Socialism. In: Meinrad Schaab , Hansmartin Schwarzmaier (ed.) U. a .: Handbook of Baden-Württemberg History . Volume 4: Die Länder since 1918. Edited on behalf of the Commission for Historical Regional Studies in Baden-Württemberg . Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-608-91468-4 , pp. 231-319, here: p. 263.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.chbeck.de
  2. ↑ Magdalena Guttenberger, Manuel Werner: "The children of Auschwitz sing so loud". The shaken life of the Sintiza Martha Guttenberger from Ummenwinkel , Norderstedt 2020, p. 201 and 206.
  3. ↑ Florian Lindemann: The Sinti from the Ummenwinkel. A social hotspot is recovering. , Weinheim 1991, p. 37
  4. ↑ Federal Archives holdings R 165/38 Würth's work list
  5. ↑ Magdalena Guttenberger, Manuel Werner: "The children of Auschwitz sing so loud". The shaken life of the Sintiza Martha Guttenberger from Ummenwinkel , Norderstedt 2020, pp. 201–206.
  6. ↑ Daniel Strauss (Ed.): ... got away. Reports and testimonies from Sinti who survived Nazi persecution. Berlin 2000. after: [1]
  7. ↑ Florian Lindemann: The Sinti from the Ummenwinkel. A social hotspot is recovering. , Weinheim 1991, p. 38.
  8. ↑ See memorial sites
  9. ^ Esther Sattig: The gypsy camp Ravensburg Ummenwinkel. The persecution of the Upper Swabian Sinti. Berlin 2016, pp. 18, 251, 203
  10. ↑ Magdalena Guttenberger, Manuel Werner: "The children of Auschwitz sing so loud". The shaken life of the Sintiza Martha Guttenberger from Ummenwinkel , Norderstedt 2020, p. 208f.

Coordinates: 47 ° 47 ′ 41.8 "  N , 9 ° 36 ′ 23.7"  E