Zilli Reichmann

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Cäcilie "Zilli" Reichmann , also Zilli Schmidt (born July 10, 1924 in Hinternah ), is a German Sintezza and survivor of the Porajmos . She was imprisoned in the " gypsy camp ", as section BIIe of the Auschwitz concentration camp was called by the National Socialists , in the Ravensbrück concentration camp and in a satellite camp of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp .

In February 1988 she testified before the Siegen Regional Court as a witness against the former SS Rottenführer Ernst-August König , who had been a block leader in Auschwitz. In old age, Zilli Reichmann reports as a contemporary witness at events of exclusion and persecution, her stays in the various camps and her struggle to make amends for the suffering inflicted on her.

biography

Family and youth

Zilli Reichmann was a daughter of Berta "Batschka" Reichmann (* 1884) and Anton "Jewero" Reichmann (* 1882). She had four siblings: two sisters, Hulda (* 1911) and Anna, called "Gucki" (* 1916), and two brothers, Stefan, called "Stifto" (* 1907), and Otto, called "Hesso" (* 1926 ). The parents traveled as showmen , musicians and peddlers and ran a traveling cinema . The father was also a sought-after craftsman, while his brother Stefan traded violins. The family's trailer was pulled by a Lanz Bulldog , which suggests the Reichmanns were well off.

The family was Catholic and belonged to the Lalleri tribe, a minority of the Roma originally from Southeastern Europe, mainly in Bohemia and Moravia . She was mainly in Bohemia, Thuringia , Saxony and Bavaria .

As a child Zilli Reichmann spoke only Romani . She attended school up to the age of 14, albeit many different ones because of her wanderings. Her last school visit was in Ingolstadt in 1938 , where she had close contact with a nun. When she went to Africa as a missionary , Zilli Reichmann wanted to go with her.

Zilli Reichmann became pregnant at the age of 15 and gave birth to a daughter on May 6, 1940 in Eger . She was named Ursula Josefine and was called "Gretel". Her father was Moritz Blum, who belonged to a friendly family; the couple did not stay together. Moritz Blum went abroad and sent a telegram to Zilli Reichmann telling her to follow him, but she didn't want to.

Like many other Sinti, the Reichmann family had to be examined and measured by employees of the Racial Hygiene Research Center in order to determine, among other things, whether they were “mixed” or “thoroughbred”. The research director was Eva Justin , who was called Loli Tschai ("red" or "bad girl") by those affected . The results regarding the Reichmann family have not been preserved.

Exclusion and deportation

Aerial photo of Auschwitz-Birkenau: the former "Gypsy camp" is highlighted in color (August 25, 1944)

From the mid-1930s, the Nazi regime began the organized persecution of " Gypsies ", and in 1938 the Reich Central Office for Combating the Gypsies was established. With the Auschwitz decree of December 16, 1942, Heinrich Himmler ordered the deportation of all Sinti and Roma living in the National Socialist German Reich .

The Reichmann family initially managed to be spared by frequently changing their whereabouts to avoid the police and authorities. Stefan Reichmann was drafted into the Wehrmacht , which aroused the hope in the family that "Gypsies" would be recognized as "fully fledged Germans". But Zilli had to leave school in Ingolstadt in 1938 , where the family had made friends with the Trabers . The Reichmanns moved to the Sudetenland , which, according to the Munich Agreement , belonged to the German Reich from October 1938. According to the regulations now in force there, the family should not actually have left their officially determined whereabouts in Eger .

After the armistice with France on June 22, 1940, the family moved there because they hoped that surveillance in occupied territories would not be as close-knit; Stefan Reichmann was also stationed in France. In 1941 or 1942 the Reichmanns stayed in Metz . From there, Zilli Reichmann drove with her cousins ​​Katharina and Else to Strasbourg , where they lived with a woman who was active in the resistance . This woman offered to smuggle the entire family on her son's ship into the previously unoccupied southern France, but the parents refused. Zilli Reichmann: "We would have been saved!"

The three girls were arrested in a raid on June 8, 1942. Zilli Reichmann was transported over several stations to a "gypsy camp" in Lety near Pilsen . From there she and other relatives managed to flee to Eger in early 1943, where she was arrested again. She was taken to the notorious Pankrác prison in Prague . At the same time, surviving residents of Lidice were imprisoned there, whose hometown had been destroyed in retaliation for the assassination attempt on Reinhard Heydrich .

On March 11, 1943, Zilli Reichmann was deported with a group of other women and men to the so-called gypsy camp in Auschwitz-Birkenau , within sight of the crematoria . On arrival she had to strip naked in front of SS men , her hair was cut and the number “Z1959” was tattooed on her arm. About six months later, her father, mother, daughter, brother Otto and sister "Gucki" and their seven children were also admitted to Auschwitz. Her sister Hulda had since passed away. “Gucki” had given birth to a little boy shortly before her deportation: the baby was sent on from Eger in a parcel and arrived dead.

On March 17, 1943, Zilli's brother Stefan was also deported to Auschwitz, still in Wehrmacht uniform and receiving several awards. He was later transferred to the main camp of Auschwitz , forcibly sterilized and released to Eger. The families were allowed to stay together in the camp, the Sinti were allowed to keep their instruments and had to play as a band for the SS; a soccer team was also set up. Zilli Reichmann worked in various areas such as kindergarten, in the kitchen, in the office and in the clothing store. She watched executions by the Political Department through a hole in the wall of the barracks . During her stay in the concentration camp, she was examined by the doctor Josef Mengele , who showed a particular interest in her.

In an interview with Deutschlandfunk in 2019, Zilli Reichmann said: “I stole like a raven, but not from the mouth of people, in the kitchen, in the clothing store, magazine, everything you can think of the Zilli stolen…. “She got to know the camp elder Hermann Dimanski , a communist and Spain fighter . With her mother's approval, she began a relationship with him. From then on, she didn't have to steal any more, as Dimanski supported her. He twice crossed Zilli off the list for gassing , presumably other women were killed in her place. “The gypsy camp was not far from the gas chamber. My child always came to me: “'Mom, Mom, the people back there are being burned.' Did I say: 'No ... that's where they bake bread.' 'No, mom, people put in there' ”, she knew that. With four or five years. "

Presumably in April 1944 the decision was made to murder the approximately 6,000 inmates of the gypsy camp "to make room". A first attempt at transport to the gas chambers on May 16 failed due to the resistance of those affected. On August 2, Zilli Reichmann was transferred to the Ravensbrück concentration camp with her cousin Tilla, not least because Mengele slapped her on the ear so that she jumped back into the wagon after she had jumped out again; so she owed him her life.

The following night, her parents, her sister "Gucki" and her seven children as well as Zilli Reichmann's four-year-old daughter Gretel and around 3,000 other people were gassed, including numerous relatives and friends of Zilli Reichmann. Her two brothers Otto and Stefan survived because, like Zilli, they had been transferred to a labor camp hours earlier. The cousin Katharina Strauss also survived the end of the war, her parents and her sister Maria with their children were also murdered in Auschwitz-Birkenau.

From August 3, 1944, Zilli Reichmann was in the Ravensbrück concentration camp, after which she was transferred to a satellite camp of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. There she was used as a forced laborer at the Arado aircraft factory in Wittenberg , where she had to turn sheet metal. On February 24, 1945, Zilli and her cousin Tilla managed to escape with the help of a civilian worker who had previously slipped them food. They fled to Berlin, where Zilli's uncle lived, and then back to Eger, where Zilli's brother Stefan was now living again.

Struggle for redress

As a result of the imprisonment in the camp, Zilli Reichmann fell ill with tuberculosis. In 1948 she married Anton Schmidt "the gypsy way", that is without a registry office . Anton Schmidt survived imprisonment in Neuengamme concentration camp . He was a professional musician - a cymbalist - and played in the group Romano. Zilli worked for the musicians as a cashier and also sold Persian carpets as a peddler .

Three applications for compensation had to be submitted separately: on "damage to freedom", "damage to body and health" and "damage to professional and economic advancement". In 1953, Zilli Reichmann applied for reparation for the imprisonment she had suffered, that is to say, “damage to freedom”. This was rejected because Himmler's deportation orders from 1942 related to “Gypsy hybrids” and “Rome-Gypsies”. She was not arrested on racial grounds because she was "purebred". This reasoning implied that Zilli Reichmann had been imprisoned because she was criminal or “work-shy”, an assessment that the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) confirmed in a landmark judgment in 1956. According to the federal judges, “Gypsies” were “generally perceived by the population as a nuisance” even before the Nazi era . The reason for arrest was therefore not “to persecute Gypsies precisely because of their race, but to protect the rest of society from their socially harmful actions based on peculiar group characteristics”.

The Compensation Office requested an extract from the criminal records, and Zilli Reichmann had to produce numerous documents, such as proof of her residence and stay in Auschwitz. The Bavarian State Criminal Police Office was brought in: the officer responsible was who had been involved in the deportations before 1945 and who spoke in a Nazi-influenced language in his statements. So it is the “illegal behavior of the land drivers” that “force” the authorities to put them in camps.

Another official, also involved in the persecution of Sinti and Roma before 1945, referred to the 1941 “race diagnosis”, which stated that the “Gypsies” had “certain racial characteristics in common with the Jews”. “Gypsy people” were taken into preventive detention in concentration camps during the Nazi era because of their “partly anti-social, partly criminal way of life”. “However, in contrast to the persecution of the Jews, racial persecution per se must be denied.” In conclusion, it was stated that it was “perfectly” that Zilli Reichmann was imprisoned in May 1942 as a “stray or work-shy” and thus “anti-social” .

Zilli Reichmann was awarded 3,900 marks in compensation, 150 marks per month in captivity. She sued against this and was awarded an additional payment of 750 marks by judgment; This decision was overturned by the Munich Higher Regional Court after an objection by the State Compensation Office with reference to the case law of the Federal Court of Justice from 1956. Five years later, the BGH revised its assessment, whereupon Zilli Reichmann received an additional payment of 1200 marks and an additional capital compensation of 6000 marks. Compensation in the matter of her daughter was refused because the child had never been within the borders of the German Reich. Zilli Reichmann: "Germans were allowed to kill Gretel, but they were not responsible for any compensation."

The proceedings for "harm to body and health" dragged on from 1956 to 1968. As a result of persecution and imprisonment, Zilli Reichmann suffers from numerous chronic ailments such as depression , sciatica and stomach problems , which she has been certified in several reports. Again an extract from the criminal record was obtained. Finally, the compensation office proposed a settlement on the basis of a minimum pension of 159 marks; She received a retroactive payment of 22,162 marks. The proceedings because of the “damage to professional and economic advancement” were refused in 1969, because her work in the family business was doubted and it was only an “occasional and insignificant work”. Zilli Reichmann's husband Anton had to face similar resistance in his applications.

Late years

Zilli Reichmann and Anton Schmidt first lived in Ludwigshafen , later in Mannheim . In 1970 they moved into a permanent apartment. The couple married on March 30, 1973. Anton Schmidt died in 1989. Zilli Reichmann lives in Mannheim again (as of 2019) after moving to Mülheim near her brother Otto after her husband's death . She was often out and about in the caravan with her family.

At the age of 90, Zilli Reichmann decided to report on her life as a contemporary witness at events. In 2016 the book The Zilli Reichmann Files was published , which describes her biography and the exclusion and persecution of Sinti and Roma.

Witness in court

From 1987 to 1991 a case against the former SS Rottenführer Ernst-August König , who had been a block leader in the "Gypsy Camp", took place before the Siegen Regional Court . In this trial, Zilli Reichmann appeared as a witness on February 23, 1988 , her husband Anton Schmidt was there as her support: "I was afraid to come here." She recognized the accused, as she said, "by his look". Among other things, she reported that König had a preference for a woman in the "gypsy camp" and shot her when he saw her sitting through a window on another man's bed. A few days later this woman died in the infirmary. During her testimony, she repeatedly burst into tears; the meeting had to be interrupted several times. König's defenders tried repeatedly to disconcert her and cast doubt on her memory. Behind her in the courtroom sat students who also cried at the end of their testimony.

Zilli Reichmann was not the only witness from the Sinti and Roma group in this trial. Many of their testimonies were interrupted because witnesses burst into tears, suddenly stormed out of the courtroom, or refused to answer defense attorneys' questions. Many of them clearly showed fear of the accused. King was convicted of multiple murders to life imprisonment and committed yet 1991 suicide .

Web links

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Haumann: The Zilli Reichmann files. Pp. 43-44.
  2. ↑ Karola Fings, Ulrich F. Sacrificial man: Lalleri. In: romarchive.eu. 2018, accessed July 19, 2020 .
  3. ^ A b Haumann: The Zilli Reichmann files. Pp. 46-47.
  4. ^ Haumann: The Zilli Reichmann files. Pp. 56-57.
  5. ^ Haumann: The Zilli Reichmann files. P. 76.
  6. ^ Haumann: The Zilli Reichmann files. Pp. 93-94.
  7. ^ A b Haumann: The Zilli Reichmann files. Pp. 94-95.
  8. ^ Haumann: The Zilli Reichmann files. Pp. 107-117.
  9. ^ Haumann: The Zilli Reichmann files. P. 122.
  10. ^ Haumann: The Zilli Reichmann files. Pp. 166-167.
  11. ^ A b Ernst-Ludwig von Aster: Zilli Reichmann on the Holocaust against Sinti and Roma - There is no remedy for the nightmare. In: Deutschlandfunk-Kultur-Broadcast "Studio 9". August 2, 2019, accessed on July 17, 2020 (also as mp3 audio ; 5 MB; 5:24 minutes).
  12. ^ Haumann: The Zilli Reichmann files. Pp. 172-173.
  13. ^ Haumann: The Zilli Reichmann files. P. 121.
  14. ^ Haumann: The Zilli Reichmann files. Pp. 187-188.
  15. ^ Haumann: The Zilli Reichmann files. Pp. 188-189.
  16. ^ Haumann: The Zilli Reichmann files. Pp. 193-194.
  17. ↑ BGH, U. v. 7.1.1956 - IV ZR 273/55
  18. ^ Haumann: The Zilli Reichmann files. Pp. 205-206.
  19. ^ Haumann: The Zilli Reichmann files. Pp. 214-215.
  20. ^ Haumann: The Zilli Reichmann files. Pp. 215-216.
  21. ^ Haumann: The Zilli Reichmann files. Pp. 219-220.
  22. ^ Haumann: The Zilli Reichmann files. Pp. 232-233.
  23. ↑ Ernst-Ludwig von Aster : The end of the "Auschwitz Gypsy Camp" - mass murder in August 1944. In: Deutschlandfunk-Kultur broadcast "Die Reportage". July 28, 2019, accessed on July 18, 2020 (also as mp3 audio ; 26.3 MB; 28:44 minutes).
  24. ↑ Susann von Lojewski: Sinti Zilli Schmidt: Holocaust survived, “so that I testify”. In: zdf.de . August 2, 2020, accessed August 3, 2020 .
  25. ^ Haumann: The Zilli Reichmann files. P. 241.
  26. ^ Haumann: The Zilli Reichmann files. Pp. 242-243.
personal data
SURNAME Reichmann, Zilli
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Reichmann, Cäcilie (real name); Schmidt, Zilli (married name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Sintezza and survivors of the Porajmos
DATE OF BIRTH July 10, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH Close to the bottom