On the night of August 2-3, 1944, old people, sick people and mothers with little children tried to oppose German soldiers. They had no luck; they all ended up in gas chambers constructed in the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. This marked the closure of the Gypsy family camp. Those who could still work had earlier been transferred to other Sinti camps.
During only that one night, about 4,300 persons were killed by SS. It was one of the bloodiest days within “Porajmos” – Sinti and Roma genocide in Europe. As a whole, Nazi Germany exterminated approximately 500 thousand members of Europe’s largest minority: within camps and ghettos, using gas or shooting squads; dying from hunger or diseases; compelled labor or medical experiments.
August 2nd has been proclaimed as “European Roma Holocaust Memorial Day” by European Union in 2015. At commemoration events held in 2024 on the occasion of 80th anniversary of this fatal night will gather last living survivors – representatives of the minority group along with politicians.
There is also going to be Bärbel Bas attending this ceremony at Bundestag which is a president for German lower house of parliament. She told DPA ahead of her arrival that “Many people are still unaware that there were persecuted Sinti and Roma under National Socialism. Therefore it is very important for me to speak about them at the European Holocaust Memorial Day – I want to help preserve memory about victims because they should not be forgotten”.
Holocaust survivor hopes history will not repeat itself
Christian Pfeil comes from a Romani background whose entire family survived the genocide when he was just two years old together with his parents and siblings; which he says is probably because unlike his other relatives, his own family did not make it into Auschwitz. Now eighty years old, he speaks about these persecutions whenever he gets the opportunity. “Otherwise, so many people would have died in vain,” he explained to DW.
Pfeil has talked to school kids, addressed the United Nations at International Holocaust Remembrance Day in New York and spoken to audiences in Berlin, Brussels and at Auschwitz Memorial where four of his great-uncle’s kids were killed. To honor them as well as other victims of Nazism in Pfeil’s hometown Trier, “Stolpersteine” or stumbling stones have been laid down.
Each plaque made of brass placed right into the pavement tells a story about one person who had been persecuted by Nazis, deported, murdered or driven to suicide. This is the largest dispersed memorial for the Holocaust throughout the globe that has come to be thanks to this private art project.
In his speech in Auschwitz Memorial in 2022, Pfeil pointed out: “I hope that future generations will be able to learn from history. And I pray not to see something like this again.”
He warns that “racist tendencies exist throughout Europe.” Antiziganism refers to racism against Sinti and Roma. Pfeil has a message for young people: “That is why you must stand up for democracy — and resolutely oppose antiziganism, antisemitism and racism. Visit the memorial sites and places of persecution and see what those people suffered through for yourselves.”
Born in a ghetto: hunger, cold and violence
Early in the morning on May 16, 1940, Pfeil’s parents along with all his siblings were forcefully moved out of their home. They were exiled from their birthplace Trier where his father had been engaged in the trade of tools. Eventually they were taken over by Germany which is under Polish occupation. His eldest sister Berta was twelve years old while his youngest brother Ludwig was just about three.
Pfeil was born early 1944 in Nazi built “Lublin Ghetto” which existed within occupied Poland. According to his parents as well as his siblings all the family members would starve and be made to labor forcefully; including false execution experiences. At night when SS officers celebrated, he always had to entertain them by music played by daddy who would later be given food leftovers after he does so. Everything that was done helped him feed these family members.
Baby Christian did not have clothes or even diapers on him at that time. She put her son Christian wrapped only with rags on her shoulder while she went down alongside his mother into the snow. Accordingly he explains how crying children were killed by SS men and camp guards. Mother afterwards told her son about her thoughts during those times -“I’d rather have you freeze to death with me than have the terrible people in the barracks kill you.”
Early in the morning on May 16, 1940, Pfeil’s parents along with all his siblings were forcefully moved out of their home. They were exiled from their birthplace Trier where his father had been engaged in the trade of tools. Eventually they were taken over by Germany which is under Polish occupation. His eldest sister Berta was twelve years old while his youngest brother Ludwig was just about three.
Pfeil was born early 1944 in Nazi built “Lublin Ghetto” which existed within occupied Poland. According to his parents as well as his siblings all the family members would starve and be made to labor forcefully; including false execution experiences. At night when SS officers celebrated, he always had to entertain them by music played by daddy. Who would later be given food leftovers after he does so. Everything that was done helped him feed these family members.
Baby Christian had no clothes or diapers. His mother would wrap him in rags and take him to the forced labor camp, setting him down on the ground next to her in the snow. He told us that if a child cried, even once, both the SS and guards would kill them. His mother later explained what she thought then: “I would rather you freeze with me than be killed by these terrible people living in this barrack.”
Auschwitz Memorial Visited by German Students
The lecture “It’s a miracle that we survived” was done by Christian Pfeil during April 2024 in Trier. It was organized by the “AG Frieden” club. The word “frieden” is translated as peace from Germany. The room was packed, many could not enter it at all. Two students from Auguste-Victoria-Gymnasium also came up on stage near Pfeil. They were at Auschwitz Memorial earlier this year.
Yannic Lange, a seventeen-year-old student, told DW that he grew significantly after his visit there. He described seeing prisoners’ personal belongings such as shoes, clothing and glasses and said that he was particularly struck by vast quantities of cut hair in one of the rooms: “How can someone not cry there…there are just so many emotions running through your body all at once…and something like that stays with you forever.”
In Trier they met Pfeil who talked about his family. After WWII ‘second persecution’ of Sinti and Roma.
The family returned to Trier after being freed from the Red Army camp. However, Christian Pfeil insists that discrimination and persecution didn’t end when WW II ended in1945. They including close relatives became seriously ill and unable to work thus forcing their family to totally depend on government. The same individuals who had been responsible for their deportation during Nazi era still remained employed within state agencies. In need of assistance, Pfeil’s family had to go begging to these officials. His father called them “Hitler heads.” It was not uncommon for Christian Pfeil to accompany him to their offices since his father could not read or write. Pfeil says “They were disappointed we were still alive.”
It wasn’t until 1982 that Germany finally acknowledged the racist genocide against the Sinti and Roma by the Nazis. In 2022, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier called what happened to the Sinti and Roma after World War II as the “second persecution”. He asked for their forgiveness.
Neufeindlichkeiten und neofaschistischer Gewalt trotzen
Pfeil recalls how he was being insulted personally at school, and every time something disappeared he would be under suspicion of stealing it. All the same, he never stopped striving: “I can’t settle for second best because I’m a Gypsy.”
As an adult, Pfeil worked as a singer and a trendy bar owner where famous musicians would play. Then he opened another restaurant at Trier South railway station which also became successful.
Then things turned ugly. In the 1990s Südwestfunk TV in Germany showed a film (with German subtitles). Where Pfeil sang a song in Romanes against Nazi dictatorship: “Heil Hitler Großdeutschland – nie wieder.” Following this film there were death threats and insults directed towards him.
His restaurant was vandalized and defaced with swastikas and SS lightning bolts. Pfeil renovated it and reopened it, but a second attack left it in ruins. “In Trier there are no rights of radicalism” the mayor of his hometown told him at that time.
“That’s when I lost my courage,” he says. After running a country inn for several years, Pfeil eventually returned to Trier where he received honorary citizenship in 2024.
Progress against antiziganism
A lot has changed since the 1990s. In Germany, there is now an Antiziganism Commissioner – Mehmet Daimagüler – who fights against racism on this ethnic minority’s behalf. He raises awareness about racist attitudes towards them and calls for legal reform. The federal government of Germany, along with state governments have established a standing commission on Sinti/Roma issues amongst other matters. Nevertheless, antiziganism is increasing.
The MIA reported more than 1,200 cases in 2023 alone; nearly twice as many as the previous year with dozens of them being extremely violent cases. Police were behind 80 instances of anti-Gypsy discrimination or violence in that same year alone. And two years ago (in 2024), a Sinti family from Trier complained about seeing swastikas on their door.
There have been many apartments constructed by Trier for various Sinti families. Beside Trier Cathedral stands a monument to the persecution of Sintis and Romas erected in 2012. Which serves as a start-point for tours around places of persecution organized by “Buntes Trier”.
At the commemoration ceremony marking the eightieth anniversary since May 16th 1944. When Sinti and Roma were deported by Nazis, Christian Kling had some advice. Which he stated as follows: “These who do not know their history will be forced to repeat it.”
What the Nazis did, he stressed, was against Germans. “80 years” is just a blink in human history,” he told DW.
However: History requires research. “If you look at Auschwitz or the persecution of Sinti and Roma, you’ll see that very little has actually been done so far,” said historian. Karola Fings from the University of Heidelberg Research Centre for Anti-Roma Racism in conversation with DW. Fings hopes this 80th anniversary will provide an opportunity to make amends for these omissions.
And so work began. Fings leads an international project called “Encyclopedia of the Nazi Genocide against Europe’s Sinti and Roma.” The web-based reference is expected to reach 1000 articles in German and English. It tells about places of crime, life stories, and persecution of Sinti and Roma all over Europe.
