Commemoration

“… arrested, taken to Auschwitz camp…” – Commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the deportation of Sinti and Roma from Magdeburg to Auschwitz-Birkenau

2 March 2023
3 pm

Dom-Remter

in Dom St. Katharina and St. Mauritius
Am Dom 1
39104 Magdeburg

Organizer

Saxony-Anhalt State Agency for Civic Education
Municipal Archives Dessau-Roßlau
Menda Yek e.V.

Download the invitation as a PDF file

Commemoration on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the deportation of Sinti and Roma from Magdeburg to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

More than 300 people belonging to the Sinti and Roma minorities were deported from Magdeburg to Auschwitz by the Secret State Police and the Criminal Police on 2 March 1943. These men, women and children were among the first Sinti and Roma to be forced into the so-called “Gypsy family camp” in Auschwitz-Birkenau on the basis of Heinrich Himmler’s decree of 16 December 1942.

As early as spring 1935, the city of Magdeburg had set up the so-called “Gypsy camp on Holzweg”, an internment camp where Sinti and Roma were subjected to inhumane living conditions. Magdeburg companies and the city administration exploited the forced labourers as cheap labour. The situation of the internees there worsened at the beginning of 1938 when over 70 Sinti from Dessau-Roßlau/Anhalt were deported there. From June 1938 onwards, the Magdeburg criminal police delivered first a group of men, then also some women, to concentration camps.

Only a few of the Central German Sinti and Roma survived the National Socialist genocide of these minorities. Together with relatives of persecuted and murdered Sinti, we want to remember the victims and invite you to participate in the commemoration.

Program

Musical prelude

Romani Weiss (Guitar)
Manolito Steinbach (Guitar)
Martin Weiss (Violin)

Greeting

Maik Reichel, Director of the Saxony-Anhalt State Agency for Civic Education

Commemorative Speech

Ronni Krug, Alderman of the State Capital Magdeburg

Music

Speeches by relatives of deported Sinti

Mario Franz, Niedersächsischer Verband deutscher Sinti e.V.
Verena Sekanina and Margitta Steinbach, Menda Yek e.V.

Music

Prayer

Friedrich Kramer, Regional Bishop of the Evangelical Church in Central Germany

Silent walk to the memorial for the persecuted and murdered Magdeburg Sinti and Roma

Laying of the wreath and reading of the names

Against 4.45 pm end

Moderation

Jana Müller, Dessau-Roßlau Municipal Archive

Admission to the commemoration ceremony is free