Audiovisual presentation of Block 13

This video presents the context of the permanent exhibition on the genocide of Sinti and Roma in Nazi occupied Europe, which is based in Block 13 at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. The video shows how the exhibition highlights – through a unique collection of family photos and documents – a normality of every-day life between neighbours in various European states. The exhibition illustrates how this normality was gradually destroyed by the Nazi regime. On the basis of racial ideology, Sinti and Roma, just like the Jews, were gradually disenfranchised, deprived of their livelihoods and finally deported to the extermination camps. 500,000 Sinti and Roma were murdered in Nazi occupied Europe.

Duration: 3 minutes

Narration

In 2001, an exhibition on the history of the Holocaust against the Sinti and Roma was opened on the grounds of the Auschwitz main camp, which have since been converted into a museum.

The exhibition is divided into two rooms. At the beginning of the exhibition, the visitor symbolically leaves the historical site of the memorial and enters the core room of the exhibition. Here the life of Sinti and Roma before the persecution by the Nazi-Regime is shown. Sinti and Roma were integrated into social life before 1933 as neighbors or work colleagues. Many had fought as soldiers in the First World War and had been highly decorated. They were citizens of the nations in which they and their ancestors had lived for centuries. The family photos and documents shown in the exhibition underline the normality of every-day life between neighbors in various European states.

The exhibition illustrates how this normality was gradually destroyed by the Nazi regime. On the basis of racial ideology, Sinti and Roma, just like the Jews, were gradually disenfranchised, deprived of their livelihoods and finally deported to the extermination camps. 500,000 Sinti and Roma were murdered in Nazi occupied Europe.

The exhibition could only be realized through the support of numerous survivors of the Holocaust of Sinti and Roma. For this exhibition they entrusted the Documentation and Cultural Centre of German Sinti and Roma with their private family pictures.

Production and Copyright: The video was realized by the Documentation and Cultural Centre of German Sinti and Roma in cooperation with the Association of Roma in Poland, and thanks to the support of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.