The Uprising in Auschwitz

Untold - a digital companion to the exhibition
The Uprising in Auschwitz

On the evening of May 16, 1944, SS soldiers surrounded the Roma section of Auschwitz-Birkenau to transport the Sinti and Roma to the camp's gas chambers.
The SS leadership in Auschwitz had decided that the entire Roma section was to be emptied, and the people murdered. However, the prisoners refused to leave their barracks and defended themselves with simple improvised weapons. The SS halted the operation and postponed it to a later date.
The resistance on May 16 led to around a thousand Sinti and Roma being transferred to other concentration camps, thereby escaping death in the gas chambers.

The Roma section in Auschwitz-Birkenau  

In December 1942, SS Chief Heinrich Himmler issued an order: that most Sinti and Roma people in Nazi Germany were to be deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. A special Roma section was set up in the camp in the spring of 1943, and Roma deported from many other occupied countries ended up here. Around 23,000 Sinti and Roma people passed through the section, of whom about 6,000 were children under 14 years of age. 

The Roma groups sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau had a Z (for “Zigeuner” – gypsy) and their prisoner numbers tattooed on their arms. They were forced to wear a black triangle on their clothing, the symbol of the prisoner group termed “asocial” by the Nazis. 

Unlike most other prisoners in Auschwitz-Birkenau, men, women and children were all mixed in together in the Roma section. Conditions there were dreadful. Starvation, overcrowding and unsanitary conditions led to the deaths of more than half of the 21,000 or so people.  The others were murdered in the camp’s gas chambers or died due to violence and punishment of various kinds.  

Barracks in Asuschwitz-Birkenau. Photo: The State Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau in Oświęcim

The Roma uprising in Auschwitz-Birkenau

On the evening of 16 May, the SS imposed a curfew in the Roma section. The camp leaders had made the decision to murder the 6,500 or so Sinti and Roma people in the section. SS soldiers armed with automatic weapons entered the section on lorries and ordered the prisoners out of their barracks. 

Instead of obeying orders, the prisoners barricaded themselves. They had decided to resist armed with knives, various tools and rocks, refusing to come out. The SS soldiers were surprised by the prisoners’ behaviour and were ordered to leave the section. 

The prisoners had been warned by Tadeusz Joachimowski, a Polish political prisoner living in the Roma section, who was working as a clerk. He had found out that Sinti and Roma people were to be taken to the gas chambers and decided to pass on this information to his fellow prisoners.  

Tadeusz Joachimowski  

Tadeusz Joachimowski (1908–1979) was a Polish political prisoner in Auschwitz. In March 1943, he was transferred to the newly established Roma section and tasked with registering all the Sinti and Roma people there. On 15 May 1944, Tadeusz found out that the Roma section was to be liquidated and that all Sinti and Roma were to be murdered the following day. He passed on this information to the prisoners he had befriended in the section.   

In late July 1944, Tadeusz and two other prisoners stole the register books for the Roma section and managed to bury them in secret. Tadeusz went on to identify the site in 1949, and these books are now valuable documents evidencing the imprisonment of Sinti and Roma people in Auschwitz-Birkenau.  

September 2, 1944

After the Sinti and Roma uprising at Auschwitz-Birkenau on 16 May 1944, the SS strategy involved transferring able-bodied men and women to other concentration camps in Nazi Germany. 
In the end, the Roma section was almost entirely made up of children, the sick and the elderly, who lacked the same ability to resist. On the evening of the second of August 1944, the SS imposed a strict curfew in the Roma section and heavily armed SS soldiers arrived in lorries. The 4,300 or so remaining Sinti and Roma people were forced out of their barracks loaded onto the lorries. 
According to eyewitness statements from other prisoners, the SS told the Roma groups they would be going to other camps, but as soon as the prisoners realised what was really happening, they began to resist as best they could. But the SS soldiers overpowered them. Shortly after midnight, all of the 4,300 or so Sinti and Roma people were taken to gas chamber 5, where they were gassed and cremated in pits.  

Photo: The block where Roma was held is highlighted in yellow.