The Heart Of A Gypsy

by Roberta Kagan

  However millions of Roma were caught and killed or taken to the gypsy camps.

  On the June 6, 1944, the Allies invaded Normandy. The Nazis, determined to rid the world of what they considered unsavory elements, sped up the extermination process at the concentration camps. The two crematoriums at Auschwitz were running day and night in an effort to complete this task. Jews were brought in by the trainload, and sent immediately to the gas chambers, then cremated. In the background, a band of prisoners was forced to play; often they were a group of gypsy violinists. The music was played not only to entertain the guards, but also to help keep the prisoners calm on their march to their death.

  Heinrich Himmler was invited to visit the gypsy camp at Auschwitz. As the gypsies were considered Aryans, and not Jews, they were treated differently, although they were still considered to be an inferior people. Because they were allowed to stay with their families, the gypsy camp at Auschwitz was filled with music and dancing, even though the people were starving and riddled with disease. Himmler knew that Hitler was planning a visit, and to insure he would be entertained, new musical instruments were ordered for the Romany Orchestra.

  Dr. Mengele, who also worked at the camp, doing much of his sadistic experimentation on gypsy children, with a special interest in twins, also wanted to make a good impression on Hitler. He planned to show the Fuerher his successful use of human subjects as guinea pigs.

  But when Himmler arrived to inspect the concentration camp before Hitler’s visit, he walked through the camp and found a huge number of people in the hospital. A disease called noma, or water cancer, was very prevalent among the prisoners, especially the Romany. This illness has repugnant symptoms: sores filled with yellow pus form inside the mouth. Then the disease rots the skin of the cheeks and jaw away. Noma is caused by lack of protein and unsanitary water conditions. When Himmler saw the gypsy prisoners inflicted with this horrific disease, he was repulsed, and decided to cancel Hitler’s visit and to exterminate everyone in the gypsy camp.

  After the extermination of many Jewish men, women, and children, on August 1, 1944, a mass extermination of gypsies took place at Auschwitz. On Himmler’s orders, the Nazis killed every gypsy in the hospital, the kindergarten and all of the barracks. By the time that the night had passed, 4,000 gypsies had been murdered.

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