Margarete Kraus
Born16 December 1928[1]
Died20 December 2005(2005-12-20) (aged 77)
Known forSurvivor of the Roma Holocaust

Margarete Kraus (16 December 1928 – 20 December 2005) was a Roma woman who was persecuted during the Porajmos, imprisoned at Auschwitz and Ravensbruck. Her experience was recorded in later life by the photographer Reimar Gilsenbach.

Biography

Whilst little is known about Kraus' early life, what is known is that she was a young woman of Roma origin, who was living in Czechoslovakia with her family prior to their deportation to Auschwitz in 1943.[2][3] Roma and Sinti people were persecuted during the Holocaust and Kraus family were part of the 500,000 who were murdered in the Romani genocide.[4] Kraus was deported to Auschwitz in 1943, aged 13, alongside her family; they were held in what became known as the Gypsy family camp.[4][5][3][1] She was subjected to medical experimentation during her internment.[1] She suffered extreme abuse and deprivation, and also contracted typhus.[6] Her parents were murdered in Auschwitz, and she was subsequently moved to Ravensbruck where she was used for forced labour.[4]

In 1966, Kraus was photographed by journalist Reimar Gilsenbach (it) in the German Democratic Republic.[7] She posed at the window of her caravan and the tattoo she was marked with at Auschwitz is clearly visible on her left arm.[7][8] She told Gilsenbach that her parents were both murdered in Auschwitz and that she was then transferred to the Ravensbrück concentration camp where she worked as a slave.[4] However, she did not mention the medical experimentation she endured.[4]

Legacy

Kraus was featured in the 2019 exhibition Forgotten Victims: The Nazi Genocide of the Roma and Sinti at the Wiener Holocaust Library in London.[9] The exhibition highlighted the persecution of Roma and Sinti communities and the murder of 500,000 people, termed Porajmos in Romani.[6]

References

  1. ^ a b c Katz, Brigit (8 November 2019). "London Library Spotlights Nazi Persecution of the Roma and Sinti". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  2. ^ Trilling, Daniel (17 January 2020). "Daniel Trilling | At the Wiener Holocaust Library · LRB 17 January 2020". LRB Blog. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  3. ^ a b Shackle, Samira (30 October 2019). "Roma Holocaust: Amid rising hate, 'forgotten' victims remembered". www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  4. ^ a b c d e "The Persecution of the Roma Is Often Left Out of the Holocaust Story. Victims' Families Are Fighting to Change That". Time. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  5. ^ "We must speak up for the Roma, the 'forgotten' victims". The Jewish Chronicle. 30 October 2019. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  6. ^ a b "The Wiener Holocaust Library's new exhibition: 'Forgotten Victims: The Nazi Genocide of the Roma & Sinti'". OHRH. 11 October 2019. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  7. ^ a b Moss, Richard (31 October 2019). "The Wiener Holocaust Library tells the tragic story of the Roma and Sinti Holocaust". Museum Crush. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  8. ^ "Forgotten Victims: The Nazi Genocide of the Roma and Sinti". The Wiener Holocaust Library. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  9. ^ Hines, Nico (17 November 2019). "Forgotten Genocide: How a Quarter of Europe's Roma Were Murdered by the Nazis, then Erased From History". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
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