Margarethe Kraus

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.

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

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. 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. Shackle, Samira (30 October 2019). "Roma Holocaust: Amid rising hate, 'forgotten' victims remembered". www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  4. "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. "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. 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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