In Camp Section BIIe of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp, a register was kept of the Sinti and Roma deported there from 26 March 1943 onwards, which is known as the ‘General Ledger of the Gypsy Camp’. It is the most important source of information about the identity of the inmates and their death or survival. It is also one of the key written records of the genocide of the Sinti and Roma. The surviving original is held in the archives of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Oświęcim, Poland.
Three Volumes
The Sinti and Roma who were deported on the basis of the Auschwitz Decree were not entered in the general camp register. Instead, a separate register was created for the prisoners in Camp Section BIIe. The ‘General Ledger of the Gypsy Camp’ consisted of three volumes: Male Sinti and Roma were recorded in one volume and female Sinti and Roma in two other volumes.1Hereafter after Parcer, “Introduction”, XXXI f; Czech, Kalendarium, 423. The ‘Men’s Book’ comprises 300 lined pages listing boys and men under the numbers Z-1 to Z-10094. In addition to the first column for the prisoner numbers, there are columns for information on: prisoner type,2Abbreviations for ‘Zigeuner’ (such as ‘Z’ or ‘Zig’) and for nationality were usually entered in this column. surname, first name, date of birth, place of birth, religion, marital status, occupation, date of admission, remarks and date of remarks.
While this information is densely packed on one sheet in the ‘Men’s Book’, the information in the ‘Women’s Book’ extends over two sheets, resulting in two volumes totalling 702 pages. The ‘Women’s Book’ contains numbers from Z-1 to Z-10849. The columns provided are almost identical to those in the ‘Men’s Book’, although neither religion nor marital status were recorded for the girls and women and the additional column ‘address’ was never filled in.
Registration Practice
The registration of the Sinti and Roma deportees was part of a degrading admission procedure in the camp. It appears that it did not always take place in the same building; according to survivors, it took place partly in the Auschwitz main camp and partly in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Some deportees were registered immediately before being sent to Camp Section BIIe, others only after a few days in BIIe. Considering that 12,259 Sinti and Roma had already arrived in Auschwitz-Birkenau by the end of March 1943,3Czech, Kalendarium, 455. when the construction of Camp Section BIIe had not yet been completed, it is easy to imagine the chaotic circumstances under which the registrations took place.
Many survivors—including the German Sinto Walter ‘Stanoski’ Winter (1919–2012), who arrived in Auschwitz on 14 March 1943–remember the moment of registration as a profound turning point in their lives, especially as it was directly linked to the tattooing of the prisoner number on their skin: ‘We all had to go into a block and line up again in rows of two. On one side, someone sat at a table and filled out lists. We had to step forward individually. “Name?”, “Date of birth?”, “Born where?” Everything was entered. Then you had to step to the other side and were given a number. You had to expose your left arm. The number was tattooed on the forearm. The SS had this done by prisoners. You were reduced to a number in a matter of minutes. The tattoo hardly caused any pain on the skin, but the pain in the soul lasted a lifetime from that moment on.’4Guth, Z 3105, 66f. Jan Kwiatkowski (1931–unknown), a Polish Roma who was transferred to Auschwitz by the Katowice criminal police on 30 March 1943,5Arolsen Archives, 1.1.5.3/87398552/ITS Digital Archive, Personal File of Kwiatkowski, Jan, born in the year 1931. remembers that he was first sent to Camp Section BIIe and then tattooed with a prisoner number two or three days later.6Archive of the Auschwitz Birkenau State Museum (Polish: Państwowe Muzeum Auschwitz-Birkenau, APMO), Reports, vol. 3, 399–400, cited in Kapralski et al., Roma in Auschwitz, 73.
The Polish political prisoner Tadeusz Joachimowski (1908–1979) testified that he and other prisoners were sent to Camp Section BIIe on 20 March 1943 to fill out an index card for each person brought in over the course of three days. These index cards contained details that went beyond the information recorded in the register, such as the place of deportation, family members, membership of the Wehrmacht and any military honours. According to Joachimowski, the deported Sinti and Roma had to line up in front of their prisoner blocks from morning to evening until this procedure was completed.7APMO, Reports, vol. 13, 56–80, cited in Kapralski et al., Roma in Auschwitz, 100.
Prisoners were seconded to carry out the ongoing clerical work. They worked either in the blocks (i.e. the individual barracks) as block clerks [Blockschreiber] or in the Schreibstube [clerical office], where all the information was collated. These prisoner clerks [Häftlingsschreiber] in Camp Section BIIe initially came from the ranks of other prisoners in Auschwitz; later, Sinti and Roma were also entrusted with such tasks. As far as is known, Tadeusz Joachimowski was the prisoner who held such a position in Camp Section BIIe for the longest period of time: from March 1943, initially as one of the prisoner clerks in the Schreibstube and from May 1944 as the main clerk, so-called reporting clerk [Rapportschreiber].8Cf. the transcript of a witness examination of Tadeusz Joachimowski before the District Commission for the Investigation of Hitlerist Crimes in Krakow, 2 July 1968, printed in Geigges et al., Zigeuner heute, pp. 284–288. As Rapportschreiber, Joachimowski was responsible for the report on the prisoner status to the SS camp administration. According to the detailed floor plan, which was drawn up after 1945 on the basis of Joachimowski’s information, the Schreibstube of Camp Section BIIe was located in Block 2, i.e. directly in the entrance area.9Cf. the plan in Kapralski et al., Roma in Auschwitz, 116–117; Smoleń, “Das Schicksal”, 147, also locates the Schreibstube there.
After the large transports had been processed, smaller groups of Sinti and Roma were repeatedly deported, especially in 1944. The camp administration of the SS [Schutzstaffel] seems to have carefully registered them in the Auschwitz main camp, especially when the transports were accompanied by civilians. This is suggested by a report by the Polish political prisoner Kazimierz Smoleń (1920–2012), who had already been sent to Auschwitz in 1940 and was employed there as a prisoner clerk. Smoleń described the handover of Sinti and Roma children by nurses from the National Socialist People’s Welfare Organisation [NS-Volkswohlfahrt] in the main camp.10APMO, Reports, vol. 76, 186, cited in Kapralski et al., Roma in Auschwitz, 79.
Insights into the Murderous Conditions
The position of prisoner clerk gave inmates a better chance of survival, as they were less exposed to the everyday violence of the SS guards, the physically demanding forced labour and the weather conditions in the camp. At the same time, this work meant that they gained a deep insight into what went on in the camp. The Sintiza Elisabeth Guttenberger (1926–2024) reported: ‘After about half a year in prison, I was sent to the prisoners’ clerical office. There I had to keep the ledger for the men in our camp. Every day I had to enter in this book the death notifications that came from the infirmary to the typing pool. There were thousands that I entered in the book based on these reports.’11Elisabeth Guttenberger, in: Adler et al., Auschwitz. Zeugnisse und Berichte, 129–132, citation 131. It is reported elsewhere that one day Elisabeth Guttenberger had to record the death of her own father.12Elisabeth Guttenberger, in: Memorial Book, Vol. 2, 1497–1498, here 1498.
In one of his testimonies, Tadeusz Joachimowski described how the ‘General Ledger’ was also used by the SS camp administration to conceal crimes. For example, on 25 May 1943, 1,033 Sinti and Roma fell victim to a selection by SS doctor Josef Mengele (1911–1978) and were murdered in the gas chambers. In the ‘Men’s Book’, different death dates were entered for these victims for a period between 25 May and 3 June 1943; for the women, ‘SB’ for ‘special treatment’ or a cross with a date between 26 May and 11 June 1943 were noted.13Cf. Parcer, “Introduction”, XXXIII; Czech, Kalendarium, 503 f.
The prisoner clerks who survived were important witnesses in the judicial prosecution of Nazi crimes. For example, both Elisabeth Guttenberger and Paul Morgenstern (1910–unknown) were witnesses for the prosecution during the first Auschwitz trial in Frankfurt am Main.14For Paul Morgenstern, see https://www.auschwitz-prozess.de/zeugenaussagen/Morgenstern-Paul/ [accessed: 23/01/2025]. Elisabeth Guttenberger was questioned by the public prosecutor’s office, but was unable to attend the trial in person due to illness. See Stengel, “Bezweifelte Glaubwürdigkeit”, 449–453. Tadeusz Joachimowski also made himself available as a witness and reported on the medical crimes committed by Mengele against twin children in Camp Section BIIe.15Cf. endnote 8. Joachimowski was also the key witness for the SS attempts to murder the inmates of Camp Section BIIe in the spring of 1944 and for the related acts of resistance by those affected, often dated 16 May 1944.
Tradition
It is also thanks to Tadeusz Joachimowski that the ‘General Ledger’ has been preserved for posterity. In July 1944—in all probability after 21 July 1944, the date of the last entries in the ‘Women’s Book’—the three volumes of the register were wrapped in clothing and hidden in a zinc bucket sealed with a wooden lid.16Here and in the following after Czech, Kalendarium, 423, 826; Parcer, “Introduction”, XXXI. Joachimowski and the Polish political prisoners Ireneusz Pietrzyk (1913–unknown) and Henryk Porębski (1911–unknown) had reportedly learned that the murder of the Sinti and Roma was imminent and buried the bucket on the grounds of Camp Section BIIe between Block 31 and the fence to Section BIId. In the presence of Joachimowski, employees of the State Museum, which was founded in 1947, dug up the zinc bucket again on 13 January 1949.
It turned out that the three volumes had been preserved, but were damaged by moisture. Many entries that had been made in ink or pencil were illegible and some parts were completely destroyed. The individual pages of the volumes were shrink-wrapped in the 1960s and are still kept in this form in the archives of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.
Cataloguing and Publication
In 1991, the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum began computerising the archival records. In this context, the memorial created a database based on the ‘General Ledger’ in co-operation with the Max Planck Institute for History in Göttingen. The source was deciphered over a period of several months, in some cases using more legible copies from the 1950s.17Here and in the following after ibid., XXXII.
According to Jan Parcer (born 1956), then deputy director of the memorial’s archive, it was suggested during a scholarly symposium in December of the same year that the results be published. Completed in two volumes (Vol. 1: Women, Vol. 2: Men) for the 50th anniversary of the Auschwitz Decree and published in 1993, the ‘Memorial Book’ was published by the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in cooperation with the Documentation and Cultural Centre of German Sinti and Roma, Heidelberg. The entries from the ‘General Ledger’ are reproduced in tabular form and based on the original pagination, while introductory articles and appendices (such as reports by survivors) are printed in Polish, German and English.
To this day, this publication is the best way to gain an overall impression of the data processed at the time and to analyse the ‘General Ledger’ for various purposes. The source itself is not available on the Auschwitz Memorial website. However, the data has been included in the prisoner database maintained by the memorial and accessible online. Scans of the ‘General Ledger’—some of which are difficult to read—can be found on the website of the Arolsen Archives. 18Arolsen Archives, 1.1.2, Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp, OCC 2/87, folders 155 and 156, General ledgers of the so-called ‘Zigeunerlager’ of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp (1943-1944): Male prisoners (number series 1–10094): https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/archive/1-1-2-1_2204001; Female prisoners (number series 1–10849): https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/archive/1-1-2-1_2204002 [accessed: 23/01/2025].
Source Value
In view of the SS’s attempts from summer 1944 onwards to destroy not only the witnesses, but all traces of their crimes—including the camp documents as well as the gas chambers—the source value of the ‘General Ledger’ cannot be overestimated. However, given the nature of the source, the data quality of the printed ‘Memorial Book’ needs to be approached critically. For one thing, the physical damage to the original, which led to the irretrievable loss of some information, must be taken into account. This applies to entire pages on which names could not be deciphered, but in particular to the comments entered on the right-hand side of the pages, in which death dates, transfers to other camp areas or even transfers to other concentration camps were recorded.19Parcer, “Introduction”, XXXI f.
Moreover, the entries made in 1943 and 1944 not only contain large gaps in the various columns, but also numerous misspellings of personal and place names as well as dates of birth. As all the information contained in the ‘General Ledger’ was transferred to the database as it appeared in the source text, these misspellings can also be found in the printed ‘Memorial Book’; among other things, this makes the identification of individual victims difficult. With the help of the index of persons and places (volume 2, pages 1333–1465) included in the ‘Memorial Book’, it is nevertheless possible to carry out targeted searches. It should also be noted that there must have been an unknown number of Sinti and Roma who were sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau after the ‘General Ledger’ was buried. This is suggested by the registration of a woman named Albine Weiss in the women’s camp in Birkenau, who was assigned the number Z-10888, while the ‘Women’s Book’ of Camp Section BIIe ends with the number Z-10849.20APMO, D-AuII-3/1, p. 87, extract from the book of block 22b in the women’s camp, printed in Memorial Book, vol. 2, 1605. It is also known that around 23 March 1943, 1,700 children, women and men from the Bialystok region were murdered in the gas chambers without having been registered in the ‘General Ledger’ beforehand.21Czech, Kalendarium, 448.
The recording of the information preserved in the ‘General Ledger’ and the publication of the ‘Memorial Book’ were nevertheless a pioneering achievement. In combination with the ‘Calendar of Events in the Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp 1939–1945’ compiled by Danuta Czech on behalf of the memorial site since 1957, individual transports can be identified and dated, for example. Based on the data in the ‘General Ledger’, statistics were published in 1993 on the nationality of the deported Sinti and Roma, the number of those deported in 1943 and 1944, mortality and occupations,22Memorial Book, vol. 2, 1469–1480. and in 1994 on the babies born in the camp, the average age at deportation and the age at departure from the camp.23Parcer et al, “Die Analyse der erhaltenen Dokumente”, 209–216.
Jan Parcer, who was responsible for editing the ‘Memorial Book’, pointed out in his introduction some possibilities for improving the quality of the data. This included the supplementary evaluation of other sources in the archive, in particular the registers of deaths [Sterbebücher], which were taken to the Soviet Union by Red Army soldiers in 1945 and only came into the possession of the memorial in 1992.24Parcer, “Introduction”, XXXII. However, there seems not yet to have been a systematic and significant expansion of the source base for knowledge about the Sinti and Roma deported to the BIIe camp area. To this day, publications on this group of victims therefore rely on the data collected more than 30 years ago, problematic as these sources are.
Just how necessary and productive further research can be was recently demonstrated by the investigation into the last months of the ‘Gypsy camp’ which was carried out by Helena Kubica (born 1954) and Piotr Setkiewicz (born 1963), both historians at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. In 2018, they corrected the number of 2,897 Sinti and Roma from Camp Section BIIe who were murdered on the night of 2 to 3 August 1944, which had been held for many years, to between 4,200 and 4,300.25Kubica et al., “The Last Stage”, 15.
