From August 1940 until the evacuation of the camp complex in January 1945, there was a so-called penal company at the Auschwitz concentration camp, to which more than 6,000 male prisoners were assigned over the course of its existence. These men were housed separately from other inmates and had to perform extremely hard physical labour. Many did not survive the ordeal, which lasted several weeks or months. Among the prisoners in the penal company were Sinti and Roma.
Accommodation and Prisoners
Initially, the penal company was located in Block 3a of the Auschwitz main camp, later in Block 11. In May 1942, the SS (Schutzstaffel) transferred the penal company to Birkenau (Auschwitz II). The prisoners were housed in Camp Section BIb, where a mass escape attempt led to the murder of more than 350 prisoners. From July 1942 onwards, the penal company operated in Camp Section BIId.
Assignment to the penal company, originally established to punish Catholic priests and Jewish prisoners, ultimately became one of the most severe punishments in Auschwitz and could affect any prisoner. Non-Jewish Poles in particular, but also inmates of other nationalities, and especially Jewish prisoners, were assigned to the penal company. Reasons for transfer to the company could include escape attempts, contact with civilians, illegal possession of food or money, and resistance to the camp regime. The SS guards had broad discretion to order such punishment.
From 26 June 1942, there was a penal company set up specifically for women in the Budy satellite camp, which belonged organisationally to the women’s section of the main camp. In the spring of 1943, the penal company for women was transferred to Auschwitz-Birkenau (camp section BI). On the basis of current research, it is not known whether there were Sinti or Roma women in this penal company.
Everyday Life
A detailed report on the conditions in the penal company for men and the violence the prisoners suffered there was published by the former Polish political prisoner Józef Kret (1895–1982) in the ‘Hefte von Auschwitz’ (Auschwitz Notebooks) as early as 1959. He was assigned to the penal company from May to July 1942 because he had been accused of making contact with Polish civilians. Upon arrival in the penal company, the prisoners were beaten, and their accommodation and food were even more miserable than in other camp sections. The prisoners had to wear an identifying badge on their clothing that consisted of a black dot surrounded by a black ring.
The days in the penal company were dominated by hard physical labour, which had to be carried out at a run until the point of complete exhaustion, often accompanied abuse from SS guards and prisoner functionaries. On the Birkenau site, the prisoners had to dig a drainage ditch, shifting earth on marshy ground. Many did not survive—every day, the penal company returned to their quarters with a cart full of corpses. According to Kret, every day was a ‘balancing act between death and life’.1Kret, „Ein Tag in der Strafkompanie,“ 43. Extremely high death rates are documented, especially for the years 1940 to 1942.
Sinti and Roma
Incomplete sources make it impossible to determine how many Sinti and Roma were sent to the penal company. All that has survived is a ‘Penal Company Book’ containing entries for the period from 19 July 1943 to 24 November 1944.2Arolsen Archives, 1.1.2.1., Auschwitz Concentration and Extermination Camp, List of prisoners, the penal detail, March 1943 to November 1944. In addition to a serial number, the prisoner numbers, the date of admission, surname, first name and date of birth, the length of the sentence imposed and the dates of actual stay in the penal company were recorded. Another column contains comments on either the execution of the sentence, the further whereabouts of the prisoner or a date of death. In total, the names of 1,052 prisoners can be found in the book, 17 of whom were sent to the penal company twice.
This source lists 76 Sinti and Roma who were punished with assignment to the penal company between 25 July 1943 and 5 July 1944. One of them, Willy Ernst (1914–unknown), was assigned to the penal company twice.3The literature often states incorrectly that 77 Sinti and Roma are listed in the penal company‘s book. Another five Sinti and Roma were also transferred to the penal company from detention in Block 11 (‘Bunker’) of the main camp on 6 June 1943. Their names are listed in Volume II of the ‘Bunker Book’.
The 81 prisoners identified in this way are exclusively Sinti or Roma who were sent to Camp Section BIIe in Auschwitz-Birkenau from the spring of 1943 onwards under the ‘Auschwitz Decree’. There were others who had to endure the penal company before and after the period covered by the existing camp documents, but in the current state of research it is not possible to name them. The presence of Roma in the penal company at an earlier date is attested to, for example, by the Polish political prisoner August Kowalczyk (1921–2012) with the following words: ‘At that time [in May 1942], there were several Gypsies in the penal company. One of the Kapos hated them particularly. He called them “N*****s” and killed them as if they were rats’.4Archive of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, Reports Collection, vol. 132, no. 50. Quoted from Die Vernichtung der europäischen Roma im KL Auschwitz, 32.
What the Sources Reveal
To date, there is one known testimony from a Sinto who was sent to the penal battalion. This is the testimony of Willi Weiß (1924–after 1986), which he gave during the trial of Ernst-August König (1919–1991). Weiß mentioned that he was punished for handing a woman a few potatoes from the window of the camp kitchen. No further details about his six weeks in the penal company have been recorded, as the interrogators did not ask about them.5Bundesarchiv [Federal Archives], B 165-40686, Witness interview with Willi Weiß, Frankenthal, 9 September 1986. I would like to thank Lara Raabe for this information.
Since there are no other known reports from surviving Sinti and Roma about the penal company, we can draw a sketch of this group of victims based on data collected from the sources cited above. The oldest person among the Sinti and Roma to be sent to the penal company was Wenzel Petruzilka, born in 1886 and sent to Auschwitz by the criminal police in Prague, Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. He died in the penal company on 14 December 1943 at the age of 57. The youngest among the Sinti and Roma was Rigo Dombrowski, born in Königsberg in 1927. He also did not survive the torments of the penal company: he died on 13 June 1944 at the age of 17.
As far as the nationality of the 81 prisoners is concerned, there were one Belgian, one Frenchman, one stateless person, eleven Austrians, 20 Germans and 47 men from Bohemia and Moravia. The prisoners were sent to the penal company for several weeks or months, but in the majority of cases for an indefinite period (‘until further notice’).
The majority of the Sinti and Roma did not survive. Thirty-six died in the penal company, and six died after their release in Camp Section BIIe.6The names and dates of death of these victims are printed in Parcer and Grotum, „Die Analyse der erhaltenen Dokumente,“ 220 f. While there are no records of what happened to another seven prisoners, 32 men who had previously been in the penal company were transferred to Buchenwald concentration camp or, in the case of two of them, to Ravensbrück concentration camp after their release in either April or August 1944.
It should be noted that the death rate among Sinti and Roma in the penal company was disproportionately high. While the overall death rate of all prisoners listed in the ‘Penal Company Book’ was nine per cent (95 deaths among 1,052 prisoners),7Grotum and Jan Parcer, „EDV-gestützte Auswertung der Sterbeeinträge,“ 233. it was 44 per cent among Sinti and Roma (36 deaths among 81 prisoners). It is also remarkable that all three victims who were ‘shot while attempting to escape’ during the period covered by the ‘Penal Company Book’ were Sinti or Roma.8Information about a total of three escapes documented in the ‘Penal Company Book’ in ibid. For the names of the victims, see below.
Suppression of Resistance
The average age of the Sinti and Roma sent to the penal company was 30.5 years. This means that they were younger but already experienced men who may have been regarded by the SS guards as potential troublemakers or even as a threat. Two admissions of large groups suggest that the SS used this sanction to nip resistance in the bud.
On 27 November 1943, 35 Sinti and Roma from the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia arrived at the penal company. Almost all of them had been sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau by the criminal police in Prague five weeks earlier, on 19 October 1943, and two of them had been transferred shortly afterwards from the Hodonin near Kunstadt detention camp. Kazimierz Smoleń (1920–2012) noted that this group had been transferred to the penal company ‘for acts of resistance’.9Smoleń, „Das Schicksal der Sinti und Roma im KL Auschwitz-Birkenau,“ 163. However, he does not elaborate on the nature of this resistance. It seems likely that the 35 men, who probably knew each other well, had agreed to seek a way out of their oppressive situation together. This group appears to have been subjected to particular violence in the penal company. Thirty did not survive their time there; these including Franz Daniel (born 1911), Johann Daniel (born 1903) and Jaroslaw Herak {born 1915, who were ‘shot while attempting to escape’ on 1 February 1944.
Another group consisting of 20 Sinti and Roma was sent to the penal company on 13 June 1944. They included one Frenchman, nine Austrians and ten Germans, with an average age of 33. They too may have been removed from Camp Section BIIe to prevent resistance. Unlike the group from the Protectorate, their chances of survival were significantly better. They were not exposed to the cold weather of the winter of 1943/44, but above all, they arrived at the penal company at a time when it had been decided to select the Sinti and Roma who were still ‘fit for work’ for forced labour in other concentration camps. With the exception of Georg Greis (1903–1944), who was killed in the penal company, and two men whose whereabouts could not be determined, all the others were transported from Auschwitz-Birkenau at the beginning of August 1944 (17 to Buchenwald, one to Ravensbrück). Apart from Willi Weiß, it is currently unknown whether they survived the following months until liberation.
