16 – 22 May 1940Sinti and Roma from the west and north-west of Germany are sent to transit camps in Hamburg, Hohenasperg near Stuttgart and Cologne and deported from there to the General Government, German-occupied Poland. The ‘May Deportation’ is the first deportation carried out family by family.
1942
16 December 1942‘Auschwitz Decree’: Heinrich Himmler, head of the Schutzstaffel (‘Reichsführer SS’), orders the deportation of Sinti and Roma from the German Reich to Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp.
