Even before 1933, municipal authorities in Germany were promoting the isolation of Sinti and Roma within urban society. In many cases, plans were drawn up to dissolve the privately owned caravan sites and to concentrate the residents in one place. However, such plans could not be enforced in the democratic Weimar Republic because they represented an infringement of freedom of movement. This legal hurdle fell with the National Socialist takeover in January 1933; the racist persecution of Sinti and Roma and their isolation from the rest of the population was now an integral part of state policy, which was implemented step-by-step.
Population Policy Goals
From 1933, detention camps for Sinti and Roma were set up in Germany, mostly in the context of National Socialist schemes for urban redevelopment, which were carried out in almost all major German cities in pursuit of population policy goals. In particular, the new rulers viewed the shanty towns that had emerged during the global economic crisis as potential trouble spots. The residents were subjected to political and racial screening by municipal authorities and moved to apartments or homeless shelters. For Sinti and Roma, this racist selection was usually followed by their being sent to one of the ‘Zigeunerlager’ that were often being built on the outskirts of cities. This was the case, for example, with the camp in Cologne, which was the first of its kind to be set up by the municipal welfare office with the support of the police in 1935, but also with the camps in Düsseldorf (1937) and Essen (1938). The detention camps also played a role when Sinti and Roma living in cities were expelled from their apartments or caravan sites; the expellees were held in the camps, as were Sinti and Roma who arrived from elsewhere hoping to move into the city. It is also characteristic of the municipal detention camps that they were implemented and operated on municipal initiative, in some cases bypassing building regulations, with virtually no legal basis and without orders from higher authorities.
More Camps after the Mid-1930s
The largest municipal camp was located in the district of Marzahn in the Reich capital Berlin from July 1936. As early as the summer of 1934, the main welfare office, police and Nazi party district leadership had planned to concentrate all Sinti and Roma in one place. But it was only with the 1936 Berlin Olympics that these plans finally came to fruition: in the course of a large-scale round-up, which took place two weeks before the opening of the Olympic Games, more than 600 Sinti and Roma were deported to Marzahn. Further detention camps were set up in numerous cities and towns from the mid-1930s onwards: in Magdeburg in 1935, in Frankfurt am Main and Solingen in 1936; 1937 in Gelsenkirchen, Kassel, Ravensburg and Wiesbaden; 1938 in Braunschweig, Fulda, Kiel, Königsberg, Herne, Oldenburg and Osnabrück; 1939 in Hannover, Recklinghausen and Remscheid; 1941 in Hamm and Dortmund. The number of Sinti and Roma interned in the camps ranged from several dozen to a maximum of around 500 (Cologne, summer 1937) and 850 (Berlin, autumn 1942).
Cramped Living Conditions, Poor Provisions and Isolation
The detention camps were either set up on existing caravan parks or wastelands, where Sinti and Roma had to live in caravans or existing barrack accommodation for the homeless was used. In Düsseldorf, the city built a barracks camp of stone buildings that had the character of a prison. In all camps the living conditions were poor and cramped, with only rudimentary sanitary facilities. Living conditions deteriorated rapidly the longer the internment lasted; self-employment was no longer possible, while the wages earned at the places where they were forced to work were low. The internees even had to pay rent for their accommodation in the detention camp from their meagre wages. Welfare assistance was only provided in a few cases and then mostly in kind. The internees were also largely cut off from medical care.
The children suffered not only from hunger but also from being forcibly excluded from school. It was only possible to leave the camp at fixed times, for specific purposes and under certain conditions. Nevertheless, those who had social networks and material resources and knew how to circumvent police restrictions were able to leave the municipal detention camps by the time the war began. This applies particularly to those camps that were set up solely for the purpose of expulsion, as in Gelsenkirchen.
Control, Registration and Violence
Added to this was the constant surveillance, which, depending on the camp leadership, could degenerate into open terror. The cities and municipalities ran the camps in close cooperation with the local police stations, so that police officers or security guards working closely with the police supervised the camps. Survivors have reported harassment and acts of violence ranging from being forbidden to leave the barracks to roll calls, regular raids, and abuse in the form of beatings, kicks, blows with whips and dog bites. Since 1938, there were ever more frequent instances of people being transferred from the detention camps to concentration camps: the option of sending Sinti and Roma to concentration camps on the basis of the Decree for the Prevention of Crime was exercised even in minor cases. Another violent measure to which the internees were subjected was the racial-biological examinations that Robert Ritter (1901–1951), Eva Justin (1909–1966) and other employees of the Racial Hygiene Research Unit had been conducting in the detention camps since 1936.
Detention and Deportation
While the detention camps were initially used as a tool to remove Sinti and Roma from the city and to deter others from moving there, the character of the camps changed fundamentally with the beginning of the war. Under the immobilisation decree of October 1939, all Sinti and Roma were prohibited from moving from their home address or the place where they were staying under threat of internment in a concentration camp. This drastically reduced their range of movement and the possibilities of obtaining everyday necessities, and this meant a further deterioration in their living conditions.
While there are studies on the detention camps named above, little is known about a large number of smaller camps. One challenge here is that the transitions between traditional stopping places and detention camps were blurred because they were called the same thing (Zigeunerlager), and in the absence of sources or research it is often not possible to confirm the coercive nature of a ‘camp’. Also, some detention camps existed only for a short time.
In May 1940 and spring 1943, the vast majority of the German Sinti and Roma were deported, and most municipal detention camps on the territory of the Altreich (Germany within the borders of 1937) were subsequently dissolved.
After 1945
Many survivors who returned from the concentration camps had no choice but to use the former detention camps as accommodation after their liberation because they were denied other housing options. They also hoped to meet other survivors there. For decades, the period of internment in a detention camp was not acknowledged in the Federal Republic of Germany as qualifying for compensation. It was only gradually that the former camp sites began to be marked with commemorative plaques in the 1980s, indicating the historical significance of these places.
