Ernst-August König (1911–1991), left, with his lawyers Georg Bürger (1926–unknown) and Fritz Steinacker (1921–2016), right, in front of the Siegen Regional Court, Germany, 1987. König was an SS-Rottenführer and from spring 1943 was deployed in Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp in the camp area where Sinti and Roma had been imprisoned. In the trial, which lasted from 1987 to 1991, König had to answer for six counts of gruesome murder and for wilfully aiding and abetting mass murder during the liquidation of the ‘Gypsy camp’ in Auschwitz-Birkenau at the beginning of August 1944. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for three proven murders and for aiding and abetting 1,067 murders in January 1991. König appealed and committed suicide before the appeal hearing.
Nevertheless, the trial is considered a milestone in coming to terms with the genocide committed against Sinti and Roma. For the first time in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany, the survivors were given a full hearing in court.
