August 2nd has been designated as the day of remembrance for the Gypsies (Roma and Sinti) who were gassed during a single night at Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1944. You can read about it in a news story here.
This quote is from the news article, cited above:
August 2 is the official day of the remembrance of Roma victims of the holocaust. On the night of August 2, 1944, around 2,900 Roma and Sinti were killed in the gas chambers of the Auschitz-Birkenau camp.
The exact number of Gypsies, who were gassed on August 2, 1944, is unknown because the Germans did not keep records, nor names, of the victims who were killed in the gas chamber. However, there were 4 gas chambers at Auschwitz-Birkenau on that date, and it is possible that the gassing of all the Gypsies could have been accomplished in one night.
The only problem would have been the disposal of the bodies in a timely manner, since there were no morgues, in the gas chamber buildings, to store the bodies until they could be burned in the ovens. The undressing rooms and gas chambers were located in the rooms that were called morgues on the blueprints of the gas chambers.
I previously wrote about the gassing of the Roma and Sinti here.
Why were all the Roma and Sinti gassed in only one night? What was the big hurry to get rid of the Gypsies after they had been imprisoned in a “family camp” for seventeen months?
Is it possible that the Gypsies were all deported, in a single night, out of the “family camp” to other concentration camps? Could that be why a tourist cannot walk down a street today, anywhere in Europe, without being accosted by a Gypsy rudely demanding money? Is that why tourists are advised to wear their backpack in the front of their body to prevent Gypsies from stealing from them?
Woman begging for money outside a church in Strasbourg, France
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