Heinrich Himmler issued the Auschwitz decree on November 15, 1943, ordering the

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Himmler Orders Romani Persecution: Gypsies Targeted with Jews

Heinrich Himmler issued the Auschwitz decree on November 15, 1943, ordering the deportation of Sinti and Roma people to Auschwitz-Birkenau. The decree classified Roma as 'asocials' and placed them in the same extermination apparatus targeting Jews. A special 'Gypsy camp' at Birkenau held roughly 23,000 Roma from across Europe. Conditions were deliberately lethal: starvation, disease, and medical experiments by Josef Mengele killed thousands. On August 2, 1944, SS guards liquidated the remaining 2,897 Roma prisoners in a single night, sending them to the gas chambers. The genocide of the Roma, known as the Porajmos ('the Devouring'), killed an estimated 220,000 to 500,000 across Europe. It received far less postwar attention than the Holocaust and was not formally recognized by Germany until 1982.

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November 15, 1943

83 years ago

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Himmler Orders Romani Persecution: Gypsies Targeted with Jews

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