Children and Youth as
Victims of the Nazi Crimes
Karl Stojka
from Burgenland Province, Austria
1931 – 2003
Seventy years ago, the National Socialists came to
power in Germany. During their rule, which lasted
until 1945, they persecuted and terrorized human
beings because of their origin, religion or physical or
mental handicap. The National Socialists attacked
many countries in Europe, occupied them and
murdered many millions, including six million Jews
from across Europe. On this web site, we wish to
remember five young people who became victims of
Nazi terror.
www.stiftung-denkmal.de
Karl Stojka
Karl Stojka was born on April 20, 1931 in a Rom
family of the Roman Catholic faith in Wampersdorf
in the Austrian province of Burgenland. Karl had five
brothers and sisters. The Stojka family had been
living in Austria for over 300 years, travelling across
the country as horse dealers in their caravan. When
Germany invaded and occupied Austria in 1938,
Jews, Sinti and Roma 1 were immediately excluded
from society and turned into outcasts. From 1939 on,
it was forbidden for them to leave or change their
place of residence. So Karl’s family settled in Vienna
in 1939. His father supported the family by working
in a factory. Karl and his brothers and sisters
attended elementary school there down to 1943.
1942: photograph, sixth grade of the
elementary school on Krottengasse, Vienna.
Source: Karl Stojka, Vienna
Karl Stojka
Page 1a
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Karl Stojka
The Nazis repeatedly arrested Sinti and Roma and confined them
in concentration camps. At the end of 1941 Karl’s father was
imprisoned in the Dachau2 concentration camp, and later in the
camp Mauthausen 3, where he was murdered. Karl’s sister Kathi
was taken in 1942 to the Lackenbach camp 4. Just after Karl turned 12,
he was arrested at school and deported with his mother and other
brothers and sisters to the co-called »Gypsy camp« 5 in AuschwitzBirkenau 6. He was transferred from there to the concentration camp
Buchenwald 7, and later to the camp Flossenbürg 8. He survived the
death march 9 and was liberated in April 1945 by American troops.
After the war, Karl Stojka began to paint, trying by means of art to
deal with his experiences of persecution. If you go on to further
pages, you can see his paintings and read his comments on them.
Karl Stojka, photographed during his
arrest by the Gestapo in 1943.
Source: Karl Stojka, Vienna
Karl Stojka
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Karl Stojka
Karl Stojka on his father in the Mauthausen concentration camp 3
»In 1942, four Gestapo officers arrested my father and took him from
the family. We children were all crying a lot. My mom quickly gathered
together and packed a few things for him. I can still remember: my dad
was wearing a bright plaid suit. He was sent to Dachau and then
brought before the Second District Court in Vienna and held there.
We were allowed to visit him there. He was standing in the visitors’
room behind a very small grid so that you could hardly see him.
He was pleased to see us, but all I could feel of his kiss on my lips was
the cold iron of the grid. After just a few words, they took him away.
My mom, my grandmother and we children were all crying.
Two months later a letter came from in him, written in Mauthausen.
He said there that he hoped to see us again soon. Two weeks after that
we received a package containing his plaid suit, a death report (›weak
heart‹) and a small box containing some bones and ashes. That’s all that
was left of my 32-year-old father.«
»Death behind Barbed Wire—Father in
the Concentration Camp Mauthausen«
Oil and acrylic on canvas, 1989.
Source: Karl Stojka, Vienna
Karl Stojka
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Karl Stojka
Karl Stojka on the Lackenbach camp4
»Fifty years ago [in November 1940] the Gypsy camp Lackenbach was
set up in Burgenland. We Gypsies were mistreated and persecuted there
from 1940 to 1945—and we still are suffering from that today 50 years
later. My sister Kathi and my uncle Lulo, my aunt Mala with her children
and all my relatives cried many tears in the Lackenbach camp, we
suffered much misery, beating and hunger. In that small Austrian town,
whose name I shall never forget, there are many Roma and Sinti buried
under the meadow and the trees.«
»Lackenbach«
Oil and acrylic on canvas, 1990.
Source: Karl Stojka, Vienna
Karl Stojka
Page 2b
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Karl Stojka
Deportation from Vienna to Auschwitz6
»In March 1943, my mother and the children were arrested. I was at
school, and four or five SS men entered our classroom. All the pupils
had to stand up and say ›Heil Hitler‹. I did that too. The teacher, her
name was Fischer, told us to sit down and then she called me over to
her. The men took me with them. They brought me home, where the
SS and Gestapo were already waiting. My mom said to me: ›Thank God
you’re here,‹ then we had to get onto a truck and leave our home in
Vienna, District 16, Paletzgasse 42. We were brought to the police jail
Roßauerlände. In the cells and corridors there were hundreds of
Gypsies. After two or three days, they put us on a train, and it went
to Auschwitz-Birkenau.«
»Deportation«
Oil and acrylic on canvas, 1990.
Source: Karl Stojka, Vienna
Karl Stojka
Page 3a
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Karl Stojka
In the concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau
6
»Auschwitz-Birkenau June/July 1943: I was together with my relatives
in Block No. 10 when my mom brought my brother Hansi with blood
poisoning to the medical barracks. She had little hope of ever seeing
her child alive again. I ran over to Hansi and wanted to take him back
out, because the only way the prisoners left the medical barracks was
›through the chimney.‹ But the next day my brother came to us and
told my mom about a beautiful dream he had had: a beautiful white
woman had filled his body with wonderful warmth and had healed
him. My mother looked up to heaven, where the smoke was rising
from the crematorium, and thanked God and the Holy Virgin. The
medical barracks was not for healing people. It was a place for the
dying, for people destined to die. The prisoners called it the vestibule
of the crematorium [where they burned the bodies of the dead].«
»Arrival in Auschwitz-Birkenau«
Oil and acrylic on canvas, 1989.
Source: Karl Stojka, Vienna
Karl Stojka
Page 3b
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Karl Stojka
Karl on his brother Ossi
»Mein brother Ossi.
In Auschwitz-Birkenau, after we were tattooed with our prisoner
number we were brought to the Gypsy camp. Ossi was six years old.
There was not much to eat, mainly turnips. One day my brother came
down with typhus and they sent him to the medical barracks. But
there was no doctor there, and Ossi died, also because of starvation.
He was no criminal, he was just a simple Gypsy kid.«
»The Scream—Brother Ossi«
Oil and acrylic on canvas, 1989.
Source: Karl Stojka, Vienna
Karl Stojka
Page 3c
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Karl Stojka
After spending some time in Europe and the United States, Karl Stojka
lived until his death in 2003 in Vienna. In 1985 he began to paint.
He worked through his tale of persecution and autobiographical
experiences in more than 80 paintings that have been exhibited in the
United States, Europe and Japan. Read for yourself what Karl wrote
about his work:
»The colors in Nature are something that has accompanied me all my
life. In a great love for Nature, I searched again and again for the
beauty and purity of colors. Brown like the earth, blue like the sky,
green like the trees, and red like blood. I see my life here on this earth
only as a kind of journey in transit, that’s what I believe. And that
through the colors in my paintings, so strong and powerful, I am
preparing the way to the next life. Everywhere there is life, hope, love
and faith. When I paint a picture, I don’t just paint the house, the
flowers, the fields or the tree. No, I paint what is inside my body, what
my heart says, my blood and soul. Because only if you believe in a soul,
only if you believe there really is another life after this one, can you
paint these paintings.«
Karl Stojka, about 1947
Source: Karl Stojka, Vienna
Karl Stojka
Page 4
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Persecution of the Sinti and Roma during National Socialism
The Sinti and Roma look back to a varied and stormy history marked by social exclusion and self-assertion in the face of
persecution. They have lived as a separate minority in Europe since the 14th century. They were the repeated target of
persecution and have had to live with limited rights. For a long time they were referred to by the discriminatory label
»Gypsies«1, still a common term in many places today. The National Socialists 12 intensified these policies, stripping the Sinti
and Roma of their civil rights. Already as early as 1933, many were subjected to forced sterilization on the basis of the Nazi
law »On the Prevention of Progeny with Hereditary Diseases«, which meant that they no longer could have any children.
In the mid-1930s, some townships forced Sinti and Roma to live in closed camps. In 1939, they were forbidden to leave or
change their place of residence. In 1935, the Nuremberg Laws13 also turned them into second-class citizens.
Like Jews, the Sinti and Roma were forbidden to marry non-Sinti and non-Roma or to have any sexual contact with them.
In many other spheres, Sinti and Roma were also severely affected by National Socialist policies of persecution, in the same
severity as the Jews: children were excluded from education at school. From 1939 on, the Nazis deported adults and children to
occupied Poland (see also the Auschwitz Decree14). Many were immediately murdered there in mass executions, others were
gassed to death. Those who were initially confined in camps were put on forced labor15 or were maltreated by doctors in
medical experiments16. Down to the end of the war, it is estimated that some 500,000 Sinti and Roma from all over Europe
perished at the hands of the Nazis.
Karl Stojka
Background Text
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Glossary 1
1 Sinti und Roma
Originally from India, with their own cultural customs and language, the Sinti and Roma lived primarily in Eastern Europe.
For centuries they were also referred to by the discriminatory term »Gypsy« and made a scapegoat by society, blamed for its ills.
They were severely persecuted by the Nazis. For additional information on the »Persecution of the Sinti and Roma under National
Socialism«, see the »Background Text.«
2 Dachau Concentration Camp
Established in 1933 in Bavaria as the first concentration camp in the German Reich, with numerous auxiliary camps from 1942 on.
Imprisonment of political opponents, later also pastors, members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Jews, Sinti and Roma, homosexuals and
POWs. Of the total of more than 200,000 inmates, some 30,000 registered prisoners and thousands of non-registered prisoners lost
their lives in the camp. It was liberated by the U.S. Army in April 1945.
3 Mauthausen Concentration Camp
Established in 1938 near Linz in Austria, later with numerous external subcamps. Inmates were forced to do heavy manual labor in
stone quarries, where many died as a result. From 1941 on, Jewish inmates were murdered by poison gas. The more than 200,000
prisoners confined there included Communists, Jews, Sinti and Roma, resistance fighters and POWs from the occupied countries in
Europe. More than half of these died in Mauthausen. The camp was liberated by the U.S. Army in May 1945.
4 Lackenbach Camp
Established in 1940 for Sinti and Roma families in Burgenland in Austria. More than 4,000 Sinti and Roma, including many women,
children and elderly persons, were confined there and forced to do heavy manual labor. Hundreds died from the inhuman living
conditions, others were transferred to Auschwitz-Birkenau or the extermination camp Chelmno, where many were murdered.
5 »Gypsy Camp«
Set up in 1943 in the camp complex Auschwitz-Birkenau to house deported Sinti and Roma. The number of inmates is estimated to
have been some 23,000. Many became the victim of medical experiments, others died of exhaustion or were suffocated by poison gas.
The camp was dissolved in August 1944. Many of its prisoners were murdered or transferred to other camps.
6 Auschwitz Concentration Camp
Established in 1940 by the SS west of Cracow (Pol. Kraków) in occupied Poland, consisting of three main camps: the concentration camp
Auschwitz, the extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, the labor camp of IG-Farben (BUNA Plant) as well as numerous external
subcamps and auxiliary camps. The number of victims who perished here is estimated at 1.5 million, including more than one million
Jews. SS doctors performed medical experiments on Jewish and Sinti and Roma children.
Karl Stojka
www.stiftung-denkmal.de
Glossary 2
7 Buchenwald Concentration Camp
Built in 1937 on the Ettersberg near Weimar (Thuringia). Its inmates were political opponents, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Sinti and Roma, and
criminal prisoners (so-called »asocial persons«). In 1938 in the aftermath of the November pogrom, thousands of Jews were interned
here. Of the more than 250,000 prisoners in Buchenwald and its 130 subcamps, more than 50,000 lost their lives. Liberated in April 1945
by the U.S. Army.
8 Flossenbürg Concentration Camp
Set up in 1938 in the northeast of Bavaria as a men’s camp, from 1943 on likewise used to house persecuted women. The camp also had
some 100 external subcamps and outlying installations. Of a total of 96,716 registered prisoners, ca. 30,000 were murdered. The camp
was liberated in 1945 by the U.S. Army.
9 Death Marches
These operations were carried out in the final weeks of the war to evacuate the camps in the East. About 250,000 prisoners were sent
on forced marches lasting for days through Germany, without food and proper clothing. Countless inmates died of exhaustion on these
marches or were beaten to death or shot by the SS units accompanying them.
10 SS
Abbreviation for »Schutzstaffel« (Protective Echelon), established in 1925 as Hitler’s »Bodyguard«. In 1929 it developed into the elite
unit of the Nazi Party, and in 1934 became an independent organization in the NSDAP. Step by step it was fused with the state police,
had responsibility for the internal securing and maintenance of power, as well as direction and guarding in the concentration camps.
After 1939 the SS played a decisive role in the planning and implementation of policies of occupation and murder.
11 Secret State Police (Gestapo, Geheime Staatspolizei)
Established in 1933, placed in 1934 under Heinrich Himmler, Reichsführer-SS and Chief of the German Police. It was used to persecute
political opponents. Without a court proceeding, the Gestapo handed down penalties, sentencing persons to imprisonment in jails and
concentration camps; it murdered political prisoners, foreign forced laborers, and POWs. The Gestapo was directly implicated in the
mass murder of the European Jews.
Karl Stojka
www.stiftung-denkmal.de
Glossary 3
12 National Socialism
A political movement, founded in 1920 as the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP, the National Socialist German
Workers’ Party). From 1921 on led by Adolf Hitler. In 1933, it took over the reins of state power in the German Reich. In 1945, with the
end of the war, the party was dissolved. National Socialism propagated an open hatred of the Jews, fought against the democratic state
and persecuted those with opposing political convictions, such as Communists. The world view of the National Socialists was characterized
by the theory of a superior stronger (so-called Aryan) »race«, to which other weaker and inferior races were subordinate. When the party
took over power, this axiom became a guiding criterion for state policy. The concept of »race« is pseudo-scientific. In fact, there are no
human races, but only different nationalities, religious and linguistic affiliations.
13 Nuremberg Laws
Proclaimed in 1935 at the Nazi Party convention in the city of Nuremberg. Among these laws was the »Law on the Protection of German
Blood and German Honor« and the »Reich Citizens’ Law«. It forbade marriage and extramarital sexual intercourse between Germans of
Jewish descent and non-Jewish Germans, making this a criminal offense. The law was later extended to include Sinti and Roma. They
were thus made into second-class citizens with highly circumscribed rights.
14 Auschwitz Decree
Issued on December 16, 1942 by the Reichsführer-SS, Heinrich Himmler. It initiated the deportation of all Sinti und Roma from the
German Reich to Auschwitz-Birkenau, including many aged persons and children. Down to 1945, this was followed by further
deportations from eleven European countries. By the end of the war, some 500,000 Sinti and Roma perished as a result of starvation,
extreme cold, exhaustion, the result of medical experiments, maltreatment and by poison gas.
15 Forced Labor
Even before the outbreak of the war, the labor offices organized forced labor for inmates in concentration camps, persons with previous
convictions and welfare recipients. During the war, some eight million civilians, POWs, concentration camp prisoners and Jews from
occupied Europe, including many youths who were still minors, were exploited as forced laborers in ca. 30,000 camps. They were also
deployed in the German construction and armaments industry as well as in agriculture. Many perished as a result of the inhuman
working conditions.
16 Medical Experiments
Pseudo-scientific experiments on concentration camp inmates; the victims were mainly Jews, Sinti and Roma and POWs. Performed
without painkillers or anesthesia. Infection with pathogens, tests of drugs, procedures for sterilization, removal of vital organs, tests of
hypothermia and extreme pressure. Some 350 doctors from the SS, university institutes and the Wehrmacht (regular army) participated
in these experiments.
Karl Stojka
www.stiftung-denkmal.de
Literature / Films / CD-Roms / Links
Literature
Karl Stojka
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Awosusi, Anita (Hrsg.): Stichwort: Zigeuner. Zur Stigmatisierung von Sinti und Roma in Lexika und Enzyklopädien, Heidelberg 1998.
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Goch, Stefan: »Mit einer Rückkehr nach hier ist nicht mehr zu rechnen«. Verfolgung und Ermordung von Sinti und Roma während des »Dritten Reiches«
im Raum Gelsenkirchen, Essen 1999.
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Hackl, Erich: Abschied von Sidonie. Erzählung, Zürich 1989.
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Stojka, Ceija: Wir leben im Verborgenen. Erinnerungen einer Rom-Zigeunerin, Wien 1989.
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Zimmermann, Michael: Rassenutopie und Genozid. Die nationalsozialistische »Lösung der Zigeunerfrage«, Hamburg 1996.
Bamberger, Edgar, und Annegret Ehmann (Hrsg.): Kinder und Jugendliche als Opfer des Holocaust, Heidelberg 1995.
Benz, Wolfgang: Das Lager Marzahn. Zur nationalsozialistischen Verfolgung der Sinti und Roma und ihrer anhaltenden Diskriminierung.
In: Grabitz, Helge (Hrsg.): Die Normalität des Verbrechens, Berlin 1994.
Margalit, Gilad: Die Nachkriegsdeutschen und »ihre Zigeuner«. Die Behandlung der Sinti und Roma im Schatten von Auschwitz, Berlin 2001.
Müller, Josef: Ausgegrenzt, Berlin 1999.
Rose, Romani (Hrsg.): »Den Rauch hatten wir täglich vor Augen«. Der nationalsozialistische Völkermord an den Sinti und Roma, Heidelberg 1999.
Rosenberg, Otto: Das Brennglas, Frankfurt am Main 1998.
Staatliches Museum Auschwitz (Hrsg.): Sinti und Roma im KL Auschwitz-Birkenau 1943–44 vor dem Hintergrund ihrer Verfolgung unter der
Naziherrschaft, Auschwitz-Birkenau 1998.
Stojka, Karl, und Reinhard Pohanka: Auf der ganzen Welt zu Hause. Das Leben und Wandern des Zigeuners Karl Stojka, Wien 1994.
Strauß, Daniel (Hrsg.): ... weggekommen. Berichte und Zeugnisse von Sinti, die die NS-Verfolgung überlebt haben, Berlin 2000.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (Hrsg.): The Story of Karl Stojka. A Childhood in Birkenau, Washington 1992.
Widmann, Peter: Zähe Zerrbilder. In: Quack, Sibylle (Hrsg.): Dimensionen der Verfolgung. Opfer und Opfergruppen im Nationalsozialismus, München 2003.
Zimmermann, Michael: The National Socialist »Solution of the Gypsy Question«. Central Decisions, Local Initiatives, and Their Interrelation.
In: Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Vol. 15, Winter 2001.
www.stiftung-denkmal.de
Literature / Films / CD-Roms / Links
Films
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»Sidonie« (88 Min) Österreich 1990 (Regie: Karin Brandauer);
Der Film erzählt die Geschichte des Roma – Mädchens Sidonie Adlersburg, das seinen Pflegeeltern weggenommen,
nach Auschwitz verschleppt und dort ermordet wird.
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»Auf Wiedersehen im Himmel« (40 Min) Deutschland 1994 (Regie: Romani Rose und Michael Krausnick);
Der Film erzählt die Geschichte von Sinti-Kindern aus einem katholischen Kinderheim in Mulfingen,
die von der »Rasseforscherin« Eva Justin als Untersuchungsobjekte für ihre Doktorarbeit missbraucht
und anschließend nach Auschwitz deportiert und dort ermordet werden.
Erhältlich über:
Dokumentationszentrum Deutscher Sinti und Roma
Bremeneckgasse 2
69117 Heidelberg.
CD-Rom
S
»Der nationalsozialistische Völkermord an den Sinti und Roma«,
Dokumentations- und Kulturzentrum Deutscher Sinti und Roma (Hrsg.),
Heidelberg 2000, ASIN 3-929446-12-X.
Links
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Karl Stojka
http://www.lettertothestars.at
http://www.sinti-und-roma.de
http://www.lernen-aus-der-geschichte.de
http://www.erinnern-online.de
http://www.step21.de
www.stiftung-denkmal.de
Web Site Credits
Research and text:
Annegret Ehmann, Stefanie Fischer
Editing:
Stefanie Fischer
Design:
sujet.design Claudia Winter, Oliver Temmler
Translator:
Bill Templer
Responsible for conception and layout:
Prof. Dr. Sibylle Quack
We are especially grateful to the following persons and institutions:
Richard Cossmann, Gymnasium Herborn, Germany
Laura Dostmann, Seifertshofen, Germany
Federal Archive Berlin-Lichterfelde, Germany
Hadamar Memorial, Germany
Sonja Haderer-Stippel, Austria
Gottfried Kößler, Fritz Bauer Institut, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Bertil Langenohl, Max-Ernst-Gymnasium of the city of Brühl, Germany
Anna Matthias, Kaltenkirchen, Germany
Memorial, Concentration Camp Neuengamme, Germany
Lidice Memorial, Czech Republic
Municipality of Hadamar, Mayor’s Office, Mr. Lanio, Germany
Halina Piotrowska, Poland
Scheuern Homes, Nassau / Lahn, Germany
Prof. Christoph Schminck-Gustavus, Bremen, Germany
State Archive Bremen, Germany
Prof. Karl and Anna Stojka, Austria
© Stiftung Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas, 2003
Karl Stojka
www.stiftung-denkmal.de