First Transport of Gypsies Reaches Auschwitz

A special camp for Gypsies was established in Birkenau on February 26. Organized in the form of a family camp, it received mostly Gypsies from other concentration camps and smaller numbers of Gypsies from elsewhere in the Reich. Among them were veterans of the Wehrmacht; some arrived in Auschwitz in uniform and with citations in hand. Because of the harsh conditions, the mortality rate in the Gypsies´ camp was the highest in any of the Birkenau camps. Some 20,000 Gypsies were interned in the Gypsies´ camp; few survived.