During WWII, Sinti
and Rroma fought against the deprivation of their rights and their “racial”
registration from the very beginning. They protested against discriminatory
regulations and attempted to obtain the release of deported family members through
petitions or personal intervention. They worked closely together with
resistance groups in the occupied territories. They played an important role in
the national liberation movements, especially in eastern and southeastern
Europe and they also cooperated closely with the Résistance movement in
France. A large number of Sinti and Roma lost their lives in the armed struggle
against National Socialism. Sinti and Roma also offered various forms of
resistance in the concentration camps. A highlight was the revolt in camp
section B II e of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the “gypsy camp”.
On May 16, 1944 men and
women of the Auschwitz II Birkenau “Gypsy families’ camp” warned by the
internal Resistance Network of the camp, organized in order to fight off SS
guards who came the same night to lead them to the gas chambers. The leaders of
this insurrection (one of only two known insurrections, with the almost
simultaneous revolt of the “Sonderkommandos”) were scattered to be killed on
other sites of the Third Reich. Men, women, and children that remained in the
“Gypsy families’ camp” were exterminated in the end, starting on the eve of
August 2, 1944, and continuing through the night to the next day. The internal
Resistance networks of the camp (gathering Jewish prisoners, polish prisoners,
and intelligence, etc..) finally upraised on October 7th, 1944.