Auschwitz II-Birkenau, B IIe

Auschwitz II-Birkenau, B IIe — camp for Roma and Sinti in Auschwitz II-Birkenau, from February 1943 part of the Auschwitz II-Birkenau extermination camp. It was built in response to Himmler’s ​“Auschwitz-Erlass”, according to which all Roma and Sinti from the Reich were to be deported to Auschwitz. Approximately 22 000 Roma and Sinti passed through the camp, where the interned families remained together, mostly Roma from Germany, Austria and the Czech lands. The prisoners were marked with a black triangle sewn onto their clothing and the letter ​“Z” (German for Z*geuner) tattooed on their forearms. Only some of the prisoners capable of further slave labour were transferred from there to other concentration camps. Thousands of other Roma and Sinti perished either as a result of the appalling conditions in the camp or in the gas chambers. Then, on the night of 2 to 3 August 1944, the Germans murdered in the gas chambers more than four thousand Roma and Sinti still living in the camp.