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A Gypsy In Auschwitz: The inspirational true story of a young boy surviving the terror of the Holocaust
Otto Rosenberg is 9 and living in Berlin, poor but happy, when his family are first detained. All around them, Sinti and Roma families are being torn from their homes by Nazis , leaving behind schools, jobs, friends, and businesses to live in forced encampments outside the city. One by one, families are broken up, adults and children disappear or are 'sent East'.Otto arrives in Auschwitz aged 15 and is later transferred to Buechenwald and Bergen-Belsen. He works, scrounges food whenever he can, witnesses and suffers horrific violence and is driven close to death by illness more than once. Unbelievably, he also joins an armed revolt of prisoners who, facing the SS and certain death, refuse to back down. Somehow, through luck, sheer human will to live, or both, he survives.The stories of Sinti and Roma suffering in Nazi Germany are all too often lost or untold. In this haunting account, Otto shares his story with a remarkable simplicity. Deeply moving, A Gypsy in Auschwitz is the incredible story of how a young Sinti boy miraculously survived the unimaginable darkness of the Holocaust.
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About the author
Otto Rosenberg
14 books4 followersIn 1995, Rosenberg recorded his memories on tape, and with writer Ulrich Enzenberger he published Das Brennglas in 1998.Michael Grobbel notes the book's 'colloquial and at time laconic style', as a result of the book staying true to its oral origins, and explains how Rosenberg discusses the continued 'persistance of racial intolerance after 1945'.
It was published as A Gypsy in Auschwitz in 1999, translated into English by Helmut Bölger. The book features an introduction from former Lord Mayor of Berlin Klaus Schütz.
According to author of Representing the Holocaust in Children's Literature, Lydia Kokkola, it is 'one of the very few books about the Gypsy Holocaust for young readers'. The book is recommended by Doris Bergen as further reading in her book War and Genocide: a Concise History of the Holocaust.
It was published as A Gypsy in Auschwitz in 1999, translated into English by Helmut Bölger. The book features an introduction from former Lord Mayor of Berlin Klaus Schütz.
According to author of Representing the Holocaust in Children's Literature, Lydia Kokkola, it is 'one of the very few books about the Gypsy Holocaust for young readers'. The book is recommended by Doris Bergen as further reading in her book War and Genocide: a Concise History of the Holocaust.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 164 reviews
January 9, 2023
A Gypsy In Auschwitz: How I Survived the Horrors of the “Forgotten Holocaust” by Otto Rosenberg was a very poignant and heartfelt memoir. Otto grew up in a large Sinti family in Berlin, Germany. He was one of eleven children. Otto was a happy, inquisitive and adventurous child growing up. Everyone seemed to like him and he usually had a smile on his face. His community was one where almost everyone knew each other. There was always lots of music and singing. Otto had lots of aunts, uncles and cousins. A lot of his family lived in caravans and some of them traveled from place to place. Otto lived with his grandmother in a house. They were rather poor but Otto was content with her love for him.
When Otto was about nine years old, the Olympics were about to be held in Berlin. Hitler and the Nazis wanted to hide the Sinti and Roma families from the visitors and dignitaries that would be attending. The Nazis quickly built a makeshift camp to hold all the Sinti and Roma families. They were ripped from their homes and forced to live in Marzahn camp outside of Berlin. The camp was located right near a sewerage facility so the stench was unbearable. The camp lacked a lot of things but Otto was still happy that he had his family and friends.
Then when Otto was fifteen years old, the Nazis emptied and deported the people who resided in Marzahn and sent them in cattle cars to Auschwitz. There was a whole section in Auschwitz that was comprised of just Roma and Sinti people. The Nazis were determined to eliminate all the Sinti and Roma people. Otto suffered unimaginable pain, witnessed atrocities, horrors and starvation that the Nazis inflicted on everyone in Auschwitz. He watched as rampant illnesses spread throughout the camps. There were more than 500,000 Roma and Sinti descendants that were murdered in the Holocaust. Somehow, Otto Rosenberg survived. He was finally freed in 1945.
Most books that have been written about the Holocaust have been about Hitler’s plan to completely annihilate the Jewish people. Seldom have there been books that spoke about the atrocities the Sinti and Roma people faced. As difficult as it must have been for Otto Rosenberg to write about this time in his life, I applaud him for writing his story. His inspirational and true story only serves to remind us how brutal and inhuman the Nazis were.
Otto Rosenberg eventually married and had seven children. He founded the Regional Association of German Sinti and Romanies in Berlin and served as its chairman until he died in 2001. It takes a brave and courageous man to share a story like this. I highly recommend this book.
Thank you to Monoray Publishers for allowing me to read A Gypsy In Auschwitz: How I Survived the Horrors of the “Forgotten Holocaust “ through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
When Otto was about nine years old, the Olympics were about to be held in Berlin. Hitler and the Nazis wanted to hide the Sinti and Roma families from the visitors and dignitaries that would be attending. The Nazis quickly built a makeshift camp to hold all the Sinti and Roma families. They were ripped from their homes and forced to live in Marzahn camp outside of Berlin. The camp was located right near a sewerage facility so the stench was unbearable. The camp lacked a lot of things but Otto was still happy that he had his family and friends.
Then when Otto was fifteen years old, the Nazis emptied and deported the people who resided in Marzahn and sent them in cattle cars to Auschwitz. There was a whole section in Auschwitz that was comprised of just Roma and Sinti people. The Nazis were determined to eliminate all the Sinti and Roma people. Otto suffered unimaginable pain, witnessed atrocities, horrors and starvation that the Nazis inflicted on everyone in Auschwitz. He watched as rampant illnesses spread throughout the camps. There were more than 500,000 Roma and Sinti descendants that were murdered in the Holocaust. Somehow, Otto Rosenberg survived. He was finally freed in 1945.
Most books that have been written about the Holocaust have been about Hitler’s plan to completely annihilate the Jewish people. Seldom have there been books that spoke about the atrocities the Sinti and Roma people faced. As difficult as it must have been for Otto Rosenberg to write about this time in his life, I applaud him for writing his story. His inspirational and true story only serves to remind us how brutal and inhuman the Nazis were.
Otto Rosenberg eventually married and had seven children. He founded the Regional Association of German Sinti and Romanies in Berlin and served as its chairman until he died in 2001. It takes a brave and courageous man to share a story like this. I highly recommend this book.
Thank you to Monoray Publishers for allowing me to read A Gypsy In Auschwitz: How I Survived the Horrors of the “Forgotten Holocaust “ through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
August 25, 2022
It is thought that around 500,000 Roma and Sinti people – at least a quarter of their population at the time – were murdered in Nazi-occupied Europe. Although in recent years, there has been some recognition of this genocide, the Porajmos (the 'Devouring' in Romani) is still not widely known about. Meanwhile, Roma and Sinti communities still face racially-motivated harassment and discrimination across Europe. Otto Rosenberg's family were Sinti and this candid account of his own ordeal at the hands of the Nazis is a harrowing read. While the numbers are shocking, they are an abstract figure whereas a memoir such as this which focuses on one person gives us a starkly affecting insight into the terrible persecution of Roma and Sinti people during WW2 and beyond.
Otto told his story to Ulrich Enzenberger and the result is a memoir which feels very personal; the translation by Maisie Musgrave ensures his voice comes across clearly throughout. He begins by remembering a time when his family were poor but happy before the gradual eradication of their rights, the arrest of Sinti and Roma just prior to the 1936 Olympic Games and their forced move to the Berlin-Marzahn labour camp. There are some truly heinous crimes against humanity described here which should horrify anybody reading this book. Otto lays bare the brutal cruelty of the Nazis and while the appalling conditions in concentration camps like Auschwitz-Birkenau are well-known these days, it's still difficult to contemplate the scale of suffering and calculated, systemic murder of people they deemed to be racially inferior.
This is a strikingly honest book and Otto painfully discloses how the constant exposure to violence and death dehumanised everybody in the concentration camp, prisoners and guards alike. The strict order of hierarchy resulted in people becoming brutalised and beatings were commonplace. His explanation of the way in which people became numbly apathetic to the sheer scale of horror that surrounded them is desperately poignant. He remembers Dr Josef Mengele's visits to Auschwitz and although he recalls an affable man and says he never witnessed him giving anybody a lethal injection, he also notes that Mengele later became known as the Angel of Death. Mengele conducted scores of experiments on Roma and Sinti children and in just a few paragraphs it's chilling to note how he won their trust; Otto himself acknowledges that he only heard about his experiments after 1945 and at the time would never have believed he had such evil intent.
There are a few occasions where genuine kindness is recounted too and it was perhaps one of these brief moments of benevolence which helped Otto survive when so many others perished. There was an element of luck too, of course and throughout the book there are times when it is evident just how close to death he became. From the wretched living conditions which saw prisoners racked with illness and plagued by lice as they were beaten, starved and worked to death to the planned mass murder of his people, Otto barely survived but still lost so much. There are times when he recounts the loss of his family members in just a few words because what else can be said; many were amongst the Sinti and Roma occupants gassed on August 2nd 1944 when the Romani camp at Auschwitz was finally liquidated.
Even though Otto somehow survived the genocide, his suffering continued after the war. His survivor's guilt is palpable throughout and although he only shared his memories many years afterwards, it's obvious how they continued to haunt him right up until his own death. Years of being denied the hygiene and honour that defined traditional Romani family life and the reversal of gender and generational conventions was obviously enduringly traumatic to the survivors. Perhaps one of the most sobering aspects of his account comes after the camps were finally liberated when he still faced barriers accessing the help and support he should have been entitled to. From the early post-war period when he was once more forced to work and faced demands to show his papers, despite them having been taken from him, through to his long fight for reparations and recognition of the genocide committed by the Nazis against the Sinti and Roma and then ongoing civil rights issues, his struggle is powerfully expressed.
The informal tone of this extraordinarily moving memoir means that although the subject matter is difficult, the words flow in a conversational style which is very readable. Otto Rosenberg passed away in 2001 but through his tireless campaigning for equality afterwards and his lifelong mission to bear witness to the crimes perpetrated against his people, his legacy will live on. This is an important addition to the stories told by Holocaust victims and survivors, particularly at a time when far-right populism is on the rise across Europe and anti-Roma prejudice is too often ignored or overlooked.
Otto told his story to Ulrich Enzenberger and the result is a memoir which feels very personal; the translation by Maisie Musgrave ensures his voice comes across clearly throughout. He begins by remembering a time when his family were poor but happy before the gradual eradication of their rights, the arrest of Sinti and Roma just prior to the 1936 Olympic Games and their forced move to the Berlin-Marzahn labour camp. There are some truly heinous crimes against humanity described here which should horrify anybody reading this book. Otto lays bare the brutal cruelty of the Nazis and while the appalling conditions in concentration camps like Auschwitz-Birkenau are well-known these days, it's still difficult to contemplate the scale of suffering and calculated, systemic murder of people they deemed to be racially inferior.
This is a strikingly honest book and Otto painfully discloses how the constant exposure to violence and death dehumanised everybody in the concentration camp, prisoners and guards alike. The strict order of hierarchy resulted in people becoming brutalised and beatings were commonplace. His explanation of the way in which people became numbly apathetic to the sheer scale of horror that surrounded them is desperately poignant. He remembers Dr Josef Mengele's visits to Auschwitz and although he recalls an affable man and says he never witnessed him giving anybody a lethal injection, he also notes that Mengele later became known as the Angel of Death. Mengele conducted scores of experiments on Roma and Sinti children and in just a few paragraphs it's chilling to note how he won their trust; Otto himself acknowledges that he only heard about his experiments after 1945 and at the time would never have believed he had such evil intent.
There are a few occasions where genuine kindness is recounted too and it was perhaps one of these brief moments of benevolence which helped Otto survive when so many others perished. There was an element of luck too, of course and throughout the book there are times when it is evident just how close to death he became. From the wretched living conditions which saw prisoners racked with illness and plagued by lice as they were beaten, starved and worked to death to the planned mass murder of his people, Otto barely survived but still lost so much. There are times when he recounts the loss of his family members in just a few words because what else can be said; many were amongst the Sinti and Roma occupants gassed on August 2nd 1944 when the Romani camp at Auschwitz was finally liquidated.
Even though Otto somehow survived the genocide, his suffering continued after the war. His survivor's guilt is palpable throughout and although he only shared his memories many years afterwards, it's obvious how they continued to haunt him right up until his own death. Years of being denied the hygiene and honour that defined traditional Romani family life and the reversal of gender and generational conventions was obviously enduringly traumatic to the survivors. Perhaps one of the most sobering aspects of his account comes after the camps were finally liberated when he still faced barriers accessing the help and support he should have been entitled to. From the early post-war period when he was once more forced to work and faced demands to show his papers, despite them having been taken from him, through to his long fight for reparations and recognition of the genocide committed by the Nazis against the Sinti and Roma and then ongoing civil rights issues, his struggle is powerfully expressed.
The informal tone of this extraordinarily moving memoir means that although the subject matter is difficult, the words flow in a conversational style which is very readable. Otto Rosenberg passed away in 2001 but through his tireless campaigning for equality afterwards and his lifelong mission to bear witness to the crimes perpetrated against his people, his legacy will live on. This is an important addition to the stories told by Holocaust victims and survivors, particularly at a time when far-right populism is on the rise across Europe and anti-Roma prejudice is too often ignored or overlooked.
July 13, 2023
This book was an absolutely brutal emotional roller coaster. I knew it would be gut wrenching even before starting it, but I still wasn't prepared for it in the slightest. I felt sick to my stomach the whole way through, the thought of someone going through something so horrific is just heartbreaking and unimaginable. I actually had to put it down at some points because it was just too overwhelming and I needed time to process my thoughts. This book will definitely haunt me for awhile.
July 23, 2022
Thank you Hachette for sending us a copy to read and review.
The Holocaust conjures up an image of six million Jews murdered.
It rarely accounts for the deaths of the many Roma, Sinti, homosexual or other non desirable minorities.
Many works of fiction articulate and capture the horror of Jewish characters and their plight leaving other groups out of the picture.
Otto’s account bridges this gap.
The German racial cleansing program started earlier than war.
The gypsy population were rounded up and put in camps or ghettos in the mid 1930’s.
Their darker features and nomadic lifestyle not conducive to the aryan race.
The book is pieced together from his memories and accounts of surviving Auschwitz and other brutal camps.
His experience as a Sinti person made it fascinating as the focus of hatred and vilification was not just confined to the Jews.
The skill and luck to survive in this horror filled environment is nothing short of astounding.
The reiteration that Nazi hatred had no bounds highlighted well.
Otto survived what many didn’t and went onto to create his own family and through his daughter shared this harrowing timeline from his youth.
He was only a boy when he endured this.
Food for thought in this era of at times helicoptered parenting and self entitled teenagers.
This book although a little simplistic will act as a valuable first hand transcript and help ensure the atrocities are not forgotten.
The Holocaust conjures up an image of six million Jews murdered.
It rarely accounts for the deaths of the many Roma, Sinti, homosexual or other non desirable minorities.
Many works of fiction articulate and capture the horror of Jewish characters and their plight leaving other groups out of the picture.
Otto’s account bridges this gap.
The German racial cleansing program started earlier than war.
The gypsy population were rounded up and put in camps or ghettos in the mid 1930’s.
Their darker features and nomadic lifestyle not conducive to the aryan race.
The book is pieced together from his memories and accounts of surviving Auschwitz and other brutal camps.
His experience as a Sinti person made it fascinating as the focus of hatred and vilification was not just confined to the Jews.
The skill and luck to survive in this horror filled environment is nothing short of astounding.
The reiteration that Nazi hatred had no bounds highlighted well.
Otto survived what many didn’t and went onto to create his own family and through his daughter shared this harrowing timeline from his youth.
He was only a boy when he endured this.
Food for thought in this era of at times helicoptered parenting and self entitled teenagers.
This book although a little simplistic will act as a valuable first hand transcript and help ensure the atrocities are not forgotten.
Read
September 13, 2022No rating due to subject matter
Any book about the holocaust just really pulls on my heart strings. The author told his story about being a gypsy and his experience at the camps. Truly heartbreaking.
Any book about the holocaust just really pulls on my heart strings. The author told his story about being a gypsy and his experience at the camps. Truly heartbreaking.
October 11, 2022
I got an ARC of this book.
I read pretty much every memoir I can about the Holocaust. It is that time period that I just can't look away from and need to know every single story about. This is the very Romani story I have seen get published. Seeing non-Jewish stories are rare. So I got really excited, though excited is probably not the right word.
The narration felt like Rosenberg was telling a story, which I get he was. But I mean it felt like we were sitting together over tea while he just told his story. There were little asides here and there. There was a lot of "oh yeah!" moments about remembering someone or explaining that he has seen a certain person since they got out of the camps. It felt so intensely intimate and confessional in a way that other memoirs haven't.
The story read very fast. There were not a ton of details. It was not graphic the way a lot of other memoirs have been. I hope that means that Rosenberg was spared from some of the horrors, but it also might just be that he was not willing to go that in-depth. It was fascinating just how much he was able to talk himself into and out of, which might be why he focused more on that. It made his story uniquely his.
Overall, it was a wonderful memoir. Intimate and necessary.
I read pretty much every memoir I can about the Holocaust. It is that time period that I just can't look away from and need to know every single story about. This is the very Romani story I have seen get published. Seeing non-Jewish stories are rare. So I got really excited, though excited is probably not the right word.
The narration felt like Rosenberg was telling a story, which I get he was. But I mean it felt like we were sitting together over tea while he just told his story. There were little asides here and there. There was a lot of "oh yeah!" moments about remembering someone or explaining that he has seen a certain person since they got out of the camps. It felt so intensely intimate and confessional in a way that other memoirs haven't.
The story read very fast. There were not a ton of details. It was not graphic the way a lot of other memoirs have been. I hope that means that Rosenberg was spared from some of the horrors, but it also might just be that he was not willing to go that in-depth. It was fascinating just how much he was able to talk himself into and out of, which might be why he focused more on that. It made his story uniquely his.
Overall, it was a wonderful memoir. Intimate and necessary.
February 20, 2023
This was very hard and sad to read, I have read many WWII books but very few talk about the gypsy (Roma) and how suddenly they were all segregated and cast away from anything they already knew just to hide them from the world.
The story of Otto I really had many tears, how he at first was very happy as he was with the people he love the most but
The Olympics were about to start in Berlin, Hitler didn't want anyone to see the Roma, casting them aside, ripping them off all their belongings and even their homes, and building some tragic camps that will never hold any candle to their previous homes. Marzahn was the name of the camp situated very far away from the "Civilization" outside of Berlin. near a sewerage facility making it unbearable to live there.
Otto's story became heartbreaking even more when they were deported to Auschwitz a place no one ever wanted to come nearby, a place where you enter but you never come out. where you lose your family, friends, and everything you had even your own soul. this is where the story of Otto gets really hard and where we meet the side of the Gypsies' stories.
Without giving too much away this was a book that had to be written, we need more books about Roma and Sinti, they deserve to be known and the stories to be heard. I could never understand why they were always segregated and cast aside and this book shows so much about these situations and why they kept discriminating against them time and time again.
This book was fast-paced, Otto didn't get too much into details and that made it even easier to read his story but even if he didn't get too much into the terrible situations we could understand what was happening and what he went through
Thank you Otto for writing and sharing your story.
Thank you, NetGalley and Octopus Publishing US, Monoray, for the advanced copy of A Gypsy In Auschwitz in exchange for my honest review.
The story of Otto I really had many tears, how he at first was very happy as he was with the people he love the most but
The Olympics were about to start in Berlin, Hitler didn't want anyone to see the Roma, casting them aside, ripping them off all their belongings and even their homes, and building some tragic camps that will never hold any candle to their previous homes. Marzahn was the name of the camp situated very far away from the "Civilization" outside of Berlin. near a sewerage facility making it unbearable to live there.
Otto's story became heartbreaking even more when they were deported to Auschwitz a place no one ever wanted to come nearby, a place where you enter but you never come out. where you lose your family, friends, and everything you had even your own soul. this is where the story of Otto gets really hard and where we meet the side of the Gypsies' stories.
Without giving too much away this was a book that had to be written, we need more books about Roma and Sinti, they deserve to be known and the stories to be heard. I could never understand why they were always segregated and cast aside and this book shows so much about these situations and why they kept discriminating against them time and time again.
This book was fast-paced, Otto didn't get too much into details and that made it even easier to read his story but even if he didn't get too much into the terrible situations we could understand what was happening and what he went through
Thank you Otto for writing and sharing your story.
Thank you, NetGalley and Octopus Publishing US, Monoray, for the advanced copy of A Gypsy In Auschwitz in exchange for my honest review.
August 9, 2022
This book was rough I couldn’t imagine having to live
that. I found myself not being able to put this book down I spent the whole day reading.
Written beautifully. The family pictures made the book a little more personal I absolutely loved the family pictures. A lot of raw emotion heart breaking emotion. All around great read.
I can’t wait to be able to buy this book and add it to my collection. Thank you @netgalley!!
that. I found myself not being able to put this book down I spent the whole day reading.
Written beautifully. The family pictures made the book a little more personal I absolutely loved the family pictures. A lot of raw emotion heart breaking emotion. All around great read.
I can’t wait to be able to buy this book and add it to my collection. Thank you @netgalley!!
February 13, 2023
very interesting
A personal account of the persecution of the Roma and Sinti people. I would recommend this to those interested in this period
A personal account of the persecution of the Roma and Sinti people. I would recommend this to those interested in this period
August 26, 2022
Otto is a mere nine years of age when he and his family are ripped from the comfort of their community and forced to fight to survive in the Marzahn camp. A labour camp with no housing or facilities that was filled with Sinti and Roma. They were targeted with a similar frenzy as the Jews were, because of their alleged racial impurity.
This is the story of a young boy who managed to survive the most vicious and deadly of concentration camps. A child who lost his family and friends, and yet despite his age was brave enough to try and stand up for himself and others by joining a revolt against his captors.
It's not unusual for someone who has suffered extreme trauma to disassociate themselves from the events, which is why autobiographies and first-hand accounts can sometimes appear a little to be told or written with a lack of emotion. It's a coping mechanism, keeping the memories and distress at bay, whilst making sure loved ones and victims are never forgotten.
What's equally important is the intergenerational trauma - epigenetic trauma is fascinating and tragic. Imagine being so traumatised that it seeps into the very fabric of your being, your chemistry even. Post-war Holocaust generations are aware of this and the impact, despite often never being privy to the real details and finer details of said trauma.
It remains vital that the stories of Holocaust survivors are told and heard, regardless of whether they are alive or not. Documentation, eyewitness accounts and first-hand stories are pivotal, as the years pass and the younger generations are introduced to either a whitewashed version, alternative facts such as ludicrous denials or simply no information at all.
I have read a lot of Holocaust accounts, and am simultaneously disappointed and disturbed that there are still so many facts and stories hidden in the folds of history. The Roma and Sinti persecution tends to stand in the shadow of the other persecuted groups. I think what really rattled my cage about Otto's account was recognising the bureaucracy of the German nation, which is still a foundation of their structure today. The bureaucracy that stops the nomad community from receiving their financial dues, ergo still oppressing them with the efficiency of the Nazi party.
The way they meticulously transcribed everything, and as we can see in this book those records and the use of that data, become relevant and remaining so for many years afterwards. Also that the way these war criminals, and they are criminals, just slid into important roles in every industry in the post-war era. No punishment or accountability, instead the victims were victimised further by having to watch the guilty live without the burden of trauma, and what's worse they have to live with the murderers among them.
It's an important read - one that should be taught in school and one we should be telling and retelling, so Otto and his experience never fall foul of the system that forgets and history that swallows up the voices of so many innocents. I won't forget Otto, his family or his community.
This is the story of a young boy who managed to survive the most vicious and deadly of concentration camps. A child who lost his family and friends, and yet despite his age was brave enough to try and stand up for himself and others by joining a revolt against his captors.
It's not unusual for someone who has suffered extreme trauma to disassociate themselves from the events, which is why autobiographies and first-hand accounts can sometimes appear a little to be told or written with a lack of emotion. It's a coping mechanism, keeping the memories and distress at bay, whilst making sure loved ones and victims are never forgotten.
What's equally important is the intergenerational trauma - epigenetic trauma is fascinating and tragic. Imagine being so traumatised that it seeps into the very fabric of your being, your chemistry even. Post-war Holocaust generations are aware of this and the impact, despite often never being privy to the real details and finer details of said trauma.
It remains vital that the stories of Holocaust survivors are told and heard, regardless of whether they are alive or not. Documentation, eyewitness accounts and first-hand stories are pivotal, as the years pass and the younger generations are introduced to either a whitewashed version, alternative facts such as ludicrous denials or simply no information at all.
I have read a lot of Holocaust accounts, and am simultaneously disappointed and disturbed that there are still so many facts and stories hidden in the folds of history. The Roma and Sinti persecution tends to stand in the shadow of the other persecuted groups. I think what really rattled my cage about Otto's account was recognising the bureaucracy of the German nation, which is still a foundation of their structure today. The bureaucracy that stops the nomad community from receiving their financial dues, ergo still oppressing them with the efficiency of the Nazi party.
The way they meticulously transcribed everything, and as we can see in this book those records and the use of that data, become relevant and remaining so for many years afterwards. Also that the way these war criminals, and they are criminals, just slid into important roles in every industry in the post-war era. No punishment or accountability, instead the victims were victimised further by having to watch the guilty live without the burden of trauma, and what's worse they have to live with the murderers among them.
It's an important read - one that should be taught in school and one we should be telling and retelling, so Otto and his experience never fall foul of the system that forgets and history that swallows up the voices of so many innocents. I won't forget Otto, his family or his community.
July 10, 2024
4.5 stars rounded down to four... Maybe. Or maybe just four. Let's call it 4.25, because why the hell not?
This book is interesting in that it covers very adult subject matter, but it's written in a young adult style so that middle-school level readers can follow it without any trouble. It turns out Otto didn't "write" this book, but told it to someone else, and that dude pretty much transcribed it just as it was told to him. This gives the narrative a conversational style that works in the book's favor.
Plenty has been written about the Jews who suffered during the Holocaust and the 6 million that were murdered. The Jews were certainly the most persecuted group, but more Soviets were actually killed (7.8 million), though they were a mix of POWs and civilians, 3.3 million and 4.5 million respectively, and they were byproduct casualties of war, not a direct target due to their culture or religion. An estimated total of 17 million people were murdered as part of the holocaust. The 11 million non-Jews were comprised of various ethnic and political groups. One of those was the Roma and Sinti gypsies, and Otto, as one of them, describes his own experiences and how the group as a whole was treated. There wasn't a lot of difference between them and the Jews, though they got... for lack of a better term... certain privileges over the Jews. Many (but not all) Jews were flat-out killed upon arrival. Other groups including the gypsies were allowed to work until they died of malnutrition, disease, fatigue, were beaten to death, or whatever, and they were hardly ever killed right out of hand unless they were disabled and couldn't work.
It's no secret that I'm not a fan of the gypsy lifestyle, and I'm pretty sure that Otto and I wouldn't see eye to eye on many matters social and political, but nobody should ever be treated the way this poor boy/man was, or anyone else during the holocaust for that matter. What he went through before, during, and after the war is unconscionable. I'll skip the before and during parts since the essence is pretty much the same as most any other Holocaust memoir, though the details are different, but I'll go into the after part a bit since I had never thought much about it before.
At the end when the camp was liberated, he left with the couple of other relatives that also survived, eventually collapsed, was nursed back to health, then left and pretty much told to go on and make his way as best he could in this new, broken world. He had morphed from a pleasant child who was an altar boy with dreams of priesthood into a benumbed and bitter cur who was "full of hatred and intent on killing. I wanted to murder everyone, not just those who had tormented us in the camp. I thought, 'You lot never accepted that we were Germans, so when we get out we'll kill you Germans in turn.'"
He stayed at a farm for a couple of weeks, and started to get his head screwed back on straight. He could've killed the people there and gone on his way without any repercussions because everything had been knocked galley west, and nothing had been put back together yet. However, the lady there shared what little she had which was practically nothing, and things started to change for him. He still had a long way to go, but he didn't want to kill everyone anymore. He considers that his lowest point. "The thought that I could've killed someone always hits me like a physical sensation. It's never left me."
After that, he did honest work when he could, but stole and did some black-market business to survive because not very many people were trying to help anybody out after the war; they had their own problems to deal with. However, he was still willing to share when he had something to give, even to former Nazi soldiers. A lot of them were just as bad off as Holocaust survivors after the war, homeless and begging, even though they didn't go through the same ordeal, and many considered such condition just deserts and better than they deserved.
Years later in order to get compensation, he was told he needed his birth certificate and documentation proving he was in a concentration camp, plus something proving he had actually lived in Berlin before he was put into a camp, but since he was a gypsy and moved from gypsy camp to camp, there was no "official" address, so that was out. He got as many papers as he could, though it came to nothing. Eventually he was given 9,000 marks from a hardship fund, but 5,000 of those were immediately taken for the "welfare benefits" he received when he was nursed back to health. In order to get compensation for the dead relatives, he had to prove they were relatives though there was no documentation left, but he was told they could exhume his mother's body and do it that way, but he refused such desecration. They made the process so onerous that he just gave up on the whole thing rather than pursue the "blood money." This is textbook "adding insult to injury."[1]
His story is still pretty inspirational. His spirit never broke completely, though it was damaged. There's an impressive amount of humility and... dare I say it... fairness? Meaning there were some Nazi's he despised, but others he appreciated even though they were his overlords. These were ones who might abuse him for the sake of appearances, but he knew their hearts weren't in it, and they were doing what they needed to do to survive themselves. "Go along to get along," and all that jazz. Occasionally one might get on his case or smack him, or something, and he'd find an extra piece of bread on him or dropped right next to where he fell. It was a complicated and confusing time.
In the end he always did the best he could with his work tasks, but he didn't care whether he got beaten or not. He was immune to it as he was with several aspects of camp life. Somebody getting shot right next to him was nothing worth noting, piles of corpses were simply part of the decor, and gunfire and screams were part of the soundtrack. Getting a beating for the most minor infractions or for no reason at all as he went about his business was just another day at the office. It's amazing what a man can get used to.
He's not sure how or why he managed to survive when so many others didn't. It was a combination of attitude, skill, and luck. He also suspected there was a divine purpose behind it.[2] A couple of decades after the war, he started to work tirelessly for civil rights for Roma and Sinti people, and he was given some major awards due to those efforts. Apparently he made a huge difference for a lot of people. Had he not had his Holocaust experiences, he probably wouldn't have pursued that line of work.
If you have an interest in Holocaust experiences, then you could do much worse than this book. It's also great for middle/high-school aged children due to the reading level, meaning it's not too weighty and introduces them to the Holocaust in an age-appropriate way. More advanced readers can breeze right through it, though it's not dumbed down at all. It's just an easy read grammatically though it could be a difficult one thematically if you're squeamish.
[1]: I'm 95% certain he was in East Germany, though that's not specifically stated. I'd like to think West Germany did a better job with this kind of thing, but who knows.
[2]: I know how that sentence looks. Atheists and agnostics would be justified in wondering how there could be a divine anything going on given Otto's experiences, and even many believers probably wonder why God would let such things happen. I refer the believers to Job 38:4-11. For the A&A crowd, I'm not going belabor spiritual and theological points here. I'm just reporting the news, though I confess that Otto's assessment makes perfect sense to me.
This book is interesting in that it covers very adult subject matter, but it's written in a young adult style so that middle-school level readers can follow it without any trouble. It turns out Otto didn't "write" this book, but told it to someone else, and that dude pretty much transcribed it just as it was told to him. This gives the narrative a conversational style that works in the book's favor.
Plenty has been written about the Jews who suffered during the Holocaust and the 6 million that were murdered. The Jews were certainly the most persecuted group, but more Soviets were actually killed (7.8 million), though they were a mix of POWs and civilians, 3.3 million and 4.5 million respectively, and they were byproduct casualties of war, not a direct target due to their culture or religion. An estimated total of 17 million people were murdered as part of the holocaust. The 11 million non-Jews were comprised of various ethnic and political groups. One of those was the Roma and Sinti gypsies, and Otto, as one of them, describes his own experiences and how the group as a whole was treated. There wasn't a lot of difference between them and the Jews, though they got... for lack of a better term... certain privileges over the Jews. Many (but not all) Jews were flat-out killed upon arrival. Other groups including the gypsies were allowed to work until they died of malnutrition, disease, fatigue, were beaten to death, or whatever, and they were hardly ever killed right out of hand unless they were disabled and couldn't work.
It's no secret that I'm not a fan of the gypsy lifestyle, and I'm pretty sure that Otto and I wouldn't see eye to eye on many matters social and political, but nobody should ever be treated the way this poor boy/man was, or anyone else during the holocaust for that matter. What he went through before, during, and after the war is unconscionable. I'll skip the before and during parts since the essence is pretty much the same as most any other Holocaust memoir, though the details are different, but I'll go into the after part a bit since I had never thought much about it before.
At the end when the camp was liberated, he left with the couple of other relatives that also survived, eventually collapsed, was nursed back to health, then left and pretty much told to go on and make his way as best he could in this new, broken world. He had morphed from a pleasant child who was an altar boy with dreams of priesthood into a benumbed and bitter cur who was "full of hatred and intent on killing. I wanted to murder everyone, not just those who had tormented us in the camp. I thought, 'You lot never accepted that we were Germans, so when we get out we'll kill you Germans in turn.'"
He stayed at a farm for a couple of weeks, and started to get his head screwed back on straight. He could've killed the people there and gone on his way without any repercussions because everything had been knocked galley west, and nothing had been put back together yet. However, the lady there shared what little she had which was practically nothing, and things started to change for him. He still had a long way to go, but he didn't want to kill everyone anymore. He considers that his lowest point. "The thought that I could've killed someone always hits me like a physical sensation. It's never left me."
After that, he did honest work when he could, but stole and did some black-market business to survive because not very many people were trying to help anybody out after the war; they had their own problems to deal with. However, he was still willing to share when he had something to give, even to former Nazi soldiers. A lot of them were just as bad off as Holocaust survivors after the war, homeless and begging, even though they didn't go through the same ordeal, and many considered such condition just deserts and better than they deserved.
Years later in order to get compensation, he was told he needed his birth certificate and documentation proving he was in a concentration camp, plus something proving he had actually lived in Berlin before he was put into a camp, but since he was a gypsy and moved from gypsy camp to camp, there was no "official" address, so that was out. He got as many papers as he could, though it came to nothing. Eventually he was given 9,000 marks from a hardship fund, but 5,000 of those were immediately taken for the "welfare benefits" he received when he was nursed back to health. In order to get compensation for the dead relatives, he had to prove they were relatives though there was no documentation left, but he was told they could exhume his mother's body and do it that way, but he refused such desecration. They made the process so onerous that he just gave up on the whole thing rather than pursue the "blood money." This is textbook "adding insult to injury."[1]
His story is still pretty inspirational. His spirit never broke completely, though it was damaged. There's an impressive amount of humility and... dare I say it... fairness? Meaning there were some Nazi's he despised, but others he appreciated even though they were his overlords. These were ones who might abuse him for the sake of appearances, but he knew their hearts weren't in it, and they were doing what they needed to do to survive themselves. "Go along to get along," and all that jazz. Occasionally one might get on his case or smack him, or something, and he'd find an extra piece of bread on him or dropped right next to where he fell. It was a complicated and confusing time.
In the end he always did the best he could with his work tasks, but he didn't care whether he got beaten or not. He was immune to it as he was with several aspects of camp life. Somebody getting shot right next to him was nothing worth noting, piles of corpses were simply part of the decor, and gunfire and screams were part of the soundtrack. Getting a beating for the most minor infractions or for no reason at all as he went about his business was just another day at the office. It's amazing what a man can get used to.
He's not sure how or why he managed to survive when so many others didn't. It was a combination of attitude, skill, and luck. He also suspected there was a divine purpose behind it.[2] A couple of decades after the war, he started to work tirelessly for civil rights for Roma and Sinti people, and he was given some major awards due to those efforts. Apparently he made a huge difference for a lot of people. Had he not had his Holocaust experiences, he probably wouldn't have pursued that line of work.
If you have an interest in Holocaust experiences, then you could do much worse than this book. It's also great for middle/high-school aged children due to the reading level, meaning it's not too weighty and introduces them to the Holocaust in an age-appropriate way. More advanced readers can breeze right through it, though it's not dumbed down at all. It's just an easy read grammatically though it could be a difficult one thematically if you're squeamish.
[1]: I'm 95% certain he was in East Germany, though that's not specifically stated. I'd like to think West Germany did a better job with this kind of thing, but who knows.
[2]: I know how that sentence looks. Atheists and agnostics would be justified in wondering how there could be a divine anything going on given Otto's experiences, and even many believers probably wonder why God would let such things happen. I refer the believers to Job 38:4-11. For the A&A crowd, I'm not going belabor spiritual and theological points here. I'm just reporting the news, though I confess that Otto's assessment makes perfect sense to me.
January 29, 2024
Thank you Octopus Publishing US, Monoray for allowing me to read and review A Gypsy in Auschwitz on NetGalley.
Published: 10/11/22
Stars: 4 (Standard -- historical).
The Sinti and Roma people referenced as gypsies was unfamiliar to me until this memoir. They experienced much of the same atrocities as other groups in the prisons. My take is that these groups were smaller, thus they were made examples of by being killed as groups. Gypsies lived together in small camps throughout the prisons.
The story, thankfully is on point, and doesn't expand on crimes in graphic detail.
As a reminder, this is a survivor's account of his life, not a novel. This is for mature readers as well as for young readers with guidance.
Published: 10/11/22
Stars: 4 (Standard -- historical).
The Sinti and Roma people referenced as gypsies was unfamiliar to me until this memoir. They experienced much of the same atrocities as other groups in the prisons. My take is that these groups were smaller, thus they were made examples of by being killed as groups. Gypsies lived together in small camps throughout the prisons.
The story, thankfully is on point, and doesn't expand on crimes in graphic detail.
As a reminder, this is a survivor's account of his life, not a novel. This is for mature readers as well as for young readers with guidance.
March 12, 2023
Must read this - the extermination at the hands of the Nazis of a largely forgotten race - totally compelling!!
November 3, 2025
Book Review: A Gypsy in Auschwitz by Otto Rosenberg🤍
“Even in the darkest corners of the world, the human spirit refuses to die.”
~ A haunting and essential memoir that sheds light on one of the most overlooked tragedies of the Holocaust, the persecution of the Sinti and Roma people.
~ As a young Sinti boy in Berlin, Rosenberg’s childhood was stolen when Nazi racial laws declared his people “undesirable.” He was deported with his family to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where they were placed in the “Gypsy Family Camp”, a section established in 1943 specifically for Roma and Sinti prisoners.
~ Rosenberg’s descriptions of life there are devastating: families crammed into wooden barracks, starvation, disease, and the constant fear of selection. Between 1943 and 1944, around 23,000 Roma and Sinti were imprisoned in Auschwitz.
~ On August 2, 1944, nearly all who remained, over 4,000 men, women, and children, were murdered in the gas chambers in a single night. This event is remembered as part of the Porajmos (“the Devouring”), the genocide of the Roma and Sinti people, in which historians estimate 220,000–500,000 were killed across Europe.
~ What makes this memoir unforgettable is Rosenberg’s voice, at once innocent and wise, filled with confusion, endurance, and questions. He never romanticizes survival; instead, he looks back as a grown man asking how and why he lived when so many did not.
~ The book also explores the post-war years: rebuilding identity, reclaiming dignity, and the lifelong burden of trauma. It’s not only a testimony of survival but also a call to remember the forgotten victims of the Holocaust.
~ I’d give it a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5. If you want to understand the full scope of human endurance and the cruelty that tested it, this book deserves a place on your shelf.
“Even in the darkest corners of the world, the human spirit refuses to die.”
~ A haunting and essential memoir that sheds light on one of the most overlooked tragedies of the Holocaust, the persecution of the Sinti and Roma people.
~ As a young Sinti boy in Berlin, Rosenberg’s childhood was stolen when Nazi racial laws declared his people “undesirable.” He was deported with his family to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where they were placed in the “Gypsy Family Camp”, a section established in 1943 specifically for Roma and Sinti prisoners.
~ Rosenberg’s descriptions of life there are devastating: families crammed into wooden barracks, starvation, disease, and the constant fear of selection. Between 1943 and 1944, around 23,000 Roma and Sinti were imprisoned in Auschwitz.
~ On August 2, 1944, nearly all who remained, over 4,000 men, women, and children, were murdered in the gas chambers in a single night. This event is remembered as part of the Porajmos (“the Devouring”), the genocide of the Roma and Sinti people, in which historians estimate 220,000–500,000 were killed across Europe.
~ What makes this memoir unforgettable is Rosenberg’s voice, at once innocent and wise, filled with confusion, endurance, and questions. He never romanticizes survival; instead, he looks back as a grown man asking how and why he lived when so many did not.
~ The book also explores the post-war years: rebuilding identity, reclaiming dignity, and the lifelong burden of trauma. It’s not only a testimony of survival but also a call to remember the forgotten victims of the Holocaust.
~ I’d give it a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5. If you want to understand the full scope of human endurance and the cruelty that tested it, this book deserves a place on your shelf.
March 24, 2024
Author: Otto Rosenberg
Page Count: 210 Pages
Published Date: 4th August 2022
Genre: Biography
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Synopsis:
Otto Rosenberg is 9 and living in Berlin, poor but happy, when his family are first detained. All around them, Sinti and Roma families are being torn from their homes by Nazis , leaving behind schools, jobs, friends, and businesses to live in forced encampments outside the city. One by one, families are broken up, adults and children disappear or are 'sent East'. Otto arrives in Auschwitz aged 15 and is later transferred to Buechenwald and Bergen-Belsen. He works, scrounges food whenever he can, witnesses and suffers horrific violence and is driven close to death by illness more than once.
My Thoughts:
I enjoyed this book but i found some of it hard to read becuase of the German words, also this book was written in German first in 1999 and then translated to english in 2022 and some of the sentences didnt make sense. I find these books sad as no one deserved to go to the camps but especially unfair on the children that had to go into the camps and experience that. Whilst reading this book it made me think about what it was like back then compared to today and its so heart breaking that they had to go through that and either end up dying in there or they survive, but have the memories of that horrible place where they might of spent half their lives but also going into camp with your family and only you coming out of the camp with no family. I have rated this book 3 stars although I enjoyed the story it is just because of how hard it was to read becuase of the German words and sentences.
Page Count: 210 Pages
Published Date: 4th August 2022
Genre: Biography
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Synopsis:
Otto Rosenberg is 9 and living in Berlin, poor but happy, when his family are first detained. All around them, Sinti and Roma families are being torn from their homes by Nazis , leaving behind schools, jobs, friends, and businesses to live in forced encampments outside the city. One by one, families are broken up, adults and children disappear or are 'sent East'. Otto arrives in Auschwitz aged 15 and is later transferred to Buechenwald and Bergen-Belsen. He works, scrounges food whenever he can, witnesses and suffers horrific violence and is driven close to death by illness more than once.
My Thoughts:
I enjoyed this book but i found some of it hard to read becuase of the German words, also this book was written in German first in 1999 and then translated to english in 2022 and some of the sentences didnt make sense. I find these books sad as no one deserved to go to the camps but especially unfair on the children that had to go into the camps and experience that. Whilst reading this book it made me think about what it was like back then compared to today and its so heart breaking that they had to go through that and either end up dying in there or they survive, but have the memories of that horrible place where they might of spent half their lives but also going into camp with your family and only you coming out of the camp with no family. I have rated this book 3 stars although I enjoyed the story it is just because of how hard it was to read becuase of the German words and sentences.
August 8, 2022
‘Otto Rosenberg is 9 and living in Berlin, poor but happy when his family are first detained. All around them, Sinti and Roma families are being torn from their homes by Nazis, leaving behind schools, jobs, friends, and businesses to live in forced encampments outside the city. One by one, families are broken up, adults and children disappear or are ‘sent East’.
Otto arrives in Auschwitz aged 15 and is later transferred to Buchenwald and Bergen-Belsen. He works, scrounges food whenever he can, witnesses and suffers horrific violence, and is driven close to death by illness more than once. Unbelievably, he also joins an armed revolt of prisoners who, facing the SS and certain death, refuse to back down. Somehow, through luck, sheer human will to live, or both, he survives.’
This book was haunting.
I have read a lot of stories about World War II; both military and personal, many of these exploring the plight of Jewish people during the Holocaust, so reading a book that recounts the suffering that Sinti and Roma Gypsies experienced in Nazi Germany was fairly new to me.
With so many stories about the treatment of Gypsies during the Holocaust either untold or lost to history, reading this book was utterly heartbreaking. Otto’s journey is truly moving and his survival is both incredible and at times unbelievable in its simplicity.
Otto Rosenberg’s story is one that needs to be read by everyone. The way he relays his experiences is conversational in nature which makes it so much more emotional to read. Otto Rosenberg’s ability to be honest and raw not only about what he was subjected to but also about his own behaviour really captures the best and worst of humanity during a time where every decision was life and death.
A Gypsy In Auschwitz by Otto Rosenberg is a quick yet powerful read that will stay with you long after the final page
Geramie Kate Barker
gemsbooknook.wordpress.com
Otto arrives in Auschwitz aged 15 and is later transferred to Buchenwald and Bergen-Belsen. He works, scrounges food whenever he can, witnesses and suffers horrific violence, and is driven close to death by illness more than once. Unbelievably, he also joins an armed revolt of prisoners who, facing the SS and certain death, refuse to back down. Somehow, through luck, sheer human will to live, or both, he survives.’
This book was haunting.
I have read a lot of stories about World War II; both military and personal, many of these exploring the plight of Jewish people during the Holocaust, so reading a book that recounts the suffering that Sinti and Roma Gypsies experienced in Nazi Germany was fairly new to me.
With so many stories about the treatment of Gypsies during the Holocaust either untold or lost to history, reading this book was utterly heartbreaking. Otto’s journey is truly moving and his survival is both incredible and at times unbelievable in its simplicity.
Otto Rosenberg’s story is one that needs to be read by everyone. The way he relays his experiences is conversational in nature which makes it so much more emotional to read. Otto Rosenberg’s ability to be honest and raw not only about what he was subjected to but also about his own behaviour really captures the best and worst of humanity during a time where every decision was life and death.
A Gypsy In Auschwitz by Otto Rosenberg is a quick yet powerful read that will stay with you long after the final page
Geramie Kate Barker
gemsbooknook.wordpress.com
November 11, 2022
While I have read many books about the Holocaust over the years I have never read anything like this one before. I knew about the horrors that all the Jewish people faced but I never realised that the Gypsys' took on their plights as well. This was unlike any book I have ever read before and almost reads like a fiction novel however it is most certainly not that. The Horrors that this book is based on are unfortunately very real. This book took a very dark subject but spun it in a way that the reader can sympathise but also be compelled to see what is going to happen to the characters. This is a book that will leave its readers gasping as they struggle to understand the brutality that occurred at that time. This story centers around the life of our author, Otto, as a young boy as he goes from living in happiness with his grandmother to going through hell at the concentration
camps. This was a very good read and I liked how it was told kind of choppy because it shows how the people who had to endure such horrors got a little rattled, as they should. Very sad read and the only thing I didn't like about this one per say was I found parts of the story a little lackluster because it didn't show as many details as I'm used to seeing in these types of books however it did not take away anything from this story. This is one book that if you enjoy reading about the terrible things that happened in the past then you should check this one out because it gives you the facts without making you feel terrible. The only thing I didn't like was the ending I feel that the end was a little disjointed and it almost felt like I was missing a huge chunk of the story. If you can get past that part however this is one book to check out. Pretty good read and I'm very glad I got the chance to check it out.
camps. This was a very good read and I liked how it was told kind of choppy because it shows how the people who had to endure such horrors got a little rattled, as they should. Very sad read and the only thing I didn't like about this one per say was I found parts of the story a little lackluster because it didn't show as many details as I'm used to seeing in these types of books however it did not take away anything from this story. This is one book that if you enjoy reading about the terrible things that happened in the past then you should check this one out because it gives you the facts without making you feel terrible. The only thing I didn't like was the ending I feel that the end was a little disjointed and it almost felt like I was missing a huge chunk of the story. If you can get past that part however this is one book to check out. Pretty good read and I'm very glad I got the chance to check it out.
July 13, 2024
Always 5 stars to honour the bravery of telling of these unforgivable horrors. I learnt of the horrors perpetrated on the Roma & Sinti peoples when I visited Auschwitz. This book is actually too sad to read but these testimonies must be honoured in the reading. The afterword by his daughter, the foreword and endnotes are also powerful reading. Otto Rosenberg survived as did his mother although she died soon after. He tells so many stories that also demonstrate his underlying deep humanity & kindness such as understanding that many German civilians had no heart for the atrocities. Page 169 “As I say all of this out loud, I can feel a fear rise up in me. The thought that I could have killed someone always hits me like a physical sensation. It’s never left me.” The German Government in the post war period,still discriminated against the survivors, either rejecting their claim for compensation or giving them a paltry sum. Indeed it could be termed “ a second wave of suffering.” Page 209
July 18, 2023
I’ve read a few Auschwitz books now, this one is more straight to the fact it doesn’t dramatize the life inside of the camp in the way that some of the other books do. Which makes it a very different read, but possibly more insightful, and better in many ways..
there’s no moment with you, forget that this really happened
there’s no moment with you, forget that this really happened
August 31, 2022
A heartbreaking yet captivating memoir from Otto Rosenberg, following his journey of being captured into the concentration camps and how he managed to gain his freedom.
A really important story to read, I believe everyone should give it a go.
A really important story to read, I believe everyone should give it a go.
November 20, 2022
Brilliant book..couldn't put it down
April 12, 2024
Totally eye opening read. But it is really difficult to follow as it hops back and forth a lot and is very repetitive.
June 25, 2025
Wow, i finally found a true recount of what happened to the persecuted gypsy (sinti and roma) people during world War II. Otto lived a very interesting life and at such an young age it was for ever changed. this book taught me a lot that I didn't know. it also showed me how passionate Otto was after the war with sharing his story and making sure it was marked down with details only a witness of this horrible time would know. I hope Otto is resting in peace with his family. thankyou for sharing your story.
September 24, 2024
I always feel strange giving books like this one a rating because, how can you rate someones life story or experience? I did “enjoy” reading this book and it was interesting to get another perspective of a terrible time in history.
August 18, 2024
An important read!
April 24, 2025
Really good read
August 21, 2025
Rare that I voluntarily pick up a non-fiction but found this super interesting. Very powerful book
September 10, 2022
I, Otto Rose, saw it with my own eyes, and live to tell the tale.
In this heartbreaking and riveting memoir, holocaust survivor and activist Otto Rosenberg describes his Sinti childhood in Berlin, the concentration camps and the post-war treatment of his people.
The Sinti are a subgroup of the Romani people, an Indo-Aryan ethnic group often referred to with the pejorative term "Gypsy." As the title of this book suggests, the mass killing of the Sinti and the Roma is often described as a 'forgotten holocaust.' Indeed, many narratives ignore the racial aspects of their persecution and blame the victims for being members of an 'asocial group.' A Gypsy in Auschwitz is a testimony of what the Sinti and Roma people experienced and how the world looked the other way, before, during and after the war.
In the first chapters, Otto provides vivid descriptions of his schooling, his Catholic faith and everyday life in his community. It is a precious snapshot of pre-war Sinti life. Otto and his grandmother lived, studied and worked in Berlin where "Lots of Sinti people moved around constantly in their caravans, but my grandmother wasn’t keen on that sort of life." Increasingly difficult situations will only strengthen the incredible bond between Otto and his grandmother. His grandmother exudes goodness, serving as a sort of guardian angel to local children. As restrictions against his people increase, they're forced to stop their usual trades, given compulsory labour and receive welfare payments instead. Orders directed at the Jewish community then are also applied to Sinti and Roma, and therefore a subsequent ban on their employment leads to accusations that they are unwilling to work.
During this time, Otto experiences further discrimination and poor treatment, with his classmates explicitly targeting him due to his darker skin. His family is relocated to a camp (a hastily set up shanty town) for Roma people which lacks access to clean water and is surrounded by sewage. Still able to go out, the boy is asked by a woman at the bakery, "What can I do for you today, my love? Did you forget to wash your face again?" Throughout Otto's life, society will place him into situations where he is unable to work or clean himself, and then make hurtful remarks that he is a "dirty Gypsy." Readers unfamiliar with Sinti or Roma culture might miss the references to hygiene laws such as "You can imagine the smell. Left to our own devices, we would never have pitched up in such a spot, not least because our laws forbid it." Forcing these communities to break cultural laws for the placement of rubbish and washing adds an additional layer of humiliation to their treatment. Ethnic Germans come to sightsee in the camp, as "The camp caused a great deal of curiosity: lots of people would come and take photos, and on a few occasions, they sneaked into the camp itself."
His family attracts the attentions of Nazi psychologist Robert Ritter and his assistant, the anthropologist and nurse Eva Justin. The reader, knowing what medical experimentation is to come, comprehends an undercurrent of horror. "I'd like Otto to come by the Institute of Anthropology after school" Justin says, and Otto, being a good schoolboy, visits and does her psychological tests and sleeps in her house. It's like something from Grimms' Fairy Tales, with this monstrous woman offering a food, drinks and a "heavenly bed." Otto is still free to go in and out of his camp, but he will struggle to explain the actions of the adults in his life. "It would have been better if she had given me a beating; I could have processed it a whole lot better."
Throughout the text, Otto reflects on lost opportunities and his interrupted youth. He shares happy memories of his first holy communion and the wonderful food his teachers shared with him. "The food was so delicious, and after school or for supper there was always a sweet, scrumptious soup served in a big mug, with baked or fried dumplings to go with it. When I cast my mind back, I can still conjure up the taste, even though I’ve never had such things since. The food alone was enough to keep us going back time and time again." This Sinti boy, who most would incorrectly assume has no interest in education, delights in learning Latin, serves as an altar boy and dreams of being a priest. "Of course, I have these wonderful memories of them, but it does also have to be said that the Catholic and Protestant churches both turned over their registers to the Nazis, so ultimately they contributed towards the persecution of the Sinti and Roma." Otto is eager to please the adults in his life. Later he will reflect that "If things had gone on the way they were, without the war, I might well have stayed at Christ the King and I think that I might even have become a priest. But, of course, we’ll never know."
This book is a necessary reminder that no amount of good behaviour, studiousness or military service could make up for having Sinti or Roma blood. "My uncles had all been in the military – cavalry, navy and infantry. One cousin was even in the Luftwaffe. Another had fought in Finland as part of the mountain troops...My uncle said, ‘I’m not fighting for a country that does this.’ So they confiscated his gun, and 14 days later he ended up in Auschwitz, too."
Otto's tales of endurance from the camps catalogue the horrors, ranging from the lice ("If you shook a blanket, they would scatter everywhere like grains of sand. The place was teeming with them.") to the deaths. He sensitively describes those who clearly lost their minds and how emotionally shattered everyone was from being constantly surrounded by violence and death. The treatment of children and their bodies is incredibly hard to read. There are also disturbing reminders of how many seemingly good people witnessed these events unfolding. For example, "Once the train had been going for a while, the children began to ask the Red Cross sister who was accompanying them why I was locked up." Nobody seems to question why a train full of Roma and Sinti children are on the train in the first place. He also considers the difficulties of having so many people of different nationalities and languages crammed in together. These sections show that the Roma people are not a monolithic group. Additionally, it is interesting to read his thoughts on why some people were able to endure more hardship than others.
This book sensitively describes the suffering of women, particularly in the loss of their fertility from forced sterilisation and their repeated sexual assaults by the SS. "The SS abused our women. Not in the block itself, but usually behind it or elsewhere. Afterwards, they shot them. One of my own relatives was shot in the head, but the bullet passed right through. She’s still alive, but she’s barely there at times, and she can’t bear to be reminded of what she went through back then." He shares with empathy how the loss of their ability to have their own children will create further problems after the war. Forced sterilization will haunt these survivors' lives as they try to move forward by marrying and having children of their own.
This memoir does not package his concentration camp experience as a source of inspiration or tribute to the undefeatable human spirit. Throughout the book he tries to understand how such senseless violence and hatred from his fellow Germans emerged, especially those who had once treated him kindly. As the war progresses, an act of kindness was "as though the sun had suddenly burst out from behind a cloud. The sheer joy of it – knowing that there were still good people in the world." Still, he develops an understandable fear of strangers and the unknown. After his release, he is terrified of the arriving Americans, British and Russians as he is the Germans. Outside the camp, he is malnourished, with no place to go and a heart full of rage. Where are his family members? How should he live?
Young Otto attempts to process all that has happened to him, his family and his country. If you know how Roma and Sinti are still treated today, these often uncomfortable accounts of how they were turned away from aid will sound depressingly familiar. Families who were well and whole before the war were left broken, economically and spiritually. They run into their abusers unpunished in the street and find themselves placed into the same work they were doing in the concentration camps. When Otto tries to refuse doing that same work, his superiors say he can't refuse to work and that he has to contribute. "That was how fast they came down on us again and insisted that we slave away. They were the same old Nazis in the same old jobs." They demanded that the concentration camp survivors rebuild the city as if they were responsible for its ruin.
Changing ideas of citizenship is a constant issue for Otto. Despite being born in East Prussia and brought up in Berlin, he is repeatedly congratulated for speaking German well. Occasionally he receives preferential treatment in the camps for being from Berlin. However, when he goes looking for reparations for his time in the concentration camps and the murder of so much of his family, he says "I had to go to the district court, only to be told that I wasn’t a real German and had no ties to Berlin. 'He’s a gypsy. Roving spirit and all that. Berlin’s never been his home.'" Otto finds, like many other Roma and Sinti survivors, that people will say their possessions, businesses and homes could not have been stolen because "Gypsies" couldn't possibly have ever owned anything. When their documents are stolen or destroyed, they can't prove how many family members have been murdered by the state. Nazi anthropologists and scientists collected his genealogy, but after the war they refuse to recognise his relationship with his mother and siblings due to the lack of paperwork. The heartlessness of the bureaucrats he deals with is astonishing, but not surprising. These chapters are key reading for anyone wishing to understand why this community is distrustful of those in authority. This will inspire Otto to be a leader and an activist for those were denied restitution and recognition after the war. Inescapable brutality and sorrow end with callous disregard for the Sinti and Roma victims, and Otto provides a meditation on how these barriers perpetuate disadvantage.
The rage over his experiences nearly consumes him. "When I first arrived there, I was full of hatred and intent on killing. I wanted to murder everyone, not just those who had tormented us in the camp. I thought, ‘You lot never accepted that we were Germans, so when we get out, we’ll kill you Germans in turn." Somehow he is able to redirect that rage and turn it into activism, addressing the "second wave of suffering on the Sinti and the Roma" including seeking the official recognition of their genocide in 1982, their racial prosecution at Berlin-Marzahn Rastplatz in 1987 and having a memorial erected in Berlin in 2012. Throughout this, he defiantly refers to himself as a German. " How the SS and, I suppose, Germans like you or me could have done what they did is beyond me. Nobody can understand it." Otto will leave the camps unable to speak about his experiences and re-enter society as a voice for his people.
This memoir insists the reader understand that the maltreatment of his people did not end in 1945. This testimony includes how he continued to live with his grief and loss, and found his faith after so much was taken from him. He discusses issues related to community, intergenerational trauma and memory with clarity and courage. The afterword by his daughter, Petra Rosenberg, is a brilliant call to action which reinforces the "need for civil rights work by Sinti and Roma groups."
Otto's story deserves the widest possible readership and should be added to the reading list of anyone wishing to learn about Europe's largest minority group.
This book was provided by Octopus Publishing for review.
In this heartbreaking and riveting memoir, holocaust survivor and activist Otto Rosenberg describes his Sinti childhood in Berlin, the concentration camps and the post-war treatment of his people.
The Sinti are a subgroup of the Romani people, an Indo-Aryan ethnic group often referred to with the pejorative term "Gypsy." As the title of this book suggests, the mass killing of the Sinti and the Roma is often described as a 'forgotten holocaust.' Indeed, many narratives ignore the racial aspects of their persecution and blame the victims for being members of an 'asocial group.' A Gypsy in Auschwitz is a testimony of what the Sinti and Roma people experienced and how the world looked the other way, before, during and after the war.
In the first chapters, Otto provides vivid descriptions of his schooling, his Catholic faith and everyday life in his community. It is a precious snapshot of pre-war Sinti life. Otto and his grandmother lived, studied and worked in Berlin where "Lots of Sinti people moved around constantly in their caravans, but my grandmother wasn’t keen on that sort of life." Increasingly difficult situations will only strengthen the incredible bond between Otto and his grandmother. His grandmother exudes goodness, serving as a sort of guardian angel to local children. As restrictions against his people increase, they're forced to stop their usual trades, given compulsory labour and receive welfare payments instead. Orders directed at the Jewish community then are also applied to Sinti and Roma, and therefore a subsequent ban on their employment leads to accusations that they are unwilling to work.
During this time, Otto experiences further discrimination and poor treatment, with his classmates explicitly targeting him due to his darker skin. His family is relocated to a camp (a hastily set up shanty town) for Roma people which lacks access to clean water and is surrounded by sewage. Still able to go out, the boy is asked by a woman at the bakery, "What can I do for you today, my love? Did you forget to wash your face again?" Throughout Otto's life, society will place him into situations where he is unable to work or clean himself, and then make hurtful remarks that he is a "dirty Gypsy." Readers unfamiliar with Sinti or Roma culture might miss the references to hygiene laws such as "You can imagine the smell. Left to our own devices, we would never have pitched up in such a spot, not least because our laws forbid it." Forcing these communities to break cultural laws for the placement of rubbish and washing adds an additional layer of humiliation to their treatment. Ethnic Germans come to sightsee in the camp, as "The camp caused a great deal of curiosity: lots of people would come and take photos, and on a few occasions, they sneaked into the camp itself."
His family attracts the attentions of Nazi psychologist Robert Ritter and his assistant, the anthropologist and nurse Eva Justin. The reader, knowing what medical experimentation is to come, comprehends an undercurrent of horror. "I'd like Otto to come by the Institute of Anthropology after school" Justin says, and Otto, being a good schoolboy, visits and does her psychological tests and sleeps in her house. It's like something from Grimms' Fairy Tales, with this monstrous woman offering a food, drinks and a "heavenly bed." Otto is still free to go in and out of his camp, but he will struggle to explain the actions of the adults in his life. "It would have been better if she had given me a beating; I could have processed it a whole lot better."
Throughout the text, Otto reflects on lost opportunities and his interrupted youth. He shares happy memories of his first holy communion and the wonderful food his teachers shared with him. "The food was so delicious, and after school or for supper there was always a sweet, scrumptious soup served in a big mug, with baked or fried dumplings to go with it. When I cast my mind back, I can still conjure up the taste, even though I’ve never had such things since. The food alone was enough to keep us going back time and time again." This Sinti boy, who most would incorrectly assume has no interest in education, delights in learning Latin, serves as an altar boy and dreams of being a priest. "Of course, I have these wonderful memories of them, but it does also have to be said that the Catholic and Protestant churches both turned over their registers to the Nazis, so ultimately they contributed towards the persecution of the Sinti and Roma." Otto is eager to please the adults in his life. Later he will reflect that "If things had gone on the way they were, without the war, I might well have stayed at Christ the King and I think that I might even have become a priest. But, of course, we’ll never know."
This book is a necessary reminder that no amount of good behaviour, studiousness or military service could make up for having Sinti or Roma blood. "My uncles had all been in the military – cavalry, navy and infantry. One cousin was even in the Luftwaffe. Another had fought in Finland as part of the mountain troops...My uncle said, ‘I’m not fighting for a country that does this.’ So they confiscated his gun, and 14 days later he ended up in Auschwitz, too."
Otto's tales of endurance from the camps catalogue the horrors, ranging from the lice ("If you shook a blanket, they would scatter everywhere like grains of sand. The place was teeming with them.") to the deaths. He sensitively describes those who clearly lost their minds and how emotionally shattered everyone was from being constantly surrounded by violence and death. The treatment of children and their bodies is incredibly hard to read. There are also disturbing reminders of how many seemingly good people witnessed these events unfolding. For example, "Once the train had been going for a while, the children began to ask the Red Cross sister who was accompanying them why I was locked up." Nobody seems to question why a train full of Roma and Sinti children are on the train in the first place. He also considers the difficulties of having so many people of different nationalities and languages crammed in together. These sections show that the Roma people are not a monolithic group. Additionally, it is interesting to read his thoughts on why some people were able to endure more hardship than others.
This book sensitively describes the suffering of women, particularly in the loss of their fertility from forced sterilisation and their repeated sexual assaults by the SS. "The SS abused our women. Not in the block itself, but usually behind it or elsewhere. Afterwards, they shot them. One of my own relatives was shot in the head, but the bullet passed right through. She’s still alive, but she’s barely there at times, and she can’t bear to be reminded of what she went through back then." He shares with empathy how the loss of their ability to have their own children will create further problems after the war. Forced sterilization will haunt these survivors' lives as they try to move forward by marrying and having children of their own.
This memoir does not package his concentration camp experience as a source of inspiration or tribute to the undefeatable human spirit. Throughout the book he tries to understand how such senseless violence and hatred from his fellow Germans emerged, especially those who had once treated him kindly. As the war progresses, an act of kindness was "as though the sun had suddenly burst out from behind a cloud. The sheer joy of it – knowing that there were still good people in the world." Still, he develops an understandable fear of strangers and the unknown. After his release, he is terrified of the arriving Americans, British and Russians as he is the Germans. Outside the camp, he is malnourished, with no place to go and a heart full of rage. Where are his family members? How should he live?
Young Otto attempts to process all that has happened to him, his family and his country. If you know how Roma and Sinti are still treated today, these often uncomfortable accounts of how they were turned away from aid will sound depressingly familiar. Families who were well and whole before the war were left broken, economically and spiritually. They run into their abusers unpunished in the street and find themselves placed into the same work they were doing in the concentration camps. When Otto tries to refuse doing that same work, his superiors say he can't refuse to work and that he has to contribute. "That was how fast they came down on us again and insisted that we slave away. They were the same old Nazis in the same old jobs." They demanded that the concentration camp survivors rebuild the city as if they were responsible for its ruin.
Changing ideas of citizenship is a constant issue for Otto. Despite being born in East Prussia and brought up in Berlin, he is repeatedly congratulated for speaking German well. Occasionally he receives preferential treatment in the camps for being from Berlin. However, when he goes looking for reparations for his time in the concentration camps and the murder of so much of his family, he says "I had to go to the district court, only to be told that I wasn’t a real German and had no ties to Berlin. 'He’s a gypsy. Roving spirit and all that. Berlin’s never been his home.'" Otto finds, like many other Roma and Sinti survivors, that people will say their possessions, businesses and homes could not have been stolen because "Gypsies" couldn't possibly have ever owned anything. When their documents are stolen or destroyed, they can't prove how many family members have been murdered by the state. Nazi anthropologists and scientists collected his genealogy, but after the war they refuse to recognise his relationship with his mother and siblings due to the lack of paperwork. The heartlessness of the bureaucrats he deals with is astonishing, but not surprising. These chapters are key reading for anyone wishing to understand why this community is distrustful of those in authority. This will inspire Otto to be a leader and an activist for those were denied restitution and recognition after the war. Inescapable brutality and sorrow end with callous disregard for the Sinti and Roma victims, and Otto provides a meditation on how these barriers perpetuate disadvantage.
The rage over his experiences nearly consumes him. "When I first arrived there, I was full of hatred and intent on killing. I wanted to murder everyone, not just those who had tormented us in the camp. I thought, ‘You lot never accepted that we were Germans, so when we get out, we’ll kill you Germans in turn." Somehow he is able to redirect that rage and turn it into activism, addressing the "second wave of suffering on the Sinti and the Roma" including seeking the official recognition of their genocide in 1982, their racial prosecution at Berlin-Marzahn Rastplatz in 1987 and having a memorial erected in Berlin in 2012. Throughout this, he defiantly refers to himself as a German. " How the SS and, I suppose, Germans like you or me could have done what they did is beyond me. Nobody can understand it." Otto will leave the camps unable to speak about his experiences and re-enter society as a voice for his people.
This memoir insists the reader understand that the maltreatment of his people did not end in 1945. This testimony includes how he continued to live with his grief and loss, and found his faith after so much was taken from him. He discusses issues related to community, intergenerational trauma and memory with clarity and courage. The afterword by his daughter, Petra Rosenberg, is a brilliant call to action which reinforces the "need for civil rights work by Sinti and Roma groups."
Otto's story deserves the widest possible readership and should be added to the reading list of anyone wishing to learn about Europe's largest minority group.
This book was provided by Octopus Publishing for review.
July 31, 2022
I typically enjoy memoirs and am highly interested in history. A Gypsy in Auschwitz proved to be a great addition not only to my personal bookshelf but to my classroom as well. As you begin to read, you soon realize that you are hearing the story from the perspective of a young boy. I loved that the author has chosen to tell their story this way. The authenticity and storytelling allowed me to intimately see inside not just a culture of gypsies I had seen depicted in movies and such but behind the scenes. The love of a grandmother raising her grandson was both heartwarming and heartbreaking. The flow was quick and at times I wanted the author to slow down and provide me a little more imagery but understood that from the point of view of a child, you would not necessarily have this. At the same time, the pages turned quickly because I was eager to learn more about him.
From a historical perspective, I enjoyed getting to know Otto. Throughout, you realize that English is not his first language but that does not impede your reading. Instead, you get to know bits of his language, culture, and desire to survive a stolen childhood as he is torn from his family, his caravan home, and his lifestyle as he is drug from one labor/concentration camp to another. Through Otto's journey, I was introduced not only to his perspective but to those he encountered along the way from people who persecuted him and/or even tried to ignore what was happening by looking the other way. Many holocaust stories only give you a glimpse of the victim, but here we see that of those who neglected to help and added to the problem. My heart ached for Otto as a child and as an adult survivor.
I think Otto's story proves the importance of listening to as many personal testimonies of those who survived this horrific time, validating their stories, and passing their stories on in hopes that history does not repeat itself.
From a historical perspective, I enjoyed getting to know Otto. Throughout, you realize that English is not his first language but that does not impede your reading. Instead, you get to know bits of his language, culture, and desire to survive a stolen childhood as he is torn from his family, his caravan home, and his lifestyle as he is drug from one labor/concentration camp to another. Through Otto's journey, I was introduced not only to his perspective but to those he encountered along the way from people who persecuted him and/or even tried to ignore what was happening by looking the other way. Many holocaust stories only give you a glimpse of the victim, but here we see that of those who neglected to help and added to the problem. My heart ached for Otto as a child and as an adult survivor.
I think Otto's story proves the importance of listening to as many personal testimonies of those who survived this horrific time, validating their stories, and passing their stories on in hopes that history does not repeat itself.
August 31, 2022
A Gypsy In Auschwitz is another heartbreaking story from the concentration camps.
I have read a number of books about the Auschwitz concentration camps and each one is equally as heartbreaking as the other.
However, A Gypsy In Auschwitz really reached out to me and broke my heart that little more – being such a young boy Otto was taken to his first concentration at only the age of 9 – and this was only the beginning of his terrible journey.
I don’t want to talk too much about what is in the book because I wouldn’t want to spoil it for anyone else. But this is an incredible read, it was easy to read with plenty of pictures to divide up the chapters.
All survivors of Auschwitz are complete warriors to me, but what I loved about this book and this man, was how he was able to find certain things comical and laugh about them afterwards. I literally bow down to them!
I have read a number of books about the Auschwitz concentration camps and each one is equally as heartbreaking as the other.
However, A Gypsy In Auschwitz really reached out to me and broke my heart that little more – being such a young boy Otto was taken to his first concentration at only the age of 9 – and this was only the beginning of his terrible journey.
I don’t want to talk too much about what is in the book because I wouldn’t want to spoil it for anyone else. But this is an incredible read, it was easy to read with plenty of pictures to divide up the chapters.
All survivors of Auschwitz are complete warriors to me, but what I loved about this book and this man, was how he was able to find certain things comical and laugh about them afterwards. I literally bow down to them!
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