In this documentary contemporary witnesses tell about the persecution of Sinti and Roma.
One of them is Hugo Höllenreiter, born 1933 in Munich. His father was a soldier in the German Wehrmacht and his sister was proud of being a member of a Nazi youth group for girls. Everything changed when the family is brought to the gypsy camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Hugo has a terrible time there, but the strong company of his family helps him surviving. In summer they are brought to Bergen-Belsen. On their way there his mother and aunt are sterilised and his father shortly escapes death in Sachsenhausen. In April 1945 the family höllenreiner is finally freed by British soldiers. Hugo Höllenreiner needed a very long time to talk about all these events. Today he talks in front of school classes to show what racism can cause.
His cousin Mano Höllenreiner has had a similar terrible destiny. His family came to Auschwitz in 1943 and he was one of the victims of Mengele's experiments. In Ravensbrück he is sent to the men's camp and is freed after the war almost hungered to death. He is traumatised and at first doesn't even want to tell his name so that his trace is lost. Years later he is discovered in France and btought back to Munich.
Hildegard Franz was born in Tübingen and grew up in Ravensburg. After a "racial-biological" examination in 1936 her family has to live in a camp, especially made for Sinti. In 1943 Hildegard's family is deported to Auschwitz. By this time she is already married and has three daughters. Her husband is killed and she has to do compulsory labour. During a death march she is freed by the Americans.
Helene Winterstein, born in 1928, grows up in Düsseldorf, where her family has to live in a camp after the coming into power of the Nazis. In 1940 follows the deportation to Poland. At first they are placed on a farm, but soon Helene has to do compulsory labour in an ordnance factory. Later she is brought to Bergen-Berlsen. Her grandmother and her mother survive the liberation just a short time.
Lily van Angeren-Franz lived with her six brothers and sisters and her parents in a caravan: in winter they movedto Hildesheim and in summer their father would make music and their mother would sell haberdashery. Lily was born in 1924 and had a lucky childhood. But in 1938 her father is suddenly arrested and noone tells where he is kept. Liliy has to quit school and is likewise arrested in 1943. She is brought to Auschwitz, where she works as a camp writer. In 1944 she comes to Ravensbrück to work in a ordnance factory. During a death march she can escape with three of her friends and helps in a camp run by the Red Cross. After years she finally finds her father and one of he sisters. The rest of the family has been killed in Auschwitz. Till today Lily van Angeren-Franz is living in the Netherlands.
These six destinies stand for all the victims of this time. The number of Sinti and Roma killed during the Nazi-regime is estimated to be around 500.000.
