Image of one of photographs showing Roma (Gypsies) in Radom, Poland – torn from a German soldier’s photograph album.
A photograph showing Roma in Radom, Poland – torn from a German soldier’s photograph album. IWM HU 105681

Here in the Department of Research, one of my responsibilities is to oversee the development of new content for The Holocaust Exhibition. My next is to display a collection of recently acquired photographs of Roma and Sinti (‘Gypsies’).

Image of one of the photographs showing Roma (Gypsies) in Radom, Poland – torn from a German soldier’s photograph album.
A photograph showing Roma in Radom, Poland – torn from a German soldier’s photograph album. IWM HU 105682

Roma and Sinti were targeted by the Nazis in their discriminatory laws and policies from 1933. They were later subject to slave labour, internment and mass murder (including at extermination camps such as Auschwitz-Birkenau). 25%, or up to 220,000 of Europe’s Roma were killed by the Nazis. These photographs were torn from a German soldier’s photograph album and depict Roma or Sinti in a camp near the city of Radom in Poland. Their exact fate is not known.

Image of one of the photographs showing Roma (Gypsies) in Radom, Poland – torn from a German soldier’s photograph album.
A photograph showing Roma in Radom, Poland – torn from a German soldier’s photograph album. iWM HU 105686