REF's Chair Andrzej Mirga on the occassion of the Commemorations of 2 of August
Roma Virtual Network
The Roma’s own narratives on the genocide still contain too many missing elements: well documented and personalized stories of persecution, testimonies of survivors or their own accounts of what Roma faced during the Nazi era horror, data and evidence on many places, individuals or instances of killings that are still to be uncovered [1]. Roma still have to name victims and uncover true stories that could encapsulate and symbolize their experience of persecution and would be remembered for generations. The Roma Genocide narrative needs such well-documented, personalized and compelling stories, which can been used for teaching, and for building up collective Roma historical memory. Today, however, it is more difficult to trace such figures, not only because the memory of the past is fading away but also because there are ever-diminishing number of witnesses who can tell us such stories.
Speaking at the UN Holocaust Memorial Day of January 27, 2010, in New York, I chose purposely to mention a Sinti girl Unku who died in Auschwitz camp. The true story of “Unku” or Erna Lauenburger, could be one of such telling stories symbolizing Sinti and Roma Genocide. Erna, born in 1920, has become a model for the heroine of the children’s book “Ede and Unku” by Grete Weiskopf-Bernheim (pseudonym: Alex Wedding). [2] The book was published in 1931. The writer was Jewish and her book was banned by the Nazis in 1933. Erna as a Sinti was “racially” registered in 1939 and was classified as a “gypsy of mixed race” in 1941. She was deported from the detention camp in Magdeburg directly to Auschwitz on the 1 March 1943 with her family and died there that same year. Out of eleven Sinti children mentioned in this book, based on real life-stories, only one child survived the persecution. [3]
There are other stories of victims who survived, which should be heard and widely known. One of them is the story of Zoni Weisz [4], who, as a 7-year-old child, was saved, along with his aunt, by the kindness of a guard who kept them on the platform while Weisz’s parents, brothers and sisters boarded the trains that would transport them to concentration camps, and, eventually, to their deaths. Zoni Weisz was honored by speaking at the ceremony of unveiling of Roma and Sinti monument near Bundestag in Berlin.[5]
There is also a story to be told about Mirga’s in Auschwitz-Birkenau. On the occasion of writing a paper on Roma identity, my daughter Ania got interested in knowing more about another Anna Mirga, who’s picture is among pictures of prisoners hanged on the wall in the hall of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum (Mirga, Anna, Rabka, Krzywon , born 1918-00-00 (Rabka), religion: katholisch, remarks: died, 1943-02-15 in Auschwitz).
Inquiring about her at the Museum she learned that data on prisoners is made available by the Museum online[6]. Mirga is a typical Romani surname, contrary to other surnames, such as Kwiatkowski, Kaminski or Wisniewski that can be found both among Poles and Roma; Mirga, however, does not appear among non-Roma. We were aware of this picture since long, however, we did not know who she was and whether there were other Mirga’s in the camp. We also did not encounter testimonies confirming that there were Mirga’s there.
For both of us it was revealing to go through the camp’s files on Mirga’s. Altogether, Mirga’s name surfaced in camp’s files 100 times. Some individuals were registered in various camp’s documents, therefore, appearances in files do not correspond with the number of individual registered. Analyzing these data, in particular, first names, date of birth, place of birth, camp’s number or date of death, it can be concluded that 48 different Mirga’s were registered in the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp files. [7]
For 42 Mirga’s, it is possible to identify from where they were originating (data provides information of place of birth or place of living). For the remaining 6 persons, only camp’s number were registered and in 1 case, only the year of birth is given. 8 Mirga’s originated from a single Roma community in Nowy Targ; others from Stary and Nowy Sącz, Rabka, Szczawnica, Ostrowsko, Czarny Dunajec, and others.
From that number, most of Mirga’s were killed or died between February and March 1943 and 3 Mirga’s between September and October of 1942. Only in one case, there is a note in the file that a person survived. [8] In case of another one, there is an information that a person was transferred to Ravensbruck camp. [9] In yet another case, there is a notice that a person left the camp with a transportation, however, without information to where. [10] And in the last case, there is no information whatsoever regarding what has happen to that person.[11] At this stage, we are not aware of how these Mirga’s and communities they originate from were interlinked with our family.
This story, that began with a picture and inquiry about another Anna Mirga, led us to uncover other 46 Mirga’s registered in files of Auschwitz-Birkenau, will need to be continued with further research, demonstrates how much is out there still that is not part of our knowledge and memory of the past. It also presents a dramatic statistic: out of these number only one for sure may have survived. Furthermore, we may never fully uncover the truth of how many Mirgas have perished in Auschwitz-Birkenau and other concentration camps, as it is known that frequently prisoners were processed though the camps without ever being included in camps’ registries.
*This is an excerpt from the book “Education for Remembrance of the Roma Genocide. Scholarship, Commemoration and the Role of Youth”. Edited by Anna Mirga-Kruszelnicka, Esteban C. Acuña and Piotr Trojański; Libron, 2015 (second and extended edition in 2016). The book can be downloaded from: http://2august.eu/book-remembrance/
[1] Such as Ceilia and Karl Stojka, Bronislawa Wajs or Papusza, Zoni Weisz, etc. There are numerous efforts to gather and publish Roma survivors testimonies in Heidelberg Centre, in United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) in Washington, in Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum, or by Steven Spielberg‘s USC Shoah Foundation, etc.
[2] The National Socialist Genocide of the Sinti and Roma, Catalogue of the Permamnet Exhibition in the State Museum of Auschwitz, Romani Rose (ed.), 2003, p. 251; also, see: Sinti and Roma in German-Speaking Society and Literature, Susan Tebbutt, 1998 Berghanh Books, pp. 124- 127.
[3] The National Socialist Genocide of the Sinti and Roma, Catalogue of the Permamnet Exhibition in the State Museum of Auschwitz, Romani Rose (ed.), 2003, p. 251.
[4] Zoni Weisz is the author of the Preface of this book. For more, you can consult his biography attached at the end of the book.
[5] http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/24/us-germany-roma-monument-idUSBRE89N0YD20121024 Zoni Weisz was also invited to speak to the German Bundestag about the Roma Genocide a year before, in 2011. https://www.bundestag.de/rede
[7] List of Mirga’s identified in these files is in Appendix.
[8] Mirga, Maria, ur.1922-00-00, camp number: 32547, remark: survived
[9] Mirga, Michał, ur.1922-03-10, camp number: 116744, remark: transf. in 1944 to KL Ravensbrück)
[10] Mirga Andrej, born 1922-00-00 (Czycyza), camp number: Z-9369, occupation: Arbeiter, category: Z.Pole, remark: transf. in 1944-04-15
[11] Mirga, Władysław, camp number: 113417