A Gypsy In Auschwitz

This book is so important as a piece of history. I am incredibly thankful for Otto's recounting of the horrors that he faced in Auschwitz and the way that this highlights the suffering of the Holocaust from another point of view. To read about the Sinti and the Roma and to see their struggles, separate from those of the Jewish people, gave me an understanding that I didn't have before. I found this to be such a powerful read.

A Gypsy In Auschwitz; How I Survived the Horrors of the ‘Forgotten Holocaust’ by Otto Rosenberg was an absolutely heartbreaking memoir of trauma a horror. I am so thankful that I got the chance to read this and I suggest everyone do the same.

If you are moved by stories about Auschwitz, seek to better understand history, want a real confession from someone who was actually there, this is the book for you.

"A Gypsy in Auschwitz" by Otto Rosenberg is the survival story of a poor nine year old who first faces eviction to an enclosed encampment in Berlin and afterwards is sent to various labor camps for Jews and Gypsies, including the one in Auschwitz. His troubles don't end along with the war.

Political/Social Context

Starting January 1933 things deteriorated dramatically for the Romani population in Germany. The orders directed at Jews affected them almost equally. They were banned to work and then accused of being unwilling to work at the same time. Starting 1935, Romani people were sent to what were basically labour camps where they lived in inhumane conditions.

After the founding of the Racial Hygiene and Demographic Biology Research Institute, personal information relating to all Sinti and Roma at the Marzahn camp were collected under the direction of the doctor Robert Ritter and his assistant, the nurse Eva Justin. The law enforcement authorities would later use this information to assign individuals for compulsory sterilisation and admission to concentration camps.
A Gypsy in Auschwitz by Otto Rosenberg

In total, around five hundred thousand Sinti and Roma fell victim to the Nazis' frenzy of racial hatred.
A Gypsy in Auschwitz by Otto Rosenberg

A Gypsy in Auschwitz - Plot Summary

Otto is Sinti, Sinti being a subgroup of Romani people, living in Germany. We get to know him as a young boy, with a happy childhood. He is poor, but strives to keep himself clean, do well in school and earn his upkeep with anything he can do to help his family financially.

His father was a horse dealer and his mother was a housewife. They divorced when Otto was two years old and he is sent to Berlin to live with his grandmother. In Berlin, with his grandmother, he lived in a trailer, in a gated, privately rented land, along with lots of other trailers. Their community was very close knit, took care of each other and all the children played together.

The women made a living peddling good and telling fortunes, while the men wove baskets, crafted tables and chairs from root timber and decorated cabinets. Later, all of that was banned; they were forced into compulsory labour and received welfare payments instead.
A Gypsy in Auschwitz by Otto Rosenberg

One day in 1936, all this changes. All Romani people are moved on a vacant land - Berlin-Marzahn Rastplatz. Otto is nine years old. Everyone is forced to live there, in a filthy place, surrounded by a sewage farm, a place none of them would have willingly chosen because it went against their religion.

Children are barred from attending public school. They were all crammed together in two rooms, with only one teacher. They only learned reading and to do some arithmetic. For a while, life went on, even if their conditions at the camp were pretty bad. A lot of people died in that camp too, their graves are still there today.

At thirteen, Otto has to leave school and start working. He is just a little boy so when a shiny object catches his eye, he tries to steal it to play with it. He is caught and sent to prison and then, just before turning sixteen, he is sent to Auschwitz.

As one would expect, life there is terrible and Otto describes the horrors vividly. He faces lack of food, constant hunger, lice problems, lack of shoes and clothes in a cold weather. However, what stands out the most is the loneliness he faces. Families get separated so that everyone has to fend for themselves. Slowly, they all become void of emotion even when seeing a corpse.

They don't have the sense of right and wrong anymore.

My Impressions

This book is not for the faint-hearted. It is difficult to describe what the camp did to everyone, even more difficult to believe it. For the Romani survivors, however, things didn't pick up after the war. The German authorities took advantage of the Romani people's lack of literacy and actively did whatever they could not to give them the monetary compensation they were entitled. Another example of such abuse is that Marzahn was actually declared a labour camp in 1987, long after the war stopped.

All this made me mad and sad. I felt indignant and understood how authorities can leave you powerless, if it's in their best interest. Minorities were usually treated bad throughout history, but the Romani population still have a terrible time integrating in all European countries today. They are still mostly marginalised and discriminated.

Otto's history is impressive. He managed to survive without having his conscience bugging him later on. As he confesses, a lot of the prisoners in the camp cannot say the say thing. He has managed to forgive them all and talks about everything in a detached manor years later. At one point he even understands he was experimented on, but he can only see the kindness in the doctors' behaviour and feels that it counts.

I loved his pride throughout all of it, his commitment to help all the others who have gone through the same experience. He made me hopeful about surpassing anything life sets in front of you with a head held high. He inspired me to judge less, seek to understand more. He inspired me to forgive more.

He was an incredible man whose story I loved to read.

Conclusion

This is a beautifully written real story of forgotten horrors. In spite of it all, it is also inspiring.

If you seek to understand a different culture,

The review will also be available on my youtube channel in December

So many people think that Jews were the only people exterminated by the Nazis before and during WWII, but though they were tortured and killed in by far the greatest numbers, the Roma/Sinti, AKA gypsies, were also rounded up, put into concentration camps, and murdered. All because they were viewed as subhuman by the Aryans, and blamed for most of Germany's problems after losing WWI. Jews, Roma, the mentally and physically disabled, and others, were viewed as useless mouths, unworthy of living in Aryan lands. The author, who was just a child when imprisoned in a camp, learned quickly how to do what he had to, to survive. So many of his family were gassed or otherwise killed, but he persevered, and lived. I feel almost as if he whitewashed some of his experiences to make them less gruesome to the reader. However, it is something that should not have its impact lessened to make it more palatable to any reader. As the old saying goes, those who don't know their history are doomed to repeat it.

My thanks to NetGalley for lending me an ARC of this book; all opinions expressed are my own.

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.

A harrowing account of a young Sinti boy deported to Auschwitz then sent to Buchenwald concentration camp. The suffering and brutality he endured make this a strong survival story and an ode to his will to live. Worth the read.

Thanks for the ARC NetGalley.

I love to read anything about the Holocaust. What sets this book apart from other books of this genre is that it focuses on the Sinti and Roma suffering at the hands of the Nazi's. It details Otto's young life as a gypsy in Berlin and is fight to survive the concentration camps and suffering at the hands of the Nazi's.

It is a simple easy read about a heartbreaking survival. It is a worthwhile read as not many of these histories exist. Either they were not written about because no wanted to hear about them or survivors did not want to talk about it. While I liked the story and would recommend it to others for a different perspective,

Many thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to read this advance copy of A Gypsy in Auschwitz by Otto Rosenberg. I have read numerous books about the Holocaust and have even travelled to Auschwitz but this is the first one that I have read about the Sinti Gypsies.

This is a memoir written by the author of his life in Berlin living with his grandmother and finally to the concentration camps. Family photos are included in this work and adds to the authenticity of Otto's journey.

As a teacher my students often asked "why didn't they revolt?" "why didn't more try to escape?" Otto speaks to this throughout his story. He talks about the apathy of the prisoners after being starved, beaten, and degraded. The details painted by Otto are so demonic and horrific and yet these were scenes from everyday life in the camps.

If you are looking for eloquently written prose this book is not it. It is the survivalist story of one ordinary man who witnessed the most unspeakable deeds in 1940's Europe.

There are some stories that absolutely need to be told, regardless of the pain and horror experienced. Such is the case with the book, A Gypsy in Auschwitz, by Otto Rosenberg. So often we hear about the plight of the Jews in the concentrations camps, but this memoir takes us on a slightly different vein. Here, we capture a glimpse into the Gypsy persecution at the hand of the Nazis. Raw, honest, brutal, and gut wrenching, Rosenberg recounts his experience in the Auschwitz concentration camps in a way that resonates deeply. This is a story we all need to hear and learn from. The vulnerability and truth presented are vital for our understanding of mankind and the consequences of unchecked evil.

I received this book from Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

A harrowing and important read. I would definitely recommend giving this memoir a read if you're interested in witness literature and testimony.

I agree with another reviewer about the rushed-ness. Given that it's a memoir, it reads more like stream of consciousness but is overall gripping especially with the included pictures.

Thank you NetGalley and Octopus Publishing!

Due to the nature of this book, and the fact that it is a biography I will keep my thoughts brief and to the point.

My biggest issue was I felt this book was rushed and a bit disconnected. I spent a lot of time just trying to figure out how we got from point A to point B. It felt like there were a lot of holes left in the story. It just was a bit disorganized and was hard to fully invest myself in.

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 really enjoyed this memoir written by Otten Rosenberg, A Gypsy In Auschwitz, on racially forced labour camps in Nazi Germany. Otto Rosenberg was from a German Sinti family, born in Draugupone, East Prussia, in 1927. He was sent to live with his grandmother because his parents separated around that time. Otto Rosenberg belonged to one big family in those concentration camps. Later after the concentration camp he was back with his grandmother after living with his dad at the age of five in berlin. He was always hungry as a boy, if he wanted to eat something he needed to work long and hard for it. He was closer to his grandmother than to his own parents. Thier final move to sandbcaher weg in Altglienicke - Bonsdorf district. He also started school here. He experienced his share of discrimination and fought back against the children who tried to put him down.

One morning they were loaded into trucks by the stormtroopers and the police, removing them from a private camp. They were carted off to Berlin - Marzahn, or it was officially known, Berlin Marzahn Ratplatz. This was in 1936, before the Olympic games when Otto turned nine. Otto's uncle was among the men where sent to other camps which drove them on trucks to Sachsenhausen in Orantenburg. Some nine hundred to a thousand people were living at Moarzahn camp, Roma along with Sinti. The Sinti included name of his aunts, uncles and other relatives, including his grandmother's sister and her sons. They were a massive family. Otto was always hungry. Having nothing to eat drove him to tears. His grandmother couldn't earn big bucks has she received no money to save for her Welfare support. Otto worked and helped farmers to earn 75 pfennings for his food to be well fed. They lived in caravans and huts at Marzahn. Police went every morning to certain huts and caravans took people away, never to be seen again. In ever increasing numbers people were ordered to report to Alexanderplatz, Dircksenstrabe, Berlin C2, and Leo Karsten at the Gypsy department. This man in charge was Karsten. Otto had to leave school at the age of 13. His grandmother was dependent on welfare and it was up to him to support her. He was on top of the world has he started earning in a factory in an armament factory in Berlin- Lichtenburg. Otto was spotted smuggling a "burning glass - lens that has been used to check the cannisters for defects and cracks which makes everything look massive. Karmer the chief foreman saw what he did, unscrewing the lens and taking it off with them which was called a burning glass. Otto escorted to the police station which was utterly humiliating and distraught. He was chained and arrested on the whole burning glass affair and locked in a cell. He was taken to Dircksen strabe - and he was handcuffed and put on a transport to Moabit prison, Berlin 12A. He was sentenced to three months and three weeks in youth detention for sabotage - and theft of Wahrmacht property. He served four months in prison and was taken back to Dircksenstrabe - this to Gypsy Department. He was still classed as a prison inmate and was put in a special carriage. The police put him in a cell by the door into the carriage and locked him there. The police left and the military tookover the transport - when he turned 16 the train arrived in Auschwitz. He was taken to Grob - Auschwitz, the big main camp. Otto became sick twice, First time he collapsed with fever. Second time he was covered with scabies head to toe. It was awful. He has no idea how he managed to survive Auschwitz. He still cannot fathom it to this day. It was certainly great deal of luck and he believed a protective hand held over him, shielding him from harm. This remarkable story was moving, heartbreaking and an incredible account given by Otto Rosenberg. He witnessed violence and abuse by SS, quiet horrifying. The mass extermination was called off, and Otto went on living in Auschwitz until August 1944 until when a transfer was arranged. All those who were fit to work were transported to Buchenwald. He learned that the entire Birkenau Gypsy camp has been liquidated Including his grandmother and cousins and grandchildren were wiped out who had remained in Auschwitz. They killed every last one of them.

I just reviewed #A Gypsy In Auschwitz: How I Survived the Horrors of the ‘Forgotten Holocaust’ by Otto Rosenberg. Thanks to Publisher Monoray and NetGalley for an advance copy for my honest review.

Very detailed history of the gypsy and Sinta populations in Germany both before and after the war. Personal recollections are well told without being over dramatic.

I read "Night by Elie Wiesel" years ago. It took me years to take back a book based on Holocaust. The impact Holocaust literature leaves is heavy and deep. Imagine, the impact it had on men, women, and children who were struggling to survive in Nazi camps.

The book is a memoir on the experience of Otto in Nazi camps. Holocaust turned humans into wild animals. Survival is the solo goal. To survive they had to push themselves to the extreme. You either work or die. The trauma is deep rooted in them. Otto was a minor when he was taken away for the camp. The way Otto faced the challenges. He didn't know what he was doing, with sheer hope for survival, he went with the flow and intuition.

There is mention of God more than 4 times, it reflects that even after facing hell in the camps the faith was a light in their hearts. The Nihilistic pov is not apparent in the book. It's heart breaking to read on the condition of women and children. Fighting with their own family for loaf of bread is soul wrecking. Personally, hunger is the worst of the pain that one can go through. I felt extremely bad when people couldn't get proper rations.

What's your identity? In concentration camps you would get numbers as your identity. Your name, family background, religion nothing matters. Your identity is snatched away. At a certain point, they become numb to it all.

"Lambs being led to the slaughter. That was how utterly changed we were"

"Work makes you free which turned into extermination through labour"

"The world is full of terrible people but there are always a few good eggs among them"

The book started off with gentle tone soon turned into a nightmare. The torment they all went through is unfathomable.

YOU MUST READ THIS BOOK! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! I WOULD BLINDLY GIVE IT 5 STARS.

Everyone hears or reads about the 6 million Jewish victims murdered the Holocaust. There were approximately 5 million others that died at the hands of the Nazis. Otto’s story sheds light on the Roma and Sinti victims. Ottis’s account of what he experienced is haunting and very emotional. The family photos throughout the book made it even more heartbreaking. Otto did not spare details of what he and others went through so read with caution.

A Gypsy in Auschwitz is a harrowing, haunting, emotional and remarkable story about an impoverished but happy German Sinti boy who was forced into an encampment outside of Berlin called Marzahn. Otto describes his life living mostly with his loving grandmother who meted out unique "punishment" when necessary. He also details school (including cleanliness rules) and having to leave at 13 to help his grandmother. At the age of 15 he was taken to Auschwitz and recounts horrific conditions there including Dr. Mengele's selections, lice infestations, humiliation, torture, extreme hunger, beatings and murder which happened so regularly he became numb to it. He details killing camp hierarchy. But he also describes unexpected acts of mercy such as a gift of jam. He was also very enterprising...and and had to be to survive. So many difficult anecdotes such as the dog biscuits and cement bags gave me goosebumps. Otto also wrote about the impact on his life atter.

Not only did he suffer unimaginably at Aushwitz but also at Buechenwald and Bergen Belsen. Thousands did not survive the days after liberation. The stories are written candidly with Otto's whole heart. He did not gloss over grotesque and disturbing details. Though I have read many, many books on the Holocaust each one never fails to move me and this one did in its rawness and powerful evocativeness. It was fascinating to learn more about the Sinti in general.

Those interested in learning more about the Holocaust shouldn't miss this awful yet achingly beautiful book. Be sure to read all the notes in the back. The photographs add an even greater personal and memorable touch.

My sincere thank you to Octopus Publishing US and NetGalley for the honour of reading this deeply touching and important true story. It should be required reading for everyone.

Any book about the holocaust just really pulls on your heart strings. The author told his story about being a gypsy and his experience at the camps. Truly heartbreaking, but I believe you need to keep reading history to keep it alive and never forget.

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.