[1] On 10 December 1942, Heinrich Himmler issued an order to send all Romani (German: Zigeuner, "Gypsies") to concentration camps, including Auschwitz.
[3] One transport of 1,700 Polish Sinti and Roma were killed in the gas chambers upon arrival, as they were suspected to be ill with spotted fever.
[4] Thousands died of typhus and noma due to overcrowding, poor sanitary conditions, and malnutrition.
A witness in another part of the camp later told of the inmates unsuccessfully battling the SS with improvised weapons before being loaded into trucks.
[8] One of the few survivors was Margarethe Kraus, who was subjected to medical experimentation and whose parents were murdered.