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10 Facts About Margarethe Kraus

1.

Margarete Kraus was a Roma woman who was persecuted during the Porajmos, imprisoned at Auschwitz and Ravensbruck.

2.

Whilst little is known about Margarethe Kraus' early life, what is known is that she was a young woman of Roma origin, who was living in Czechoslovakia with her family prior to their deportation to Auschwitz in 1943.

3.

Roma and Sinti people were persecuted during the Holocaust and Margarethe Kraus family were part of the 500,000 who were murdered in the Romani genocide.

4.

Margarethe Kraus was deported to Auschwitz in 1943, aged 13, alongside her family; they were held in what became known as the Gypsy family camp.

5.

Margarethe Kraus was subjected to medical experimentation during her internment.

6.

Margarethe Kraus suffered extreme abuse and deprivation, and contracted typhus.

7.

Margarethe Kraus's parents were murdered in Auschwitz, and she was moved to Ravensbruck where she was used for forced labour.

8.

In 1966, Margarethe Kraus was photographed by journalist Reimar Gilsenbach in the German Democratic Republic.

9.

Margarethe Kraus posed at the window of her caravan and the tattoo she was marked with at Auschwitz is clearly visible on her left arm.

10.

Margarethe Kraus was featured in the 2019 exhibition Forgotten Victims: The Nazi Genocide of the Roma and Sinti at the Wiener Holocaust Library in London.