Persecution of Sinti and Roma in the Nazi-Controlled Netherlands
The girl with a headscarf pictured above is the Sinti girl Anna Maria "Settela" Steinbach, and this photo was taken on May 19, 1944 in the Westerbork Transit Camp (up) in the Dutch province of Drenthe, where Dutch Jews including Anne Frank were held temporarily. After this picture was taken, she was deported to the Nazis' notorious Auschwitz-Birkenau Extermination Camp in Poland, where she died at the age of nine. This iconic photo has appeared in many films and books and has symbolized the horror of Holocaust. For about a half century, she was believed to be a Dutch Jew; however, in 1994, a Dutch journalist named Arie Huibrecht Dignus ("Aad") Wagenaar identified Settela's association with the Sinti group of the Romani people. It is less known than the persecution of Jewish people under the Nazis, but Sinti and Roma were targeted for total destruction, which is also known as Porajmos, and tens of thousands of them were murdered. This page will focus on the nearly-forgotten history of Porajmos through the life of Settela Steinbach.
Settela was born on December 23, 1934 in southern Limburg, where her traditional Sinti family and many others put up their wagons (as pictured above) during winter-time. This was known as "the Gypsy encampment". They probably heard about the worsening situation of Sinti and Roma in Germany under the Nazis, though as many Dutch Jews did not, Sinti and Roma did not flee the Netherlands, either. In May 1940, the Netherlands was invaded and occupied by Germany, but the Nazis initially did not target Sinti and Roma. However, this changed in three years.
In July 1943, the German occupying forces prohibited the movement of wagons by what the authorities called "Dutch gypsies". The Sinti and Roma were concentrated in twenty-seven guarded camps, and the Steinbach family were deported to a camp in Eindhoven. In May 1944, all "gypsy families" including Settela's were moved to Westerbork Transit Camp. There, all Sinti and Roma girls had to shave their heads, and Settela wore a torn sheet to cover her head, as seen in the iconic photo. A few days later, 245 Sinti and Roma were deported to the extermination camps, and on August 2, 1944, Settela and her family were murdered in the gas chambers.
Since, unlike Anne Frank, Settela did not leave anything but the iconic photo, her story is not well-known, and many people do not even know about the persecution of Sinti and Roma during the Nazi occupation. Moreover, the German governments (both West and East) did not recognize the persecution of Sinti and Roma, and Sinti and Roma people could not receive reparation from Germany, until the 1980s. However, more and more people have started acknowledging this other genocide in the last few decades, and through the photo, Settela keeps telling us about the horror that was visited on Sinti and Roma during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands.
Sources:
Caplan, R. B. (2012). "Remembering Settela: reflections upon visiting the new monument to the genocide of the Roma-Sinti in Berlin". The World Holocaust Remembrance Center. Retrieved from https://www.yadvashem.org/blog/remembering-settela.html
Holocaust Memorial Day Trust. (n.d.). "Anna Maria 'Settela' Steinbach". Retrieved from https://www.hmd.org.uk/resource/anna-maria-settela-steinbach/
Holocaust Memorial Day Trust. (n.d.). "The Porrajmos". Retrieved from https://www.hmd.org.uk/learn-about-the-holocaust-and-genocides/nazi-persecution/the-porrajmos/
Knesebeck, J. V. D. (2011). The Roma struggle for compensation in post-war Germany. Hatifield, England: University of Hertfordshire Press.
Romedia Foundation. (2012). "Settela Steinbach, a nearly-forgotten Sinti-Roma story from WWII". Retrieved from https://romediafoundation.wordpress.com/2012/07/31/settela-steinbach-a-nearly-forgotten-sinti-roma-story-from-wwii/
Rose, R. (2006). Remembrance and beyond - the Roma and Sinti during the Holocaust and Today. New York, NY: United Nations Office of Public Information.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. (n.d.) "Westerbork". Retrieved from https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/westerbork
-- Kenji
Caplan, R. B. (2012). "Remembering Settela: reflections upon visiting the new monument to the genocide of the Roma-Sinti in Berlin". The World Holocaust Remembrance Center. Retrieved from https://www.yadvashem.org/blog/remembering-settela.html
Holocaust Memorial Day Trust. (n.d.). "Anna Maria 'Settela' Steinbach". Retrieved from https://www.hmd.org.uk/resource/anna-maria-settela-steinbach/
Holocaust Memorial Day Trust. (n.d.). "The Porrajmos". Retrieved from https://www.hmd.org.uk/learn-about-the-holocaust-and-genocides/nazi-persecution/the-porrajmos/
Knesebeck, J. V. D. (2011). The Roma struggle for compensation in post-war Germany. Hatifield, England: University of Hertfordshire Press.
Romedia Foundation. (2012). "Settela Steinbach, a nearly-forgotten Sinti-Roma story from WWII". Retrieved from https://romediafoundation.wordpress.com/2012/07/31/settela-steinbach-a-nearly-forgotten-sinti-roma-story-from-wwii/
Rose, R. (2006). Remembrance and beyond - the Roma and Sinti during the Holocaust and Today. New York, NY: United Nations Office of Public Information.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. (n.d.) "Westerbork". Retrieved from https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/westerbork
-- Kenji