On 6 February 1945, the officer in charge of the Harzungen subcamp reported the deaths of Eduard Florian, Mathis Dambrowski and Josef Herzenberger to Dora, the parent camp of the Mittelbau concentration camp. They had died of the consequences of forced labour, hunger, cold, miserable hygiene conditions and insufficient medical care. In keeping with the usual proceedings, their corpses were to be sent to the Dora crematorium for incineration.

The three men had been deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau in early 1944 because they belonged to the Sinti and Roma community. Several months later, they were sent to the Harz Mountains for forced labour. The majority of Sinti and Roma were committed to the Harzungen and Ellrich-Juliushütte subcamps, where the living and working conditions were particularly deplorable. Altogether some 200 Sinti and Roma lost their lives in the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp.

(Marvin Keitel)

Reference: Jens-Christian Wagner (ed.), Von Auschwitz in den Harz: Sinti und Roma im KZ Mittelbau-Dora, Nordhausen and Weimar, 2012.