WinterTime

Más información sobre el libro

In this account, German Sinto Walter Winter shares his extraordinary experiences during wartime. As one of nine children, he was initially conscripted into the German navy but was discharged on 'racial grounds.' In 1943, he and two siblings were deported to the 'Gypsy Camp' at Auschwitz-Birkenau. After more than a year, just before the camp's extermination, he was moved to Ravensbruck and then to Sachsenhausen concentration camp. In a grim twist, he was reconscripted and forced to fight against the Red Army on the Russian front before the war concluded. Winter recounts his memories of Nazi persecution with both courage and compassion, vividly detailing the horrific crimes he witnessed and the tragic deaths around him, including that of his first wife during childbirth. Despite the despair, he displayed personal bravery by confronting authority, even physically confronting an SS guard and appealing to Dr. Mengele for extra rations for starving Sinti children. Driven to the edge of starvation, he risked his life multiple times to secure food for himself and others. Throughout his ordeal, he maintained a belief in the goodness of individuals, even among some SS members. This edition includes extensive notes that provide new insights into the Third Reich's policies and the treatment of Sinti and Roma by subsequent post-war governments in Germany.