Memorial Signs for the Schneck family,
Friedenspromenade 40

Josef Schneck came from Rippberg in Baden. He traded in stringed instruments and antiques. His wife Sofie came from Moos near Radolfzell. The couple had five children: Paula, born in 1917, Donatus, born in 1925, Elisabeth, born in 1926, Gisela, born in 1927, and Josef Maria, born in 1930. The family lived together at Friedenspromenade 42 (now 40) in Munich. In 1940, their first grandchild was born: Renate, the child of their daughter Paula.

Not much is known about the life of the Schneck family. Like all Sinti and Roma, they were marginalised and excluded by German society. After the Nazis seized power, Sinti and Roma were systematically disenfranchised and persecuted. In March 1943, the entire Schneck family was arrested and taken to the Munich police prison. From there, the Gestapo deported all family members, including two-year-old Renate, to the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp.

Josef and Sofie Schneck starved to death in the so-called ‘gypsy camp’ in Auschwitz-Birkenau, as did their children Gisela, Josef Maria and Paula, and their granddaughter Renate. Their son Donatus Schneck was deported by the SS to the Buchenwald concentration camp, where he was killed in a bombing raid in 1944. Their daughter Elisabeth Schneck was the only member of the family to survive the genocide of the Sinti and Roma.