Sofie Schneck, geb. Eckstein

Born on July 1, 1894, Sofie Eckstein came from Moos in the district of Radolfzell. Her husband Josef Schneck was born in Rippberg in Baden in 1882 and dealt in antiques and string instruments. 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. Very little is known about the lives of the family. In Munich they lived at Friedenspromenade 42 (today 40). In 1940 Sofie Schneck’s daughter Paula gave birth to her daughter Renate. Like all Sinti and Roma in Munich, the Schneck family were arrested by the police. On March 8, 1943 they were all, even two-year-old Renate, sent to the Munich police prison; on March 13, 1943 the police deported them to Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp. Sofie Schneck died of starvation in the so-called “gypsy camp” in Auschwitz-Birkenau on April 29, 1944, as did her husband Josef, her children Gisela, Josef Maria and Paula and her granddaughter Renate. The SS sent her son Donatus Schneck to Buchenwald concentration camp, where he was killed in an air raid at the end of August, 1944. The only member of the family to survive the genocide of the Sinti and Roma was her daughter Elisabeth Schneck. (text Sarah Grandke, editor C. Fritsche, translation C. Hales)