Donatus Schneck

Donatus Schneck was born in Stuttgart on March 3, 1925. His mother, Sofie, was born in 1894 and came from Moos in the district of Radolfzell. His father Josef Schneck was born in Rippberg in Baden in 1882 and dealt in antiques and string instruments. Donatus was the second of five children. His siblings were Paula, born in 1917, 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 Donatus Schneck’s sister 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. Donatus’ parents Josef and Sofie Schneck, his siblings Gisela, Josef Maria and Paula and his niece Renate died of starvation in the so-called “gypsy camp” in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Donatus Schneck was sent 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 Elisabeth Schneck. (text Sarah Grandke, editor C. Fritsche, translation C. Hales)