Josef Maria Schneck

Josef Maria Schneck was born in Stuttgart on August 8, 1930. 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. Josef Maria had four older siblings, Paula, born in 1917, Elisabeth, born in 1926, Donatus, born in 1925, and Gisela, born in 1927. Very little is known about the lives of the family. In Munich they lived at Friedenspromenade 42 (today 40). In 1940 Josef Maria 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. Josef Maria Schneck died of starvation in the so-called “gypsy camp” in Auschwitz-Birkenau in January, 1944, as did his parents, Josef and Sofie Schneck, his sisters Gisela and Paula and his niece Renate. His brother Donatus Schneck died at the end of August, 1944 in an air raid on Buchenwald concentration camp. 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)