Siegfried Reinhardt

Siegfried Reinhardt was born on January 31, 1926 in Schaffhausen to the bandleader Rudolf Reinhardt and his wife Anna. He had five younger siblings: Herbrecht Josef, Martin, Margarete, Rigo, and Adolf. Siegfried Reinhardt and his family were persecuted in the Nazi period because they were Sinti. With the outbreak of the Second World War, “gypsies” were no longer permitted to move around freely and change their place of residence. The family was living in Fürstenfeldbruck at the time: “It was marvelous living out there. When winter arrived, on really cold days I sat in the main room and drew or whittled figures,” wrote Siegfried Reinhardt later in his vita. In 1940 the family moved to Munich. Their last place of residence was Perlacher Straße 100 (today Sintpertstraße 9-15), in a garden allotment settlement. The family was split up in 1942. In July, the Munich criminal police deported Siegfried Reinhardt’s father Rudolf to Flossenbürg concentration camp; the SS murdered him just a few months later. Further in 1942, his siblings Herbrecht, Martin, and Margarete were forcibly committed to reformatory homes. Siegfried Reinhardt’s behavior became wayward and he often stayed away from school. He was arrested on November 20, 1942, given a juvenile sentence, and sent to Stadelheim prison in Munich. There he wrote his vita: “In Munich I attended the eighth grade ..., from which I was dismissed this year. I wish to take up the profession of a waiter and hope to become something proper.” On April 15, 1944 the Gestapo (Secret Police) deported Siegfried Reinhardt to Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp and from there to Mittelbau-Dora, a subcamp of Buchenwald concentration camp. There the 18-year-old had to perform extremely strenuous forced labor under indescribable conditions, assigned to a detail constructing an underground armaments factory. In March 1945, Siegfried Reinhardt was in the prisoner sickbay barrack for a few days. After this stay there is no further trace. His mother and siblings also perished during the genocide against Sinti and Roma.(text Sarah Grandke, editor C. Fritsche, translation P. Bowman)