• Memorial to the Roma and Sinti at Lackenbach »Gypsy Camp«
In November 1940, the SS established a »Gypsy detention camp« in Lackenbach, a village in the southeast of Austria, close to the Hungarian border. At times there were up to 2,350 Roma and Sinti crowded into the camp. Most of them were later deported to the Łódź ghetto or perished in the German extermination camps in occupied Poland. On October 6, 1984, a monument to the victims of Lackenbach camp was dedicated on initiative of the Cultural Association of Austrian Roma.
Image: Lackenbach, 1940, A policeman watching as the Roma are brought into into the camp, Sammlung Andreas J. Schröck
Lackenbach, 1940, A policeman watching as the Roma are brought into into the camp, Sammlung Andreas J. Schröck

Image: Lackenbach, 2012, Memorial to the Roma and Sinti, Wikipedia Commons, Hadinger
Lackenbach, 2012, Memorial to the Roma and Sinti, Wikipedia Commons, Hadinger
The »Gypsy detention camp« at Lackenbach was the largest collection camp for Sinti and Roma in Austria between 1940 and 1945. The SS established it in November 1940 on the site of a former farm. The camp directors and administration were under the command of the criminal police department of Vienna. The majority of those imprisoned were Roma from Burgenland, in addition many Sinti from other parts of Austria and southern Germany were held captive there. Already at the beginning of 1941, the Viennese criminal police ordered masses of people to be admitted into the camp, frequently whole families. In autumn 1941, there were about 2,350 men, women and children in Lackenbach. The prisoners had to perform forced labour for farms and companies in the area and were abused by the camp administration. The extremely poor living conditions - no sanitary facilities and an insufficient supply of food and drinking water - led to a typhus epidemic which claimed the lives of between 250 and 300 people. The majority of the approximately 4000 camp prisoners were deported to the Łódź ghetto between 1941 and 1943 or to the German extermination camps in occupied Poland. In April 1945, the Soviet army liberated the camp's survivors.
Image: Lackenbach, 1940, A policeman watching as the Roma are brought into into the camp, Sammlung Andreas J. Schröck
Lackenbach, 1940, A policeman watching as the Roma are brought into into the camp, Sammlung Andreas J. Schröck

Image: Lackenbach, 2012, Memorial to the Roma and Sinti, Wikipedia Commons, Hadinger
Lackenbach, 2012, Memorial to the Roma and Sinti, Wikipedia Commons, Hadinger
Around half of the approximately 4,000 Roma and Sinti, who were imprisoned in the camp between 1940 and 1945, perished. More than 230 died in the Lackenbach detention camp alone. The SS deported around 2,000 in two transports to the Łódź ghetto, where most of them died. The few that survived the ghetto were murdered in the Chełmno extermination camp. In 1943, the SS deported around 400 people to Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Image: Lackenbach, um 1940, Roll call of the prisoners in the camp, Sammlung Leopold Banny
Lackenbach, um 1940, Roll call of the prisoners in the camp, Sammlung Leopold Banny

Image: Lackenbach, 2004, Remembrance ceremony in memory of the murdered Roma and Sinti, Kulturverein Österreichischer Roma
Lackenbach, 2004, Remembrance ceremony in memory of the murdered Roma and Sinti, Kulturverein Österreichischer Roma
The buildings of the former »Gypsy Camp« Lackenbach were torn down in the 1970s and single-family houses were built on part of the site.
On October 6, 1984, thanks to the initiative of the Cultural Association of Austrian Roma, a memorial was dedicated near the former »Gypsy Camp« Lackenbach, in memory of the Roma and Sinti who were murdered there. For a long time, the memorial, created by architect Matthias Szauer, was Austria's only larger memorial to the Roma and Sinti who were persecuted and murdered under National Socialism. The memorial bears the inscription: »They had to suffer and die just because they were different. Here, in the years 1940-1945, stood the National Socialist Gypsy camp. Here, hundreds died in agony and deprivation. Several thousands of Gypsies were deported to extermination camps from here. Dedicated by the state of Burgenland.«
Image: Lackenbach, 1999, Memorial to the Roma and Sinti, Kulturverein Österreichischer Roma
Lackenbach, 1999, Memorial to the Roma and Sinti, Kulturverein Österreichischer Roma

Image: Lackenbach, 1999, Inscription on the Memorial to the Roma and Sinti, Kulturverein Österreichischer Roma.
Lackenbach, 1999, Inscription on the Memorial to the Roma and Sinti, Kulturverein Österreichischer Roma.
Name
Mahnmal für Roma und Sinti - »Zigeunerlager« Lackenbach
Address
Ecke Ritzinger Straße/ Bergstraße
7322 Lackenbach
Phone
+43 (0)1 310 642 1
Fax
+43 (0)1 310 642 112
Web
http://www.kv-roma.at
E-Mail
office@kv-roma.at
Open
The memorial is accessible at all times.