Alma Klasing

Holocaust survivor

Commemoration speech on the occasion of 2 August 2024, Holocaust Memorial Day for Sinti and Roma

Ladies and Gentlemen,

it is a great honor for me as a representative of Holocaust survivors to be here today – on European Holocaust Remembrance Day – and to tell you the story of my family. At the same time, however, it is very emotionally distressing to be in this place where so much suffering was inflicted on our minority. Especially since I have never given a speech in public before. For this reasons, I am not speaking myself, but Alicia Delis is reading the words that I would like to say to you. We stand here before you together, in order to strengthen the bond between the generation of survivors and the generation of those born thereafter.

I was born as Alma Strauß in Dieburg, Hessen, in 1937. The outbreak of the Second World War tore our family apart at an early stage. For my father Bruno Strauß was drafted into the Wehrmacht in 1939. My mother, who like me was called Alma, managed to stay with me and my younger brother Gottfried with an uncle who ran a traveling circus. My parents had previously run a puppet theater and the family often travelled together to entertain audiences in many different places. So we already knew one another quite well and it was nice for us children to get to play together. We didn’t exactly understand everything that was going on around us, but we could sense that the general mood was gradually deteriorating.

First we found out that my father’s siblings had been deported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp. Then my mother received the news that she had to report to the town hall of the town where we were just passing through at noon the next day. “They want to get us too,” she was convinced. But that didn’t happen. Early that morning, two men in black leather coats knocked on our door and asked: “Where’s the boss?” Although my brother and I instantly started crying out of fear, my mother calmly replied: “The boss is at war and fighting for the German fatherland.” The two then left without accomplishing anything, but it was evident to our family that the danger of deportation was increasing.

That’s why we quickly packed up our belongings and hid in the forest. That may sound like an adventure, especially for us children. But it wasn’t. We feared for our lives every minute. We were a group of about ten people, including my blind grandfather. He had fought at the front in the First World War and lost his sight. From then on, he had to live with us in inhumane conditions in the forests of Baden-Württemberg. During the day, we cowered in pits and used to cover ourselves with leaves. At night, we moved on and looked for somewhere else to hide. All of this had to be done as quietly as possible, always in fear of being discovered and deported to the extermination and concentration camps. We fed ourselves only on berries and other edible plants. I can’t remember getting any help anywhere, any snacks or a short stay in a barn – nothing! But with God’s help we survived, and my father also returned to us safe and sound after six years in the army.

It was very fortunate that all our close family members survived the camps, but sadly we also had to mourn a number of victims of Nazi racial policy among our relatives and friends. After liberation by the Americans, we hoped that our lives would finally change for the better. We quickly moved around again with my uncle’s traveling circus – until the terrible accident that remains engraved in my heart to this day. My brother Gottfried, a talented little artist of only seven years, was out playing with a friend shortly before his performance when we suddenly heard a loud explosion and shouts. We immediately ran out and we quickly realized that the two boys had found a hand grenade and my brother had pulled the pin. He didn’t survive and my parents never again joined the traveling circus tour.

Later on, as Sinti in Germany, we also had to endure a lot of humiliation. It wasn’t just me that suffered at school, but also my three sons after I got married. We were hard-working and tried to build an existence for ourselves, but we were still excluded. Like the Nazi era, these experiences too shaped my later life.

Due to the commitment and struggle of the civil rights movement, we were finally granted a small amount of compensation and the discrimination was no longer a daily occurrence. However, it is now starting all over again. The electoral success of right-wing parties in Germany and in many European countries, as well as the violent behavior of neo-Nazis, scares me a lot. This is why I would like to warn young people in particular about these false prophets and plead with all my heart: defend our democracy and protect us minorities from anti-Semitism, antiziganism and racism.

Biographie

Alma Klasing was born in 1937. After her father Bruno Strauß was drafted into the Wehrmacht, she, her siblings and her mother Alma Strauß stayed with an uncle. When her father’s siblings were deported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp, the family decided to go into hiding. From then on, they lived in inhumane conditions in the forests of Baden-Württemberg. During the day, the adults and children lay down in pits and covered themselves with leaves. At night, they moved on and looked for another hiding place. All this had to be done as quietly as possible, always in fear of being discovered and deported to the extermination and concentration camps. They could only feed themselves on berries and other edible plants. After the war, the family learned that at least the father’s siblings had survived in Auschwitz, but other relatives never returned.