An Auschwitz Survivor Passes Away

Stand for Israel  |  October 24, 2022

While 6 million Jewish lives were lost during the Holocaust, so many more groups of people were targeted, persecuted, and murdered by the Nazis. One of these groups, the Sinti people, are a subgroup of the Roma people, who the Germans also attempted to eradicate. One of these Sinti people, Zilli Schmidt, survived the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp and dedicated her later years to telling the world of her experience. The Times of Israel reports that the 98-year-old Schmidt has passed away, one of the last Sinti survivors of the Holocaust:

Zilli Schmidt, a survivor of the Auschwitz, Lety and Ravensbrück Concentration Camps, who became a vocal advocate for the recognition of the Nazi genocide of Sinti and Roma, has died. She was 98…

Both Sinti and Roma are Gypsy peoples who live predominantly in eastern Europe.

Historians estimate that up to 500,000 Sinti and Roma were killed in the Holocaust…

In 1944, Schmidt was deported from Auschwitz to the Ravensbrück Concentration Camp in Germany.

The same day she was moved, large parts of her family, including her parents, her daughter and her sister, were murdered along with many other Sinti and Roma at Auschwitz…

May Ms. Schmidt’s memory be a blessing. And may we all continue to support the survivors who remain, while we also spread their message of hope and faith during the darkest of times.