The Role of Sinti and Roma Survivors and the Criminal Police in the Prosecution of Nazi Perpetrators in the Soviet Occupation Zone

Sinti and Roma survivors played a crucial role in initiating investigations against those perpetrators who had been responsible for their deportation to Auschwitz-Birkenau. In the Soviet occupation Zone the criminal police were responsible for prosecuting Nazi perpetrators of the genocide of Sinti and Roma from 1947 onwards and flaws emerged in that process, despite the thorough political purge of the institution. The prejudice against Sinti and Roma survivors exposed continuities of Nazi-era attitudes that few survivors were faced with.