Auschwitz survivor Höllenreiner dies aged 92
Quick Look
- The Auschwitz survivor and Sinto Hermann Höllenreiner died in Mettenheim at the age of 92.
- He survived the Auschwitz-Birkenau, Ravensbrück and Sachsenhausen camps and later became involved as a contemporary witness against discrimination.
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Why It Matters
Hermann Höllenreiner was a Sinto who was deported to concentration camps as a child and survived. In 2013 he was honored with the Federal Cross of Merit for his commitment as a contemporary witness.
Auschwitz survivor Hermann Höllenreiner has died at the age of 92. This was announced by Hanser Verlag in Munich and the International Auschwitz Committee. Accordingly, he died on October 16th in Mettenheim near Mühldorf am Inn in Upper Bavaria, surrounded by his family.
Höllenreiner - called Mano by his family - came from a large Bavarian Sinti family. He was deported at the age of nine. In January 1945 he managed to escape on one of the death marches. He was eleven years old at the time. In addition to the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp, he also survived the Ravensbrück and Sachsenhausen camps.
"A great contemporary witness"
"It was only late in his life that he began to tell stories and became a great contemporary witness who reported vividly about the horrors of Auschwitz, about the perpetrators and victims, but above all about the ongoing discrimination against Sinti and Roma in Europe," said Christoph Heubner, Executive Vice President of the International Auschwitz Committee, paying tribute to the deceased. Höllenreiner was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit in 2013.
