Philomena Franz, a German Romani woman from the Sinti group, was interned in Auschwitz and other concentration camps during the war, from which she escaped twice, the second time successfully. She was one of the few survivors of her large and prior to the war renowned musical family. She and her husband raised five children.
She described her wartime ordeals in her autobiography Life Without Bitterness: The Story of a German Sinti Who Survived the Holocaust, originally published as Zwischen Liebe und Hass (1985). With it, she used to tour schools and give talks to students. She is also the author of a book of fairy tales, a collection of poetry and two volumes of short essays and sketches. In her lifetime, she received several awards for her tireless work in commemorating the Romani Holocaust, working with young people and promoting a conciliatory attitude: the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (1995), the Woman of Europe Award (2001), the Order of Merit of North Rhine-Westphalia (2013) and honorary citizenship of the city of Bergisch Gladbach, where she lived for a significant part of her life (2021).
Photo: Ute Glaser
