Similarly, the story of the Roma uprising in the Litzmanstadt ghetto (p. 179) or the transfer of Roma prisoners from the ghetto to the Birkenau camp is incomprehensible, as one of the prisoners, Helena Hannemann, said: I came from the ghetto in Łódź. For whatever reason, they sent all the Gypsies there. I had lived in this hell since 1941, and my daughter was born here. (s. 116)
The Roma from the Reich were actually placed in a separate part of the Litzmanstadt ghetto in 1941 and murdered in the Kulmhof extermination camp. There was no Roma uprising there.
In a few excerpts, the author has serious problems with the topography of the Birkenau camp. He writes that toilets and showers were located in the last barracks at the end of the camp, numbers thirty-five and six (p. 39), while the highest number of the barracks in Birkenau was 32, and the sanitary barracks were not numbered. Elsewhere, he writes about trains visible from the Roma camp in June 1943: We nearly made it to the end of the camp, heading towards the bathhouse. (...) When we passed the last barrack, I noticed one of the trains. (p. 115) Perhaps the author meant the ramp built in the camp in April 1944, which he saw during his visit to Birkenau.
The railway motif in Birkenau appears in yet another fragment; this time the author writes about a train station building (non-existent) in the Birkenau camp (p.129). The women's camp orchestra conducted by prisoner Alma Rose, an Austrian violinist, was set up right next to the aforementioned building (which, as the author admitted on p. 221, was never situated in the Roma camp) during Himmler's visit in June 1943. Meanwhile, Alma Rose was transferred to the camp on July 20, 1943 (camp number 50831) and assumed the duties of conductor a few weeks later. Surely, therefore; she was not in the Birkenau camp in June 1943.
The horrible sanitary conditions in the Sinti and Roma family camp were the main cause of the high mortality rates in this camp. The author presents this situation in chapters dated May 1943.
As he writes, orders were given to disinfect the barracks and at the same time to conduct a selection among the Roma. The presented descriptions resemble the accounts of female prisoners of the women's camp in Birkenau, where actions were taken to eliminate the outbreak of epidemics, mainly typhus. To accentuate the dramatic situation of the prisoners during the disinfection of the barracks, the author writes that in May 1943, they had to stand outside in the snow (p. 62), which, as we know, is unlikely at this time of year.
The issue of the very harsh climate in Birkenau and the difficult weather conditions resurface in other fragments of the “Lullaby”. Helene Hannemann supposedly carried a bucket of waste outside, complaining: ... and I have to go out into cold darkness to pour out the contents somewhere on the embankment (p. 39). We should recall that the incident was taking place in May 1943. In the subsequent chapter, the author again writes about snow: One of the many dreams I had during those long sleepless nights finally came true: the mud of Birkenau was covered with a layer of snow. Nobody expected it at the end of May, but it still fell. (s. 59)
Josef Mengele