A page from the Roma camp registry book
These are just a few significant inaccuracies noted in the book. A careful reader will find many more.
The author has certainly gathered historical information on the subject, so it should be noted that many fragments are valuable to the reader, e.g. fragments of the book concerning the organisation of preschool, concern for the life and health of children, attempts to organise education. The author tells the story of Elza Baker (registered in the camp as Schmidt), a 6-year-old girl who was taken away from German parents as an adopted Roma child and placed in the camp for the Roma. Fortunately, thanks to the intervention of the parents, the child was released from the camp (p. 196). It also portrays a Czech Jewish woman, Dinah Gottliebova, a painter who, on Josef Mengele's orders, painted portraits of selected Roma prisoners (p. 188).
It should be added here that several portraits survived and may now be seen at the Auschwitz Museum in Block 13, which houses the permanent exhibition dedicated to the "Sinti and Roma Holocaust".
Undoubtedly, it is important to take an interest in the fate of the victims of Auschwitz, especially the groups of prisoners who are often insufficiently represented in the commemorative literature, such as the Sinti and Roma deported to Birkenau, but not presenting their situation in a thorough historical manner makes it difficult to recommend such literature. This is because it contains too many substantive and factual errors that are harmful to those who want to learn about the history of Auschwitz.