Marzahn Camp for Roma and Sinti Established

Before the 1936 Summer Olympic Games opened in Berlin, German authorities ordered the arrest of Roma and Sinti living in the greater Berlin area. Police arrested about 600 Roma and Sinti. They forced them to move to a new camp in the Berlin suburb of Marzahn. Conditions at the Marzahn camp were very difficult. The camp was located next to a cemetery and a sewage dump. This location violated traditional Romani laws of ritual purification. Hunger was widespread, and there were almost no sanitary facilities. These conditions caused diseases to spread quickly throughout the camp. Roma and Sinti confined at Marzahn were also subjected to forced labor and physical abuse by the police who guarded the camp.