Philomena Franz

Philomena Franz
Born
Philomena Köhler

(1922-07-21)21 July 1922
Biberach an der Riß, Württemberg, German Republic
Died28 December 2022(2022-12-28) (aged 100)
Rösrath, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
Resting placeWestfriedhof (Cologne)
Occupation(s)Writer and poet
Known forRomani Holocaust survivor
Notable workZwischen Liebe und Hass

Philomena Franz (née Köhler; 21 July 1922 – 28 December 2022) was a Sinti writer and activist from Germany, who was a survivor of the Romani Holocaust, having been imprisoned in Auschwitz. She later published works that recounted her experiences and was recognised as a significant voice in Romani literature.

Biography

Philomena Köhler was born on 21 July 1922.[1][2] Her family were musicians and she had seven siblings. Her father Johann Köhler was a cellist and her mother was a singer. Her grandfather, the cellist Johannes Haag, was an award-winning member of a string quartet. Up to 1938, the family performed at a range of venues in both Germany and France.[3] However that year, after years of Nazi persecution, Himmler issued an order that required all Roma people to register with the state, and confirmed that, according to the Nazi regime, Roma were non-Aryan.[4]

Franz was registered in the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp on 21 April 1944 with the prisoner number Z 10,550 under her maiden name, and her further transport is recorded there for 25 May 1944.[5]  In May/June 1944, Philomena Franz was taken to the Ravensbrück concentration camp and registered there under number 40.307.[6] She escaped from a camp near Wittenberge in 1945 and managed to stay alive until the end of the war.[7] Her parents, uncles, nephews, nieces and five of her seven siblings were murdered in Porajmos (Romani Holocaust). One of her surviving brothers did military service in the Wehrmacht, and was shielded from discovery by his commanding officer, due to his skill with horses.[8][9]

After the liberation, she performed again with her future husband and her brother, including in officers' messes of the US armed forces and at events in Ansbach and Tübingen.[3] She met her husband, Oskar Franz, during this period, and they went on to have five children. In the 1970s Franz began to talk about her experiences in the Holocaust, as one of her sons was bullied at school for his Roma identity.[7] She also campaigned for compensation for all Roma and Sinti survivors and was ultimately awarded 15,000 Marks. However, welfare officers deducted other payments, leaving the sum much reduced.[10]

Later, she lived for a time in Bergisch Gladbach, where she was awarded honorary citizenship in 2021.[11] Franz died on December 28, 2022. The mayor of Bergisch Gladbach, Frank Stein, paid tribute to her saying that she worked tirelessly for reconciliation and coexistence, working for a future where all people can live in peace.[1] Franz was buried on January 9, 2023 in Cologne's Westfriedhof.[12]

Works

Franz's first book was published in 1982 and was entitled Zigeunermärchen (in English, Gypsy Tales).[13] In her second book Zwischen Liebe und Hass (1985), Franz wrote her autobiography.[14] In it she described her time in Auschwitz and how she “continued life after zero point”.[15] The book is one of the first by survivors of Porajmos.[16] It was translated to Czech and Spanish in 2021.[17][18]

The third book, a collection of poems entitled Tragen wir einen Blütenzweig im Herzen was published.[19] Her second autobiographical work, Stichworte (in English, Keywords), followed her previous prose and poetry volumes.[20] The most recent book, published in 2017, was entitled Wie die Wolken laufen (in English, How the Clouds Run).[21]

In addition to her writings, she spoke regularly to a wide range of audiences, advocating for the recognition of Roma genocide in the Holocaust.[22] Her witness as a holocaust survivor was also recorded using 360° technology, for future generations.[23]

Reception

Franz is described as one of the writers in the 1980s who broke silence over Romani and Sinti Holocaust.[24][25] Other authors include Ceija Stojka, Otto Rosenberg, Walter Winter and Alfred Lessing.[24][26] Franz and Stojka are also described as pioneers of women's Romani writing by Marianne C. Zwicker and others.[27][28]

Researcher Paola Toninato described how in Zwischen Liebe und Hass, Franz uses her idyllic childhood to spark contrast with the horrors of the concentration camps.[24] Julia Blandfort emphasized the shared contemporary witness role of Franz, which appealed to the majority of society to recognize the genocide of the European Roma.[29] Wilhelm Solms and Klaus-Michael Bogdal cited her as a contemporary witness to the Holocaust.[30][31]

Franz's childhood experiences with horses and horse-dealing is also recognised as an important cultural memory for Sinti people.[32] In January 2015, she was one of 19 survivors of the Auschwitz concentration camp whose contributions were included in the cover report The Last Witnesses in the weekly magazine Der Spiegel.[33]

In 2023 she was the subject of the film Mi holocausto.[34][35]

Awards

  • 1995: Federal Cross of Merit on ribbon[7]
  • 2001: “Women of Europe Germany 2001” of the European Movement Germany[7]
  • 2013: Order of Merit of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia[17]
  • 2021: Honorary citizenship of the city of Bergisch Gladbach[11]

References

  1. ^ a b "Newsdetails – Stadt Bergisch Gladbach". www.bergischgladbach.de. Retrieved 2024-04-12.
  2. ^ "Auschwitz-Überlebende aus Bergisch Gladbach: Philomena Franz ist mit 100 Jahren gestorben". Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger (in German). 2022-12-28. Retrieved 2024-04-12.
  3. ^ a b "Jugenderfahrungen der Auschwitz-Überlebenden Philomena Franz geborene Köhler". Nürtinger NS-Opfer (in German). Retrieved 2024-04-12.
  4. ^ Lewy, Guenter (2000). The Nazi persecution of the gypsies. Internet Archive. New York : Oxford University Press. p. 36. ISBN 978-0-19-512556-6.
  5. ^ Staatliches Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Dokumentations- und Kulturzentrum Deutscher Sinti und Roma Heidelberg: Gedenkbuch: Die Sinti und Roma im Konzentrationslager Auschwitz Birkenau. Saur, München/London/New York/Paris 1993, ISBN 3-598-11162-2. (Dreisprachig: Polnisch, Englisch, Deutsch) S. 681f.
  6. ^ "Die Namen der unter dem NS-Regime verfolgten Frauen". 2018-01-30. Archived from the original on 2018-01-30. Retrieved 2024-04-12.
  7. ^ a b c d "Philomena Franz". www.romarchive.eu. Retrieved 2024-04-13.
  8. ^ Lewy, Guenter (2000). The Nazi Persecution of the Gypsies. Oxford University Press, USA. p. 94. ISBN 978-0-19-512556-6.
  9. ^ Schmidt-Häuer, Christian (2013-09-09). "Häftling Nr. 10550". Die Zeit (in German). ISSN 0044-2070. Retrieved 2024-04-12.
  10. ^ Knesebeck, Julia Von dem (2011). The Roma Struggle for Compensation in Post-war Germany. Univ of Hertfordshire Press. p. 65. ISBN 978-1-907396-11-3.
  11. ^ a b Watzlawek, G. (2021-08-13). ""Wenn wir hassen, verlieren wir. Wenn wir lieben, werden wir reich."". Bürgerportal Bergisch Gladbach (in German). Retrieved 2024-04-12.
  12. ^ "Traueranzeigen von Philomena Franz | WirTrauern". www.wirtrauern.de (in German). Retrieved 2024-04-12.
  13. ^ Franz, Philomena (1982). Zigeunermärchen (in German). Europa Union Verlag.
  14. ^ Franz, Philomena; Lehmann, Reinhold; Benz, Wolfgang (2001). Zwischen Liebe und Hass: ein Zigeunerleben. [Rösrath: P. Franz. ISBN 978-3-8311-1619-5.
  15. ^ "RomBase" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-08-12. Retrieved 2024-04-12.
  16. ^ Petra Rosenberg, Měto Nowak unter Mitarbeit von Nina Bronke, Hannah Hintzen, Ellen Jonsson u. a.: Deutsche Sinti und Roma Eine Brandenburger Minderheit und ihre Thematisierung im Unterricht. Hrsg.: Zentrum für Lehrerbildung an der Universität Potsdam. Potsdam 2010, S. 95.
  17. ^ a b Ryšavý, Zdeněk (2021-08-23). "First Czech translation of Holocaust survivor Philomena Franz's memoirs being released". Romea.cz – Everything about Roma in one place (in Czech). Retrieved 2024-04-13.
  18. ^ Sierra, Maria (2021). Entre el amor y el odio: Una vida gitana (1st ed.). Xordica. ISBN 9788416461424.
  19. ^ Franz, Philomena (2012). Tragen wir einen Blütenzweig im Herzen. ISBN 9783848270545.
  20. ^ Franz, Philomena (2016). Stichworte.
  21. ^ Franz, Philomena (2017). Wie die Wolken laufen. Schäfer, Gabriele. ISBN 9783944487540.
  22. ^ "The Central Council of German Sinti and Roma mourns the death of Philomena Franz". Englische Version. 2022-12-30. Retrieved 2024-04-13.
  23. ^ Walden, Victoria Grace (2021-12-03). Digital Holocaust Memory, Education and Research. Springer Nature. p. 44. ISBN 978-3-030-83496-8.
  24. ^ a b c French, Lorely; Hertrampf, Marina Ortrud M. (2023-11-20). Approaches to a "new" World Literature: Romani Literature(s) as (re-)writing and self-empowerment. Akademische Verlagsgemeinschaft München AVM. pp. 147–148. ISBN 978-3-95477-157-8.
  25. ^ Baer, Elizabeth Roberts; Goldenberg, Myrna (2003). Experience and Expression: Women, the Nazis, and the Holocaust. Wayne State University Press. pp. 53–54. ISBN 978-0-8143-3063-0.
  26. ^ Stojka, Ceija (2022). The Memoirs of Ceija Stojka, Child Survivor of the Romani Holocaust. Boydell & Brewer. p. 2. ISBN 978-1-64014-121-6.
  27. ^ Matras, Yaron; Tenser, Anton (2019-12-10). The Palgrave Handbook of Romani Language and Linguistics. Springer Nature. p. 546. ISBN 978-3-030-28105-2.
  28. ^ Zwicker, Marianne C., Journeys into Memory: Romani Identity and the Holocaust in Autobiographical Writing by German and Austrian Romanies (PhD thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2009)
  29. ^ "Literatur – Autoren und Genres – Goethe-Institut". 2014-02-24. Archived from the original on 2014-02-24. Retrieved 2024-04-12.
  30. ^ Wienker-Piepho, Sabine; Roth, Sabine Wienker-Piepho, Lutz Röhrich, Klaus; Roth, Klaus (2004). Erzählen zwischen den Kulturen (in German). Waxmann Verlag. ISBN 978-3-8309-6426-1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  31. ^ Bogdal, Klaus-Michael (2023-07-27). Europe and the Roma: A History of Fascination and Fear. Random House. ISBN 978-0-14-199730-8.
  32. ^ Rosenhaft, Professor Eve; Sierra, María (2022-03-01). European Roma: Lives beyond Stereotypes. Liverpool University Press. p. 150. ISBN 978-1-80085-752-0.
  33. ^ Beyer, Susanne; Doerry, Martin (2015-01-23). "(S+) »Mich hat Auschwitz nie verlassen«". Der Spiegel (in German). ISSN 2195-1349. Retrieved 2024-04-12.
  34. ^ "Mi holocausto: Philomena Franz | Festival de Málaga". Mi holocausto: Philomena Franz | Festival de Málaga. Retrieved 2024-05-02.
  35. ^ "Mi Holocausto, Philomena Franz". www.shortfilmwire.com. Retrieved 2024-05-02.