04.2 | On 8 March 1943 the four boys were collected so they could be deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau along with their parents and other Sinti families. Heinrich Kottmann, the chaplain of the Catholic community, secretly photographed the deportation operation through a window on the upper floor of the children’s home. Nearly all the deportees fell victim to the genocide.

Neustrelitz Catholic parish archives