Thank you Octopus Publishing US, Monoray for allowing me to read and review A Gypsy in Auschwitz on NetGalley.

Published: 10/11/22

Stars: 4 (Standard -- historical).

The Sinti and Roma people referenced as gypsies was unfamiliar to me until this memoir. They experienced much of the same atrocities as other groups in the prisons. My take is that these groups were smaller, thus they were made examples of by being killed as groups. Gypsies lived together in small camps throughout the prisons.

The story, thankfully is on point, and doesn't expand on crimes in graphic detail.

As a reminder, this is a survivor's account of his life, not a novel. This is for mature readers as well as for young readers with guidance.

As a huge lover of Historical Fiction | Non Fiction books especially those centered around WW2 and the atrocities that took place during the holocaust. I just know going into one of these books it will be remarkable and this one was no exception.

It's a lovely short book but, very direct, straight to the point, not full of loads of detail compared to some survivor stories I have read but, it didn't need it.

It was hard hitting and emotional, the trauma was evident throughout and I can't imagine experiencing some of the things Otto talks about let alone having to recount them years later when the wounds are just as fresh yet, I found this one was also very, very endearing. I could imagine myself sitting in a room with Otto and being the only person he was talking too whilst I was reading it.

Otto's childhood was chaotic, caught in a war and persecuted for being a gypsy by the Nazi's, surviving 4 death camps including Auschwitz and Bergen Belsen.

It is a story full of hope and resentment, courage and love, the will to survive, to be free and live to become a truly inspirational man.

Absolutely loved this book, these stories just hit you differently and I will forever be grateful to those brave enough to share them.

Otto’s story is one in all the books I have read on Auschwitz or the Holocaust, is completely different. I have not run across many Roma or gypsy stories written about that time, whether by those who survived it or those who researched it. It was a different version of a same atrocities.

I voluntarily reviewed a copy of this book provided by NetGalley.

A Gypsy in Auschwitz by Otto Rosenberg

240 Pages
Publisher: Octopus Publishing US, Monoray
Release Date: October 11, 2022

Nonfiction (Adult), Biographies, Memoirs, History, World War II, Concentration Camps

Otto is a Sinti and tells the story of his experiences within the concentration camps. He talks about the conditions and lack of water, food, clothing, and shoes. It is a sad but very detailed account. He talks about leaving the camp, finding people providing food, drink, and aid. Eventually he reunites with relatives and other Gypsies.

The foreword and afterword are written by Petra Rosenberg, Otto’s daughter. She writes about his acknowledgements and his hard work getting recognition for Sinti and Roma cultures. If you enjoy reading biographies, historical events, or World War II, you may enjoy reading this book.

This was a book ARC received via Netgalley.com, thanks to the publishers. It was a rivetting book containing details of the holocaust that I wasn't aware, especially the part with the gypsies - which is the core of the book. The details of the holocaust and the author's personal experience bring it all alive in the readers imagination. These are the books that will keep the memories of the horrific period alive for years to come and for generations to learn from.

In the reading however the only issue I couldn't quite get used to was that the flow of the episodes were very jittery, in the sense that the context seemed to switch very abruptly just like our mind thinks. It was a bit difficult to follow the same.

In any case I would recommend people interested in knowing the horrors of the holocaust read this

This book is very important. We need to remember that gypsies were targeted, tortured, imprisoned and killed by Hitler.

A Gypsy in Auschwitz is a true story of what happened to gypsies when they were mistreated and targeted, just like the Jews, by Hitler before and during WWII. The only time I have learned about the gypsies being harasses by Hitler seems to have to do with Auschwitz.

This is a sad story about the survival of a young boy starting at 9 years old, when he was rounded up with other gypsies. Then at 15 years old he ended up in Auschwitz and other camps.

My favorite things to read about are 1. gypsys and 2. the holocaust. I loved reading about the two combined. It was sad and exhausting reading about all of the horrors they faced during the Third Reich.

A Gypsy In Auschwitz: How I Survived the Horrors of the “Forgotten Holocaust” by Otto Rosenberg was a very poignant and heartfelt memoir. This was very hard and sad to read, I have read many WWII books but very few talk about the gypsy (Roma) and how suddenly they were all segregated and cast away from anything they already knew just to hide them from the world.

This was very hard and sad to read, I have read many WWII books but very few talk about the gypsy (Roma) and how suddenly they were all segregated and cast away from anything they already knew just to hide them from the world.

The story of Otto I really had many tears, how he at first was very happy as he was with the people he love the most but

The Olympics were about to start in Berlin, Hitler didn't want anyone to see the Roma, casting them aside, ripping them off all their belongings and even their homes, and building some tragic camps that will never hold any candle to their previous homes. Marzahn was the name of the camp situated very far away from the "Civilization" outside of Berlin. near a sewerage facility making it unbearable to live there.

Otto's story became heartbreaking even more when they were deported to Auschwitz a place no one ever wanted to come nearby, a place where you enter but you never come out. where you lose your family, friends, and everything you had even your own soul. this is where the story of Otto gets really hard and where we meet the side of the Gypsies' stories.

Without giving too much away this was a book that had to be written, we need more books about Roma and Sinti, they deserve to be known and the stories to be heard. I could never understand why they were always segregated and cast aside and this book shows so much about these situations and why they kept discriminating against them time and time again.

This book was fast-paced, Otto didn't get too much into details and that made it even easier to read his story but even if he didn't get too much into the terrible situations we could understand what was happening and what he went through

Thank you Otto for writing and sharing your story.

Thank you, NetGalley and Octopus Publishing US, Monoray, for the advanced copy of A Gypsy In Auschwitz in exchange for my honest review.

Such a raw and heart breaking story. This showcases the many challenges they had to go through but also highlights their strength and resilience.

I am a big fan of a biography and I am also interested in WW2 so for me this was a good read. To read about Ottos experience and growing up was interesting.

If you like to read books about people that experienced WW2 and similar then this is a book for you.

I thought the story was interesting but the writing did not flow smoothly. There were not enough specific details about everyday life in the camps.

The topic of Rosenberg's book is certainly an important one. The Holocaust was more than just the murder of the Jews in Europe - it also included the abuse and murder of many other groups, among them the Roma and Sinti. As such, Rosenberg's account of his personal experiences (as a Sinti) is a much needed testimony. And far be it for this reader, from the relative safety and security of 21st century America, to judge what was said or how. Yet somehow, this account seemed a little cold - at times Rosenberg seemed almost removed from the report of his own experiences. The horror and even permanent damage (as explained in the postscript by his daughter) just doesn't come across on a consistent basis.

The bottom line is that this a valuable addition to the record of what occured during the Holocaust, in part because so much less has been written about the experiences of different victim groups. I am glad to include it in my good-sized personal collection of memoirs and the like on this topic. But it is not the first book I would recommend for the casual reader.

"I have no idea how I managed to survive Auschwitz. To this day, I still can't fathom it. There was certainly a great deal of luck involved, but I believe there was something else, too - a protective hand held over me, shielding me from harm."

Author, Otto Rosenberg, was nine when Sinti were rounded up in Berlin and placed in ghettos, years prior to their being transported and imprisoned en masse in concentration camps.

Anyone who is Romani or of Romani descent will appreciate the rarely-spoken of missing pieces of this part of our history, particularly the gathering of family lineages and the collection of blood samples of Sinti and the first-hand account of the author, as a child, who's innocence was manipulated to allow him to be willingly separated from his family to be studied, psychologically, during the ghetto years.

Another bare-bones piece of our history that Romani, in particular, will appreciate is the author's own involvement in what is now called, "The Romani Day of Resistance," the details of which, previously, have been frustrating to access; readers will find themselves inspired and roused in expectant optimism.

When I say that A Gypsy In Auschwitz is sheathed in tenderness, I do so because author, Otto Rosenberg, recounts his experiences by wrapping them in love and gratitude for the many blessings that covered him and the people who extended to him mercy and loving-kindness.

This is a very special book, one filled with hope in the tragedy of excruciating loss.

A Gypsy In Auschwitz: How I Survived the Horrors of the “Forgotten Holocaust” by Otto Rosenberg was a very poignant and heartfelt memoir. Otto grew up in a large Sinti family in Berlin, Germany. He was one of eleven children. Otto was a happy, inquisitive and adventurous child growing up. Everyone seemed to like him and he usually had a smile on his face. His community was one where almost everyone knew each other. There was always lots of music and singing. Otto had lots of aunts, uncles and cousins. A lot of his family lived in caravans and some of them traveled from place to place. Otto lived with his grandmother in a house. They were rather poor but Otto was content with her love for him.

When Otto was about nine years old, the Olympics were about to be held in Berlin. Hitler and the Nazis wanted to hide the Sinti and Roma families from the visitors and dignitaries that would be attending. The Nazis quickly built a makeshift camp to hold all the Sinti and Roma families. They were ripped from their homes and forced to live in Marzahn camp outside of Berlin. The camp was located right near a sewerage facility so the stench was unbearable. The camp lacked a lot of things but Otto was still happy that he had his family and friends.

Then when Otto was fifteen years old, the Nazis emptied and deported the people who resided in Marzahn and sent them in cattle cars to Auschwitz. There was a whole section in Auschwitz that was comprised of just Roma and Sinti people. The Nazis were determined to eliminate all the Sinti and Roma people. Otto suffered unimaginable pain, witnessed atrocities, horrors and starvation that the Nazis inflicted on everyone in Auschwitz. He watched as rampant illnesses spread throughout the camps. There were more than 500,000 Roma and Sinti descendants that were murdered in the Holocaust. Somehow, Otto Rosenberg survived. He was finally freed in 1945.

Most books that have been written about the Holocaust have been about Hitler’s plan to completely annihilate the Jewish people. Seldom have there been books that spoke about the atrocities the Sinti and Roma people faced. As difficult as it must have been for Otto Rosenberg to write about this time in his life, I applaud him for writing his story. His inspirational and true story only serves to remind us how brutal and inhuman the Nazis were.

Otto Rosenberg eventually married and had seven children. He founded the Regional Association of German Sinti and Romanies in Berlin and served as its chairman until he died in 2001. It takes a brave and courageous man to share a story like this. I highly recommend this book.

Thank you to Monoray Publishers for allowing me to read A Gypsy In Auschwitz: How I Survived the Horrors of the “Forgotten Holocaust “ through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a good read and made you see a different side of the concentration camps. The author paints a vivid picture of what life was like for people in the camps. It was a good read.

Very interesting and important read. Highly recommend this book for people who would like to learn more about how the Holocaust affected Sinti and Romani people, as well as Jews.

A Gypsy In Auschwitz
How I Survived the Horrors of the ‘Forgotten Holocaust’
by Otto Rosenberg
Pub Date 11 Oct 2022
Octopus Publishing US, Monoray
Biographies & Memoirs | History | Nonfiction (Adult)




I am reviewing a copy of A Gypsy in Auschwitz through October Publishing U.S, Monoray and Netgalley:




Otto Rosenberg is a poor but happy nine year old boy living in Berlin, when his family is detained. . All around them, Sinti and Roma families are being torn from their homes by Nazis , leaving behind schools, jobs, friends, and businesses to live in forced encampments outside the city. One by one, families are broken up, adults and children disappear or are 'sent East.





When Otto is fifteen he arrives in Auschwitz aged 15 and is later transferred to Buechenwald and Bergen-Belsen. He works, scrounges food whenever he can, witnesses and suffers horrific violence and is driven close to death by illness more than once. He also joins an armed revolt of prisoners who, facing the SS and certain death, refuse to back down. Somehow, through luck, sheer human will to live, or both, miraculously he survives.


The stories of the Sinti and Roma who suffered in Nazi Germany. But Otto shares his haunting story with a remarkable simplicity. A Gypsy in Auschwitz is the deeply moving, incredible story of how a young Sinti boy miraculously survived the unimaginable darkness of the Holocaust.



I give A Gypsy in Auschwitz five out of five stars!


Happy Reading!

This book started out very slow. It unfortunately remained that way. It was very hard to stay interested in it. Usually with books like this I can't put them down. Unfortunately I didn't really like this book. I'm not saying that no one else will like it. But for me this book is a no go.

Over the years I have read countless books about the Holocaust. A Gypsy In Auschwitz is a unique perspective being from a gypsy. Most written accounts from from Jewish individuals or families that were literate and could write out and effectively communicate their story. This book is the first I’ve read from the view point of a gypsy. Not much has been mentioned about how many gypsies were killed during the Holocaust. Sinti and Roma people were treated poorly.