Hugo Höllenreiner


Hugo Adolf Höllenreiner was a Sinti survivor of the Porajmos during the Nazi dictatorship.

Life

Höllenreiner's parents chose the middle name of their son in order to protect him from the growing threat of the Nazis. Still he was deported to the concentration camp Auschwitz on 16 March 1943, where Josef Mengele tortured him and his brother with cruel pseudomedical experiments. After being taken to the other concentration camps Ravensbrück and Mauthausen, he finally ended up in Bergen-Belsen. Him, his five siblings, and both parents survived the Porajmos.
Since the late 1990s, Höllenreiner has given numerous lectures about his experiences. Höllenreiner lived in Ingolstadt.

Awards and honors

Hugo Höllenreiner has received numerous awards and honors for his commitment as a contemporary witness of the National Socialist tyranny:
In numerous interviews with the author Anja Tuckermann, Höllenreiner has talked about his fate during the Nazi era. Tuckermann received the German Youth literature prize for her book "Denk nicht, wir bleiben hier!" The book also received numerous nominations for other literature prizes.
In 2007 Angelus Mortis shot a documentary about Höllenreiner's fate.
Adrian Coriolan Caspar did some interviews with Höllenreiner in 2008, which he implemented musically with his first orchestral work Symphonia Romani - Bari Duk, an oratorium for solo bass, mixed choir and orchestra.