Philomena Franz

Philomena Franz (née Köhler), born on July 21, 1922, in Biberach, Germany, was raised in a family with deep musical traditions. Her father Johann Köhler was a cellist, her mother a singer, and her grandfather Johannes Haag an award-winning cellist in a string quartet. As a young girl, Philomena performed with her family's company as a singer and dancer, with notable appearances at prestigious venues including the Lido in Paris and the Winter Gardens in Berlin.

This artistic life came to an abrupt halt in the late 1930s when the Nazi regime intensified its persecution of Romani people. In 1938, Heinrich Himmler issued an order requiring all Roma to register with the state, officially categorizing them as non-Aryan. The Franz family had their passports confiscated, followed by their musical instruments, effectively ending their performing career.

Art Incarcerated

On April 21, 1944, Philomena was registered at Auschwitz-Birkenau with the prisoner number Z 10,550 (which she bore as a tattoo on her left arm for the rest of her life). In May/June 1944, she was transferred to Ravensbrück concentration camp where she was registered as prisoner 40,307. About her experiences in the Nazi extermination camps, Philomena Franz wrote:

"I am a bird, cannot fly. They clipped my wings."

The image of a silenced musician reverberates through this statement. For Franz, whose identity was deeply rooted in music and performance, the metaphor speaks to multiple forms of confinement—physical imprisonment, cultural suppression, and the termination of artistic expression that had previously defined her family for generations.

While specific details of her artistic activities during imprisonment are limited in the available sources, her later poetry and writings suggest that creative expression became an internal survival mechanism. The stark contrast between her artistic upbringing and the brutality of the camps would later inform her creative work, particularly in her poetry that tackled xenophobia and processed trauma.

After one failed escape attempt from Ravensbrück, Franz successfully escaped from a camp near Wittenberge in 1945. With the help of a German farmer, she managed to stay hidden until the end of the war.

Post-War Musical Revival

After liberation, Philomena discovered that most of her family had been murdered in the camps. Her parents, uncles, nephews, nieces, and five of her seven siblings had perished in the Porajmos (Romani Holocaust). One of her surviving brothers had served in the Wehrmacht and avoided discovery due to his skill with horses, protected by his commanding officer.

With minimal aid available for Romani survivors, Franz returned to music as both an economic necessity and a form of healing. She joined forces with other Sinti musicians to form a band that toured Germany, playing for Allied troops. During this period, she performed with her future husband Oskar Franz and her surviving brother at American officers' messes and at events in Ansbach and Tübingen.

Poetry and Writing as Processing Trauma

In the years following the war, Philomena suffered from severe depression, recurring nightmares, and a persistent sense of captivity. She simultaneously fought against the lack of official recognition for Sinti and Roma Holocaust victims and inadequate restitution efforts. When she was eventually awarded 15,000 Marks in compensation, welfare officers deducted other payments, substantially reducing the amount.

A turning point came in the 1970s when one of her five children was bullied at school for being a "Zigeuner" (a derogatory term for Roma). This incident compelled Franz to speak to students and teachers about the Holocaust, marking the beginning of her transformation of memory into narrative.

Her first publication came in 1982 with "Zigeunermärchen" (Gypsy Tales), a collection of fairy tales for children. In 1985, she published her groundbreaking autobiography "Zwischen Liebe und Hass: Ein Zigeunerleben" (Between Love and Hate: A Gypsy Life), one of the first written accounts by a survivor of the Romani Holocaust. In this work, she described her time in Auschwitz and how she "continued life after zero point."

Franz continued to write, publishing a collection of poems entitled "Tragen wir einen Blütenzweig im Herzen" (We Carry a Flowering Branch in Our Heart), followed by "Stichworte" (Keywords) and, in 2017, "Wie die Wolken laufen" (How the Clouds Run).

Her poetry specifically addressed the theme of violence, using verse as a tool against xenophobia and as a means to process the unimaginable trauma she had experienced. As she expressed in her testimony: "I chose the good side, the reconciliation side... I didn't want to have hate, but enlightenment, that had to be, but without hate and without accusation."

Impact on Holocaust Education

Franz was the first Romani woman to record in writing her experiences in Nazi concentration camps. Along with contemporaries like Ceija Stojka, Otto Rosenberg, Walter Winter, and Alfred Lessing, she helped break the silence surrounding the Romani and Sinti Holocaust in the 1980s. She and Stojka are considered pioneers of women's Romani writing.

Franz was the first Romani woman to record in writing her experiences in Nazi concentration camps. Along with contemporaries like Ceija Stojka, Otto Rosenberg, Walter Winter, and Alfred Lessing, she helped break the silence surrounding the Romani and Sinti Holocaust in the 1980s. She and Stojka are considered pioneers of women's Romani writing.

Her approach to Holocaust education emphasized reconciliation rather than hatred. As she stated in her testimony: "What matters is the way in which people are taught what happened... I chose the good side, the reconciliation side."

Scholars have noted how Franz used the contrast between her idyllic musical childhood and the horrors of concentration camps to powerful effect in her writings. Her childhood experiences with horses and horse-dealing are also recognized as important cultural memories for Sinti people.

Until the end of her life, Franz remained an active witness, speaking regularly to diverse audiences about the Roma genocide. Her testimony was recorded using 360° technology to preserve her witness for future generations. In 2015, she was one of 19 Auschwitz survivors whose accounts were featured in Der Spiegel's special report "The Last Witnesses."

Philomena Franz's unique combination of musical heritage, poetic expression, and commitment to education has established her as a significant figure in Romani literature and Holocaust remembrance. Through her art and advocacy, she contributed substantially to greater recognition of the Romani experience during the Holocaust while promoting a message of reconciliation rather than vengeance.

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