Hermann Höllenreiner
?–2026German Sinti Holocaust survivor and contemporary witness who escaped a death march from Auschwitz and was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit.
Particulars
Hermann Höllenreiner, known to his family as Mano, was born into a large Bavarian Sinti family. At the age of nine he was deported, and he survived the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp as well as the Ravensbrück and Sachsenhausen camps. In January 1945, at age eleven, he managed to escape from one of the death marches.
Only late in life did he begin to speak publicly about his experiences, becoming a prominent contemporary witness who testified about the horrors of Auschwitz, its perpetrators and victims, and above all about the ongoing discrimination against Sinti and Roma in Europe. In 2013 he was awarded the Bundesverdienstkreuz (Federal Cross of Merit) for his work.
He died on 16 October 2026 at the age of 92 in Mettenheim near Mühldorf am Inn, surrounded by his family.
Compiled from source reports. Automated record.