König (2014) reports on the latest book by the writer Stephanie Bart. Her novel tells the life story of the German Sinto Max Trollmann, who foughts as a boxer in the 1930s against the rise of Nazism, but then himself becomes a victim of the inhuman machinery. Due to his Rroma origins, he was discredited by Nazi functionaries: “Stephanie Beard tells of the rise of this clever young boxer – and in parallel of the rise of the Nazis in Germany. Relentlessly, the author shows how unjust, how ruthless, blinded and inhuman one dealt with opposition members and with those who did not correspond to the “Aryan” race. […] Trollmann is the German champion for only eight days. After that, he is denied the title because he is Sinto. […] The boxing federation deliberately reduces the size of the boxing ring to the disadvantage of Trollmann. He cannot, as usual, box at a distance. Trollmann knows that he will lose. He appears with dyed blond hair and a white powdered face, dressed up as a model Aryan. I’ll see them further first – his statement goes, which is a political one.” – In Auschwitz-Birkenau alone, 30,000 Rroma were murdered. Researchers emanate from at least half a million casualties among the Rroma. The genocide of the Rroma is much less known compared to the mass murder of the Jews. For a long time in the post-war period, Rroma were discredited and marginalized. West Germany did not recognize the genocide of the Rroma until 1982, many of the survivors were already dead by then.

• König, Annette (2014) Ein Buch wie ein Boxhieb in die Leber. In: Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen online vom 1.12.2014. http://www.srf.ch/kultur/literatur/ein-buch-wie-ein-boxhieb-in-die-leber

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