Later Life Under the Nazi Regime

Besides mandated school there was the year of house service required of Roma and Sinti females. Lentini’s two older sisters both completed their year of service in a local affluent household. The household year was mandated by the government to teach females about “ cleaning the house and how the proper way to set the table and how to wash the clothes and boil the things, and how to learn how to cook” (Lentini 1:20, Tape 2). Following in her sisters footsteps, Lentini began her household year in the same residence a little before her family was arrested, although she never completed the year due to inappropriate behavior by an older man in the house. 

Julia Lentini was young when the Nazis came to power, when she was 11 years old. At the beginning she was not very conscious of it, and her life was not changed. She recalls the beginnings of the Hitler Youth and The League of German Girls (Bund Deutscher Mädel or BDM). Rather ironically, Lentini admits, “I wanted to be in that BDM too. My girlfriends were all in there…” and explicitly recalls being jealous of “the cute little blue skirts, with their little mustard-colored blouses” (Lentini 8:28, Tape 2). Evidently, Lentini did not understand the motives of the group, or else she would not have been so insistent on joining. Though, her mother never allowed her to attend meetings, claiming there was enough work to keep her busy at home. 

While the children were relatively shielded from reality, Lentini’s parents must have realized that times were becoming dangerous and they should lay low, because beginning in 1939 their summertime trips ceased. From then until their arrest the family remained in Biedenkopf. Also, around this time Lentini began to become aware of the political situation, noticing that the Jewish population was gone. She briefly mentions how the concentration camps were vaguely known about amongst the German people, but not advertised by the government. 

Famously, members of the groups the Nazi party descriminated against were unable to conscript in the army. However, when the war broke out two of Lentini’s brothers were drafted into service. 

Change came for the Backers when the Germans “started to check the bloodlines”. Lentini claims that is how her family was discovered, “that's the category we got into. When they found out about the bloodline, they sent my brother Louis home from the service.” (Lentini 10:20, Tape 2). She says that up until this time they were treated like good Germans, they had jobs, they were religious, they even appeared to be aryan. “As a matter of fact, we had no reason even to have a fear” (Lentini 11:10, Tape 2). 

But as it turns out they did have a reason to be afraid. On March 8th, 1943, the Burgermeister knocked on the door very early in the morning, at around 5:30. He explained that they had orders to take the family to Frankfurt, but that they would probably only be gone for three or four days. Even then the family was still unsuspecting, Lentini solemnly recalling “we didn't even make such a big commotion”(Lentini 14:01, Tape 2). They travelled the 110 kilometers to Frankfurt in the wagon and joined a gathering of Roma and Sinti and Jewish people. Despite her father's attempts to get the ‘miscommunication’ sorted out, the family could not avoid being loaded into the trains and sent to Auschwitz.