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The Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier honoured Zilli Schmidt, a survivor of the concentration camps Auschwitz-Birkenau and Ravensbrück, with the Cross of Merit on Ribbon of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for her commitment as a contemporary witness.

Born in Hinternah, Thuringia, in 1924, Sinteza Cilly Reichmann was arrested as a teenager in France, where she had fled with her family. She was able to escape from the "gypsy camp" Lety in Bohemia, but was arrested again shortly afterwards and deported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in March 1943. There her parents, her siblings and her little daughter were murdered. Cilly Reichmann was transferred to the Ravensbrück concentration camp in August 1944 and from there to Wittenberg for forced labour in the Arado aircraft factories. She managed to escape from there again with her cousin Tilla.

Her memoirs were published in 2020. She writes about her motivation: "Our people should not be forgotten! [...] I want the world to know what happened to the Sinti. I want them to know what was there in the camps, what they did with the poor children. I want them to know what it is like to go on when you have lost everything that was dear to you."

Zilli Schmidt: God had plans for me. Memoirs of a German Sinteza. Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, ed. by Jana Mechelhoff-Herezi and Uwe Neumärker, Berlin 2020.

The colleagues of the Ravensbrück Memorial congratulate Zilli Schmidt on this award.