Joseph Muscha Mueller

Born: Unknown 1932, Bitterfield, Germany

Life had challenges in store for Joseph Muscha Mueller from the very start. His parents were Romani, but Joseph was raised in a German orphanage, and later by a foster family. In school, Joseph was bullied and made fun of by classmates who were members of the Hitler Youth movement. Nazi law discriminated against many groups of people who were considered outsiders, including the people from the Roma and Sinti tribes. Because of these unfair laws, when Joseph was twelve he was taken from his classroom and forced to have an operation that would prevent him from ever having children. He was supposed to be sent to Belsen concentration camp after he recovered from the surgery. Fortunately, Joseph's foster father was able to get him smuggled out of the hospital before that happened. Joseph spent five months hiding in a garden shed until the war was over.