In July 1935, Trollmann was detained at following a forced
sterilisation order. With the introduction of the
Nuremberg Laws in September 1935, the persecution of
Sinti and
Roma in Germany dramatically increased. Trollmann was labelled "
feeble-minded since birth" and forcibly sterilised 23 December 1935, as part of
Nazi eugenics efforts targeting ethnic minorities. In September 1938, Trollmann divorced from his wife in hopes of covering for his daughter who, under the Nuremberg Laws, would be judged a
Mischling for being half-Sintiza. By 1938, Trollmann had been transferred to
Hannover-Ahlem subcamp, but was released the same year. In November 1939 he was drafted into the
Wehrmacht as an
infantryman. He was stationed in
occupied France,
Belgium, and
Poland, where he was wounded in June 1941 during the early stages of
Operation Barbarossa, being returned to Germany as a result; he was officially discharged in early 1942, when Sinti and Roma were banned from serving in the military. The
Gestapo arrested Trollmann in June 1942 while in Hanover. He was tortured during custody at the city's branch office of the and in October of the same year, he was interned
Neuengamme concentration camp in Hamburg. He tried to keep a low profile, but was recognized by
Schutzhaftlagerführer , who had been a boxing official before the war. He used Trollmann as a trainer for his troops during the nights in exchange for a slice of buttered bread for each time Trollmann was knocked out. Having already lost 30 kg before arriving in Neuengamme, the spars were treated as leisure by the
SS guards and regularly devolved into beatdowns, causing Trollmann's health to deteriorate further. After three months, the prisoners committee decided to act and faked Trollmann's death on 9 February 1943, being listed in the camp book as having died of
pneumonia compounded by
vascular disease. His family received an urn, which was buried at Anger Cemetery in Hanover. In reality, the committee had managed to get him transferred to the
Wittenberge satellite camp under an assumed identity.
Death By spring 1944, the former star was again recognised and the
camp elders organized a fight between him and Emil Cornelius, a former criminal and hated "Heu" commando
Kapo (a prisoner given privileges for taking on responsibilities in the camp, often a convict working for a reduced sentence or parole). Trollmann won, Cornelius sought revenge for his humiliation and forced Trollmann to work all day until he was exhausted, before attacking and killing him with a shovel. Trollmann was 36 years old. According to fellow Sinto internee Rudolf Landsberger, the SS covered up the death as an accident and buried Trollmann in a forest outside the town cemetery. Two of Trollmann's brothers also died as a result of the
Romani Holocaust: his youngest brother Heinrich, who had also been a communist, died in
Auschwitz concentration camp in 1943, while another brother, Julius ("Mauso"), died in 1958 from long-term health effects of his imprisonment, having been rendered
paraplegic from severe beatings at a hard labour camp. ==Rehabilitation and commemoration==