Recognition of the Roma Genocide

 Recognition, official texts

The national socialist Roma Genocide has always been an uncontested fact for the state authorities in Germany. However, the recognition of the genocide was given concrete expression by German authorities and documents only during the last decades. On the occasion of the foundation of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma (Zentralrat deutscher Sinti und Roma) in 1982 as a political representation of the Sinti and Roma in Germany and their reception by the former Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, the Chancellor stated the recognition of the Roma Genocide on the level of international law as “Völkermord aus Gründen der Rasse” [“Genocide for racial reasons”, non-official translation]. This statement by the German Chancellor was then followed by the recognition of the Roma Genocide by means of an official declaration of the German Government:

“Den Sinti und Roma ist durch die NS-Diktatur schweres Unrecht zugefügt worden. Sie wurden aus rassischen Gründen verfolgt. Diese Verbrechen haben den Tatbestand des Völkermords erfüllt.” [“The NS-Dictatorship inflicted grave injustice upon the Sinti and Roma. They were persecuted for racial reasons. These crimes have the characteristics of a genocide.”, non-official translation].

On 16th March 1997 at the opening of the first permanent exhibition dedicated to the Roma Genocide by the National Socialists at the Documentation and Cultural Centre of the Roma and Sinti in Heidelberg, the former President of the Federal Republic of Germany, Prof. Roman Herzog, stated:

“Der Völkermord an den Sinti und Roma ist aus dem gleichen Motiv des Rassenwahns, mit dem gleichen Vorsatz und mit dem gleichen Willen zur planmäßigen und endgültigen Vernichtung durchgeführt worden wie der an den Juden. Sie wurden im gesamten Einflussbereich der Nationalsozialisten systematisch und familienweise vom Kleinkind bis zum Greis ermordet.” [“The Roma Genocide was perpetrated for the same motive of race ideology, with the same intention und with the same goal of methodical and final extermination as the Genocide of the Jews. They were murdered systematically and in families from the toddler to the aged in the whole sphere of influence of the Nationalsocialists.”, non-official translation].

The denial of the Roma Genocide is prosecuted by a law provision (§130 par. 3 German Criminal Code) according to which public denial, acceptance or trivialization of Genocide committed under the National Socialist regime will be punished with imprisonment up to five years or by imposing a fine.

In 2011, on the 27th January Commemoration Day, Roma were represented for the first time.

In 2012, a memorial site for the Roma killed during the Second World War was built, which evolved from the cooperation between the German Federal Government, the Zentralrat der Deutschen Sinti und Roma, the Sinti Allianz Deutschland and the Jenischer Bund Berlin. In course of the establishment of this memorial, a document describing the persecution and treatment of the Sinti and Roma during the National Socialist regime was compiled and is now displayed on a panel next to the memorial and visible to visitors.

 Data (camps locations, Remembrance places, measures etc.)

Belsen, Buchenwald, Dachau, Flossenbürg, Mittelbau-Dora, Neuengamme, Ravensbrück and Sachsenhausen) with several external sub-locations, are the places where Roma have been imprisoned, abused and killed. In these locations memorial sites have been set up, which treat the Roma Genocide as an integral part of their remembrance mission.

In 2012, a Memorial to the Sinti and Roma Murdered under the National Socialist Regime was erected in Berlin. It was designed by Dani Karavan and was officially opened on 24 October 2012 by German Chancellor Angela Merkel in the presence of President Joachim Gauck. It consists of a dark, circular pool of water at the centre of which there is a triangular stone. The triangular shape of the stone is in reference to the badges that had to be worn by concentration camp prisoners. The stone is retractable and a fresh flower is placed upon it daily. In bronze letters around the edge of the pool is the poem “Auschwitz” by Roma poet Santino Spinelli, although the monument commemorates all Roma and Sinti murdered during the Porajmos: “Gaunt face dead eyes cold lips quiet a broken heart out of breath without words no tears” Information boards surround the memorial and provide a chronology of the genocide of the Sinti and Roma. It is located at Simsonweg/Scheidemannstraße – between Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag Building, 10557 Berlin. It is supervised by the Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.

Apart from the sites and exhibitions at the concentration camps there is an exhibition dedicated only to the persecution of Roma: the permanent exhibition at the Documentation and Cultural Centre of German Sinti and Roma ("Dokumentations- und Kulturzentrum Deutscher Sinti und Roma") in Heidelberg. Another exhibition at memorial site Mittelbau-Dora used to be only devoted to the Roma Genocide in June–September 2008. The Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism has devoted a special exhibition on the “Persecution of Roma and Sinti in Munich and Bavaria 1933-1945” in 2016 and 2017.

Among a number of permanent exhibitions that include remembrance of the Roma Genocide , there are, for example, the exhibitions at the "Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand" (since 1998), the temporary exhibition "Topographie des Terrors" (about the Olympic Games in 1936, July 1996) or the temporary Holocaust-exposition at the "Deutsches Historisches Museum" in Berlin (January 2001), the Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism (since 2015) and many more.

Many sites have now been established to commemorate the persecuted and murdered Sinti and Roma, among them the memorials at the former Buchenwald and Mauthausen Concentration Camps, and the memorial for the murdered Sinti and Roma of Magdeburg, which stands close to Magdeburg Cathedral. Altogether, there are sites of remembrance, memorial tablets, names of streets and other signs indicating remembrance on the Roma Genocide in more than 100 German cities. A list of all of these is available at the ("Dokumentations- und Kulturzentrum Deutscher Sinti und Roma"). Some of the monuments are located in: Buchenwald (former concentration camp), Darmstadt (there are two monuments), Kiel, Cologne, Leipzig, Magdeburg, Stolberg (Aachen), Stuttgart, St. Pantaleon, Wiesbaden and Würzburg. Other memorial sites are located in: Asperg, Bad Hersfeld, Bad Rippoldsau, Bayreuth, Bergen-Belsen (former concentration camp), Berlin (there are two), Berlin-Marzahn, Bochum, Braunschweig, Bremen, Bremerhaven, Buchenwald (apart from the monument), Dortmund, Dreihausen (there are two), Düsseldorf (there are two), Essen, Flensburg, Frankfurt (there are three), Fulda, Geesthacht, Gevelberg, Greven (there are two), Hamburg (there are three), Hanau, Hannover (there are two), Heidelberg, Herbolzheim, Jena, Karlsruhe, Kassel, Kleinbachselten, Koblenz, Cologne (there are four, apar of the monument), Landau, Leipzig (apart from the monument), Leonberg, Ludwigshafen, Magdeburg (apart from the monument), Mannheim, Marburg, Merseburg, Meuselwitz (former camp), Mittelbau-Dora (former concentration camp), Mulfingen, Munich, Neuengamme (former concentration camp), Norderstedt (former camp), Nürnberg, Oldenburg (there are two), Pirmasens, Ravensbrück (former concentration camp), Recklinghausen, Reutlingen, Sachsenhausen (former camp), Sindelfingen, Singen, Solingen, Stuttgart (apart from the monument),Trochtenfilgen, Tübingen, Uckermark, Ulm-Söflingen, Weil, Wiesbaden-Kostheim, Worms, Würzburg (apart from the monument), and Wuppertal (there are two). The website “Gedenkorte für Roma und Sinti” lists all the memorial sites. The KZ Dachau memorial site frequently organises special guided tours on the situation of Roma and Sinti in the camp.

Considered as “racially inferiors”, the “Zigeuner” ("Gypsies") suffered from arbitrary internment, forced labour and mass killings. As early as 1933, German cities, without any federal order, started identifying gypsy families and imprisoning them in camps. In 1935, the Nuremberg laws formalised the persecution against Gypsies. In 1940, the Nazi regime launched the deportation of the Gypsies from Western towards Eastern Europe, where they were later exterminated. In the Reich, 80% of the Roma were murdered.

After the war, Roma survivors did not get back neither their German nationality nor their properties. Until 1982, West Germany refused to recognise the racial motive of the deportation and extermination of the Roma. In East Germany, despite a fast recognition of Roma and Sinti as a victim group of the Nazi cruelties in 1946, the access to compensation was impeded by anti-Roma practices (in order to receive pensions, individuals had to prove a permanent residence and job). In light of the antifascist GRD state ideology the racially motivated (Roma) Genocide was marginalised as one of the many crimes of the Nazi rule.

 Specialised institution, commission, research centre etc., dealing with this issue

In 1990 the Dokumentations- und Kulturzentrum Deutscher Sinti und Roma was founded in the city of Heidelberg, Germany. This Centre is engaged in research and documentation of the culture and in particular the Roma Genocide under the National Socialist regime and therefore has organized several exhibitions on this topic. The Documentation and Cultural Centre furthermore cooperates closely with other national and international memorial sites. The Centre is financially supported by the Land of Baden-Württemberg as well as by the Federal Government of Germany. The exhibition assesses the Sinti and Roma Genocide and is the only permanent exhibition of its kind in the world, which makes the Centre an important museum of contemporary history and a place of historical memory.

Dokumentations- und Kulturzentrum Deutscher Sinti und Roma
Head: Romani Rose
Bremeneckgasse 2
D-69117 Heidelberg. Germany
Telephone: (+49) (0) 6221 981101
Fax: (+49) (0) 6221 981190
E-mail: [email protected]

Besides the permanent exhibition in Heidelberg, the Dokumentations- und Kulturzentrum Deutscher Sinti und Roma has also developed an exposition, which since 2001 is shown in the former concentration camp of Auschwitz. Similar to the permanent exhibition in Heidelberg, there is also a portable version, which has been presented in several major cities as New York, Warsaw and Stockholm since 2006.

Amongst the activities of the Dokumentations- und Kulturzentrum Deutscher Sinti und Roma there are also visits for survivors and youth organised to memorial sites as Auschwitz, Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen. Additionally, the Dokumentations- und Kulturzentrum Deutscher Sinti und Roma organises public events and presentations dealing with the consequences and effects of the Genocide on the culture of the Roma in Europe, as well as presentations on measures against right-wing extremism, racism and anti-Gypsyism, or topics like “human rights“ and “minority politics“.

 Official initiatives (campaigns, actions, projects, commemoration days, museums)

In 1995 the “Zentralrat Deutscher Sinti und Roma” achieved the recognition of the 70,000 German Roma as a national minority by the Federal Government of Germany. In consequence, their language Romanes (or Romani), which is spoken by the German Roma, is officially protected as a minority language since 1997.

In the eastern Berlin district of Friedrichshain, a street was renamed ‘Ede and Unku,’ which was the name of a 1931 book about the true story of a friendship between a German worker’s son and a Sinti girl in pre-Nazi Germany. A gymnasium in Berlin was given the name of the boxer Johann Trollmann, a Sinti who competed for Germany’s light-heavyweight title in 1933. Even though he won on points, the Nazis deemed his fighting style ‘un-German’ and used this as a reason to deny him the title. Trollmann later died in a concentration camp.

Roma and Sinti’s history is recounted in the Lebendiges Museum Online (LEMO). The Dokumentations- und Kulturzentrum – Deutscher Sinti und Roma informs about the Roma Genocide, and also provides a chronology of the genocide.