The recognition of the genocide of Sinti and Roma[1] in Germany was achieved only after sustained advocacy by the civil rights movement of German Sinti and Roma. A key milestone was the establishment of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma (Zentralrat Deutscher Sinti und Roma) in 1982 in Heidelberg, which marked the emergence of a unified political representation for Germany. In the same year, former Federal Chancellor Helmut Schmidt stated the recognition of the genocide of Sinti and Roma on the level of international law as “Völkermord aus Gründen der Rasse” [“Genocide on racial grounds”, non-official translation]. This statement by the German Chancellor was then followed by the recognition of the 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 Sinti and Roma were seriously injured by the Nazi dictatorship. They were persecuted on racial grounds […]. These crimes have committed the crime of genocide.”, Translation according to the commemorative plaque at Memorial to the Sinti and Roma of Europe murdered under National Socialism in Berlin, opened in 2012].
On 16th March 1997 at the opening of the first permanent exhibition dedicated to the genocide of Sinti and Roma by the National Socialist regime and its collaborators, presented 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 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 genocide of the Sinti and Roma was carried out for the same motive of racial madness, with the same intention and the same will to the planned and final annihilation as that at the Jews. They were murdered systematically and family-wise in the entire sphere of influence of the National Socialists, from infants to the elderly”, Translation according to the commemorative plaque at Memorial to the Sinti and Roma of Europe murdered under National Socialism in Berlin, opened in 2012].
The denial of the genocide of Sinti and Roma is prosecuted by a law provision (§130 par. 3 German Criminal Code, “Volksverhetzung”). This law refers broadly to incitement and Holocaust denial, including public denial, acceptance or trivialization of genocide committed under the National Socialist regime and allows punishments of imprisonment up to five years or by imposing a fine.
On 27 January 2011, the Dutch Sinto Zoni Weisz (b. 1937) was the first survivor of the minority to address the federal parliament in Germany on the International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
The Memorial to the Sinti and Roma of Europe Murdered under National Socialism was inaugurated in Berlin on 24 October 2012. It is dedicated to all Roma and Sinti who perished under the Nazi regime and its collaborators in Europe – estimates range from 200,000 to 500,000 victims in total. Initiated in the late 1980s by the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma, led by Romani Rose, the project only entered the construction phase two decades later, in 2008. Following further delays and conflicts, the memorial was ultimately completed through sustained advocacy by Roma activists, survivors, and international civil society organisations, including the civil initiative of the Romani Elders within the framework of the 7th Berlin Biennale. The memorial was inaugurated in the presence of Holocaust survivors and leading German political representatives, including Chancellor Angela Merkel and Federal President Joachim Gauck. Since 2020, the memorial has been at the centre of public debate due to plans related to the expansion of Berlin's S21 rail line, which would affect parts of the memorial site. The memorial is situated in the Tiergarten directly between the Reichstag building and the Brandenburg Gate and is managed by the Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.
Data (camps locations, Remembrance places, measures etc.)
Under the Nazi-regime communal administrations established communal detention camps for Sinti and Roma from the mid 1930s in order to segregate, surveil, and repress the persecuted. The first communal detention camps were erected in 1935 in Cologne and Magdeburg-Holzweg and in 1936, in the course of the Olympic games, the Berlin-Marzahn camp followed. Bergen-Belsen, Buchenwald, Dachau, Flossenbürg, Mittelbau-Dora, Neuengamme, Ravensbrück and Sachsenhausen with several external sub-locations, were the concentration camps inside the territory of the German Reich where Sinti and Roma were imprisoned, abused and killed. In these locations memorial sites have been set up, which address the genocide of Sinti and Roma as an integral part of their remembrance mission.
The memorialization through public monuments and commemoration events intensified since the 1990s. As early as 1978 the civil rights activist Vinzenz Rose erected a memorial at Auschwitz-Birkenau using his own money. Many sites have now been established by local initiatives to commemorate the persecuted and murdered Sinti and Roma. Altogether, there are sites of remembrance, memorial tablets, names of streets and other signs indicating remembrance on the genocide of Sinti and Roma in more than 100 German cities. A list of all of these is available on the digital platform “Verortungen” hosted by the Documentation and Cultural Centre of German Sinti and Roma. The digital platform collects biographies and trajectories of survivors, sites of persecution, sites of remembrance, and sites of education.
On 24 October 2012, the national Memorial to the Sinti and Roma of Europe Murdered under National Socialism was opened in Berlin’s Tiergarten. It was designed by Dani Karavan and consists of a dark circular pool of water at the centre of which stands a triangular stone. The triangular shape of the stone is in reference to the triangles 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. An ever-changing violin tone, the piece “Mare Manuschenge“ (“Our People“), composed by Romeo Franz, can be heard continuously at the memorial site. Information panels on glass walls surround the memorial and provide a chronology of the genocide of the Sinti and Roma as well as quotes by Federal Chancellor Helmut Schmidt and Federal President Roman Herzog recognising the genocide in 1982 and 1997. The walls face the Reichstag and are thus a constant reminder. On the occasion of the tenth anniversary in 2022, the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma and the Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, which is formally in charge of the memorial site, opened a supplementary open-air exhibition with biographies of Roma and Sinti survivors from Europe. The memorial has been at the centre of public debate since 2020 due to the planned expansion of Berlin's S21 rail line.
The Encyclopedia of the Nazi Genocide of the Sinti and Roma in Europe is an extensive online resource created by the Research Centre on Antigypsyism at Heidelberg University. It makes current international research accessible to a wider audience and is currently being expanded through an online edition of primary sources on the Nazi Genocide of the Sinti and Roma in Europe. Such large-scale projects demonstrate that, despite recent advances, this remains a marginalized field of research.
Specialised institution, commission, research centre etc., dealing with this issue
Germany has established a range of institutions addressing antigypsyism (a term used in line with Council of Europe standards; German: Antiziganismus), combining research, education, and policy work. The following institutions follow a national and international approach in their scope:
Official initiatives (campaigns, actions, projects, commemoration days, museums)
In 1995 the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma achieved the recognition of the 70.000 to 150.000 German Sinti and Roma – numbers vary because Germany does not collect population statistics and socioeconomic data based on ethnicity – as a national minority by the Federal Government of Germany. In consequence, their language Romanes (or Romani), which is spoken by the German Sinti and Roma, is officially protected as a minority language since 1997.
In March 2019 the German Bundestag established an Independent Commission on Antigypsyism. The commission consisted of eleven members from academia and civil society who focus on antigypsyism and their final report from 2021 revealed among other aspects that decades of denied recognition of the genocide against Sinti and Roma after 1945 perpetuated racism and systemic disadvantage, requiring comprehensive compensation and policy change to ensure justice and dignity for survivors and their descendants. Other central demands were the creation of the political position of a federal commissioner against antigypsyism as well as a commission of political representatives of the federal government and the states. In 2022, the position of the Federal Government Commissioner for Combating Antigypsyism and for the Life of Sinti and Roma in Germany was established, and Dr. Mehmet Daimagüler became the first Commissioner. He was succeeded by State Secretary Michael Brandt in July 2025, and his office is attached to the Federal Ministry of Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women, and Youth (BMBFSFJ). Commissioners against Antigypsyism have also been appointed in the states of Berlin and Rhineland-Palatinate.
The Permanent Federal-State Commission Against Antigypsyism and for the Lives of Sinti and Roma was established in December 2024 under Commissioner Daimagüler. This Permanent Federal-State Commission also deals with measures of preventing antigypsyism in school education as the school system is organised on the level of each of the 16 states in the federal republic. The commissioner against antigypsyism and State Secretary Brandt works on establishing a commission for the investigation of injustices committed against Sinti and Roma in the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic (GDR), which was another central claim in the 2021 report of the Independent Commission.
In January 2023, Anne Gidion, Representative of the Council of the Protestant Church in Germany (EKD) to the Federal Republic of Germany and the European Union, gave a public declaration that acknowledged guilt for historical complicity in persecution and expressed the need to combat antigypsy tendencies in social welfare work, preaching, and the congregation. A declaration from the Catholic church has not been undertaken but German Bishops’ Conference (DBK) actively addressed its historical complicity, particularly during the Nazi era in a symposium in April 2025. Bishop Georg Bätzing acknowledged the Church’s guilt and failures. Since 2017 the network “Netzwerk Sinti Roma Kirchen” exists at the Protestant Academy in Berlin, which brings together representatives of both Christian churches and Sinti and Roma NGOS.
Among Germany's 16 federal statesseveral have state treaties or public-law framework agreements with the regional associations of the Sinti and Roma, including Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Brandenburg, Hesse, and Rhineland-Palatine. These agreements support remembrance culture, research, and education related to the Nazi genocide of Sinti and Roma, while also promoting culture and political participation, combating antigypsyism, and securing the legal status of Sinti and Roma as a national minority. Other states and local NGOs promote this form of cooperation and participation through regular round tables, such as SiRo 3.0 in Lower-Saxony, which also includes the perspective of the third generation of survivors, or through advisory councils to state institutions, as in the case of Berlin. A treaty at the level of the Federal Republic of Germany is currently under discussion. Proposals have been put forward by the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma, the Bundesvereinigung der Sinti und Roma together the Sinti Allianz.
[1] “Sinti and Roma” is used as an inclusive and respectful designation, acknowleding the hetoregenous make-up of both groups as well as the fact that other groups were also affected by antigypsyism and became victims of the Nazi genocide. “Antigypsyism” refers to a specific form of racism directed against these groups. Historical terms such as “Gypsies” appear only in quotation marks or historical contexts and reflect the discriminatory language of the perpetrators (especially in the section with older book titles). The CoE often uses “Roma genocide”. In order to align with the terminology that is widely accepted in Germany, “genocide of Sinti and Roma“ is used instead.
27 January Since 1996, 27th January is the nationwide, legally acknowledged commemoration day for the victims of the Holocaust. On this day, German buildings show their flags on half-mast and the German Bundestag honours the victims in a ceremony. On that day, all schools are invited to hold special lessons or organise events in remembrance of the Holocaust.
March In March commemoration events are organised in different cities by local initiatives and with descendants throughout Germany corresponding to the day of their first deportation to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp in 1943, e.g. on 1 March in Magdeburg, 3 March in the state Thuringia, 8 March in Wiesbaden, 11 March in Hamburg, 13 March in Munich, 15 March Württemberg and Baden.
April/May The liberation of concentration camps in 1945 is commemorated every year by the memorial sites and Sinti or Roma descendants are involved in commemorative events.
16 May International Romani Resistance Day is celebrated across Germany, and events are organised by NGOs in commemoration of the resistance of Sinti and Roma prisoners in Auschwitz-Birkenau on 16 May 1944. In western Germany, the deportation of Sinti and Roma in May 1940 is also commemorated at local sites of deportation.
2 August This day is officially recognised and observed with remembrance ceremonies, including central commemorations at the Memorial to the Sinti and Roma of Europe murdered under National Socialism, as well as events organised by institutions, civil society groups, and the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma with commemorative events at the national memorial in Berlin or at the section B II e of the Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial site. The association Menda Yek e.V. organises trauma-sensitive tours from descendants in Germany to the commemoration event held at the memorial site of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
16 December The German Bundesrat (upper house of the German Parliament, representing the Länder - counties) annually remembers the Roma Genocide in a commemorative speech during its last session in December. This commemoration takes place on the occasion of the yearly anniversary of the so-called “Auschwitz-Erlass” (Auschwitz-decree) by Himmler on 16 December 1942.
The story of Amalie Reinhardt who was deported to Dachau is available on the pedagogical Dutch website https://romasinti.eu/
The project Das vergessene Gedächtnis ("The Forgotten Memory") of the Documentation Centre of German Sinti and Roma collects and preserves objects documenting the history and culture of Sinti and Roma in Europe from the Holocaust to the present day, and records video interviews with Holocaust survivors as well as members of the second and third generations, documenting family histories and the intergenerational transmission of memory.
Initiatives of the civil society
The Stiftung EVZ "Erinnerung, Verantwortung, Zukunft" (Foundation "Remembrance, Responsibility and Future") has funded various projects on the topic and they have supported NGOs dedicated to the emancipation of Sinti and Roma. In 2021 the “Bildungsagenda NS-Unrecht” was established by the Foundation EVZ financed mainly by the Bundesministerium der Finanzen, which aims at supporting education and remembrance projects about Nazi injustice. Within this framework several projects on the topic of the genocide of Sinti and Roma have been supported. For instance, "Unbroken - The Song of Survivors" by Romanity e.V., which intends to create an animated musical, as well as “Lernen aus Akten” by the Verband Deutscher Sinti und Roma Landesverband Bayern, which analyses the compensation of Sinti and Roma survivors in Bavaria after 1945 and creates educational material. The project “Das vergessene Gedächtnis” by the Documentation and Cultural Centre of German Sinti and Roma collected objects and interviews related to the objects with survivors and descendants of the genocide.
On the national level the Standing Conference of Ministers of Culture of the Länder has been working together with the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma and the Alliance for Solidarity with the Sinti and Roma of Europe. On 8 December 2022, they gave a joint declaration on the inclusion of the history and present situation Sinti and Roma in school education.
In 2025 the Standing Conference of Ministers of Culture of the Länder and the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma published mutual recommendations addressing antigypsyism in schools. Since 2025 the “Kompetenzstelle gegen Antiziganismus der Stiftung niedersächsische Gedenkstätten” (KogA) coordinates a network of institutions dedicated to the historical and political education of the persecution of Sinti and Roma under the Nazi-regime, with a particular focus on memorial sites.
Inclusion of the topic in the school curriculum
In Germany the school education is organised in a federal system and curricula differ between the 16 federal states of Germany and textbooks are usually provided by commercial publishing houses that integrate the topics of the different curricula in their material. Also, the Sinti and Roma lead NGOs are structured according to the federal system and in the past years these organisations representing the Sinti and Roma have demanded the inclusion of topics related to the national minority in the curricula and textbooks and some included it in their treaties with the governments of the states.
The Independent Commission on Antigypsyism that worked between 2019 and 2021 on behalf of the German national Ministry of the Interior requested Imke Rath and Riem Spielhaus from the Leibniz Institute for International Research on Textbooks for Schools (Leibniz-Institut für Internationale Schulbuchforschung) with a thorough analysis of the representation of Sinti and Roma in current curricula and textbooks for schools.
The curriculum and textbook analysis identified a total of six subject areas within which Sinti and Roma are dealt with: crimes of the Nazi dictatorship (including the related culture of remembrance), persecution in the Middle Ages, migration (especially to Germany), human rights/basic rights/protection of minorities, social diversity or extremism/racism as a threat to democracy and in some cases they are mentioned in connection with the development of the European Union. A connection can be established between explicit mentions in curricula and textbooks, whereas a direct effect of implicit mentions and possibilities (potentials) in curricula on textbooks can hardly be identified, or only in the context of the Nazi regime.
Inclusion of the topic in the school textbooks
The majority of the federal states have explicitly (or implicitly) anchored the topic of Sinti and Roma in the context of dealing with Nazi persecution and, in some cases, the culture of remembrance in the curricula for history and social science lessons. Numerous current textbooks take this up. The majority (28 out of 39) of the history textbooks or textbooks for interdisciplinary teaching in 9th and 10th grade examined in the study by Imke Rath and Riem Spielhaus deal with the Nazi era, explicitly and mostly in detail the persecution and murder of Sinti and Roma. Hardly any textbooks present Sinti and Roma in the context of social diversity or familiarize pupils with their history beyond persecution and extermination. Curricula and textbooks are therefore dominated by a problem-related thematization of Sinti and Roma. A dominant form of representation, not only in connection with historical depictions - although most clearly recognizable there - is that of a collective and passive group of victims without the ability to act.
The Documentation and Cultural Centre of German Sinti and Roma as well as the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma published a variety of documentation (books, CD-ROMs, DVDs) on the history of Roma that can be found on their website. Their comprehensive catalogue to the permanent exhibition in Auschwitz, “The National Socialists’ Genocide of Sinti and Roma”, represents an important book of reference on this issue.
Training of teachers and education professionals
Several institutions provide state acknowledged continuing education for teachers as well as pedagogical workshops for educators.
A project by partners of the Network Sinti Roma Churches, the Protestant Academy Berlin the Landesvertretung deutscher Sinti und Roma Baden-Württemberg-Sinti Powerclub e.V., that aims to train young Sinti and Roma to do anti-racism seminars and workshops in schools, universities and for teacher training.
The Critical Film and Image Hub at the Research Centre of the University Heidelberg offers trainings for teachers and educators on a regular basis including film material.
The Education Department of the Documentation and Cultural Centre of German Sinti and Roma focuses on gathering information on state and private education services, designing seminars for teachers as well as educators and preparing teaching materials dealing with the history of the persecution of the Roma and Sinti minority during the National Socialist era and with civil rights activities in the Federal Republic of Germany. The department also analyses standard schoolbooks and makes recommendations.
Particular activities undertaken at the level of education institutions
Contact people for the topics of Holocaust and National Socialism can be found in the Ministries of Education of each "Land”.
Factsheet on the Roma Genocide in Germany
List of resources to download
