Memorial for the Sinti and Roma of Europe who were murdered under National Socialism

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Memorial in October 2012 after the inauguration

The memorial for the Sinti and Roma of Europe murdered under National Socialism is a memorial on Simsonweg in the Great Tiergarten in Berlin south of the Reichstag . It is intended to commemorate the Porajmos , the National Socialist genocide of the European Roma persecuted as " Gypsies " with up to 500,000 victims of men, women and children. The design comes from Dani Karavan .

Location

The memorial is located near the other central memorial sites in memory of the victims of the Nazi crimes at the Großer Tiergarten , the memorial for the murdered Jews of Europe , the memorial for the homosexuals persecuted under National Socialism and the memorial and information center for the victims of the National Socialist "euthanasia" murders . Like them, the memorial is cared for by the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe Foundation .

The location is a property on Simsonweg or Scheidemannstrasse in the Tiergarten district of Berlin , which is located near the Brandenburg Gate and directly opposite the Reichstag building and was provided by the State of Berlin. The specific location was determined in 2001.

layout

Entrance to the memorial for the Sinti and Roma of Europe who were murdered under National Socialism

A narrow gate leads into the memorial through a wall of frosted glass-colored glass plates that delimits the site of the memorial. These information boards made of glass surround the area with a “chronology of the genocide of the Sinti and Roma”. The persecution of the Sinti and Roma for the individual years from 1933 to 1945 is documented in English on the outside of the glass plates and in German on the inside. B. for 1933 (increased discrimination), for 1938 ( Heinrich Himmler's role in planning the murder) and for 1945 (number of victims up to 500,000 murdered men, women and children).

Fountain center with stone and fresh flower, the triangle to the concentration camp angle remember
Detail of the well edge

The design comes from the Israeli artist Dani Karavan . Karavan designed a place of inner sympathy, memory.

He designed a circular water basin ("fountain") with a black - "endlessly deep" - ground. The circular shape is an expression of equality. The water in the round pool symbolizes the tears. In the middle of the pool, the artist placed a triangular stone stele which, when viewed from above, is intended to remind of the angle on the clothes of the concentration camp prisoners. There is a flower on top of it. If it has lost its freshness, it is replaced by a new one. The flower should be "at the same time a symbol of life, sadness and memory".

The symbol of the fountain also reflects - according to Karavan - that those involved should not dispute, but rather contemplate, in view of the memory issue of the Nazi crimes. The poem “Auschwitz” by the Italian Rome Santino Spinelli (stage name “Alexian”) can be read in English, German and Romanes on the edge of the fountain : “Sunken face / extinguished eyes / cold lips / silence / a torn heart / without breath / without words / no tears ”.

The Mare Manuschenge melody, composed by Romeo Franz for the memorial, is played through the installation of loudspeakers .

The names of concentration camps are engraved on the stone carpet

The water basin is surrounded by an approximately three meter wide band of individual, irregularly shaped white stone slabs. This carpet made of stone slabs contains stones with the names of concentration camps carved into them at irregular intervals, e.g. B. Neuengamme or Auschwitz.

history

1992: Monument decision

In 1992 the Federal Government approved a proposal by the Federal Ministry of the Interior to erect a “memorial for the victims of the National Socialist genocide of the Sinti and Roma”. In doing so, it fulfilled a long-standing demand of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma .

This demand was met with opposition for a long time and its implementation was fraught with conflict. In 2000, the CDU Berlin said against such a memorial that the Berlin city center should not become a “memorial mile”. The post- National Socialist tsiganologist and former advisor to the Adenauer government, Hermann Arnold , spoke up in 2004. The "Gypsies" want reparation, which is inappropriate because they were not victims of Nazi racism.

discussion

For years there were differences of opinion between the two victim associations, the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma and the Sinti Alliance Germany, and the Federal Government, which were included in the preparations by the federal government, about the text of an initially planned dedication of the monument . A major point of contention was how to designate the victim group. The federal government had designated “gypsies” for the monument text, which the Central Council rejected as unworthy and unreasonable. Starting in 2005, the government received support from the Sinti Alliance. Another point of contention was the question of comparing the genocide of the Roma minority with that of the Jewish minority. The Central Council criticized the German government for avoiding this problem of victim politics.

With the entry of the Yenish Federation in Germany and Europe, founded in the course of the memorial discussion in 2006 . V. created additional conflict material through its demand for recognition of a " Holocaust against the Yenish people". One was also persecuted as a "gypsy". The problem of unification also worsened because the small Sinti Alliance now had an ally against the more important Central Council.

State of construction of the monument in July 2008

As a compromise was impossible, instead of a dedication, a “Chronology of the Genocide of the Sinti and Roma” was drawn up by the Federal Council on December 20 , under the auspices of the Office of the State Minister for Culture in Munich and the NS Documentation Center of the City of Cologne Unanimously decided in 2007. The historians' text delimits the victim and minority positions of self-advocacy and reflects the state of research. In this way, according to the Minister of State for Culture, "the concerns of the victims' associations are taken into account as much as possible."

  • The introductory text now speaks of a “European minority persecuted as 'Gypsies'”, names the subgroups of the Sinti , Lalleri , Lovara and Manush as an example , as well as “Roma” in an unclear content definition and specifically highlights Roma and Sinti. "The aim of the National Socialist state and its racial ideology " was "the annihilation of this minority".
  • Two quotes from speeches by Federal Chancellor Helmut Schmidt (1982) and Federal President Roman Herzog (1997) complete the chronology and qualify the National Socialist crime as “genocide” against “Sinti and Roma”, “from the same motive of racial madness with the the same intention and the same will for the planned and final annihilation was carried out as that of the Jews. ”(Herzog) With this, the historians take a position on the question of the singularity of the Shoah . They expressly reject this position taken by some historians (e.g. Guenter Lewy and Yehuda Bauer ) and place the genocide of the Roma minority next to the genocide of the Jewish minority.
  • Contrary to the wishes of the Sinti Alliance and the original idea of ​​the Federal Government, they use the term "Gypsies" exclusively as a source term as it appears in National Socialist texts, that is, in a narrow racial ideological definition as the term for the ethnic ("racial") minority of the Roma. You expressly do not use it as an overall term that is still current today, which, sociographically speaking, would include other population groups outside the Roma ethnic group. However, the Central Council always rejected this form of use of the term.
  • At the end of the introduction, the historians name “members of the independent group of victims of the Yeniche and other travelers” who were not collectively but individually “affected by persecution measures”. In the following “Chronology of the Genocide of the Sinti and Roma”, they neither refer directly to these groups nor indirectly to “Gypsy-style rural travelers ”, artists or showmen that could be interpreted as such . With the addition to the introduction, the historians react to the historical-political demands of the Yenish League and at the same time keep their distance from them. With the group dedicated to the monument, the European Roma, the addition conflicts with the fact that these groups cannot be assigned to this minority or one of its subgroups.
State of construction of the monument in October 2011

2012: realization

The construction work on the memorial, initially planned for 2004 and delayed by the differences of opinion, began symbolically on December 19, 2008, the official day of remembrance of the Federal Council for the victims of the genocide of the Roma. They were supposed to be completed in the course of 2009, but dragged on until 2012 mainly because of the conflicts between the commissioned artist and those entrusted with the implementation. Construction work and site management were the responsibility of the State of Berlin . The memorial was inaugurated on October 24, 2012 in the presence of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Federal President Joachim Gauck . The monument was erected with federal funds because it is classified as a memorial of national and international importance . The construction cost around 2.8 million euros.

2020: Temporary closure of the monument threatens

Deutsche Bahn is planning a new S-Bahn line that will run in a tunnel directly under the monument. Originally, the railway wanted to have the monument completely dismantled. After a discussion with the Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe and the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma , the facility is to be temporarily removed or partially blocked according to the current plans of Deutsche Bahn AG. The Central Council of German Sinti and Roma met with outrage and resistance.

See also

literature

  • Foundation Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe, Office (Ed.): Information. Memorial for the Sinti and Roma of Europe who were murdered under National Socialism. Leaflet, Berlin approx. 2015.
  • Lith Bahlmann, Moritz Pankok, Matthias Reichelt (eds.): The black water: O Kalo Phani. The memorial for the Nazis murdered Sinti and Roma of Europe , Edition Braus, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-86228-038-4 .

Movies

  • Ben Lewis: The Broken Heart . About the process for the development of the memorial for the Sinti and Roma murdered under National Socialism in Berlin.

Web links

Commons : Memorial to the Sinti and Roma of Europe murdered under National Socialism  - collection of pictures

References and comments

  1. ↑ Information board in the memorial for 1945 names up to 500,000 victims.
  2. ↑ Memorial for Sinti and Roma: Construction begins at last . ( Memento from April 15, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) At: n-tv .de , December 14, 2008, accessed on December 19, 2008.
  3. ↑ Start of construction on the memorial for Sinti and Roma . In: Kölnische Rundschau Online , December 19, 2008, accessed on April 24, 2017.
  4. ^ Source for 1938: Beginning of planning.
  5. ^ Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, office (ed.): Information. Memorial for the Sinti and Roma of Europe who were murdered under National Socialism. Leaflet, Berlin approx. 2015.
  6. ↑ Interview with Dani Karavan about the memorial
  7. ↑ Memorial for Sinti and Roma. "We now have a place". In: FAZ , October 24, 2012.
  8. ↑ a b c Rolf Lautenschläger: End absurd dispute over the text . In: taz , January 13, 2005.
  9. ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: Press release No. 496, December 20, 2007 Press and Information Office of the Federal Government. Minister of State for Culture Bernd Neumann: Speech on December 19, 2008 ( memento of January 3, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) on the occasion of the symbolic start of construction of the “Memorial to the Sinti and Roma Murdered under National Socialism”.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.bundesregierung.de
  10. ↑ ry: Holocaust memorial: dispute over memorial for Sinti and Roma. In: tagesspiegel.de . July 25, 2000, accessed February 7, 2015 .
  11. ^ Hermann Arnold: Wrong equation. In: FAZ , December 28, 2004.
  12. ↑ For example: Rolf Lautenschläger: End absurd dispute about the text . In: taz , January 13, 2005. Betris Bollow: Memorial with blank space : Dispute over the inscription on the planned Berlin memorial for Sinti and Roma . At: 3sat - Kulturzeit , March 4, 2005, accessed on December 19, 2008.
  13. ↑ See: Press release from the Jenischer Bund in Germany and Europe of December 4, 2007 ; see. also the statement of the Sinti Alliance of December 18, 2008, which gives detailed information on "those persecuted as gypsies" without mentioning Yeniche at one point: openpr.de (PDF; 380 kB).
  14. ↑ Start of construction on the memorial for Sinti and Roma . In: Berliner Morgenpost , December 15, 2008; For text see: Documentation and Cultural Center of German Sinti and Roma (ed.), Sinti and Roma press kit, DENKMAL WEITER, cultural events for the inauguration of the Holocaust memorial in Berlin, 19. – 25. October 2012, p. 16 (see also: [1] ).
  15. ↑ The construction of the memorial starts 16 years later . In: Berliner Morgenpost , December 19, 2008.
  16. ↑ "Sinti and Roma" is the common term used in German-speaking countries and preferred by the Central Council. The International Romani Union , on the other hand, represents “Roma”.
  17. ↑ The chronology refers, among other things, to the implementation of the Nuremberg Laws (“All other races belong to the alien races, in Europe, apart from the Jews, usually only the Gypsies.”) And to the Himmler decree of 1938 on the “ regulation of the Gypsy question from the essence of this race ”.
  18. ↑ If necessary without inscription . In: Spiegel Online , February 28, 2005;
    Romani Rose: We are Sinti and Roma, not “Gypsies”. In: FAZ , March 23, 2005.
  19. ↑ There is no clear and undisputed definition of who is to be addressed as "Yenish". A study carried out on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Youth, Family and Health on the social situation of the Sinti also expresses itself on “rural travelers”. This includes "Yeniche", artists, small circus people and showmen: Andreas Hundsalz with the collaboration of Harald P. Schaaf: Social situation of the Sinti in the Federal Republic of Germany (series of publications by the Federal Minister for Youth, Family and Health, Vol. 129), Stuttgart 1982, P. 170. How the groups are delimited is not clear.
  20. ↑ Start of construction on the memorial of the murdered Sinti and Roma. In: Der Tagesspiegel , December 19, 2008. Author abbreviation ah / ddp.
  21. ↑ See: Harry Nutt: fr-online.de Memorial for Murdered Sinti and Roma. The color of the water. ( Memento from February 17, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) In: Frankfurter Rundschau , January 27, 2011.
  22. ↑ Julia Haak: Monument dedicated to Sinti and Roma. In: Frankfurter Rundschau , October 24, 2012, accessed on August 28, 2015.
  23. ↑ Sinti and Roma fear Berlin's memorial site at the Reichstag , rbb24 , June 4, 2020
  24. ↑ The Broken Heart . Shown at rbb on October 24, 2012 at 10:45 p.m. under Documentation & Reportage.

Coordinates: 52 ° 31 ′ 2 "  N , 13 ° 22 ′ 34"  E