Memorial to the Sinti

Last 24 October, the Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe inaugurated a national memorial for the murdered Sinti and Roma, in remembrance of those, branded "Zigeuner" or "gypsies", who were persecuted and killed under the National Socialist regime.

The memorial was conceived by artist Dani Karavan as a water mirror with a retractable stone, on which a fresh flower is placed daily. Around it, panels present information on the persecution and mass murder of this minority under the Nazi regime.

"A site deprived of everything. No words, no names, no metal, no stone. Only tears, only water, surrounded by the survivors, by those who remember what happened, by those who know the horror as well as those who never experienced it," states Karavan about his work. "They are reflected, upside down, in the water of the deep, black pit, covered by the sky – the water, the tears. Only a small stone, which sinks and rises, again and again, day after day. And on it every day a new blossom, so that each day we can remember anew, constantly, to all eternity."

Under National Socialism, hundreds of thousands of people in Germany and other European countries were persecuted as gypsies between 1933 and 1945. Most of them defined themselves according to the various groups to which they belonged, for example Sinti, Roma, Lallere, Lovari or Manouche. The largest groups in Europe were the Sinti and Roma. Men, women and children were seized and taken away, or murdered in their hometowns or in ghettos, concentration camps or killing centres. Members of the Yeniche and other travellers formed a separate group of victims who were also persecuted.

Accessible 24 hours a day
Memorial to the Sinti and Roma of Europe Murdered under the National Socialist Regime
Foundation Memorial
Simsonweg/Scheidemannstraße, between Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag Building, Berlin