Heidelberg (exhibition)
Historical background
Dokumentations- und Kulturzentrum Deutscher Sinti und Roma was founded at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s and is located in the old town of Heidelberg. Together with the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma, it forms the central institution of this minority in Germany, although they are separate associations. On March 16, 1997, a building complex was opened that houses an archive, offices and a permanent exhibition dedicated to the history of the Sinti and Roma Extermination. The inauguration was attended, by Romani Rose, chairman of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma, but also by President Roman Herzog, Yehudi Menuhin, Elizabeth Guttenberger (survivor of Auschwitz)
The exhibition ‘Der Nationalsocialistische völkermord and den Sinti und Roma’ (‘National Socialist Genocide of the Sinti and Roma’) is the first permanent exhibition in the world devoted entirely to the Holocaust of the Roma. The second, also designed by Dokumentations- und Kulturzentrum Deutscher Sinti und Roma, is located in block 13 at KL Auschwitz and was opened on 2 August 2001.
The Centre also features a travelling exhibition and it possesses an archive available to researchers on site. Among numerous research projects and projects related to commemorating the Roma Holocaust memorial sites, the Centre also implemented a project called “Gedenkorte für Sinti und Roma” (http://gedenkorte.sintiundroma.de/index.php), which features a website with descriptions and photographs of over a hundred memorial sites devoted to the Roma extermination. Most of them are located in Germany, but there are also memorial sites located in other countries (Belgium, Estonia, France, Croatia, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Romania, the Czech Republic). It is an invaluable source of information, also helpful for us when developing our Na bister! database.
Description of commemoration
The exhibition “Der Nationalsocialistische völkermord and den Sinti und Roma” is located on three floors at the headquarters of Dokumentations- und Kulturzentrum Deutscher Sinti und Roma and covers a total of almost 700 m2. The exhibition begins with the creation of the National Socialist movement and systematic hatred of minorities such as the Sinti, Roma, Jews and others. The exhibition describes the history of the Roma and Sinti in the most notorious concentration camps in which they stayed and the fate of Gypsies who did not reach the camps (such as 93 victims of the German crime in the village of Szczurowa in southern Poland). The exhibition presents interesting documentary materials, not only those in the possession of museums – memorial sites (Auschwitz and others), but also recordings obtained by Centre researchers in the 1990s.
Much space was devoted to the fate of individuals and families. The emotional colourless copies of archival documents, photographs known from expositions in former concentration camps and extermination camps – are constantly accompanying us, yet, they are intertwined with photographs, letters, stories of specific people whom we know by name, name and face. This concept of the exhibition can “humanise” facts, and the people to whom the exhibition is devoted – both those who were murdered and the survivors – cease to be numbers and become more memorable.
The exhibition route ends with a footbridge leading through the attic, from which we can see information about individual European countries and the situation of the Roma during World War II. At the very end there is a section dedicated to the memory of the murdered: an eternal candle, flowers, a book with names and illuminated panels with names of the Gypsy victims of the genocide. Above the candle there is a purple plaque with an inscription in 3 languages: German, Romani and English.
Inscriptions
In German:
Zum Gedenken an die Sinti und Roma, / die zwischen 1933 und 1945 / den Völkermord zum Opfer fielen.
In Romani:
I Rikerpaske ap u Sinti de Roma, mare Mulenge, / gei weian maschke 1933 de 1945 / mardo an u Manuschengromarepen.
Translation:
In commemoration of the Sinti and Roma, / who fell victim to genocide between 1933 and 1945.
Date of the unveiling
March 16, 1997
Initiator
Dokumentations- und Kulturzentrum Deutscher Sinti und Roma
Address
Dokumentations- und Kulturzentrum Deutscher Sinti und Roma
Bremeneckgasse 2, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
sintiundroma.de
+49 6221 981102
Location
49°24’38.2″N 8°42’38.9″E
49.410599, 8.710814
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Materials
http://gedenkorte.sintiundroma.de/
Gallery
