Oldenburg (memorial)
Historical background
The memorial commemorates 74 Gypsies from Oldenburg who were deported to the death camp (Auschwitz-Birkenau). Among them were 22 members of the Mechau family, 19 from the Schwarz family and others.
Description of commemoration
The memorial creates a cuboid post, made of stone, about 1.40 m high. The grey sandstone is cracked along the entire height of the post. The crack is to symbolise the attempt to destroy the entire Gypsy nation. The crack runs along the sides, on which the relief representing the tree is visible – the crack is therefore a crack in the tree itself. The tree loses its leaves. Seventy-four falling leaves symbolise 74 victims of the crime on the Sinti from Oldenburg, but the fact that the tree also has healthy leaves apart from the fallen ones is supposed to prove that the people, the nation survived even Samudaripen.
The inscription in German, quoted below, is divided into two parts and carved in stone on opposite sides, i.e. on those walls of the post that were not separated by a crack (in the German text the crack is marked with “///”).
Also, the top of the stele, ideally polished, bears a relief of tree branches – connecting both side reliefs into one whole.
Located on a small square at the junction of two streets, the memorial is set in a stone base and surrounded on three sides by concrete paving slabs and greenery.
Inscriptions
In German:
Die Bürgerinnen und Bürger der Stadt Oldenburg gedenken der 74 Sinti-Opfer aus der Stadt Oldenburg und Umgebung, die zum größten Teil auf dem Gelände des Ziegelhofes /// am Friedhofsweg wohnten und zwischen 1938 und 1945 von dort deportiert und im nationalsozialistischen Holocaust in Auschwitz, Birkenau und anderswo ermordet wurden.
Translation:
Residents of the city of Oldenburg commemorate 74 victims – the Sinti from Oldenburg and the surrounding area, most of whom lived in Ziegelhofes at Friedhofsweg. Between the years 1938-1945, during the National Socialist Holocaust, they were deported from here to Auschwitz, Birkenau and other places where they were murdered.
Date of the unveiling
November 24, 1989
Author
Eckart Grenzer
Initiator
Citizen Initiative of the Sinti from Oldenburg
Address
The corner of Friedhofsweg (am Ziegelhof) and Jägerstraße, 26121 Oldenburg, Germany
Location
53°09’06.4″N 8°11’59.1″E
53.151778, 8.199750
<iframe src=”https://www.google.com/maps/embed?pb=!1m18!1m12!1m3!1d591.1611764463019!2d8.199195829248614!3d53.15176480300335!2m3!1f0!2f0!3f0!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!3m3!1m2!1s0x0%3A0x0!2zNTPCsDA5JzA2LjQiTiA4wrAxMSc1OS4xIkU!5e1!3m2!1spl!2spl!4v1508089039573″ width=”600″ height=”450″ frameborder=”0″ style=”border:0″ allowfullscreen></iframe>
Materials
Puvogel, Ulrike/Stankowski, Martin: Gedenkstätten für die Opfer des Nationalsozialismus. Eine Dokumentation, 2., überarb. und erw. Auflg., Band I, Bonn 1995, S. 443.
Gallery
