Worms (plaque)
Historical background
71 Sinti were deported from Worms to KL Auschwitz on May 16, 1940.
Description of commemoration
In Lutherpark, close to the famous Worms cathedral, there is a special, separate place, called Otto Wels Square (the famous politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), whom National Socialists stripped of German citizenship in 1933). A memorial called Mahnmal für die Opfer des Faschismus (‘The Memorial to the Victims of Fascism’) stands in this square. It is a structure which resembles a well: a stone cube with inscriptions and a cast-iron candle mounted on top. The cube is surrounded by columns which are topped with a cast iron gable resembling a gear or a crown of thorns. The inscription commemorating the victims of genocide, is placed on the front of the memorial, while the plaque dedicated to the memory of the German Sinti – residents of Worms – is on the back wall of the cube.
The plaque is made of bronze and has the following dimensions: 29 x 37 cm. The inscription is in German, slightly raised in relation to the background, which has no texture, and no frames. The plaque is heavily tarnished.
Inscriptions
In German:
Wider das Vergessen // Zum Gedenken an die Sinti, / die hier unter uns lebten / -Männer, Frauen und Kinder- / Im Nationalsozialismus / wurden sie in die / Konzentrationslager deportiert und ermordet.
Translation:
Never forget! In memory of the Sinti who lived here among us – men, women and children – and who were deported and murdered in concentration camps.
Date of the unveiling
October 19, 1994
Initiator
Verband Deutscher Sinti und Roma – Landesverband Rheinland-Pfalz
Address
Otto Wels Platz, Lutherpark, 67547 Worms, Germany
Location
49°37’53.6″N 8°21’34.1″E
49.631544, 8.359477
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Materials
Puvogel, Ulrike/Stankowski, Martin: Gedenkstätten für die Opfer des Nationalsozialismus. Eine Dokumentation, 2., überarb. und erw. Auflg., Band I, Bonn 1995, S. 695.
Gallery
