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Sean Gallup / Getty Images
Messina Weiss, 12 and great grand-daughter of Holocaust survivor Gertrud Rocher, carries a flower past the memorial to the Sinti and Roma in Berlin, Germany, on Wednesday.
Germany remembered the Holocaust's forgotten victims on Wednesday by opening a memorial in the heart of Berlin to the 500,000 ethnic Sinti and Roma murdered by the Nazis.
As the mournful strains of a solo violin sounded through the trees, political leaders and frail survivors approached a dark pool close to the German parliament building.
Its still water is intended to evoke tears for the dead but also, in reflecting the beholder, inspire new generations to protect minorities from hate.
"This memorial commemorates a group of victims who, for far too long, received far too little public recognition — the many hundreds of thousands of Sinti and Roma who were persecuted by the Nazis as so-called gypsies," said German Chancellor Angela Merkel. "The destiny of every single person murdered in this genocide is one of unspeakable suffering. Every single destiny, fills us, fills me, with sadness and shame."
The memorial was designed by the Israeli artist Dani Karavan, the BBC reported, and a chronology of the Nazis' extermination campaign appears next to the memorial. A fresh flower will be placed on the triangular surface at the center of the reflecting pool every day, the BBC said.
Discrimination against Sinti and Roma increased at alarming levels once Adolf Hitler took power in 1933. They were sent to forced labor camps and, from 1934, subjected to forced sterilization as a result of the Nazis' "racial purity" laws.
Thomas Peter / Reuters
People lay flowers during the dedication of the memorial to the Sinti and Roma in Berlin, Germany, on Wednesday.
By the start of World War II, the Nazis' genocidal intent became clear as Sinti and Roma were deported to death camps, where they wore uniforms bearing a "Z" for "Zigeuner" (the German word for "gypsy").
The first time a German leader recognized Nazi persecution of the Roma on racist grounds was in 1982, more than 30 years after West Germany acknowledged the murder of 6 million Jews and began to pay compensation to Israel.
Discrimination today
German politicians and Roma leaders at the opening ceremony described the memorial as a reminder of the urgent need to protect minorities today.
Many of Europe's 12 million Roma face discrimination and social exclusion, often living in dire poverty.
"Half a million Sinti and Roma, men, women and children, were murdered during the Holocaust. Society has learned nothing, next to nothing from this, otherwise they would treat us differently," said Dutch Sinto survivor Zoni Weisz.
His voice faltered as he described how, as a seven-year-old, he watched his father, mother, sisters and brother being deported in a train to Auschwitz concentration camp.
Merkel stressed it was a German and European duty to protect Roma rights. After her speech, a heckler highlighted that Germany refuses to grant asylum to Roma from countries such as Serbia and Macedonia, where they face discrimination.
Romani Rose, leader of the Central Council of Sinti and Roma in Germany, also attended the ceremony.
"Opening the memorial sends an important message to society that anti-Roma sentiment is as unacceptable as anti-Semitism," he told AFP.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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Leave a Comment:
I hope she didn't get her pocket picked.
Your comment is disgusting, besides racist and out of place.
Simon Wiesenthal documented and spoke for European Roma at the very same time as he was speaking for all the other victims of Nazi persecution and Holocaust. So the world has known this since the end of the Third Reich and Nuremberg Military Tribunals. The Roma were especially selected by Dr.Mengele for their Zwillinge (twins)- their hereditary TB that was eminent in the spleen and other diseases. Roma owned properties,personal assets -but the Rassenwissenscahft of the Nazis doomed them as it doomed Jews. Shame on you GTR5 (General Transitional Refusenik fived times ignoramus).
Germany has demonstrated a true remorse and regret over the death of jews, roma and gypsies in the holocaust. Momuments are established in memory of the dead and Chancellor Willy Brandt knelt down at the monument to victims. Germany formally apolized and paid compensations to the victims and make into law it is an offense to deny the holocuast.
In contrast, there is no momument of any sort in Japan to the victims of Japanese brutal aggression in WWII, where in China alone 24 millions were killed. Instead politicians continues to pay tribute to the top war criminals in the Yasakuni shrine as recently as last week. Japan pays no compensation to her victims including Korean and Chinese comfort women. Japan denies the Nanjing Masscre ever took place and whitewashes their past crime by distorting the historical fact in the school text books.