« Exhibitions

45 years of Civil Rights Movement

Historical black-and-white photo of a demonstration. In the foreground, participants of the demonstration stand with their backs to the camera, some holding up banners. In the center, Romani Rose stands at a raised lectern. The Brandenburg Gate in Berlin can be seen in the background.
Memorial ceremony at the Brandenburg Gate in September 1992 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Nazi decision to exterminate through labor (Photo: Documentation and Cultural Center of German Sinti and Roma)

Lending the Exhibition

Contact
Documentation and Cultural Center of German Sinti and Roma
Phone: +49 6221 981102
Mail

Download Catalogues

45 Years of Civil Rights Work (PDF, not barrier-free)Herunterladen

In addition to the history of persecution of the Sinti and Roma during the Nazi era, the civil rights movement of the German Sinti and Roma plays an increasingly important role in the center’s exhibitions.

The exhibition ‘45 Years of Civil Rights Work by German Sinti and Roma’, conceived in 2016, shows the milestones of civil rights work from the founding of the Sinti Association, then called the ‘Central Committee of the Sinti of West Germany’, in 1971 to the work of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma today. Photographs from five decades direct the viewer’s attention to well-known and lesser-known civil rights actions.

After 1945, the racist thought patterns of the National Socialism lived on largely uninterrupted in state institutions such as the police and judiciary. Compensation for the persecution of the minority during the Nazi era was repeatedly prevented and trials against the Nazi perpetrators were dismissed rather quickly. The genocide of the Sinti and Roma was systematically denied.

Throughout Europe, persistent Antigypsyism prevented a proper process of coming to terms with the genocide of the Sinti and Roma for a long time. Organizations of the minority throughout Europe have achieved a lot since then: the recognition of the Holocaust of Sinti and Roma, the establishment of dignified memorial sites and a growing awareness of the deeply rooted prejudices against Sinti and Roma in European history.