Holocaust and the Struggle for Recognition

One main focus of our work is dedicated to the research and documentation of the Holocaust committed by Nazi Germany against the European Sinti and Roma. Entire families were disenfranchised, deported and murdered based on a racist ideology – solely because they were born Sinti and Roma. In total, more than 500,000 members of the minority from all over Europe fell victim to the targeted murder policy.

Through its work, the Documentation and Cultural Center aims to commemorate the fate of these victims and raise society’s awareness of the genocide of the Sinti and Roma as part of German history. Its goal is to expand more recent German history to include the long-neglected perspective of the German Sinti and Roma.

Hence, the Documentation Center continues a central concern of the civil rights work of Sinti and Roma, which aimed for an equal participation of Sinti and Roma in society as well as the recognition of the injustices inflicted on them. The civil rights movement drew attention to its goals primarily through high-profile campaigns such as a hunger strike in the former concentration camp Dachau in 1980.

Today, the Documentation Center helps to keep the memory of the Holocaust against the Sinti and Roma alive through publications and exhibitions. Furthermore, an important part of our work is composed of the complete clarification of the fate of people who were persecuted and murdered as Sinti and Roma during the Nazi era. In this context, we are available as a contact for relatives and descendants of victims and survivors of the Holocaust against Sinti and Roma.

We offer guided tours and various workshop formats for the exhibitions at the Documentation and Cultural Center of German Sinti and Roma, especially for our permanent exhibition in Heidelberg on the Nazi genocide of the Sinti and Roma. In-depth information is also provided by our online exhibition „Racial Diagnosis: Gypsy. The Nazi genocide of the Sinti and Roma and the long struggle for recognition”.