The Memorial to the Sinti and Roma Victims of National Socialism is dedicated to the memory of the 220,000 – 500,000 people murdered in the Porajmos – the Nazi genocide of the European Sinti and Roma peoples. The memorial is on Simsonweg in the Tiergarten in Berlin, south of the Reichstag and near the Brandenburg Gate. The memorial was designed by the Israeli artist Dani Karavan and consists of a dark, circular pool of water at the center of which there is a triangular stone. The triangular shape of the stone is in reference to the badges that had to be worn by concentration camp prisoners. The stone is retractable and a fresh flower is placed upon it daily. In bronze letters around the edge of the pool is the poem ‘Auschwitz’ by Roma poet Santino Spinelli: Gaunt face / dead eyes / cold lips / quiet / a broken heart / out of breath / without words / no tears. Information boards surround the memorial and provide a chronology of the genocide of the Sinti and Roma. It was dedicated in 2012.
Monday’s Monument: Memorial to the Sinti and Roma Victims of National Socialism, Berlin, Germany
