Dear All,
the Memorial to the Sinti
and Roma Victims of National Socialism in Berlin is in danger. There have been
protests for a few weeks now. We would like to expand these protests - together
with you!
Therefore we call on you - initiatives, organizations, cultural institutions, and individuals - to sign our appeal. Please write to us by Sunday, July 5, 2020, by mail@bundesromaverband.de to sign our statement. Please tell us exactly what your names and titles are, with which you want to be included. And please invite other people and organizations to sign.
The Memorial remains! By any means necessary
The central
"Memorial to the Sinti and Roma Victims of National Socialism" is
threatened by plans of the Deutsche Bahn (German railway company). A line of
the Berlin S-Bahn is to be built under the memorial. The memorial is to be
(partially) removed and will not be accessible for many years. For more than 60
years, Roma and Sinti had to fight for this memorial and the recognition of
their suffering associated with it.
There are currently
negotiations about alternative railway lines - but it is not certain how these
discussions will end. We therefore think it is important to fight to ensure
that the memorial remains in its existing form and is not touched in any way.
The Deutsche Bahn must change their plans. None of the area around the memorial
must be touched. There are fewer and fewer survivors of the Holocaust. That is
why it is all the more important that the memorial remains, not to be touched
now or in the future.
All Roma and Sinti living
today are descendants of the persecuted, children and grandchildren of the
survivors. Many of our people have no grave. They were gassed in death camps,
shot in forests, buried in mass graves. Our memorial in Berlin is the place
where we mourn the dead without graves.
But it is not only a
place of mourning for the bereaved. It is also a place of admonition. A place
of never again. So the memorial fulfills an important function for the majority.
We cannot forget the genocide of our people. The majority population can if
they know about the genocide of Roma and Sinti at all. A memorial is a place
where the majority can learn from history. That is why the majority also has a
responsibility to fight for the memorial.
The Reichsbahn deported
forced laborers to Germany, without whom the economy and war would not have
been maintained. It has earned millions by transporting people to the labor and
death camps. The fact that it is their successor, the Deutsche Bahn, who will
destroy our monument is an intolerable disrespect for the few survivors who are
still there, and for all our people.
The persecution of Roma
is not only part of history. It is also part of the present. Racism,
discrimination and violence are part of our daily lives. In Germany, in Europe,
in the world.
The defense that is
directed against us, both in the defense against migration and in historically
grown structural racist processes - it seems worse the less support and
perception we have. That is why the discussions about the memorial are like an
attack.
For years we have been
speaking out against empty commemoration and cold forgetting. We must continue
to fight for the interruption of the continuing history.
We organized a
demonstration in Berlin under the motto: Protect the memorial for the Sinti and
Roma of Europe. We continue to organize protests, rallies, demonstrations,
commemorations until the memorial is safe.
Dani Karavan, the artist
who designed the memorial, has announced that he will protect it with his body
if necessary. He is now 89 years old. We take this as a mission and we call
you: Out of respect for the up to 1.5 million Roma and Sinti murdered in
Europe! Show your solidarity, take part and fight with us for the memorial - no
matter where no matter how - by any means necessary!
The Memorial remains as
it is!
First signatories:
Bundes Roma Verband e.V.
Associations,
organizations and individuals who wish to sign can write to
More information:
www.bundesromaverband.de