15:00 CEST: Rally at the Memorial to the Murdered Sinti and Roma of Europe (Simsonweg, 10557 Berlin, S + U Brandenburger Tor), followed by a parade to the Berlin Ministry for the Environment, Transport and Climate Protection (Am Köllnischen Park 3, 10179 Berlin)

In 1971, activists fought for the recognition of the genocide against Romani people of Europe. However, it was not until 2012 that the respective memorial was inaugurated as an expression of Germany’s responsibility for the genocide. “Now our dead also have a home,” said Auschwitz survivor Reinhard Florian, at the monument’s inauguration, standing in front of the dark well shell. 

In 2021 we must fight to keep this place untouched! In the eyes of the Berlin government, the German Parliament and the German Railways – the successor organisation of the Reichsbahn, which made money out of transports to the concentration camps – the memorial is now up for debate and is in danger to make way for the construction of a suburban city train line. 

Instead of acknowledging the Europe-wide significance of this site and guaranteeing its complete preservation, the transport minister is conducting negotiations without the public present, and the German Parliament is rejecting a route that is safe for the Memorial because the noise could be too much of a nuisance for the politicians and their employees.

This reckless and non-transparent attitude of the key institutions of the German state is scandalous! Therefore, together with many other initiatives that are also fighting for a diverse, just culture of remembrance, we call for a parade from the Memorial to the Murdered Sinti and Roma of Europe to the Berlin Ministry for the Environment, Transport and Climate Protection.

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