Memorial to the Murdered Sinti and Roma of Europe – Route of the S21

The following is an ongoing documentation of the comments, quotes and actions on the route of the S21:

• June 3, 2020: The Press Office of the Senate Department for the Environment, Transport and Climate Protection After a top-level meeting lasting more than three hours on the evening of June 3 of this year, the S21 said: “The route for the S21 is to be chosen in such a way that the memorial to the Sinti and Roma of Europe murdered under National Socialism is protected to the maximum even during the construction work. Discussions between the parties are now taking place at a very early stage in order to reach a good friendly solution. These talks will continue at the end of June.”
  Director Uwe Neumärker emphasized: “The primary goal of all further negotiations on the route of the S21 must be to preserve the monument to the Sinti and Roma of Europe murdered under National Socialism by Dani Karavan, which the foundation has been looking after since 2012 out of deep conviction and with a legal mandate, in its entirety during the construction period.”
• 29 June 2020 : The press office of the Senate Department for the Environment, Transport and Climate Protection announced: “Last Friday, there was another intensive and constructive discussion on the topic. The parties agreed that a further review of the implications of the most important, technically possible variants of a route will be examined – and how the problems that arise in each case can be overcome. The aim remains to find a solution that protects the Memorial to the Sinti and Roma of Europe murdered in National Socialism. A follow-up meeting is planned after the summer break.”
• June 25, 2020: Dani Karavan, artist of the monument, said: “The Memorial to the Murdered Sinti and Roma of Europe in its entire extent must not be touched! A tram line can be moved, but not a work of art. Especially in the actual context of racist manifestations, any damage to the monument would be a violation of the Sinti-Roma. If someone dares to touch a part of the monument’s artistic ensemble, I will come personally and protect it with my body, sue the attacker and make an international scandal about it. The discussion about a possible exemption damages the dignity of the ensemble and must stop immediately.”
• 19 June 2020: A commentary by Romeo Franz, composer of the violin tone at the monument, can be found here.
• February 8, 2021: The petition of the Sinti-Roma-Pride #DASDENKMALBLEIBT! initiative is now supported with this video by RomaTrial e.V. supported.
  
• May 16, 2021: “Leave our monument untouched, so that our dead may find their eternal rest.” With these words, Zoni Weisz, who was the only member of his family to survive the genocide in the Netherlands at the age of seven, underlined his very personal point of view at the virtual conference “Resistance and Self-Assertion: Sinti and Roma in Europe – Yesterday and Today” organized by RomnoKher and the Monument Foundation on May 16, 2021. The current plans for the construction of the S-Bahn line S21 do not let the discussions about interventions in the monument stop. Sinti and Roma do not feel adequately listened to and involved. “The fact that this holy place for Roma and Sinti is threatened,” says Zoni Weisz, “and that the memory of our loved ones is smeared, is an indigestible matter for me.” For survivors, as well as for many second, third and fourth generation Roma and Sinti, the question of details is currently not in the foreground, but rather the fundamental discussion about it, as the mainly European voices of the event reflected.

  Uwe Neumärker, director of the Monument Foundation, called for “transparency and broad participation of self-organizations from Germany and Europe,” as well as “appropriate sensitivity and awareness of the unique nature and significance of the site.”

  “The way in which the monument is being talked about and informed in connection with the construction of the S21,” Neumärker continues, “is a fatal signal in two respects. This is a fatal signal for Sinti and Roma in Germany and beyond, but also a fatal signal in the direction of society as a whole. It means something when the monument becomes an urban manoeuvring mass. This raises the question of the seriousness of the confessions to take responsibility for the genocide and the special protection of Roma and Sinti and their concerns in the present day.«

  Gilda Horvath, journalist, human rights and civil rights activist from Vienna, stated in her contribution to the event: “It’s really a question of a society’s values. Are infrastructure buildings more important than history, rather than focusing on the healing of society? The memorial not only stands for the past, it also stands for our daily, necessary resistance in the present. It is a monument to our deceased ancestors, but at the same time it is a memorial to the conditions of the present. And now you’re just trying to drive over it. Today, our resistance consists in resisting being run over. Our grandparents and great-grandparents, who are no longer here today, they woke up at night, screaming, they trembled when they heard boots in the hallway and we grew up with them, we experienced that. The Nazis left deep, deep wounds on all of us. In this respect, there should be NO discussion about the memorial in Berlin, because the discourse itself is an insult to our common transgenerational healing.«

  Esther Reinhardt-Brendel, activist of the Roma Sinti Pride initiative, warned during the event: “The discussion must not be allowed to slip. We cannot be ignored. This has now gone so far that there is a discussion about whether the memorial is a substitute for the graves of our murdered people who do not have any. This is an individual question that each of us has to decide for ourselves. No one can and must not make this decision for me.” Click here for the detailed report of the event.
  

• June 15, 2021: Noa Karavans, The daughter of the creator of the Memorial to the Sinti and Roma of Europe Murdered under National Socialism, the recently deceased world-famous artist Dani Karavan, is clear during her visit to Berlin: “The memorial as a recognition of the Holocaust of the Sinti and Roma as well as a total work of art must be the focus of all considerations. It must not be compromised. The route of the S21 must be based on this.” Click here for the detailed report.
• October 12, 2023: The new Berlin government has been pushing ahead with the construction plans since late summer 2023. Open letter “Save the Berlin Memorial to the Murdered Sinti and Roma of Europe!” to Joe Chialo, Berlin Senator for Culture and Social Cohesion, and Manja Schreiner, Berlin Senator for Mobility, Transport, Climate Protection and the Environment
  https://www.stiftung-denkmal.de/aktuelles/offener-brief-rettet-das-berliner-denkmal-fuer-die-ermordeten-sinti-und-roma-europas/

• 19 December 2023: The creator of the Gesamtkunstwerk Dani Karavan, who died in 2021, his widow and daughters Noa and Tamar, the foundation and almost without exception all self-organisations of the Sinti and Roma continue to reject the planned measures, which also endanger the Brandenburg Gate. With the decision of the Berlin Senate on December 19, 2023, to implement the S21 tunnel in Tiergarten with the 12 h variant, DB will now first initiate a planning approval procedure. Construction of the S21 is scheduled to begin in 2027 and be completed in 2037. RomaTrial and other signatories of the open letter / petition, including Jana Mechelhoff-Herezi from the foundation, held a protest action at the Red City Hall on December 19, 2023.

• 27 May 2024: Public display and information on the planning approval procedure by the Federal Railway Authority, Berlin branch office, for the construction project “S 21 Nordringanbindung Hauptbahnhof – Potsdamer Platz, 2nd construction phase”, route: No.: 6017 from km 2.4+51 to km 2.6+00 or 3.1+82 in the Mitte district of Berlin: https://www.berlin-s21.de/planung-genehmigung.html
  Citizens and recognized associations affected by the planned construction project have the opportunity to submit written, reasoned objections and comments up to two weeks after the end of the public notice period on 26 June 2024.

• 4 July 2024: Objections of the Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe against the planning approval procedure S 21-Nordring Link – Memorial to the Sinti and Roma of Europe Murdered under National Socialism(PDF of the letter to the Federal Railway Authority) (PDF of the addendum to the objection)

• 22 July 2024: Protest letter against the construction project for the S 21-Nordring link, as envisaged in the planning documents published on May 27, 2024 (PDF of the protest letter with the list of signatories)

• 23 July 2024: Letter of protest demanding an alternative route that leaves the memorial site unscathed. Among the signatories are Hava Karavan, Wim Wenders, Wolfgang Benz, you can see more names here. (PDF protest letter with a list of other signatories)