Bärbel Bas

Commemoration speech on the occasion of 2 August 2024, Holocaust Memorial Day for Sinti and Roma

Ms Klasing,  

Mr Rumanowski,   

I found your speeches deeply moving.  

Germany inflicted terrible suffering on you and your families. You were forced to go through hell. I am extremely grateful that you are here today!  

Mr Rose,   

You asked me to speak today.  

Here, in Auschwitz.  

This place which is so closely linked to the suffering of your family.    

And with the suffering of the Sinti and  Roma from across Europe.    

Your invitation to this Memorial Day is an expression of great trust.  

It means a lot to me.   

Yesterday, I was given a tour through the former camp.  

I am pained and ashamed to see what crimes Germans committed here.    

Mr Kwiatkowski, Ms Kidawa-Błońska, Mr Rousopoulos, Ms Schwesig, Ms Roth, Mr Dayan, Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen!   

Are there words to describe the suffering linked with this place?   

The Italian Rom Santino Spinelli managed to find words to describe the unspeakable:    

His poem, ‘Auschwitz’ forms part of the Memorial to the Sinti and Roma Victims of National Socialism.   

This memorial is within sight of the German Bundestag.   

I quote: 

Pallid face

dead eyes

cold lips

silence

a broken heart

without breath

without words

no tears.  

Auschwitz is synonymous with the greatest crime ever committed by humans against humans.   

It is synonymous with the break with civilisation unleashed by Germany.   

With the will to annihilate European Jewry.   

With the genocide of the Sinti and Roma.  

Here in Auschwitz, the racial fanaticism of the Nazis culminated in the savage wiping out of human lives.  

The intention was to eradicate all Jews, all Sintize and Sinti, all Romnja and Roma.  

Ladies and Gentlemen,   

Here, on this spot, stood the camp for Sinti and Roma.  

Eighty years ago today, all the camp’s inmates were murdered.   

In the course of only one night, the Nazis forced up to 4300 children, women and men into the gas chambers.   

Yet the Sinti and Roma fought back. Eyewitnesses from other groups of inmates described intense struggles. Both women and men resisted fiercely when they were dragged out of their barracks. Cries could be heard until nightfall.   

Whilst the Sinti and Roma were fighting for their lives in Auschwitz, the Polish Home Army was engaging in resistance in Warsaw.   

This is also something which we remember particularly at this time, against the background of the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising.   

There is too little awareness in Germany that Poles from all sections of society resisted the German regime of occupation – in everyday life, in partisan warfare, in the Polish Underground State.   

Auschwitz is inextricably linked with the German war of annihilation, which began with the invasion of Poland.  

Tens of thousands of Poles were killed here.  

Along with thousands of prisoners of war from other European countries.   

People who did not fit in with the Nazis’ world view for other reasons were also interned, tortured and killed. Whether because of their beliefs or religion, their way of life or their sexuality.  

Ladies and Gentlemen,   

Never before has a President of the Bundestag visited Auschwitz.  

Today, I speak to you as representative of the parliament which stands for Germany’s new democratic beginning.   

The end of National Socialism was not a “zero hour”.  

Though the Germans at the time wanted to believe it was.  

And indeed sometimes still believe this today.   

The racism did not simply disappear from people’s minds.   

The suffering of the Sinti and Roma was not recognised after the war.  

Courts refused the survivors compensation.  

Even worse, they blamed the victims for their persecution.  

The genocide of the Sinti and Roma was cloaked in silence and denied.  

Hardly any of the perpetrators were held accountable.  

Quite the opposite: the survivors encountered their persecutors at state agencies and authorities. The discrimination continued.   

It is a bitter realisation:   

Even in the democracy created, the injustice committed was shrouded in silence and memories of it suppressed for a long time.  

Nevertheless, in this democracy it was possible to fight against the suppression and silencing of memories of these crimes.   

The Sinti and Roma survivors, together with their children and grandchildren, took up this fight.  

They broke the silence and confronted Germany with its crimes.    

And they have insisted on equal treatment.  

Mr Rose,    

You and your family were – and still are – an important part of the Sinti and Roma civil-rights movement.  

You have done great service to democracy and the culture of remembrance in Germany.   

Today, the suffering of the Sinti and Roma has a firm place in Germany’s public remembrance.  

At the heart of Berlin, a monument recalls the genocide. Each day, it receives many visitors.  

On the annual day commemorating the liberation of Auschwitz, the German Bundestag always includes in its remembrance the persecuted and murdered Sinti and Roma.   

In 2011, Zoni Weisz speaking at the Ceremony of Remembrance for the Victims of National Socialism, recounted to us as Members of the Bundestag the fate suffered by his family.  

I was deeply moved by his speech.  

Ladies and Gentlemen,    

The Federal Republic of Germany recognises its historical responsibility.    

This also encompasses a commitment to resolutely combat antigypsyism.   

ate last year, the German Bundestag – with a broad parliamentary majority – called on the Federal Government to establish a commission to address the injustice committed against Sinti and Roma.  

This was a strong signal of determination.   

Even now, awareness within society of the genocide of the Sinti and Roma is not something which can be taken for granted.   

 Hostile attitudes towards Sinti and Roma, and discrimination against them, are still widespread.   

  Landlords and landladies discriminate against them as prospective tenants, companies discriminate against them as prospective employees. This is unacceptable!  

  The state also sometimes fails to live up to its historical responsibility.   

Officials in public administrations often mistrust Sinti and Roma.  

Security personnel carry out checks on Sinti and Roma more frequently, even in the absence of any grounds for suspicion.  

And teachers are often convinced that Sinti and Rom children will not perform well at school.  

A change of mindset is needed in many areas of society.    

No more seeking scapegoats!  

No more demeaning and excluding!   

We need respect and acceptance.  

Democracy safeguards protection of minorities.  

In order for democracy to thrive, all citizens must enjoy the same rights.  

With no ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’.  

Ladies and Gentlemen,    

Millions of Germans followed Hitler – many of them as enthusiastic supporters, the majority more or less willingly.  

  How could they look the other way as their neighbours were collected from their homes and deported?   How could they become enthused by anti-Semitism, antigypsyism and racism?   

How could Auschwitz happen?   

  These questions remain relevant today.  

Even today, there are forces seeking to divide our societies – into “Us” and “Them”.   

  Forces inciting hatred.  

Of Sinti and Roma. Of Jews.  

Hatred of all those who are, or are claimed to be, different.  

If today we want to ‘resist the beginnings’, we must understand these ‘beginnings’:  

At that time, too, it was a longing for simple solutions.  

A contempt for democracy.  

People’s belief that exclusion of others did not affect them personally.   

There is one thing we prefer to push to the back of our minds, but must never forget: It was humans who enabled and translated into action this unmitigated evil.  

This is something that should shake us to the core.  

And serve as a warning.  

A warning and admonition for the entire world.