16.07.2014 “Memories of Holocaust victims are lost with the graves”

Stoll (2014) and the SWR (2014) report on the expiry of the concessions of graves of Holocaust survivors. The graves of Rroma who survived the Nazi genocide are more than just resting places to the members of the minority. They are also memorials to the victims of National Socialism and thus have an historical value. Approximately 3,500 tombs are affected. Romani Rose calls for conversion of the tombs of Holocaust survivors to honour-graves with eternal resting right. It is significant that the Jewish cemeteries were granted this status a long time ago, whereas the Rroma have been denied this expression of respect until now: “The chairman of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma, Romani Rose, has urged the federal and state governments on Monday to do more for the tombs of Sinti and Roma. The graves are also places of memory to the victims of the Holocaust, he said in Heidelberg. […] “If the graves are eliminated, then the families also lose the memory to a part of their biography and to the people who have fallen victim to an unique racist crime”, says Romani Rose […]. He goes even further: he states that the sites are also “learning sites” for the population: through them, one conceive what was once possible in Germany and what appears inconceivable today” (SWR 2014). The Rroma Holocaust was only recognized in 1982 by the chancellor Helmut Schmidt. This only happened after massive protests by Rroma in Germany, who did not want to tolerate the continuing discrimination against them in the post-war period any longer. Rose emphasizes that the survivors’ graves are also places of remembrance for the rest of the family members who did not return from the concentration camps. He appeals to the policymakers that one finally recognises the graves as eternal resting places.