The Documentation and Cultural Centre of German Sinti and Roma

The Documentation and Cultural Centre of German Sinti and Roma was set up in 1990 in a building in the old part of Heidelberg that had been purchased with the support of the federal government. After several years of renovation and extension work, the Centre, which holds the world's first permanent exhibition about the holocaust against this minority, was opened to the public in March 1997.

One of the central roles of the institution is to document the more than 600 years of history of the Sinti and Roma in Germany. A particular emphasis has been laid on the national socialist crime of genocide which for decades was kept hidden from the public consciousness. From the very beginning, priority was given to interviews with survivors of the holocaust and the recording of their memories on audio or video tape. In additional to extensive archive research in Germany and elsewhere, staff of the Centre systematically collect testimonies of survivors and their relatives; old family photographs are of particular interest. The archive that now exists is the only one of its kind.

Another important role of the Centre consists in illustrating the cultural contributions which the Sinti and Roma minority has made in the fields of literature, the plastic arts and music, among others, and to help to correct stereotypes in these areas. Scientific conferences and seminars in co-operation with experts from Germany and abroad are held to this end.

The results of the work of the Centre are made accessible to a wider public through the Centre's own series of publications and in film projects.