Berlin-Marzahn concentration camp

Between 1936 and 1943, the Nazi leadership operated a forced-labor camp in Berlin-Marzahn that was officially called a "rest area." The site was used to intern people the authorities classified as Sinti and Roma, in order to control them spatially, select them according to racist criteria, and exploit them for forced labor. The first arrests took place in July 1936 during a large-scale operation in which more than 600 people were detained and taken to the camp. In the years that followed, around 1,200 people in total were held at the facility, though the exact number of those affected is difficult to determine because of incomplete records.

The camp was set up on the grounds of a former sewage field near the Marzahn cemetery, a location that was hardly suitable for permanent habitation. Prisoners were housed in old Reich Labor Service barracks and in caravans, which led to catastrophic sanitary conditions. Only a few toilets and water points were available, while the schools on the grounds were severely overcrowded. As the persecution intensified from 1937 onward, many men were deported to concentration camps, so the camp was home mainly to women, children, and elderly people. From the start of the war, the prisoners were increasingly used as forced laborers in Berlin's industry. The camp was dissolved in March 1943, when the remaining residents were deported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp.

Today, a memorial stone in Parkfriedhof Marzahn, dedicated in 1986, commemorates this site of persecution. Since then, annual remembrance events have been held, organized by local initiatives and the state association of Sinti and Roma. In 2011, a place of remembrance and information was also opened, which documents the history of the camp and the fate of the people interned there on several display panels. A nearby square is named after Otto Rosenberg, one of the survivors. Today the memorial site is also used for educational work, helping to continue the historical reckoning with the persecution of the Roma and Sinti in the region.