On the occasion of the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of National Socialism and the 81st anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau on 27 January 1945, commemorative events were held on 27 and 28 January 2026 at the memorials maintained by the Foundation to remember the victims of National Socialism.
On 27 January, Minister of State for Culture and Media Wolfram Weimer, together with the director of the Memorial Foundation, Uwe Neumärker, commemorated the victims of Nazi crimes and the Holocaust at the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, the Memorial to the Homosexuals Persecuted under National Socialism, the Memorial to the Sinti and Roma of Europe Murdered under National Socialism, and the Memorial and Information Centre for the Victims of Nazi ‘Euthanasia’ Murders.
On 28 January 2026 at 11 a.m., Federal Disability Commissioner Jürgen Dusel invited guests to the Memorial and Information Centre for the Victims of Nazi ‘Euthanasia’ Murders to commemorate the children, women and men with disabilities and mental illnesses who were murdered and forcibly sterilised by the Nazis. This year’s event was accompanied by Jeremi Zschocke on the violoncello. The musician, who has Down syndrome, played in a duo with his brother, the violist Silas Zschocke.
The Documentation and Cultural Centre of German Sinti and Roma, the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma and the Memorial Foundation invited guests to gather at the Memorial to the Sinti and Roma Murdered under National Socialism at 2 p.m. on 28 January 2026 to commemorate the 500,000 Sinti and Roma murdered in Europe and all other victims of National Socialism. After a welcome address by Dotschy Reinhardt, Deputy Chair of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma, and Uwe Neumärker, Director of the Monument Foundation, Michael Brand, the Federal Government Commissioner for Antiziganism, addressed the guests. This was followed by a speech by survivor Dieter Flack. He belongs to the Sinti minority. His relatives were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau in May 1943 and murdered there.
On 28 January 2026 at 3 p.m., the Berlin-Brandenburg regional association and the LSVD+ federal association, together with the Memorial Foundation, invited guests to a silent commemoration with a wreath-laying ceremony at the memorial for homosexuals persecuted under National Socialism in Berlin’s Tiergarten park. Ulrich Keßler, board member of the Queere Vielfalt Berlin-Brandenburg association, and Alva Trabert, federal board member of the LSVD+, accompanied the commemoration with speeches. Flowers and wreaths were laid at the memorial.
