Project Details
Projekt
Edition on the Nazi Genocide of the Sinti and Roma in Europe
Subject Area
Modern and Contemporary History
Term
since 2025
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 559438398
From 2026 to 2034, Heidelberg University and the Free University of Berlin are to realise the Digital Edition on the Nazi Genocide of the Sinti and Roma in Europe (VSR). The long-term project aims to publish a total corpus of 1,200 sources in German and English. As the first edition on the persecution and murder of the Sinti and Roma in Europe which took place between 1933 and 1945, the VSR aims to reconstruct all the main processes of persecution ranging from racist stigmatisation to murder in the extermination camps. Geographically, the Edition covers all countries in which Sinti and Roma were persecuted, be it states under German rule or states allied with Germany, but it also includes neutral states and the Western Allies. As a standard reference, the VSR will for the first time contain all documents from the administrative and persecution apparatus that bear relevance to the various offence complexes of the genocide. These texts will be consistently framed with sources from the perspective of the victims in order to highlight the individuality and agency of the latter and to provide a contrast to the antigypsyist narratives imposed by the perpetrators. The VSR is intended to provide a variety of impulses for further research and be a significant starting point for new projects. As a curated archive, it serves the long-term preservation and provision of cultural heritage deemed of great scientific and social significance. The content of the VSR will be based on the Digital Encyclopaedia of the Nazi Genocide of Sinti and Roma in Europe, which is being developed at the Research Centre on Antigypsyism at Heidelberg University’s Department of History since July 2020 and represents an essential preliminary work for the planned edition. The materials collected in the encyclopaedia will serve to contextualise the historical sources and common indexes of persons, places and subjects will be usable across all applications. The scholars behind this long-term project include Prof. Dr Tanja Penter (Chair of Eastern European History, Department of History at Heidelberg University), Dr Karola Fings (Research Centre on Antigypsyism, Department of History at Heidelberg University), Dr Brigitte Grote (Free University of Berlin) and Dr Frank Reuter (Research Centre on Antigypsyism, Department of History at Heidelberg University). The applicants will lead the project together with Prof. Dr Katja Patzel-Mattern (Department of History at Heidelberg University). An international scientific board will act in an advisory capacity, and a large network of experts from 25 countries will also be involved.
DFG Programme
Research Grants
Co-Investigator
Professorin Dr. Katja Patzel-Mattern
