Representatives from Roma organisations have held commemorative ceremonies for their communities’ Holocaust victims. Wreaths were laid for the first time at Germany’s Central Memorial, the Neue Wache on Unter den Linden. Prior to this, historians held a talk in the Centre for South-East European Culture, discussing the history of genocide against Roma, who call themselves Sinti within Germany. On December 16th 1942, the leader of the Nazi SS, Heinrich Himmler issued orders to have Sinti transported to conce ntration camps. In the time leading up to this, members of this ethnic group had suffered discrimination as ‘‘Gypsies’’, including imprisonment and deportation. At least 17,000 Sinti were murdered in Auschwitz alone. Historians estimate that approximately half a million Roma fell victim to national socialism’s race-obsessed fanaticism.