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From 1933 to 1945, when the dictator Adolf Hitler ruled Germany, terrible crimes were committed. Hitler’s opponents were ruthlessly persecuted, and around 6 million Jews were murdered. Hitler and the Nazis also targeted people they called “Gypsies”. They usually called themselves Sinti and Roma, though some also called themselves Lalleri, Lowara or Manusch. Many belonged to the “travelling people”: they travelled around as traders, fairground entertainers or circus performers, had no permanent home and had been outsiders in European countries for centuries.

From 1935, they were classified in Germany as an "alien race". From 1939, Sinti and Roma were imprisoned in concentration camps. There, they were forced to work and wear prisoners' uniforms, as well as an armband bearing a large "Z". The Nazis' aim was to exterminate and destroy the "Gypsies".

During the war, Sinti and Roma were persecuted in every country occupied by German soldiers. In the Soviet Union, thousands of Sinti and Roma were shot. Later, many members of these peoples were killed in gas vans and gas chambers. It is estimated that by 1945, as many as 500,000 Sinti and Roma had been murdered or had died from hunger and exhaustion.

Since 2012, a memorial to these people has stood in Tiergarten City Park in Berlin. It was created by artist Dani Karavan and consists of a fountain with a retractable stone, on which a fresh flower is placed every day. Several information panels describe the persecution and mass murder of this minority.