Notes from the Designer

While working on the design for the gate I became more aware of many histories that remain lesser known within wider public awareness. Within these notes, I wish to acknowledge and honour them, so that we can all grow and deepen our understanding.

This acknowledgement is in no way intended to diminish the Jewish experience of the Holocaust and the immense suffering endured. Instead, I seek to highlight the full scale and true cost of systemic hatred, persecution, and state-sanctioned violence.

Some histories of persecution during the Holocaust remain less widely understood within broader public consciousness, including the experiences of Roma and Sinti people, disabled people, homosexual men, political prisoners, and others targeted under Nazi ideology.

As recently as 2012, Berlin formally expanded its landscape of public remembrance with the opening of the Memorial to the Sinti and Roma Victims of National Socialism. Designed by Israeli artist Dani Karavan, the memorial acknowledges the genocide of Roma and Sinti people during the Holocaust, often referred to as the Porajmos or Samudaripen. Its quiet and contemplative design reflects the importance of recognising these interwoven histories of persecution, loss, and survival.

A poem by Italian Roma poet Santino Spinelli is engraved at the site. It reads,

Sunken in face
extinguished eyes
cold lips
silence
a torn heart
without breath
without words
no tears.

Devastatingly, this persecution led to ongoing discrimination, social exclusion, racism, and institutional neglect. Due to a lack of broader understanding surrounding the impact and toll it took upon their culture, many Roma and Sinti communities are still carrying the weight of this history today.

Historians estimate that between 220,000 and 500,000 Roma and Sinti people were murdered during the Holocaust, alongside approximately 200,000 disabled people through the Nazi euthanasia program, up to 15,000 homosexual men, thousands of Jehovah’s Witnesses, approximately three million Soviet prisoners of war, millions of non-Jewish Polish civilians, political prisoners, dissidents, and many others targeted under Nazi ideology.

We are still yet to fully hear many of their voices and stories.

For further reading….

World War II claimed the lives of an estimated 70–85 million people globally, including approximately 21–25 million military personnel. The scale of this loss continues to shape collective memory, historical understanding, and the importance of remembrance today.

In remembering the past, spaces such as the Holocaust Memorial Garden encourage ongoing reflection around empathy, human dignity, and our collective responsibility toward one another,  both now and for future generations.

Now more than at any other point in recent history, we need to remember the consequences of war. War does not exist within an allotted timeframe, and people do not recover instantly. Instead, it takes generations to heal from the devastation, trauma, displacement, and grief left behind.

Compassion for our fellow human beings is the only way forward. It is through empathy, understanding, and solidarity that we begin to shift collective consciousness away from violence and division. 

Our strength resides in our shared humanity, not in separation.