Germany inaugurates long-awaited Berlin memorial to the Nazis’ Gypsy victims

BERLIN – Germany is inaugurating a long-awaited memorial to the hundreds of thousands of Gypsies, or Roma, who were killed under Nazi rule.

Chancellor Angela Merkel opens the memorial Wednesday. Designed by Israeli artist Dani Karavan, the monument — a well surrounded by panels detailing the Nazis’ persecution of the minority — is located across the road from the Reichstag, Germany’s Parliament building.

It’s close to memorials to the Nazis’ Jewish and gay victims that have been inaugurated in recent years. Romani Rose, head of Germany’s Central Council of Sinti and Roma, says it makes clear that the killing of Gypsies during the Holocaust was “a genocide that had its own dimensions.”

It’s not clear exactly how many Gypsies were killed during the Holocaust. Estimates range from 220,000 to 500,000 or more.