“We share a commitment to throw light on the still obscured shadows of the Holocaust.”
-- Declaration of the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust
International Roma Day
06.04.2016
International Roma Day on April 8 is an annual opportunity to celebrate the Romani culture. It is also a time to reflect on the discrimination and challenges millions of Roma continue to face in their daily lives in areas including education, employment, housing, healthcare and policing.
The European Roma Rights Centre recalls that, to date, Roma remain the most deprived ethnic group of Europe. Across Europe, the fundamental rights of Roma are still being violated on a regular basis. Repetitious cases of racist violence and hate speech targeting Roma are reported frequently.
European Roma and Sinti were targeted for extermination under the Nazi regime and at least 200,000 people were killed in concentration camps between 1939 and 1945. It is impossible to say exactly how many Roma and Sinti were murdered. However, it is estimated that about a quarter of the European population died during the Porrajmos.
The IHRA Committee on the Genocide of the Roma aims to raise awareness about the genocide of the Roma under National Socialism, to increase the commitment of the IHRA to educate, research and remember the genocide of the Roma and to include this genocide into school curricula.
In October 2015 the Committee published an annotated bibliography on materials related to the genocide of the Roma, with more than 1400 titles, and an overview of international organizations working on historical and contemporary issues connected to the genocide of the Roma.
The IHRA also co-funded the website www.romasintigenocide.eu which constitutes the first comprehensive online teaching resource in Europe which focuses exclusively on the genocide of the Roma. The website provides extensive background information for 13 countries, selected biographies of victims of persecution, and 70 worksheets on camps and special aspects of the genocide of the Roma.
On 6 April, the IHRA Chair, Ambassador Mihnea Constantinescu, spoke at the Forgotten Voices conference which is organized by the European Roma and Travelers’ Forum. The conference is co-financed by the IHRA.
Image: Elina Machálková singing at a commemoration event, Hodonín u Kunštátu, 2009. Credit: L. Grossmannová. Museum of Romani Culture.