August 02– International Day of Remembrance of the Roma Genocide Victims

On the night of August 2-3, 1944, in the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, the Nazis killed about three thousand Roma prisoners in gas chambers – the last ones from the so-called “Gypsy camp”. Only after more than fifty years, in November 1996, the leaders of Roma organisations from 10 European countries and the USA adopted a Proclamation. They established the International Day of Remembrance of the Nazi Genocide of the Roma. In Ukraine at the state level, this commemorative date has been celebrated since 2004, following the Resolution of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine No. 2085-IV “On the marking of the International Day of the Genocide of Roma”.

Roma, like Jews, were subject to complete extermination in Nazi Germany. The genocide against them continued from 1935 to 1945. According to historians’ estimates, as a result of this extermination, 500,000 to 1,500,000 representatives of this people died in Europe.

About 140 places of mass executions of Roma by the Nazis have been documented in Ukraine. In one of them – Babyn Yar – in September 2016, a memorial monument was installed – a Roma tent riddled with machine gun fire. “Babyn Yar is a horror for Gypsies. They died without even knowing what they were being killed for,” emphasises Roma writer Rani Romani (Raisa Nabaranchuk), whose grandmother also died here.

The Nazi genocide of the Roma is a reminder to the world of the terrible consequences that national hatred and discrimination can lead to. On the day of remembrance of this past crime, it is crucial to emphasise again that human life is of the highest value, and human rights require unquestionable observance. Disrespecting and neglecting them leads to the gravest crimes.