About International Roma Holocaust Remembrance Day

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Established by the European Union Parliament in April 2015, August 2 is International Roma Holocaust Remembrance Day. Previously it had been noted on December 16 each year. This day draws attention to the Roma survivors, who struggle with persecution and prejudice in many parts of Europe and America.

The Nazi Holocaust targeted various groups of people who the eugenics program designated poison to the race. Those targeted included one-quarter of the global Jewish population, over 75,000 mentally ill and disabled persons, people of color, 2.5 million Catholics and Poles, homosexuals, and the Romani. All those mentioned above were persecuted, interned, and killed. Romani, sometimes called Gypsies, Travelers, or Roma, like the Jewish population of Europe, lost 25% of their global population, amounting to 550,000 people. And yet, they are rarely mentioned.

The Roma were singled out beginning December 16, 1942, when Gestapo commander Heinrich Himmler ordered the relocation of all Romani in European countries to the “family camp” of Auschwitz. The Romani wore black triangles on their sleeves and were rounded up, starved, and executed, often digging their graves before being shot or gassed. With the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, more facts about the Romani Holocaust experience emerged. Researchers believe the actual number of Romani killed might be three times what they initially thought, around 1.5 million.

International Roma Holocaust Remembrance Day marks the anniversary of August 2, 1944, when 2,897 Romani, most of them children, elders, and women, were murdered in the “Gypsy camp” at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

More information at http://europeanromamovement.org/european-parliament-proposes-official-romani-holocaust-memorial-day.