European Holocaust Memorial Day for Sinti and Roma

On 2 August, we commemorate the last 4,300 Sinti and Roma in the German Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, who were murdered by the SS on that night in 1944 despite their fierce resistance. In memory of all 500,000 Sinti and Roma murdered in Nazi-occupied Europe, the European Parliament declared this date the European Holocaust Memorial Day for Sinti and Roma in 2015.

81st anniversary of 2 August in 2025

Invitation to the international commemoration

The official commemoration ceremony in memory of the 500,000 Sinti and Roma murdered in Nazi-occupied Europe will begin on Saturday, August 2, 2025, at 12 noon in Section B II e of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Site and will end after the laying of wreaths at the Memorial to the Sinti and Roma at 1:45 p.m.

Livestream

The livestream of the international commemoration of the European Holocaust Memorial Day for Roma and Sinti taking place on 2 August 2025 at the Roma and Sinti memorial in the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum will be available on this website.

Press contact

For press inquiries, please find the contacts here: https://zentralrat.sintiundroma.de/81-jahrestag-am-2-august-2025-europaeischer-holocaust-gedenktag-fuer-sinti-und-roma/

Information for Press and Media

Further information here: https://www.roma-sinti-holocaust-memorial-day.eu/press/

How to participate in the 80th anniversary of 2 August, European Holocaust Memorial Day for Roma and Sinti?

Information for individuals and groups on how to participate

Presse und Medien

80th anniversary in 2024

Program 2024

Commemoration 2024

2 August 2024 – European Holocaust Memorial Day for Roma and Sinti

O Lungo Drom (The Long Road) ~ An Oratorio on the Sinti and Roma People ~

1 August 2024 – Krakow Philharmonic Hall

International Conference

“My testimony is for young people”
Passing on Memory for the Future
of Holocaust Remembrance and Education

31st of July – 1st of August 2024

Opening event

31 July 2024 – Auditorium Maximum of Jagiellonian University, Kraków

Exhibition: Raymond Gurême – A path of memory and resistance

31 July – 1 August 2024 – Auditorium Maximum of Jagiellonian University, Kraków

Exhibition: Roma Heroes of Resistance – Emanuel Barica + live performance

31 July – 1 August 2024 – Auditorium Maximum of Jagiellonian University, Kraków

Images from the European Holocaust Memorial Day for Sinti and Roma 2024

Images for editorial articles and media coverage

Publications 2024

International Conference Booklet
Euoprean Memorial Day Booklet
Concert Oratorium Booklet

Statements 2024

Romani Rose

Central Council of German Sinti and Roma

Roman Kwiatkowski

Association of Roma in Poland

Piotr Cywinski

Director of the Memorial and Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau

Alma Klasing

Holocaust survivor

Bolesław Rumanowski

Holocaust survivor

Marian Turski

Auschwitz survivor, member of the International Auschwitz Council

Bärbel Bas

President of the German Bundestag

Theodoros Rousopoulos

President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe

Ruslan Stefanchuk

Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine

Žygimantas Pavilionis

Deputy Speaker of the Lithuanian Seimas (Parliament)

Dorota Niedziela

Deputy President of the Polish Parliament

Markéta Pekarová Adamová

Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic

Annita Demetriou

H.E. The President of the House of Representatives of the Republic of Cyprus

Peter De Roover

President of the Belgian House of Representatives

António Guterres

United Nations Secretary-General

Helena Dalli

European Commissioner for Equality

Volker Türk

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

Michael O’Flaherty

Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights

The Rt Hon Lord Pickles PC

Chair of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, UK Presidency

Tea Jaliashvili

First Deputy Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights

Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska

Marshal of the Senate of the Republic of Poland

Manuela Schwesig

President of the Bundesrat of Germany

Władysław Teofil Bartoszewski

Secretary of State, Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Claudia Roth

State Minister for Culture and the edia of Germany

Christian Lindner

Member of the Bundestag, Federal Minister of Finance

Dani Dayan

Chairman of Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Centre

Ellen Germain

Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues, Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, U.S. Department of State

Friedrich Merz

Member of the Bundestag, Leader of CDU

Saskia Esken

Member of the Bundestag, Co-leader of SPD

Mehmet Daimagüler

Federal Government Commissioner against Antigypsyism

Florian Herrmann

Head of the State Chancellery Bavaria/Minister of State for Federal Affairs and Media

Terry Reintke

Co-president of the Greens in the European Parliament

Janine Wissler

Chairwoman of DIE LINKE

Christian Mihr

Deputy Secretary General /
Managing Director Human Rights Impact

Cecilia Woloch

American Poet

Holocaust survivor, Christian Pfeil, speaks at the United Nations Holocaust Memorial Ceremony, January 26, 2024

“I would like to call on young people around the world in particular to carry the memories of us eye-witnesses and the remembrance into the future. I hope that you will stand up for democracy and against antigypsyism, antisemitism and all forms of racism with courage and commitment.” (Christian Pfeil – January 26, 2024)

Find the full speech here >>

Remembrance Archive

Statements

Romani Rose

Chairman of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma

Katarina Barley

Vice President of the European Parliament

Helena Dalli

European Commissioner for Equality

Testimonies of Holocaust survivors

Werner Friedrich

Holocaust survivor

Zilli Schmidt

Holocaust survivor

Krystyna Gil

Holocaust survivor

Commemorative Events

Commemoration in Berlin

Memorial to the Sinti and Roma of Europe murdered under National Socialism, Berlin (DE), 2 August 2020, 21:00 CET

24 hours commemoration in Budapest

Nehru Part, Budapest (HU), 1 August 2020 17:00 CET – 2 August 2020 17:00 CET

Commemoration at Lety u Písku, Czech Republic

LIVE BROADCAST on Sunday, 2 August 2020, at noon CET

Gerda Pohl - Holocaust survivor

Commemoration speech on the occasion of 2 August 2023, Holocaust Memorial Day for Sinti and Roma

More statements of Roma and Sinti testimonies and survivors of the Holocaust read here >>

History

of the Holocaust of Sinti and Roma

Holocaust of Sinti and Roma

Sintiundroma.org

Online portal about the Holocaust of the Sinti and Roma

RomArchive

Digital archive for Romani arts and culture

IHRA - Bibliography and Historiographical Review

Annotated bibliography of the genocide of the Sinti and Roma

A project by the IHRA Committee on the Genocide of the Roma

Sinti and Roma in Auschwitz

The last stage of the functioning of the ‘Zigeunerlager’ in the Birkenau Camp

Recent research by historians of the Auschwitz Museum

The Destruction of European Roma in KL Auschwitz

A guidebook for visitors

Photo of KL Auschwitz taken by Jaroslaw Praszkiewicz

The genesis and course of the Nazi persecution of Roma and Sinti

Extract from “The Destruction of European Roma in KL Auschwitz: A guidebook for visitors”

Block 13 – The permanent exhibition about the Holocaust of Sinti and Roma

Audiovisual presentation of Block 13

The permanent exhibition on the genocide of Sinti and Roma at the Auschwitz-Museum; 3 min video

Virtual Tour through the Block 13 Exhibition

The permanent exhibition on the genocide of Sinti and Roma at the Auschwitz-Museum; 5 min video

Block 13

The permanent exhibition at Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum

The Block 13 exhibition on the genocide of Sinti and Roma at Auschwitz-Museum

This video presents the context of the permanent exhibition on the genocide of Sinti and Roma in Nazi occupied Europe, which is based in Block 13 at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. The video shows how the exhibition highlights – through a unique collection of family photos and documents – a normality of every-day life between neighbours in various European states. The exhibition illustrates how this normality was gradually destroyed by the Nazi regime. On the basis of racial ideology, Sinti and Roma, just like the Jews, were gradually disenfranchised, deprived of their livelihoods and finally deported to the extermination camps. 500,000 Sinti and Roma were murdered in Nazi occupied Europe.

Recognition

of the Holocaust of Sinti and Roma

The history of the civil rights struggle for recognition of the Holocaust of Sinti and Roma

The early days of civil rights work of German Sinti and Roma

Exhibition “The long path to recognition of the Roma and Sinti Holocaust”

First public civil rights campaign against racism

Exhibition “The long path to recognition of the Roma and Sinti Holocaust”

The hunger strike at the former concentration camp in Dachau

Exhibition “The long path to recognition of the Roma and Sinti Holocaust”

Institutional recognition of the Holocaust of Sinti and Roma

Permanent preservation of the graves of Holocaust survivors in Germany

The estimated 4000 graves of Holocaust survivors are permanently preserved as family memorials and places of remembrance for future generations

Soraya Post, former Member of the European Parliament and initiator of the resolution for the recognition of the Roma genocide, together with Raymond Gurême, a French Roma Holocaust survivor and fighter of the French resistance, who addressed members of parliament March 2015

Recognition of the Holocaust of Sinti and Roma in Europe

Exhibition “The long path to recognition of the Roma and Sinti Holocaust”

Holocaust Memorial Days

An overview of remembrance and education in the OSCE region

Current struggles and advocacy for recognition

Remember Us: Commemoration of the Romani Genocide

2 August 2020, 2 August, 17:00 EST (UTC−04:00), Virtual Event

Traditional commemorative ceremony dedicated to the Romani victims of Nazism will be held on Sunday, 1 August at Lety u Písku, Czech Republic

Commemorative ceremony at Lety u Písku, 2 August 2020. (PHOTO:

The struggle for the removal of the pig farm at the former “Gypsy camp” near Lety u Písku

Exhibition “The long path to recognition of the Roma and Sinti Holocaust”

2015 the European Parliament recognized 2 August as European Roma Holocaust Memorial Day

April 15, 2015 marked a historical moment. The European Parliament voted with an overwhelming majority to finally adopt a resolution which recognizes “the historical fact of the genocide of Roma that took place during World War II” and concludes “that a European day should be dedicated to commemorating the victims of the genocide of the Roma during World War II.”

Of huge importance is the fact that this resolution also “underlines the need to combat anti-Gypsyism at every level and by every means, and stresses that this phenomenon is an especially persistent, violent, recurrent and commonplace form of racism.”

Find out more >>

Education

Education and Youth Activism

Dikh He Na Bister – Youth Activism

“DIKH HE NA BISTER!”

International Youth Remembrance Event

Education for remembrance of the Roma Genocide

Scholarship, commemoration and the role of youth, publication

IS “AUSCHWITZ ONLY SLEEPING”?

International Conference (2019) about Sinti and Roma Narratives after the Holocaust

Educational tools and places of learning

The Encyclopaedia of the Nazi Genocide of the Sinti and Roma in Europe

the first comprehensive overview of the existing knowledge on the persecution and murder of the Sinti and Roma under National Socialism and during the Second World War (1933–1945)

Romasintigenocide.eu – The Learning Website

The genocide committed against European Roma and Sinti during the National Socialist era

Sinti_zze und Rom_nja in Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp

Persecution, memory and self-assertion

Dikh He Na Bister! - Roma Genocide Youth Remembrance Initiative

DIKH HE NA BISTER (“Look and don’t forget” in Romani) – the Roma Genocide Remembrance Initiative mobilizes each year thousands of young Roma and non-Roma all over Europe on the occasion of the 2 August – the European Roma Holocaust Memorial Day – to advance remembrance, recognition and education about the Roma Genocide.

DIKH HE NA BISTER is a space of learning about the past, as well as of reflection about the role of young people in Holocaust remembrance. The initiative creates a dialogue and personal encounter of young people with Holocaust survivors. Their testimonies inspire the participants to address and resist against current challenges of antigypsyism, and other forms of racism in Europe today.