Ruslan Stefanchuk

Video statement on the occasion of 2 August 2024, Holocaust Memorial Day for Sinti and Roma

On August 2, Ukraine, along with the rest of the world, commemorates the Roma Holocaust Memorial Day. 

This commemorative date was established in 1996 by leaders of Roma organizations from Europe and the United States at the “Genocide – Memory – Hope” conference held in the former Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz. 

This day was not chosen by chance. We remember that on the night of August 3, 1944, 2,897 representatives of the Roma people were killed in the gas chambers of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau. The world remembers this tragedy as the “Gypsy Night” and this year we are commemorating the 80^th anniversary of this horrific crime. 

During the Second World War, about 500,000 Roma were deported from the occupied countries and burned in concentration camps due to the Nazi policy of ethnocide. Many of them were killed in forced labor camps, places of nomadism, and during punitive operations. The biggest victims were Roma living in Kyiv, in the territory of the current Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Zakarpattia region, in Vinnytsia, Odesa, Sumy, Cherkasy, and other regions of Ukraine. 

In today’s Ukraine, the Roma national community is an integral part of the Ukrainian people, and the historical truth about its genocide organized by the Nazi regime is part of our common national memory. 

The Ukrainian state consistently implements the principles of equality, inclusion and participation for all national minorities, including Roma. Today, we have all the necessary legislation to ensure equal opportunities for the realization of human and civil rights and freedoms. 

Our Government has adopted the Strategy promoting the realization of the rights and opportunities of persons belonging to the Roma national minority in Ukrainian society for the period up to 2030. . This document defines the state policy in the field of Roma integration. We also have relevant action plans and necessary institutional mechanisms. 

Unfortunately, as you all know, today Ukraine is facing armed aggression from the Russian Federation. The biggest war in Europe since the end of the Second World War is taking place on our territory. People are dying and suffering, including Roma. 

Since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion on February 24, 2022, thousands of Roma have come to the defense of Ukraine, their cities and villages, and their families. Roma Arsen Medyka (Арсен Медика) from Kyiv region, Valeriy Galchenko (Валерій Гальченко) from Odesa, Oleksiy Panchenko (Олексій Панченко) from Zaporizhzhia region, Radik Farkash (Радік Фаркаш) from Uzhhorod and many others have become widely known. 

We all remember the news about the capture of a Russian tank by Roma from the village of Lyubymivka at the beginning of the Russian invasion. The Roma who fell on the frontlines of the Russian-Ukrainian war have become immortalized: David Kalyna (Девід Калина), Andriy Salko (Андрій Салко), Zoltan Babyak (Золтан Бабяк) and others. 

It is important to note the significant self-organization shown by Roma NGOs since the beginning of the full-scale invasion. Most of them organized humanitarian aid from the very first days: food packages, hygiene products, hot meals, medicines and much more. 

Dear colleagues and friends, 

Today, on the occasion of the Roma Holocaust Memorial Day, we honor the memory of those who died in those times.  

Today we also unite against the disaster that has come to our common home again. 

Inter-ethnic harmony, community unity, a sense of elbow-to-elbow cooperation and common destiny are what give us the strength to withstand the Russian invasion. 

Together we will definitely win this war!