Helena Dalli

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

Today, we mark the 80th anniversary of the tragic events that unfolded at Auschwitz-Birkenau on 2 August 1944. On that day, over 4,300 Sinti and Roma children, women and men were brutally murdered. During Europe’s darkest years, up to 500,000 Roma and Sinti were exterminated, and their history and culture silenced with them.

80 years later, we have the duty to remember and to honour their legacy in our fight for justice and equality. Today, Roma and Sinti, Europe’s largest ethnic minorities, still face indifference about historic crimes and injustice committed against them. Prejudice, exclusion, antigypsyism and marginalisation persist.

That is why the European Commission is working closely with Member States and civil society to advance equality, inclusion and participation for Roma people in all spheres of life. Through our EU Roma Strategic Framework, we support Member States in implementing national strategies to create the conditions for equal access:
– to quality and inclusive education,
– to housing, healthcare, essential services, and
– to job opportunities.

Eradicating antigypsyism remains at the core of all these efforts. By standing together, united against hatred, we can build resilient communities that thrive through the strength of our diversity.

On this Memorial Day, I stand in solidarity with all Roma and Sinti, and I reaffirm the commitment of the European Commission to a world where human dignity is upheld, diversity is celebrated and hatred has no place.