Irmgard Schwaetzer

Statement on the occasion of the European Holocaust Memorial Day for Sinti and Roma 2020

The chair of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), Bishop Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, the chair of the Synod of the EKD, Irmgard Schwaetzer, and the president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Dr. Josef Schuster, have accompanied the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma to the commemoration ceremony in Auschwitz-Birkenau.

We are stunned in the face and at this place of the industrially planned cold mass murder and it was indeed very important for us to be able to commemorate this day of remembrance, this mass murder of the Roma and Sinti here in Auschwitz and our gratitude indeed goes to Romani Rose, the president of the Central Council of Sinti and Roma in Germany, but also to Dr. Josef Schuster, the president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, for spending this day with us here in Auschwitz.