2 August 2020
Dr Piotr M. A. Cywiński
Director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum
Commemoration speech on the occasion of 2 August 2020, Holocaust Memorial Day for Sinti and Roma
Today we commemorate the 76th anniversary of the liquidation of the so-called Zigeunerfamilienlager in Birkenau, which marked the end of the Sinti and Roma history in Auschwitz, at least on a massive scale.
It is indeed a day in which we should remember history, look at the past, and commit ourselves to remember these events. It is also, and perhaps above all, a day in which we should look at ourselves, our world today, and what we are trying to build. As the history of Auschwitz teaches us, discrimination causes unconditional exclusion. Exclusion ends in dehumanization, and that brings with it genocide. Unfortunately, we have observed this cause-and-effect process in many places around the world.
Today, however, discrimination against the Sinti and Roma population is present in almost all of Europe, in several countries. Regardless of whether we want to remember it or not, there are countries, regions, cities where they still exist today, perhaps not de jure, but de facto ghettos where the Roma, Sinti, Gitans, Manouches, all those whom we sometimes call romantically travelling people, and whom we do not accept in our communities on full civil rights. Let us remember – discrimination causes exclusion, which leads to dehumanization, and this, in turn, leads to genocide.
Statements 2020

Romani Rose
Chairman of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma

Zuzana Čaputová
President of the Slovak Republic

Alexander Van der Bellen
President of Austria

Stevo Pendarovski
President of North Macedonia

Helena Dalli
Commissioner for Equality, European Commission

Marija Pejčinović Burić
Secretary-General of the Council of Europe

David Sassoli
President of the European Parliament

Wolfgang Schäuble
President of the German Bundestag

Stéphane Dion
Ambassador of Canada in Germany, Special Representative of Canada to the EU and to Europe

Michaela Küchler
Chair of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance

Michael O’Flaherty
Director of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights

Ryszard Terlecki
Deputy Marshal of the Sejm, Poland

Ronald Lauder
President of the World Jewish Congress

Roman Kwiatkowski
President of the Association of Roma in Poland

Dr Piotr M. A. Cywiński
Director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum