The annual assemblies of Romani people that are Europe-wide in scope can be counted on the fingers of one hand. One such gathering is for the commemoration of the largest single massacre of Romani people during the Nazi era.
On the night of 2 August 1944, almost 3 000 Romani people, mainly children, the elderly and women, died in the gas chambers of the extermination camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Every year on that day, former prisoners, representatives of various states and of embassies in Warsaw gather at the scene of this crime.
Ordinarily there are dozens of people, but on big anniversaries there are more. This year several hundred people were there.
The media rarely report on this significant event, or if they do so, it is only as a sideline. On the 60th anniversary, 10 years ago, the Czech Government did not send a representative to the event (they didn’t even send flowers), causing a small fuss in some media outlets, and ever since then the commemorative ceremony is regularly attended by at least a representative of the Czech Embassy in Warsaw.
Young people as a guarantee for the defense of democracy
This year the commemorative ceremony at Auschwitz was attended for the first time by young people from all over Europe thanks to a four-day conference held by the TernYpe organization that took place at Auschwitz at the same time and attracted participants from 20 countries around the world. Those attending spent two and a half hours in hot weather listening to speeches by politicians and representatives of churches, states, and the survivors; here are some excerpts from the main speeches and the greeting sent by those who, due to time constraints or for other reasons, were unable to attend the ceremony in person:
Heinz Eduard Bamberger, a German Sinti and Holocaust survivor, speaking to the young people: "Consider it your primary obligation and task to honor your dead forebears in your prayers and with your remembrance. They underwent inexpressible persecution and suffering here, with which they had to live and die. We are here to remember them."
Roman Kwiatkowski, chair of the Romani Union in Poland and co-organizer of the commemorative ceremony: "For Roma and Sinti all over the world, Auschwitz is what connects us."
Bronisław Komorowski, President of Poland (in absentia): "Romani people were the third most numerous group to be murdered by the Nazis in Auschwitz. Here in Poland we have been opened up in a completely unique way to commemorating all of the victims and to remembering our obligations to them. May these cries of protest, these calls for humanity, never stop shaking the conscience of the world. The German National Socialists wiped out members of Romani communities from all over Europe, including in areas of the occupied republic of Poland. This was the same country where Romani people had been a firm component of Poland’s dramatic path through history, the same country where, in the 17th century, a Romani vajda [chief] was officially designated by the king and where, at the end of the 18th century, the joint Lithuanian-Polish Police Committee issued a law that at the time represented an unusual step forward in recognizing the rights of Romani people."
Discrimination as a return to the Fascist era
Martin Schulz, Chair of the European Parliament (in absentia): "As chair of the Parliament I consider it especially important that everyone who lives in Europe feels at home here. Any form of discrimination, whether because of ethnic affiliation, nationality, race, religion or sexual orientation returns us to the dark era of Fascism and totalitarianism… Extremists who want to revive this nefarious ideology (Nazism) and who deny the Holocaust have found (during the recent elections) a way into the European Parliament."
Reuven Rivlin, President of the state of Israel (in absentia): "The state of Israel and the Jewish world stands here today by your side, daughters and sons of Roma and Sinti, to commemorate this and to remember together with you. We must never forget. Let’s express that promise of ours aloud and clearly: Never again… Auschwitz is one of the places where the question to ask is not ‘Where was God’, but ‘Where was humanity?’."
Claudia Roth, Vice-Chair of the German Parliament: "At this place of terror we want to make this promise to the living: Never again will such murder and systematic destruction of human life be permitted as was committed at Auschwitz under the rule of the National Socialists." According to Roth, the systematic murder and persecution of more than 20 000 Roma at Auschwitz and 500 000 Roma overall in Europe was an attempt by the Nazis to definitvely destroy Roma culture. "They did not succeed in erasing entire cultures. They caused deep trauma and wounds, they weakened the abundance of European nations, but they did not manage to destroy them… 70 years later we can say the Roma and Sinti belong to European culture and are a firm component of our cultural and ethnic abundance in our European societies where they have been living for many centuries," she said.
The present-day obligation
Romani Rose, chair of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma: "2 August 1944 is deeply engraved into the collective memory of Europe. Only when the European nations understand Sinti and Romani Holocaust victims as part of their own culture of remembrance and that remembrance as a present-day obligation will they have learned the lesson of the horrible legacy of National Socialism." Today, however, even "governing parties are deploying populism at the expense of our minority in order to achieve political gain. Hidden behind this is the concern that they might lose votes to right-wing parties," Rose said. However, by doing this, they are fulfilling the strategies of the right-wing extremists and creating fertile ground for violent extremist crimes. "Long ago, prejudice against Romani people firmly took hold of the very center of society. Today, one’s origins are again becoming the basis for all kinds of negative attributions," Rose said. "This is not just a Europe of banks and financial markets, but also the Europe of citizens who share a common vision of democracy, freedom and responsibility. That is why I am particularly pleased that so many young people, both from our minority and from majority societies, have come here from so far away on the occasion of this remembrance day. They are the ones who will hand down the experiences of our elders and who will have to defend the achievements of our societal values, values that include protection for minorities."
Michael Roth, German Minister for European Affairs: "The power and sovereignty of our free, inclusive society is demonstrated in particular by the fact that minorities live as equals in majority society, that they are respected and that they can equally develop without losing respect for their own culture and denying their own roots."
All over Europe, but without media attention
Remembrance gatherings took place on that same day in Berlin, Dublin, Leipzig, Lety u Písku, London, Maribor, Strasbourg, Stuttgart and the Croatian village of Uštica, where thousands of Romani victims from the Jasenovač concentration camp are buried. Other commemorations took place elsewhere in the world as well.
