Father Patrick Desbois to Present New Findings on Treatment of Roma People During World War II at UN Kristallnacht Event

On Wednesday, 7 November, the United Nations Department of Public
Information, in partnership with Yahad-In Unum, will mark the anniversary of the
Kristallnacht Pogrom of November 1938 with a roundtable discussion entitled “The
Holocaust by Bullets: Uncovering the Reality of Genocide”.

The event will be held from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at United Nations
Headquarters in New York in the Economic and Social Council Chamber.

Organized by the Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme, the
event will feature the work of Father Patrick Desbois ( France), a Catholic
priest and co-founder of Yahad-In Unum. Father Patrick has dedicated many years
of his life to uncovering the truth about the mass shootings that took place
during the Holocaust. His latest research focuses on the fate of the Roma during
the Second World War, and he will present his findings for the first time to the
international community during the discussion. Participants will also examine
global efforts to prevent genocide today.

Speakers will include Paul A. Shapiro, Director of the United States
Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies; Karen Mosoti,
an international lawyer and Head of the Liaison Office of the International
Criminal Court to the United Nations in New York; and Gillian Kitley, Senior
Political Affairs Officer in the United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention
and the Responsibility to Protect.

Opening the event will be Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal, Under-Secretary-General
for Communications and Public Information. Ambassador Martin Briens, Deputy
Permanent Representative and Chargé d’affaires a.i. of France to the United
Nations, will also make a statement. Pamela Falk, United Nations Resident
Correspondent for CBS News, will moderate the discussion. The event is open to
the public and registration is required at
holocaustremembrance@un.org. 

Yahad-In Unum is the leading research organization investigating the mass
executions of Jewish and Roma people in Eastern Europe between 1941 and 1944. So
that history not be forgotten, its researchers carefully review war archives
from Germany and the former Soviet Union. With this information, Father Desbois
and his teams visit small villages across Belarus, Moldova, Poland, Romania,
Russia and Ukraine and interview eyewitnesses to the killings.

To date, Yahad-In Unum has identified over 800 extermination sites and
recorded the testimony of more than 3,000 eyewitnesses to these crimes. Their
findings are archived at Yahad-In Unum’s headquarters in Paris and shared with
the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Please visit
www.yahadinunum.org for
more information.

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, as a living memorial, inspires
citizens and leaders worldwide to confront hatred, prevent genocide and promote
human dignity. Federal support guarantees the Museum’s permanent place on the
National Mall, and its far-reaching educational programmes and global impact are
made possible by generous donors. For more information, please visit
www.ushmm.org. 

The International Criminal Court, governed by the Rome Statute, is the first
permanent, treaty-based, international criminal court established to help end
impunity for the perpetrators of the most serious crimes of concern to the
international community, and thereby prevent future occurrences of genocide, war
crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of aggression. Please visit
www.icc-cpi.int for more
information.

The United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to
Protect works to advance national and international efforts to protect
populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against
humanity, as well as their incitement. For more information, please visit

www.un.org/en/preventgenocide/adviser.

The Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme was established by
General Assembly resolution 60/7 in 2005 to encourage education about and
remembrance of the Holocaust to help prevent future acts of genocide. Please
visit
www.un.org/en/holocaustremembrance for more information.