US Secretary of State honors Romani victims of the Holocaust, calls on all states to end the discrimination and segregation of Roma
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has honored the memory of the Romani victims of the Holocaust, hundreds of thousands of whom were murdered by Nazi Germany and its allies. Many countries are annually commemorating that genocide on 2 August, the date on which 4,300 Romani and Sinti children, men and women were gassed to death at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp in 1944.
“As we remember all of the Romani lives taken by the Nazi genocide of the Roma, we reaffirm the dignity and human rights of all people and renew our pledge to condemn the racism and discrimination that Romani and Sinti people face to this day,” Blinken said. “We are emphasizing that it is important to commemorate the genocide of the Roma. We are also acknowledging that the history of this genocide remains forgotten, frequently, which has contributed to the prejudices, inequality and exclusion with which communities of Roma and Sinti are still wrestling. We are calling on all governments to cooperate on ending the discrimination, segregation and marginalization of Roma and Sinti.”
During the 17 months of the “Gypsy Family Camp” at Auschwitz (from February 1943 to July 1944), as many as 23,000 children, men and women were imprisoned there. Approximately 21,000 Roma and Sinti prisoners were murdered in the camp.
Other Romani people were murdered in the concentration camps of Bełżec, Chełmno, Majdanka, Sobibór and Treblinka. Others whose numbers are difficult to estimate were shot to death and buried in mass graves in wooded areas.
Nazi Germany’s extermination policy led to the deaths of a conservative estimate of 500,000 Roma and Sinti from all over Europe. Some estimates state as many as 800,000 Romani and Sinti victims, which would equal anywhere between 25 to 50 % of the interwar population of Romani and Sinti people.
