Roma Holocaust victims remembered at Auschwitz death camp

“We cannot allow Europe to plunge into darkness again,” said Romani Rose, head of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma, who lost 13 relatives in the Holocaust. “The struggle for democracy and human rights must continue,” he told crowds gathered at a memorial for murdered Roma and Sinti, and pointed to a threat posed by a rise in nationalism and populism in Europe.

Photo: PAP/Stanisław Rozpędzik

Several hundred people, among them Romany Holocaust survivors, members of the Roma community and political figures from Poland and abroad, took part in Tuesday’s commemorative ceremony held at the site in southern Poland.

On 2 August 1944, nearly 3,000 Roma men, women and children from the so-called ‘Gypsy camp’ (Zigeunerlager) were murdered in gas chambers in Auschwitz-Birkenau, which was run by the Nazi Germans in occupied Poland.

Photo: PAP/Stanisław Rozpędzik

It is estimated that even half a million Roma and Sinti were killed during the Holocaust.

Over 1.1 million people perished at Auschwitz-Birkenau at the hands of the Germans during World War II, mostly European Jews, but also Poles, Roma and Soviet POWs. (aba/ała)

Source: PAP