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The 64th anniversary of the liquidation of the so-called "Gypsy family camp" in Birkenau
A ceremony at the Auschwitz II-Birkenau site marked Romani Holocaust Remembrance Day on the 64th anniversary of the liquidation of the so-called "Gypsy family camp" in the Birkenau camp. Some 300 people attended, including Roma from Poland and other countries, former Auschwitz prisoners, government officials from Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary, members of the diplomatic corps, representatives of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum administration, and local officials.
"For 15 years now, the victims from our minority group have been commemorated in this dignified way in Oświęcim. When I come to Auschwitz, I feel as if I were arriving at the cemetery. The remains of my parents, my sister and her three children, and 21 of my close relatives are here. My mother and sister were taken to the gas chamber exactly 64 years ago. Out of the whole family, only three of us survived," recalled former prisoner Franz Rosenbach.
"We, the descendants of our murdered brothers and sisters, remind the world of the unparalleled crime of genocide committed against the Roma by the Nazis, while also bearing witness to the triumph of life over death, and the defeat of the fascist ideology of hatred," said Roman Kwiatkowski, the chairman of the Association of Roma in Poland. "After 25 years of efforts by the German Central Council of Roma and Sinti for the erection of a monument commemorating the Romani Holocaust, the government of the German Federal Republic has approved its construction next to the Reichstag. This is an exceptional act for the whole Roma community in Europe and around the world. It permits us to look to the future with greater trust," Kwiatkowski added.
However, the leaders of Roma organizations in Poland and Germany criticized the Italian authorities for their complicity in a policy of repression and discrimination against the Roma. They called upon the European union to react promptly. Romani Rose, the leader of the German Sinti and Roma, accused the European Union of failing to work out a coherent strategy for aiding and activating the Roma community. “The European Union must finally start treating the Roma as fully entitled partners, since only close cooperation with Roma organizations and institutions will make it possible to create a long-term aid strategy, so that the Roma can join in the building of European civil society,” said Rose.
Romani Holocaust Remembrance Day falls on August 2, the anniversary of the liquidation of the so-called Gypsy family camp (Zigeunerfamilienlager) in Auschwitz II-Birkenau Concentration Camp. On the night of August 2/3, 1944, the Germans killed almost 3 thousand Roma men, women, and children in the Birkenau gas chambers. Over 20 thousand Roma perished in Auschwitz, out of a total of about 23 thousand deported there.
