On Thursday 24 July, the Council of Europe held its annual ceremony in Strasbourg to honour the memory of the Roma victims of the Holocaust. The ceremony took place on the lawn in front of the Palais de l’Europe, next to the Human Rights sculpture. It was open to staff, permanent representations, and Roma and pro-Roma civil society organisations.
The ceremony marked the 81st anniversary of the tragic night of 2-3 August 1944, when more than 3,000 Roma men, women and children were murdered in the gas chambers of the “Zigeunerlager” at Auschwitz-Birkenau. This massacre was part of a wider Nazi campaign that claimed the lives of an estimated 500,000 Roma across Europe – a history too often overlooked and referred to as the “Forgotten Holocaust.”
The Council of Europe remains committed to ensuring that these atrocities are not forgotten and to fighting antigypsyism and discrimination. The event comes in the year marking the tenth anniversary of the European Parliament’s recognition of 2 August as European Roma Holocaust Memorial Day, underscoring the continued importance of remembrance and education.
The programme featured official speeches from Roberto Olla, Head of the Human Dignity and Gender Equality Department, on behalf of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Ambassador Francesca Camilleri Vettiger, President of the Ministers’ Deputies, Permanent Representative of Malta to the Council of Europe, on behalf of the Maltese Presidency of the Committee of Ministers, and prominent Roma civil society advocate Joanna Talewicz, co-founder and president of the Foundation Towards Dialogue in Poland, dedicated to promoting equality and supporting Roma communities.
As in previous years, the ceremony included a moment of reflection, symbolised by the laying of 100 white roses in memory of the victims.
The Council of Europe works to preserve the memory of the Roma Holocaust through educational programmes, the promotion of memorials, and combating distortion and denial of this history. Initiatives such as the RomaMemory joint programme with the EU and efforts to include Roma history in school curricula demonstrate its ongoing commitment to remembrance as a cornerstone of human rights education.
Speech by Roberto Olla – Head of the Human Dignity and Gender Equality Department
Speech by Dr. Joanna Talewicz, co-founder and president of the Foundation Towards Dialogue
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