The Holocaust of the Roma and Sinti: Council of Europe rapporteur says, “Enough with the silence”

Brussels – “On 2 August, we honour the memory of the 4,300 Romani and Sinti men, women, and children murdered in a single night at Auschwitz-Birkenau, and of the half a million Romani and Sinti who lost their lives in the Holocaust.” This was stated today (31 July) by the General Rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Georgios Stamatis, ahead of the European Day of Remembrance for the Holocaust of Roma and Sinti, which is observed every 2 August, the day on which the victims of the Porrajmos, the genocide of the Romani and Sinti peoples at the hands of the Nazi regime and its allies during the Second World War. 

According to Stamatis, this chapter of history is not addressed in schools, museums or, indeed, in public life. This is a “deliberate” silence, which allowed “dehumanising narratives to take hold before the Holocaust” and which today continues “to fuel discrimination against Roma and Sinti communities in education, housing, and the workplace,” he emphasised. 

This conviction led Stamatis to convene a parliamentary conference in Athens at the start of the year, which brought together parliamentarians, historians, representatives of Roma civil society and international experts, including the United Nations Office on the Prevention of Genocide and the Responsibility to Protect, with the aim of transforming memory and cultural heritage “into concrete tools against anti-Gypsyism.” The Greek MP now aims to incorporate the conference’s conclusions into a report, in the hope that PACE will adopt a resolution on the matter. 

On 2 August, a delegation of 11 members of the Assembly will attend a ceremony at Auschwitz-Birkenau to mark the day. “Teaching this history is how memory becomes protection and how we prevent hatred and discrimination from taking root again”, concluded Stamatis.