On 2 August 2019, Thorbjørn Jagland, Secretary General of the Council of Europe issued a written statement on the occasion of the European Roma Holocaust Memorial Day, saying that: “… for a long time, little attention was paid in Europe to the Roma Holocaust. This was deeply wrong. We must remember. We do this to pay our respect to the victims of course, mindful of the generations that have been lost – and of the contributions that those people would have made to European life. But we also remember because it is our duty to ensure that such things can never happen again. Today, extreme movements and parties have gained strength in some parts of Europe. Anti-Roma hate speech is widespread, creeping on occasion into mainstream political discourse, and feeding the mentality that leads to hate crime. This must not go unchecked. Instead, we must learn the lessons of the past, apply them to the present, and ensure a better future. It is for this reason that the Council of Europe has made the fight for Roma social inclusion one of our political priorities.”

Jeroen Schokkenbroek, Director of Anti-Discrimination at the Directorate General of Democracy of the Council of Europe, represented the Secretary General at the commemoration ceremony in Auschwitz-Birkenau to mark the 75th anniversary of the mass annihilation of Roma at the extermination camp in the night of 2 to 3 August 1944.

The event, held under the patronage of Thorbjørn Jagland, Secretary General of the Council of Europe, and Angela Merkel, Federal Chancellor of Germany, and organised by the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma and the Association of Roma in Poland in co-operation with the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, gathered about 1,500 participants, including more than 500 Roma youth and some 20 Holocaust survivors.

Speakers at the memorial ceremony included survivors Eva Fahidi-Pusztai, Else Baker and Nadir Dedic,Reverend Jesse Jackson, US Baptist pastor and civil rights activist, and Romani Rose, Chairman of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma.

Speakers during the afternoon commemoration ceremony at the Centre for Dialogue and Prayer in Oswiecim included Vera Jourova, EU Commissioner for Justice and Consumer Rights, Michael Roth, German Minister of State for Europe, Roman Kwiatkowski, Chairman of the Association of Roma in Poland, Ambassador Georges Santer, Chair of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), Peter Pollak MEP, and Jeroen Schokkenbroek, Director of Anti-Discrimination, Council of Europe.

Mr Schokkenbroek said that the testimonies of the Holocaust survivors present at the ceremony were stark reminders to all to keep the memory alive and to work hard so that the atrocities are not repeated.

With extremist and xenophobic movements mushrooming throughout Europe and nationalism and populism on the rise, we would be doomed to relive our past if we failed to learn from history. “Roma face discrimination, hostility, rejection, segregation, racism, hate speech, and hate crimes. Combating anti-Gypsyism and working for the social inclusion of Roma are amongst the top priorities of the Council of Europe, because this is about defending the Human Rights of millions of Europeans. Human Rights are not a luxury to be accorded at leisure. They are rights here and now. They are universal rights that belong to each and every human being.”

“The hundreds of thousands of Roma men, women and children who died in this camp and in other places during the Second World War must be a constant reminder to all of us to never lose sight of our goal: a European society free of discrimination, racism and violence, where everybody, including all Sinti and Roma, can live in peace and dignity.”

During the wreath-laying ceremony in Auschwitz-Birkenau at the site of the former so-called “Gypsy family camp” (Zigeunerfamilienlager) at Block B II e, Mr Schokkenbroek placed a wreath on behalf of the Council of Europe in front of the Roma and Sinti Memorial.

He also took part in a visit of the exhibition on the Holocaust of European Sinti and Roma (hosted in Block 13 in the Auschwitz I State Museum) guided by Oliver von Mengersen, Chair of the IHRA Working Group on the Roma Holocaust.

The Council of Europe has also contributed to the International Conference “Is ‘Auschwitz only sleeping’? Sinti and Roma narratives after the Holocaust”, 31 July-1 August 2019, at the Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland, co-organised by the European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture (ERIAC), where in the closing panel Thorsten Afflerbach, Head of Division for the Roma and Travellers Team in the Directorate of Anti-Discrimination, informed the audience about the current work of the Council of Europe’s Ad hoc Committee of Experts on Roma and Traveller Issues (CAHROM) on the elaboration of a recommendation on the inclusion of Roma and Traveller history teaching into school curricula and teaching materials.

He also represented the Council of Europe at the 31 July opening of the exhibition “Tears of Gold”, curated by Dr. Krzysztof Gil and Dr. Anna Mirga-Kruszelnicka, Deputy Director of ERIAC, and at the 1 August ceremony awarding the European Civil Rights Prize of Sinti and Roma, sponsored by the Manfred Lautenschläger Foundation, to Dr. Piotr Cywinski, Director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, as well as at the memorial concert of the Roma and Sinti Philharmonics, conducted by Riccardo M. Sahiti, performing the “Requiem for Auschwitz” by Roger Moreno-Rathgeb.

Furthermore, the Council of Europe supported the Roma Youth event Dikh He Na Bister from 29 July to 3 August 2019 in Krakow and Oswiecim, Poland, by enabling 65 Roma young people from France, Greece, Portugal, Ukraine, and Kosovo[1] to participate in the event, which gathered some 500 Roma youth, and in its remembrance activities, its exchanges with Holocaust survivors, and its educational programmes at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.

At the Palais de l’Europe in Strasbourg, the seat of the Council of Europe, a commemoration event for the Roma victims of the Holocaust took place on 2 August 2019 at 12 noon with the participation of Matjaz Gruden, Director of Democratic Participation, Directorate General of Democracy, Sébastien Potaufeu, Deputy Permanent Representative of France to the Council of Europe on behalf of the French Presidency of the Committee of Ministers, and Miranda Vuolasranta, President of the European Roma and Travellers Forum (ERTF), and with the laying of flowers in front of the “Human Rights” sculpture.

• Read the full address given by Director Schokkenbroek
• Watch the video of the address given by Director Schokkenbroek
• Web page of the Strasbourg event

[1] All reference to Kosovo, whether to the territory, institutions or population, in this text shall be understood in full compliance with United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244 and without prejudice to the status of Kosovo.