Portugal officially recognised 27 January as Holocaust Remembrance Day through the adoption of a resolution by the national parliament on 27 January 2010, although the date has been observed in Portugal since 2006. It has been a member of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) since 2019.
In 2020, the Portuguese Council of Ministers approved “Resolução do Conselho de Ministros n.º 51/2020”, which established the “Programa Nacional em torno da Memória do Holocausto em Portugal”.
Portugal has not officially recognised the Roma Genocide through law. However, because of advances in historical research, translations into Portuguese, and recent social advocacy efforts by the country’s own Romani communities, Romani victims are now also recognised in the general commemorations held in connection with the Holocaust. One example of this is the inclusion of the Roma among the priority areas to be promoted by the aforementioned “Programa Nacional em torno da Memória do Holocausto em Portugal”, which was approved in 2020.
Data (camps locations, Remembrance places, measures etc.)
Portugal was a gateway to safety for Jews and Europeans who opposed the Nazis. The Government granted these refugees “resident” status. Portugal came under increasing diplomatic pressure from the Nazis, leading Salazar to issue more stringent immigration restrictions (late 1940). Aristides de Sousa Mendes, a Portuguese diplomat in Vichy France, ignored Government directives and issued large numbers of visas allowing Jews in France to travel to Portugal. The Portuguese Government dismissed him as a result. As the War turned against Germany, Portugal started to grant visas again. The Government cooperated in various rescue efforts. The Government granted the visas with the condition that Portugal would be a transit point and that other countries would accept them. Portugal like other neutral countries attempted to save Hungarian Jews. An estimated 100,000 Jews and other refuges fleeling the Nazi opression managed to reach safety through Portugal. All the Jews who managed to reach Portugal survived the War.
It should also be noted that, according to historians, nearly 500 Portuguese nationals were killed or subjected to forced labour by the Nazis because of their status as immigrants and, in some cases, subsequent political prisoners in occupied France. However, as mentioned, only the 27th of January is commemorated, and unlike in other countries, there is no day specifically dedicated to the Portuguese victims.
Portugal's records do not mention any Roma. They are only included in the overall count of Holocaust victims as Sinti and Roma. Nor are there any ongoing historical studies investigating whether there were Roma of Portuguese origin who were persecuted during the Nazi era.
In February 2026, as part of the international Stolpersteine project (which means “Stumbling Stones” in German), a plaque was installed at the entrance to Rossio train station in Lisbon to commemorate the more than 80,000 Jewish refugees who fled to Portugal. To date, the Portuguese Stolpersteine project has not included any commemorative initiative specifically dedicated to Roma victims in Portugal.
Specialised institution, commission, research centre etc., dealing with this issue
Memoshoá is the Remembrance and Teaching of the Holocaust Association. It was founded after the first seminar for Holocaust Teaching held by the International School Yad Vashem. It collects historical data but particularly focuses on developing the teaching of the Holocaust in schools. It was founded by Esther Mucznik, vice-president of the Jewish Community of Lisbon. Teaching materials offered through Yad Vashem seminars and other publications on the Holocaust can be found online. However it is focuses on the Jewish Holocaust and does not consider specifically the Roma Genocide.
The Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo (National Archive of the Tower of the Tomb), the Portuguese national archive, is located in Lisbon and was established in 1378. The Diplomatic Historical Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs maintains the Ministry’s records as well as private diplomatic archives. Other relevant materials are held in the Historical Archives of the Red Cross in Portugal. The Jewish community of Lisbon also has an archive with Holocaust-related material.
The Holocaust Museum of Porto was inaugurated in 2021, making it the first of its kind in the entire Iberian Peninsula. However, it focuses exclusively on the Jewish victims and makes no mention of Romani victims.
Official initiatives (campaigns, actions, projects, commemoration days, museums)
Portugal observes 27 January as Holocaust Remembrance Day. The date was chosen to coincide with the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust. Besides commemorating the victims of the Holocaust, the Memorial Day is intended to promote education about the Holocaust in schools, universities and other institutions, as well as in communities, and to reaffirm the values of justice and mutual understanding in order to avoid future acts of genocide. Holocaust Remembrance Day was formally established through the adoption of a resolution by the national parliament on 27 January 2010, although the date has been observed in Portugal since 2006.
Every year, a number of commemorative events are held at the Portuguese Parliament and attended by parliamentarians and government and civil society representatives. In 2012, a documentary about Portugal as a migration route and host country for victims of Nazism was screened and a condolence note for all victims of the Holocaust approved. The note paid tribute to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust and other victims of racial persecution, as well as to political dissidents and members of the resistance. Commemorative events are also held by Jewish organizations and synagogues, such as at the Ohel Jacob Synagogue in Lisbon.
While these commemorative initiatives are generally intended to honour all victims of Nazi persecution, there is little evidence that the Roma Holocaust is specifically addressed or commemorated within these annual remembrance activities. The limited visibility of Roma victims in these commemorative practices reflects the broader marginalisation of the Roma Holocaust in Portuguese public memory and Holocaust education.
In 2020, the Portuguese Council of Ministers approved “Resolução do Conselho de Ministros n.º 51/2020”, which established the “Programa Nacional em torno da Memória do Holocausto em Portugal”. This led to the creation of the “Nunca Esquecer” (“Never Forget”) initiative, which has since organized numerous Holocaust-related activities throughout the year. This initiative briefly mentions Antigypsyism, providing a definition of the term based on the IHRA’s guidelines.
The Holocaust Museum of Porto was inaugurated in 2021, making it the first of its kind in the entire Iberian Peninsula.
In Portugal, 27January is observed as “International Holocaust Remembrance Day” (Dia Internacional em Memória das Vítimas do Holocausto, in Portuguese), and Roma victims are included in the general commemoration.
The study of the Holocaust is compulsory in schools and is part of the National History curriculum. It is taught at the third level of elementary education and in secondary school. Students’ knowledge of the subject is assessed at the national level. All Portuguese students in the ninth grade (ages 13 to 14) study the Holocaust. The subject is explored in greater detail in the eleventh and twelfth grades (ages 15 to 17) by those studying socioeconomics, languages and humanities. The subject of the Holocaust is also addressed in other subjects, including Portuguese studies, foreign languages and philosophy, as well as in the Education for Citizenship and Human Rights programme.
However, it is unknown to what extent the Roma Genocide is included in the school curriculum. At the same time, it should be noted that there is no legislative basis that requires or encourages the teaching of Romani history and/or the Romani genocide in the school curriculum.
Inclusion of the topic in the school textbooks
In general, there is a lack of comprehensive information on the inclusion of the Romani Genocide in textbooks. However, a recent study by Isabel Macedo, Julia Alves, Alice Dutra, and Rosa Cabecinhas (2026) on history textbooks used in Portugal between 2019 and 2021 shows that while the Holocaust is mentioned, it is the only context in which the racism suffered by Roma is discussed. At the same time, Roma appear only in a cursory list that names the victims but does not delve into the reasons for their historical discrimination and the genocide committed against them during the Nazi era.
Training of teachers and education professionals
In 2012, a conference entitled “Portugal and the Holocaust – Learning from the Past” took place in Lisbon under the patronage of the Ministry of Education and Science. In 2014, the Directorate-General for Education of the Ministry of Education and Science organized and promoted a webinar on the subject of the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust, titled “Learning from the Past, Teaching for the Future”. This Webinar was supported by the Memoshoá Association. In 2025, this same association organized the seminar “The Holocaust as a Starting Point” in Lisbon from 21-23 March offering a wide range of educational activities, courses, and seminars.
In April 2026, a short course entitled “História e Cultura Cigana – Do Conhecer ao Agir” was held, during which the Roma Holocaust was one of the topics covered. This seminar was coordinated by the ROMED Programme at the Escola secundária de Barcelos (Portugal) and led by Bruno Gonçalves, vice-chair of the board of the Associação de Investigação e Dinamização das Comunidades Ciganas.
Finally, it should be noted that in 2024, as part of the INSCHOOL project —a joint initiative between the Council of Europe, the European Union, the Universidade do Minho and the Portuguese Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation— an in-person training course entitled “Cultura, história e educação Roma/cigana no contexto português” was held. The course consisted of a 25-hour training programme aimed at trainers from the Centros de Formação de Associação de Escolas (CFAE) in Portugal, with the aim of training them and promoting the replication of this training in their home institutions. This course was replicated again in 2026 and is expected to continue to be replicated in the coming years. The programme for this training course includes a module specifically dedicated to the Roma Holocaust.
Particular activities undertaken at the level of education institutions
The USC Shoah Foundation, through its educational platform IWITNESS, is sharing an activity developed by the University of Lisbon Centre for English Studies (ULICES), titled “Porajmos – genocidio cigano”, which can be downloaded in Portuguese for use with students in grades 9–12. It is linked to the university research project cited below.
In 2021, the university research project titled “Remembering the Past, Learning for the Future: Research-Based Digital Learning from Testimonies of Survivors and Rescuers of the Holocaust” was approved for a period of fifteen months at the Centro de Estudos Anglísticos da Universidade de Lisboa (Grupo de Investigação 6 Estudos de Tradução e Recepção). All results are available on its official website.
In 2024, an initiative of the TRACER project – Transformative Roma Art and Culture for European Remembrance – was held in Figueira da Foz and Braga, enabling students from those cities to participate in educational workshops on the Holocaust, discrimination, and racism.
On January the 27th, 2025, Pedro Nunes Secondary School (Lisbon) hosted a lecture by Professor Marta Torres titled “Holocausto cigano” to raise awareness about the persecution of the Roma people during World War II.
On February 3, 2026, the Camilo Castelo Branco Secondary School (Vila Real) hosted a lecture by Professor Álvaro Pinto titled “Porajmos, O Holocausto Cigano” as part of the project “We Remember – Lembrar o Holocausto: Aprender com o passado. Proteger o futuro”, and as a starting point for the new project “História & estórias ciganas – Dar voz à diversidade, celebrar a diferença”.
The Portuguese NGO Desincoop has participated in the making of a video about the Roma Genocide with the Embaixada Cigana do Brasil, starring Nicolas Ramanush president of the latter. The video “Roma Genocide – Part of European History” lasts 17:48 min and is in Portuguese.
The Embaixada Cigana do Brasil operates exclusively in Brazil, but all of its content is produced in Portuguese, making it useful for Portuguese citizens and Portuguese speakers.
Rosenberg, O. (2001). A Lente de Aumento. Lisboa: Âncora. [Original in German]
Published in Brasil, in Portuguese:
Vishnevsky, V. (1999). Memórias de um cigano. São Paulo, SP: Duna Dueto. [There is a translation into English]
Novel
Reader's Digest (ed.)(1994). Livros condensados. Dossier Pelicano. Lisboa: "Selecçoes do Reader's Digest". [The book includes Quando os violinos se calaram - And the violins stopped playing - by A. Ramati]
Bruchfeld, S. et al. (2000). Contai aos vossos filhos: um livro sobre o Holocausto na Europa, 1933-1945. Lisboa: Gótica. [Original in Swedish]
Kenrick, D. and Puxon, G. (1998). Os Ciganos sob o Domínio da Suástica. Lisboa: Centre de recherches tsiganes, Secretariado Entreculturas. [Original in English]
Rosenberg, O. (2001). A Lente de Aumento. Lisboa: Âncora. [Original in German]
Published in Brasil, in Portuguese:
Müller-Hill, B. (1993). Ciência assassina: como cientistas alemães contribuíram para a eliminação de judeus, ciganos e outras minorias durante o nazismo. Rio de Janeiro: Xenon. [Original in German]
Stivelman, M. and Stivelman, R. (2001). A marca dos genocídios. Rio de Janeiro: Imago.
Vishnevsky, V. (1999). Memórias de um cigano. São Paulo, SP: Duna Dueto. [There is a translation into English]
The Brasilian website "Embaixada Cigana do Brasil" offers information in Portuguese about famous Roma, some of them artists related to the topic of the Roma Genocide. The list is called "Ciganos no Mundo".
Information material