2 August was officially established as a national Roma and Sinti Genocide Remembrance Day on 8 October 2004 by Verkhovna Rada Resolution Number 2085-IV “On the marking of the International Roma Holocaust Day”. The resolution also recommended that the Government support research on the genocide of Roma in Ukraine, facilitate the construction of memorials to the victims, and provide support to the families of the victims as well as to Roma communities in general.
In 2005, 29 September was designated as a Memorial Day to commemorate the victims of the mass killing of Babyn Yar. On 29 September 2016, in a ceremony dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the massacre at Babyn Yar, the creation of a “Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center” was declared by national and international political leaders and representatives of the society, such as Natan Sharansky, Aleksander Kwaśniewski, Yaakov Dov Bleich, Joschka Fischer, Wladimir Klitschko, and Svyatoslav Vakarchuk. In the same year the memorial dedicated to the victims of the Roma genocide at Babyn Yar was opened at the Babyn Yar Park in Kyiv, which represents a memorial of national significance.
On 27 January 2026 Nataliia Tomenko (ARCA — Youth Organization for the Advocacy of Roma Culture) spoke at the official United Nations observance of the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust, held in the United Nations General Assembly Hall under the theme “Holocaust Remembrance for Dignity and Human Rights”. She presented the testimony of her grandmother, Halyna Tomenko, who survived the genocide. This marked the first time that the testimony of a Roma survivor from Ukraine was presented at the United Nations Holocaust Memorial Ceremony.
Data (camps locations, Remembrance places, measures etc.)
According to Soviet census data from 1939, around 89 000 Roma lived in the Soviet Union and 20 000 of them in Ukraine. In the territory of nowadays Ukraine, around 140 killing sites have been identified in research by the Ukrainian Center for Holocaust Studies in Kyiv and Mykhaylo Tyaglyy. Their newer analysis from 2025 suggests that around 12.000 Roma were murdered by Einsatzgruppen of the SS and SD and Wehrmacht units as well as Ukrainian collaborators. In this geographical context the differentiation between sedentary and itinerant Roma played a role. Sedentary Roma lived mostly in the north and south of Ukraine as well as northern Crimea and typically worked as builders, tinsmiths, blacksmiths, basket makers, tractor drivers, saleswomen, cleaners, and also as state employees. Out of the 140 sites, researchers reconstructed 49 sites where this group was predominantly targeted, 27 sites where itinerant Roma were predominantly targeted as well as 64 where the social status could not be reconstructed.
Einsatzgruppen reports reveal that one of the largest mass executions was conducted by the Einsatzgruppe D under the Command of Otto Ohlendorf in Simferopol on 2 January 1942 when around 824 Roma were killed and no distinction was made between “sedentary” and “nomadic” Roma. In this incident a large part of the Roma community was not murdered due to the intervention of the Crimean Tatar Muslim Committee that appealed against it so that around half of the Crimean Roma survived.
One of the largest mass murders during World War II took place at Babyn Yar, which is a huge ravine in the North of Kyiv and a central site of remembrance today. At the memorial site in the Babyn Yar Park there is a “Roma wagon” dedicated to the murdered Roma at Babyn Yar. The initiative for this monument dates back to 1995. In 1999 Roma NGOs laid a simple foundation stone at the site with the inscription in Ukrainian: “In this place will be build a memorial to the victims of the Roma Holocaust” [translation according to Kotljarchuk 2016, p. 164]. In September 2016, on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the mass shooting at Babyn Yar, the memorial by the sculptor Anatolii Ihnashchenko was opened with a commemoration ceremony. The memorial takes the form of a life-size steel reconstruction of a traditional Roma wagon, ornamented with floral motifs and deliberately perforated with bullet holes representing visual markers of the mass violence. It is also called “Black Horror” or “Kali Traš”.
During the first days of the German occupation, on 19 September 1941, there were two explosions that destroyed the German headquarters. As a consequence, the Germans decided to kill most of the Jews in the city: on 29 to 30 September 1941, SS and German police units, as well as Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing units), shot the Jewish population (about 33 771 people) in the ravine. Over the following months other groups such as Red Army soldiers, civilians and Roma were massacred in a similar fashion – the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) estimates that around 100,000 people were murdered at this single site in total.
Nowadays, Roma are one of the most vulnerable ethnic and cultural minorities in Ukraine. Between 200 000 and 400 000 Roma live in Ukraine according to counts until 2022. Problems of the Roma minority as well as antigypsyism in Ukraine still draw little attention in official policy. An expressly negative attitude toward the Roma predominates in Ukrainian society. They are discriminated against at the level of governmental bodies, social services, and law enforcement officials. Roma suffer most from unemployment, illiteracy and unhealthy living conditions. These are exacerbated by the country’s economic crisis as well as the war following the Russian full-scale invasion of the country in 2022. Negative images predominate the public discourse, ignoring the fact that Roma have been contributing to Ukraine’s culture, economy, and social and political life.
Specialised institution, commission, research centre etc., dealing with this issue
According to the available information, there is no specialised institution, commission or research centre specifically dealing with the topic of the genocide of Roma.
The NGO was founded in 2018 and has focused on the empowerment of the Roma youth, preserving Romani history and culture, building intercultural dialogue with stakeholders, policymakers, and other organisations in Ukraine. Research and education programs on the genocide of Roma have been at the centre of their civic engagement and since the Russian full-scale invasion in 2022 they also focused on providing humanitarian aid for survivors of the Nazi genocide in cooperation with international partners such as the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma as well as the Aid Network for Survivors of Nazi Persecution in Ukraine.
The Center was founded in 2016 as a governmental organisation of national significance. It includes a park with monuments commemorating the massacre in 1941, an archive, exhibition and education space. The Center also engages with formats of digital humanities such as mapping sites of the “Holocaust by bullets”. It aims to document the mass violence through listing of killing sites, collecting names of victims and righteous, and collecting historical documents and (audio-visual) testimonies. Since 2022, the Center publishes the scientific journal “Eastern European Holocaust Studies“.
The Center works on a creative concept for the memorialization of the entire territory of the Babyn Yar, according to which the future memorial complex should include a Museum of Babyn Yar Tragedy 1941-1943 and a Museum of the Holocaust in Ukraine and Eastern Europe amongst others such as sites for prayers, mediatheque, library and archive as well as educational spaces.
It is a government-established memorial reserve (protected site) covering the Babyn Yar ravine and surrounding territory. Partners of the National Historical and Memorial Reserve include the Babi Yar Memorial fund as well as the Jewish Council in Ukraine.
After the Second World War the site of the mass shooting was transformed into a dumping ground for waste and streets as well as railway stations were built. A first monument dedicated to the victims of Babyn Yar was erected in 1976 and in 1991 the Menorah Memorial was installed in memory of the Jews executed there. The park assembles further memorials such as the monument to the victims of the Kurenivska tragedy. i.e. a mudslide in 1961.
The Ukrainian Centre for Holocaust Studies (UCHS) was established in 2002. It is a non-governmental organisation founded in partnership with I. Kuras Institute for Political and Ethnic Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. The main directions of the UCHS's activities embrace Holocaust research and Holocaust education.
The research direction comprises regional aspects of the Holocaust on Ukrainian lands; reflection of the Holocaust in the mass-media of the Nazi-occupied Ukraine; Nazi ideology and the mechanisms of its implementation, antisemitism and Holocaust denial, comparative research of the Holocaust and other cases of genocide.
The UCHS holds scholarly conferences and seminars on these issues. In frames of the educational activities the UCHS consults Holocaust history teachers of secondary schools and higher educational establishments, promotes the creation of curricula and manuals on the Holocaust, organizes annual competitions of students' research and art works. Alongside with the main working directions the UCHS is actively involved in publishing and has its own periodical editions: semi-annual scholarly journal Holocaust and Modernity and bi-monthly informative-pedagogical bulletin Lessons of the Holocaust. The UCHS also participates in international projects in alliance with academic and educational institutions all over the world.
“Tkuma” Ukrainian Institute for Holocaust Studies is the first National centre for studying and teaching Holocaust history. Tkuma has representatives in all the regions of Ukraine, interacts with many cultural and educational organizations, closely cooperates with the Ukrainian Ministry of Science and Education, has connections with scientific institutions and leading Holocaust History researchers from many countries. Tkuma’s main missions are research on Holocaust History, educational programs; creation of Tkuma Central Holocaust Museum in Ukraine; promotion of inter-ethnic and inter-religious dialogue; fostering the atmosphere of tolerance and consent in society as well as combating xenophobia and antisemitism. Tkuma as a scientific centre for Holocaust studies conducts international scientific conferences, publishes scientific and methodical literature, which constitutes the “Ukrainian Library of Holocaust” Academic series, “Holocaust studies” scholar journal, etc.
The Institute has experience in educational work with teachers, secondary schools’ and higher educational establishments’ students and lecturers. In accordance with the Declaration of Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust a system of seminars, work program of the courses for teachers’ qualification improvement courses has been created in cooperation with the Ukrainian Ministry of Education and Science and Regional Educational Institutes for secondary school teachers’ qualification improvement.
Official initiatives (campaigns, actions, projects, commemoration days, museums)
The Parliament recommended, in its resolution establishing the Holocaust Memorial Day, that the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine design and implement a special plan of commemorative actions related to this event and suggested that the plan should include commemorative gatherings, exhibitions in museums and libraries, special lessons in schools and other activities. The events were to be organised by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Education and Science, local self-government institutions, cultural institutions, schools and colleges, academic institutions, Jewish organisations and other non-governmental organisations.
Since the declaration of its foundation in 2016, the National Historical and Memorial Reserve “Babyn Yar” serves as a central national memorial and exhibition site. A small Holocaust museum room in Kharkiv has been established upon a local initiative. There are other private or community-funded exhibitions in Simferopol, Lviv, Mogilev-Podolsky, and Artemovsk. In addition, the Tkuma Foundation reported that it is currently working to set up a national Holocaust museum in Dnepropetrovsk within the next three years.
Between 2010 and the end of 2023 joint German-Ukrainian projects by the Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe and in cooperation with local Ukrainian partners such as the Ukrainian Centre for Holocaust Studies in Kyiv were financed by the German Foreign Office, i.e. Protecting Memory (2010–2019), Connecting Memory (2019–2023), and “Netzwerk Erinnerung – Мережа пам’яті” (2020-2023). These projects constituted networks of communities and experts who protect and honour the cultural heritage of local Jews and Roma, and look after the sites where victims of the Holocaust and of the genocide of Roma are buried. Besides the maintenance and establishment of memorial sites through information plaques, the network organised commemorative events, published books on these killing sites, and did educational outreach measures. A traveling exhibition showcasing the network’s work was opened for the first time in 2020 at the National Museum of the History of Ukraine During World War II in Kyiv.
In 2024 the Youth Agency for the Advocacy of Roma Culture “ARCA” and other Roma civil society organisations issued a public appeal to governmental authorities to implement the resolution of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine regarding the observance of the remembrance day of August 2. Following this appeal they created “Strategic Guide for Commemoration of Roma Genocide in Ukraine for Authorities and Institutions on National Memory: Commemorating the Victims of the Romani Genocide and Other Historical Events of World War II”, which has been sent to ministries and state institutions. This serves local and national initiatives as a framework for organizing commemorative events on August 2, January 27 or September 29.
27 January Ukraine observes the “International Holocaust Remembrance Day”. Commemoration events in Ukraine honour all victims of the Holocaust.
2 AugustNational Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Roma Genocide, established by a Resolution of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. Solemn commemorative gatherings and artistic events take place on 2 August in Kyiv and in cities with significant Roma communities. The observances are organised by Roma organisations and partially supported by government bodies. Roma NGOs report gaps in the implementation of Verkhovna Rada Resolution No. 2085-IV of 8 October 2004, and seek more governmental support on the national, regional, and local level in observing this day of commemoration.
29 SeptemberNational Day of Remembrance, commemorating mass shootings of Roma, Jews, and other victims of Nazism in Babyn Yar between 29 and 30 September 1941. The day is marked by official commemoration ceremonies at the memorial site, including speeches by the Ukrainian President.
Testimonies
Testimony of Mrs Bairam Ibragimova, Roma survivor, describes the massacre of Babyn Yar. It is a part of a French documentary film “Mémoires tsiganes, l'autre génocide” (The Other Genocide. The Persecution of Sinti and Roma in Europe 1920–1946 ) made in 2011 and directed by Idit Bloch and Juliette Jourdan (from 39:30 to 40:23). The documentary film “Named Voices” from 2023 was written by Nataliia Vainilovych and directed by Sashko Brama and intertwines six stories of Ukrainian Roma survivors of the genocide during the Second World War with contemporary testimonies from Roma communities facing another war following the Russian full-scale invasion in 2022.
Between 1995 and 1999, interviews were recorded with 407 surviving Sinti and Roma – 185 men and 222 women –in 18 countries and 16 different languages; these interviews are now housed in the Visual History Archive of the USC Shoah Foundation. It includes 135 video testimonies with Roma survivors from Ukraine, making it the largest collection on this victim group in Ukraine. The second largest online collection is held by Yahad in Unum. Since 2010 the organization has worked on documenting the Roma genocide and collects testimonies on the massacres that took place on the territories of the former Soviet Union (Ukraine, Belarus, Russia), as well as Poland, by Nazi mobile units as well as the deportations to Transnistria from Romania. They identified 51 execution sites of Roma in Ukraine, Poland, Belarus and Russia and interviewed over 60 witnesses to the massacres of the Roma in these countries and collected 180 testimonies on the persecutions of Roma in Eastern Europe.
For an exhibition on the genocide of Roma the “Bildungswerk für Erinnerungsarbeit und Frieden e.V. “ and the Ukrainian Center for Holocaust Studies (UCHS) in Kyiv conducted interviews with 50 Roma survivors between 2018 and 2020. Only excerpts of some of the interviews were made available online together with further biographical information.
The project “Safeguarding Oral History of the Genocide of Roma in Ukraine”, led by the Ukrainian Roma NGO Youth Agency for the Advocacy of Roma Culture (ARCA) together with the German NGO KONTAKTE-KOHTAKTbI e.V. and in close cooperation with the Fortunoff Archive at Yale University, documents the history of the Roma genocide in Ukraine through oral testimonies. Between 2025 and 2026, up to 45 survivor interviews will be recorded and incorporated into a digital archive. Conducted under wartime conditions, the project is unique in its setting and context. It aims to capture the memories of the survivors during the Second World War as well as the current war.
Initiatives of the civil society
The Anne Frank House in Amsterdam has supported the Holocaust and Tolerance Education Project in Ukraine since 2002. Implemented in cooperation with the Ukrainian Center for Holocaust Studies and other academic and educational non-governmental organisations, the programme has included travelling exhibitions, peer training and teacher seminars, as well as a variety of practical initiatives including workshops, competitions and lectures.
ARCA, Youth Organization for the Advocacy of Roma Culture, has undertaken several projects of international scope to disseminate knowledge about the genocide of Roma in Ukraine. For instance, they created exhibitions such as “The Invisible. Resilience: Past and Present of the Roma”, in partnership with the National Historical and Memorial Reserve “Babyn Yar” and the Ukrainian Center for Holocaust Studies, with support from the Embassy of Germany in Ukraine and the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance. It was opened on 2 August 2025 in the “Living Memory” Exhibition Center at the Babyn Yar memorial site and is being presented as a portable exhibition in other cities in 2026 such as Odessa and Lviv.
The subject of the Holocaust in general is presented in the last grade of secondary school within the framework of a history course and it is also referred to in social studies and ethics courses. No fixed number of hours is allocated to Holocaust education and the extent of study on this topic varies significantly amongst schools.
Inclusion of the topic in the school textbooks
Textbooks allocate varying degrees of coverage to the topic of the Holocaust in general. The Ministry of Education and Science recommends to schools those texts that feature a separate chapter or a more-in-depth presentation of the Holocaust.
Training of teachers and education professionals
Teacher-training courses are organised on an annual basis by the Tkuma Foundation, the Ukrainian Centre for Holocaust Studies, the Centre of Jewish Education in Ukraine and other non-governmental research and educational institutions.
From 2009 to 2012, under the support of OSCE/ODIHR, the Ukrainian Centre for Holocaust Studies held dissemination seminars for history teachers, presenting teaching material developed in nineteen district centres all over Ukraine. Thanks to a grant from EVZ Foundation the project continued throughout October to December 2014 in remaining district centres in Ukraine. According to the plan, the seminars took place in Zaporizhzhya, Kirovograd and Sumy in cooperation with local departments of education and/or in-service teacher training establishments.
The Anne Frank House has been active in Ukraine since 2002. With support of the Dutch government the travelling Anne Frank exhibition was shown in dozens of cities all around the country. As a follow-up, in 2008, the Anne Frank House and its Ukrainian partners started a large-scale project for teachers and journalists. It includes a book publishing programme and trainings on the promotion of tolerance. Teacher training seminars were organised in some of the cities that took part in the tour of the Anne Frank exhibition under the title “Who are your neighbours”, focusing on diversity and how to deal with this subject in the classroom. The exhibition was organised in cooperation with the Congress of National Minorities of Ukraine.
In 2017 the Council of Europe published a revised second edition of the “Handbook for Education with Young People on the Roma Genocide”, which focuses on the European dimension. The interactive e-learning “Nothing was left ... ?” by the EVZ-Academy from 2026 offers educators and teachers the opportunity to learn about and teach the history and relevance of the “Holocaust by bullets“ in Ukraine through the short film and educational materials. It is available in German and English and the course takes around 85 minutes.
Particular activities undertaken at the level of education institutions
The Parliamentary resolution creating the Holocaust Memorial Day indicated that commemoration should include special lessons in schools and other educational institutions all over Ukraine on the theme of “The Tragedy of Babyn Yar: lessons of history”.
The Ministry of Education and Science developed recommendations for schools that envisaged the following themes for lectures related to the Holocaust and Babyn Yar: "This is How the Road of Death to Babyn Yar Began"; "Nazism as an extreme form of antisemitism"; "The Holocaust as the greatest crime against humanity" and "The Righteous among the Nations – heroes who saved human lives".
These thematic lectures were delivered in public schools all over Ukraine in September and October 2011.
Factsheet on the Roma Genocide in Ukraine
List of resources to download
