Recognition of the Roma Genocide

 Recognition, official texts

The Holy See does not officially recognise the Holocaust but it has unofficially acknowledged it in several official publications, including the Roma Genocide. The term "Roma Holocaust" is used to refer to the Roma Genocide. Moreover, Roma victims are systematically included in the victims of the Holocaust.

A turning point in the relationship between the Holy See and the Roma communities was marked by the speech made by Paul VI saying that the latter were "at the heart of the Church". It ended the historical silence of the Catholic authorities regarding Roma.

In 2011, Pope Benedict XVI invited 2000 Roma in the Vatican City to celebrate the 150th anniversary of birth and 75th anniversary of  death of the Roma martyr Zeffirino Gimenez Malla, beatified by John-Paul II in 1997. During his speech, he recalled the tragic - and above all ignored - fate of the Roma under the Nazi era.

 Data (camps locations, Remembrance places, measures etc.)

 Specialised institution, commission, research centre etc., dealing with this issue

There is no specialised institution dealing with the Roma Genocide. However Roma issues are dealt with by the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Itinerant people, in its sector "Nomads: Sinti, Roma".

S.Em. Card. Antonio Maria Vegliò, Presidente
S.E. Mons. Joseph Kalathiparambil, Segretario
Rev. P. Gabriele Ferdinando Bentoglio, C.S., Sotto-Segretario

Palazzo San Calisto
00120 Vatican City
Telephone: (+ 39) 06 698 87 131
Fax: (+ 39) 06 698 87 111
E-mail: [email protected]

 Official initiatives (campaigns, actions, projects, commemoration days, museums)

Although the Holy See is the central government of the Catholic Church, it does not manage the activities of local Catholic churches, which are independently responsible for organizing education and remembrance initiatives related to the Holocaust. This means that it is up to each individual church to undertake concrete measures for Holocaust remembrance. For that reason, the Holy See has not established a memorial day to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust and has no plans to do so. Yet it commemorates the Genocide perpetrated by the Nazi on 27th January.

The Roma Genocide is mentioned as the “Forgotten Holocaust” in the presentation document “Children of the wind” of the Pontifical Council of the Pastoral Care for Gypsies 30th June – 3rd July 2003: The Roma Genocide (Roma Holocaust) is evoked in the 5th World Congress of the Pastoral Care for Gypsies in Budapest, Hungary, in several documents:

• “Welcome address” by Archbishop Stefano Fumio Hamao in which he underlined the centuries of rejection and persecution “the height of which was the ‘forgotten Holocaust’”
• “the Pastoral care for Gypsies: for a spirituality of communion” by HE Msgr Leo Cornelio
  "The Nazi racism, for example, stripped the Gypsies of legal protection, as it did the Jews. The Gypsies were outside legal procedures. According to a recent writer, Gabrielle Tyrnauer, “The rest followed: forced sterilization, deportation to slave labour and extermination camps, victimisation by medical experiments and, finally, mass annihilation with bullets or gas.”[10] It is estimated that 500,000 Gypsies fell victim to Nazi Racism. [11] In the same discourse, the Pope reminded the church not to overlook the history of the Gypsies, especially its tragic phases. The Pope recalled a statement he had made at the 50th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe, “The memories of the War must not grow dim; rather, they ought to become a stern lesson for our generation and for generations yet to come.” “To forget what happened in the past can open the way to new forms of rejection and aggression.”[29] Archbishop Stephen Fumio Hamao, President of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People, called for repentance of words and attitudes caused by pride, by hatred, by the desire to dominate others, by enmity towards members of other religions and towards the weakest groups in society such as immigrants and itinerants. The Holy Father prayed, “…Christians have often denied the Gospel, yielding to a mentality of power, they have violated the rights of ethnic groups and peoples, and shown contempt for their cultures and religious traditions: be patient and merciful towards us and grant us your forgiveness…” [30]. The Pope’s prayerful gesture stands both as an act of acknowledgment of past wrongs in the Church and as a constant invitation to all in the Church to examine themselves as to their attitudes and actions towards these less fortunate people."
• The text “Today’s challenges: new educational projects in today’s in a multicultural society” by S.E. Mgr Szilard Keresztes.