Factsheet on the Roma Genocide in the United Kingdom
Recognition of the Roma Genocide
Recognition, official texts
Since 2001, the United Kingdom observes 27 January as Holocaust Memorial Day. It is a day of remembrance for the victims of the Holocaust, Nazi persecution and all subsequent genocides. More specifically, Holocaust Memorial Day aims to recognise that the Holocaust was a tragically defining episode of the twentieth century, a crisis for European civilization and a universal catastrophe for humanity as well as to provide a national mark of respect for all victims of Nazi persecution and demonstrate understanding with all those who still suffer its consequences.
All events place the commemoration of the Holocaust and all victims of Nazi persecution (including the Roma) at their centre, with speeches by survivors, leading politicians and other dignitaries, including the Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom. It was reported that the memorial event also commemorates the genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur. The national event is attended by a Cabinet Minister, together with senior civil servants and officials from across Government. There is a similar level of representation at the national events in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The United Kingdom has not established a memorial day dedicated to the Roma and Sinti Genocide.
Data (camps locations, Remembrance places, measures etc.)
The Holocaust Memorial in Hyde Park, London, was the first public memorial in Great Britain dedicated to victims of the Holocaust. It lies to the east of the Serpentine Lake, in The Dell, an open-air area within the park. Since its unveiling in 1983 remembrance services have taken place at the memorial every year. It is inscribed in both English and Hebrew with the words "For these I weep. Streams of tears flow from my eyes because of the destruction of my people" which is a quotation from the Book of Lamentations.
The memorial is primarily dedicated to Jewish victims but it serves as the gathering place for Roma victims’ commemoration as well.
There were no concentration or internment camps for Roma people nor mass murders against them in the UK during World War II. So there are neither other monuments nor remembrance places in the UK.
Specialised institution, commission, research centre etc., dealing with this issue
The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust is a standing organization which provides information and advice to teachers, journalists and the interested public. They organise the National Memorial Day each year and list events, resources, PowerPoint presentations, films and regular news up-dates. Their homepage includes Roma and Sinti as victims of the Holocaust.
The Centre for Holocaust Education of the Institute of Education of the University College of London dispenses courses and other events linked to the teaching of the Holocaust. It also provides teachers with help and guidelines regarding the teaching of the Holocaust. It provides teacher resources on the history of the Roma Genocide. In May 2014, the Institute of Education held an expert meeting with IHRA on the Roma Genocide in which were presented all projects addressing the Roma Genocide (summarized in the report).
The Wiener Library for the Study of Holocaust and Genocide is the biggest library on the Holocaust and has an important collection of resources on the Roma Genocide.
The UK is home to Europe’s largest Holocaust exhibition at the Imperial War Museum, London. The exhibition attracts thousands of visitors each year, many of whom are school students who engage in educational programs. The Imperial War Museums’ website dedicates one of its sections to the Holocaust, providing general information, visual resources and testimonies. Although there is no particular focus on the Roma Genocide, they are mentioned as being part of the victims.
The National Holocaust Centre and Museum provides a range of facilities for people of all backgrounds to explore the history and implications of the Holocaust. There are two permanent exhibitions – The Holocaust Exhibition, suitable for secondary school children and adults and The Journey, a text free and tactile exhibition built with younger children in mind. The centre hosts survivors on a daily basis that visitors can meet. The Holocaust exhibition presents the general history of the Holocaust, therefore including the fate of Roma and Sinti. The Centre is also a remembrance site: the “Memorial gardens” gather several sculptures and monuments to honour all the victims of the Holocaust. Unfortunately, none specifically commemorates the Roma.
During June 2015 which is the Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month in the UK, the National Centre has displayed an exhibition on “The Nazi Regime Targeted Groups: Gypsies”.
In January 2015, based on the Prime Minister’s Holocaust Commission Report David Cameron announced that Britain will have a new National Memorial and world-class Learning Centre using the latest digital technology to commemorate and educate about the Holocaust.
In 2016 Prime Minister Theresa May launched a design competition for a Memorial and underground Learning Centre in Victoria Tower Gardens, adjacent to Parliament in Westminster.
The winning scheme was proposed by a team led by architects Adjaye Associates, with Ron Arad Architects as Memorial Architect and Gustafson Porter + Bowman as Landscape Architect.
To date, the Memorial is not yet built but it will be “dedicated to the 6 million Jewish men, women and children murdered in the Holocaust and all other victims of the Nazis and their collaborators”.
Official initiatives (campaigns, actions, projects, commemoration days, museums)
The British Government funds the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust (HMDT) to deliver the United Kingdom’s Holocaust Memorial Day Ceremony, which takes place in a different venue each year in London. There are also national events organised by the Scottish and Welsh Governments and the Northern Ireland Executive. The government funds the HMDT to publicise Holocaust Memorial Day. The HMDT develops themes to commemorate the Holocaust each year, which the government promotes. The HMDT also develops teaching resources, including online resources for schools, organizations (including local councils, prisons and religious bodies) and individuals to download in order to help them arrange their own Holocaust Memorial Day event. The Government provides funding, enabling the HMDT to appoint regional support workers, who work with civil society in events in their regions. In, 2014, 2 400 local events commemorating the Holocaust took place, the largest number so far.
There is no specific law in relation to the denial of the Holocaust. However, there are laws preventing the incitement of racial hatred against any particular ethnic or religious minority, but in the past this has not been used to protect Roma and Travellers who regularly receive racist abuse in a number of forms, including the mass media.
Teaching about the Roma Genocide
Inclusion of the topic in the school curriculum
In 1991, UK was the first European country to make teaching about the Holocaust a mandatory part of the history curriculum in state secondary schools, whilst in 2009 it was the first country to undertake extensive national research into Holocaust teaching and learning.
Teaching about the Holocaust is a compulsory part of the history curriculum in the UK. The principal way in which children will learn about the Holocaust is through the National Curriculum for History. The Department for Children, Schools and Families employed a full-time consultant for a number of years to ensure that the Holocaust, which is the killing of 6 million Jews under the Nazis, was included in the history curriculum. Reference might also be made to the persecution of other groups, including the Roma people at that time. A range of teaching and publicity/information materials have been produced to support the teaching of Holocaust in the National Curriculum. In practice, it is rather hidden and misses information on the Roma Genocide to be included in the school curriculum when issues surrounding the Holocaust are being considered.
As part of European and world history, children between the ages of 11 and 14 are expected to be taught “the changing nature of conflict and co-operation between countries and peoples and its lasting impact on national, ethnic, racial, cultural or religious issues, including the nature and impact of the two world wars and the Holocaust, and the role of European and international institutions in resolving conflicts.” However, few schools teach about the Roma Genocide in any detail and there are few resources to support its teaching.
Within higher education there is a rich research culture around Holocaust studies. There are a number of highly respected scholars working in UK universities, and students can further their learning about the Holocaust through various courses. For postgraduates there are degrees directly focused on the Holocaust, while a growing number of research students are studying the subject in centres at Royal Holloway, University of London, the University of Southampton and the University of Leicester.
Inclusion of the topic in the school textbooks
Some textbooks include the Roma Genocide, yet there is no requirement for schools to use any particular reference book.
Training of teachers and education professionals
The government supports the Institute of Education’s Centre for Holocaust Education to help ensure teachers are equipped with the training and resources they need to deliver effective Holocaust education. Since 2011, the Centre has reached 4,770 teachers, including 1,893 initial teacher education students who will begin their careers understanding the significance of teaching about the Holocaust.
The Centre for Holocaust Education of the Institute of Education of the University College of London dispenses courses and other events linked to the teaching of the Holocaust. It also provides teachers with help and guidelines regarding the teaching of the Holocaust. It provides teacher resources on the history of the Roma Genocide. In May 2014, the Institute of Education held an expert meeting with IHRA on the Roma Genocide in which were presented all projects addressing the Roma Genocide (summarized in the report).
The Holocaust Educational Trust offers a wide range of free initial teacher training and Continuing Professional Development programmes to assist teachers across a range of subjects and age groups. The Trust has also developed the innovative Exploring the Holocaust teaching pack specifically for use in schools in the UK.
Particular activities undertaken at the level of education institutions
Outside of formal lessons, tens of thousands of students each year hear the eyewitness testimony of Holocaust survivors through the Trust's Outreach programme. There are also a number of museums and memorial centres which offer opportunities for students to learn more about the Holocaust, whether through school or family visits. They include the Imperial War Museum in London; the Holocaust Centre; the Jewish Museum in London; the Manchester Jewish Museum and The Wiener Library Institute of Contemporary History.
The government financially supports the HET to run its “Lessons from Auschwitz” project. The funding provides for two students from every state-funded school and six from College in England to visit Auschwitz-Birkenau. As part of the project, there is preparatory and follow-up work that is carried out with the students, often involving talks with survivors. The students then share their experience with their peers and the community. Since 1999, more than 25 000 students and teachers from across the United Kingdom have participated in this project.
The National Holocaust Memorial Day 27 January is recognised each year up and down the country and on most occasions now, the Roma Genocide is included. In general, the focus is on remembering the Holocaust in order to relate this topic to contemporary issues. For example, 2008 HMD has “Stand up to Hatred” as its theme
Testimonies
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Initiatives of the civil society
On the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz on 27 January 2015, the Huffington Post UK published an article on the Forgotten victims, therefore presenting the Roma victims of the Holocaust. The article delivers the testimony of Ceija Stojka, an Austrian Roma survivor.
The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust is the charity that promotes and supports Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD).HMD has taken place in the UK since 2001, with a UK event and over 3,600 local activities taking place on or around 27 January each year. It commemorates all victims of the Holocaust, inlcuding Roma and Sinti. Their website has a section dedicated to the Porrajmos.
BBC UK provides a timeline of the persecution of the Roma under Nazi rule.
Romany Collection of Robert Dawson:
Robert Dawson has a private collection of thousands of pictures of Gypsies and other Travellers in history. He has an online gallery, which displays pictures of the “Gypsy Holocaust”. He has gathered over the years a massive collection of Romani photography, with a substantial part on the Holocaust.
He has donated 500 pictures on that topic to the National Holocaust Centre which will be available to view shortly. Some pictures can be shocking. The majority of Bob Dawson's collections are now kept by Reading University and the photographs of the German soldiers with Roma are his most recent acquisition. See an article written by Mike Doherty, Travellers’ Times - 22nd October 2013.
Amnesty International UK screened on 29th July 2015 the film “A people uncounted”, about Roma in Auschwitz, their brave and desperate fight against the guards and SS and their almost complete annihilation on 2nd August 1944 in the Porajmos, or Roma Holocaust. The screening was followed by a Q&A with the film’s producer William Billa, alongside two survivors of Porajmos who will tell their story.
On 2nd August 2015, an event was held at noon in front of the Holocaust Memorial in Hyde Park: speeches, songs and poetry were said to commemorate the Roma Genocide.
Factsheet on the Roma Genocide in the United Kingdom
