Recognition of the Roma Genocide

 Recognition, official texts

Belgium observes 27 January as the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust (Journée internationale de la commémoration en mémoire des victimes de la Shoah).

Belgium has not yet established a memorial day for commemorating the Roma and Sinti genocide.

The decree of 13 March 2009 officially launched in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation a subject now referred to as “Memory transmission of Genocides, war crimes, crimes against humanity, resistance deeds and resistance movements”. This decree also led to the creation of the Conseil de la transmission de la mémoire (Council for the Transmission of Memory) and gave another role to Dob (see below)

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

In 1942, the Nazis set up their SS Sammellager at the Dossin barracks in Mechelen. Between July 1942 and September 1944, 25 482 Jews and 352 Gypsies were imprisoned there before being deported. The majority was sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Two thirds of the deportees were gassed upon their arrival. At the time of the Liberation, only 5% had survived. Today, Kazerne Dossin (the former Jewish Museum of Deportation and Resistance) is a memorial as well as a museum and a documentation centre on Holocaust and human rights.

The Nazi occupation of Belgium is mainly remembered in 3 places :

• Kazerne Dossin: a remembrance place was inaugurated at the Dossin barracks on 30 May 1948. Since 1956, a ceremony takes place there every year
• The Fortress of Breendonk, a former Auffanlager, where the political opponents were imprisoned. It is now also a museum which welcomes each year many school children
• The Fortress of Huy which served as a prison during the German occupation. About 7000 people were imprisoned here. It has also been converted to a museum.

The first 2 museums are the most visited and give each visitor, from schools to members of the public, comprehensive insight into the understanding of racial and political persecution in Belgium.

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

Belgium has several resource centres but none is specifically dedicated to the Genocide of the Roma:

• Kazerne Dossin
  Kazerne Dossin (the former Jewish Museum of Deportation and Resistance) is a memorial as well as a museum and a documentation centre on Holocaust and human rights. The main purpose of the archives centre is to collect, store and digitalize original documents and records on the Holocaust in Belgium and northern France.
• The National Memorial of the Fortress of Breendonk
  The Fortress of Breendonk is one of the best preserved camps in Europe and tells the story of the political victims of the Nazis. Every year, 35,000 to 40,000 schoolchildren visit the Memorial. Thanks to the wealth of information they will assimilate in the course of their visit, no child can go away without having formed a precise idea of its history, and of racial and political persecution in particular, thanks to a well structured cooperation with Kazerne Dossin in Mechelen. The Memorial also has an archive for further historical research. 
• CEGESOMA
  CEGESOMA, Centre for Historical Research and Documentation on War and Contemporary Society, is the Belgian centre of excellence for the history of 20th century conflicts. It carries out research, organises public events and holds document collections. As a federal institution it is, together with the State Archives and the Royal Library, part of the Documentation Pole. It is a platform for academic and public activities in Belgium and abroad, in particular with regard to the two World Wars.
• Auschwitz Foundation
  The non-profit organization Auschwitz Foundation - Auschwitz in Remembrance wants to keep the memory of Nazi crimes and genocides alive and to raise collective awareness among young people of today and tomorrow. Concretely, the Auschwitz Foundation develops a number of activities in the field of pedagogics, didactics and in-service training, based on documentation, archives and research.
• Centre Communautaire Laïc Juif
• Based on the principles of freedom of mind, tolerance towards other opinions and turning away from dogmatic laws, CCLJ honours the traditions of humanism and respects the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (1948). CCLJ offers activities and educational tools to participate in the struggle against racism, antisemitism, fascism.
• Les Territoires de la Mémoire
  Based in Liège, Territoires de la Mémoire presents itself as a centre of education to resistance and citizenship. Alongside a permanent exhibition called “Plus jamais ça” which attracts a school public, there are many other activities such as temporary exhibitions, film projections, animations…

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

The museum of Kazerne Dossin evokes the gypsies who were deported there in the permanent exhibition and shows related pictures and other elements in the Memorial. Their names are called, along with those of all the prisoners of Dossin.

Every year in September, there is a remembrance ceremony at the Breendonk fortress in honour of all prisoners.