01/08/2024 Equality and Non-Discrimination
Fourat Ben Chikha (Belgium, SOC), PACE General Rapporteur on combating racism and intolerance, made the following statement on the eve of the European Roma Holocaust Memorial Day:
“This year’s commemoration of European Roma Holocaust Memorial Day marks the 80th anniversary of that tragic night of 2 August 1944, when about 4300 Roma and Sinti people, most of them women and children, were murdered at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps. This was one horrific episode in a massacre that saw over half a million Roma and Sinti victims brutally murdered under Nazi German rule.
As we pay homage to the victims of this genocide and honour the survivors, we should endeavour to understand what made this tragedy possible. The Roma Holocaust did not happen overnight. It was the last stage in an escalation of discrimination and violence, fuelled by hateful propaganda and translated into racial laws. Sinti and Roma people were increasingly deprived of their rights. Excluded from certain professions and from serving in the army, they were isolated, subjected to forced sterilisation, deportation and forced labour.
Today, it is the duty of European societies not only to prevent history from repeating itself, by preventing and countering early sign of anti-Gypsyism, beginning with stigmatisation and hate speech. We also need to show solidarity with Roma and Sinti communities, defend their human rights and promote their inclusion. The Council of Europe and its Parliamentary Assembly must be at the forefront of these efforts.”
A delegation of eleven parliamentarians, led by PACE President Theodoros Rousopoulos, will take part in an event at Auschwitz-Birkenau on 2 August to mark the 80th anniversary of the European Holocaust Memorial Day for Roma and Sinti.