CENTERING
ROMA VOICES
IHRA
How two museums are advancing remembrance of the genocide of the Roma through the IHRA Recommendations for Teaching and Learning about the Persecution and Genocide of the Roma during the Nazi Era.
For decades, the story of the genocide of the Roma during the Nazi era remained largely untold – neglected in classrooms, unacknowledged in memorials, and absent from public discourse. Earlier this year, the IHRA, in close collaboration with Roma civil society and experts, developed the Recommendations for Teaching and Learning about the Persecution and Genocide of the Roma during the Nazi Era to support more inclusive and accurate engagement with this history.
Now, museums from two IHRA Member Countries – the Camp Westerbork Memorial in the Netherlands and the Swedish Museum of the Holocaust –are helping those voices finally be heard. Though their approaches differ, both institutions are showing how the IHRA Recommendations can move beyond policy recommendations into meaningful, public-facing practice. In doing so, they are not only telling history – they are restoring voice, agency, and memory.
In May 2025, the Camp Westerbork Memorial will open a new three-room exhibition shaped by the IHRA Recommendations. Its purpose is clear: to present the history of the Roma not only as a story of persecution, but as a story of people – of lives lived, traditions carried, and memories preserved.
The exhibition brings together artworks by Roma artists, authentic objects, and multimedia material that foreground Roma voices. Interactive displays invite visitors to reflect on the atrocities of the past while also engaging with the resilience of survivors and their descendants. Importantly, the exhibition resists framing Roma solely as victims; instead, it emphasizes dignity, culture, and continuity – reflecting the IHRA’s call to approach teaching with empathy and nuance. Speaking on the role of the Recommendations in establishment of the exhibition, Bas Kortholt, Researcher at the Camp Westerbork Memorial, says, ‘‘The Recommendations were also of great value in writing the exhibition texts and creating digital personal stories that can be viewed and listened to in the exhibition. In that manner, the Recommendations functioned as both
a reference work and handbook that we could constantly go back to.’’
The exhibition also does not shy away from uncomfortable truths. Alongside the crimes of the Nazis, the exhibition directly addresses the role of Dutch citizens and institutions in facilitating deportations and repression.
The efforts at Westerbork extend far beyond the museum walls. In April 2025, the Memorial Centre led an online campaign for International Roma Day, in partnership with more than 20 institutions in the Netherlands and abroad – including the Anne Frank Foundation, the National Holocaust Museum, and the National Committee for 4 and 5 May. Using the shared hashtag #Romaday, the campaign highlighted Roma life before, during, and after the war.
At the Swedish Museum of the Holocaust, the IHRA Recommendations have found
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