REPORT FROM THE SEMINAR “THE EXTERMINATION OF THE ROMA AND SINTI”
Warsaw Ghetto Museum
The event began with a meeting featuring Małgorzata Kołaczek, PhD and Noemi Łakatosz from the Towards Dialogue Foundation. They discussed the role of Roma men and women in commemorating the Roma Holocaust and combating anti-Gypsyism. Following this, Halina Postek, PhD, from the Warsaw Ghetto Museum delivered a lecture titled "How to Teach About the Extermination of Roma and Sinti?"
On Saturday morning, participants travelled to Oświęcim, where they attended a lecture by Prof. Sławomir Kapralski on the Extermination of Roma and Sinti during World War II. They then visited the Centre for Roma History and Culture and the Jewish Centre in Oświęcim, where they learned about the activities of both institutions and their local initiatives to commemorate the minorities of Oświęcim who were persecuted and murdered by the Germans during the war.
On Sunday, seminar participants visited the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Oświęcim. Under the guidance of Daria Janowiec, PhD, they toured the sites of Roma martyrdom, including the so-called Gypsy camp (Zigeunerlager) in Auschwitz-Birkenau BIIe.
The German Nazis began persecuting the Roma as soon as they assumed power. The racial laws issued in 1935 in Nuremberg classified them as an alien element. Shortly after the outbreak of World War II, mass resettlements of Roma groups from the Third Reich to the General Government began. Many Roma were placed in Jewish ghettos, primarily in Łódź and Warsaw, and were subsequently murdered, including victims in the extermination camp at Chełmno nad Nerem (Chełmno on the Ner river). Throughout the occupation, nomadic Roma were actively hunted down and often killed on the spot.
The deportation of Roma to the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp started in February 1943 and continued through July 1944. Most of the prisoners were brought from Germany, Austria, the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, and Poland. However, there were also groups of Roma from France, the Netherlands, Yugoslavia, Croatia, Belgium, Russia, Lithuania, Hungary, Spain, and even Norway.
In total, around 23,000 Roma and Sinti were taken to Auschwitz, with about 21,000 being officially registered. Tragically, the majority perished or were killed in the gas chambers, with only several hundred managing to survive the camp. In 2011, Poland became the first country to officially recognise August 2nd (the date marking the liquidation of the “Gypsy camp” in Auschwitz II Birkenau) as the Day of Remembrance for the Extermination of Roma and Sinti.
Over thirty educators, guides, and teachers participated in the seminar
“The Extermination of the Roma and Sinti,” which was organised from December 12 to 14.
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