Totalitarianism, destructive nationalism and extremism must have no place in our society. Together, we must strive to live together with respect and mutual understanding,’ said the Vice-President of the European Parliament.
Michał Kamiński, Deputy Speaker of the Polish Senate, also referred to the present day in the context of historical memory in his speech: ‘Until very recently, we might have thought that if we come to Auschwitz, we come first and foremost to honour the memory of the Victims of the enormous, unspeakable tragedy that took place here. However, today we are not only here to remember but also because we believe that those nightmares in our thoughts are forever buried.’
‘Yet this is not the case. Today, old demons are resurfacing in both Western and Eastern Europe. It turns out that just as 80-90 years ago on German soil, so today and in other countries, we are experiencing the grim lesson that no civilisation or nation is exempt from the sins of racism and hatred,’ stated Michał Kamiński.
The Prime Minister of Poland, Mateusz Morawiecki, addressed a letter to the participants of the celebrations. It was read by Mateusz Małodziński, Deputy Governor of Małopolska. “The Roma and Sinti, our neighbours, and an integral part of our heritage for centuries, who had created their own original culture, were systematically exterminated and sent to concentration camps located in central Europe. They were the third-largest group of prisoners at Auschwitz, after Jews and Poles. Brought in from fourteen countries, they died of hunger, disease, and gassing”.
"Once again, we take the pledge that we will do everything to ensure that the times of contempt never return, that respect for others is always the most important value," stated the Prime Minister in his letter.
The Roma, along with Jews, became the objects of racist persecution: first through registration, then a ban on specific professions and mixed marriages, followed by compulsory labour and, ultimately, confinement in concentration camps. The Nazis regarded them as a “hostile element” with a 'hereditary' propensity to commit crime and antisocial behaviour.
After the outbreak of World War II, a decision was made to resettle German Roma in occupied Poland. The German police authorities began to arrest and execute Roma in the occupied territories, including at the rear of the Eastern Front, where they were mass-murdered along with Jews by the so-called Einsatzkommando.
From 1943 onwards, Sinti and Roma, mainly from Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic and Poland, were deported to Auschwitz under orders from Heinrich Himmler. About 23,000 Roma were deported by the Germans to Auschwitz, including 2,000 Roma murdered without registration in the camp's records. 21,000 were registered in the camp, of which 19,000 died of starvation and sickness or were murdered in the gas chambers upon liquidation of the “Gypsy camp”.
Today, in Block 13, on the grounds of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, an exhibition is open to the public in remembrance of the Roma Holocaust. It shows the dimension of the genocide committed against the Roma in Nazi-occupied Europe. The Roma Victims are commemorated in a memorial located in section BIIe of the former Birkenau camp.
The history of the Roma Victims of the camp is explored in the online lesson “The Roma in Auschwitz", one of the podcast episodes "About Auschwitz", and the 7th volume of the educational series Voices of Remembrance. Also available on the Google Cultural Institute website is the Museum's exhibition “The Roma in Auschwitz".