About 3,000 people were exterminated on the night of August 2-3, 1944 in the Auschwitz II-Birkenau concentration camp, on the grounds that they were Roma. Together with the European states, the Republic of Moldova commemorated the victims of the Roma Holocaust during World War II at the “Visterniceni” train station, from where the Roma were deported to the Bug River to death. The president of the Roma Women’s Platform “Romni” Elena Sirbu said that it is hard to imagine what was happening at this train station with the desperate women, children and elderly people, who had fear in their eyes, IPN reports.
Elena Sirbu stressed that although 80 years seem a long period of time, in reality it is a short period since the atrocities of that time. Today’s children and future generations must be protected from the risk of going through such pain. In order to preserve the memory of what happened and combat discrimination, the intention is to erect a monument at the “Visterniceni” train station, where the victims of the Holocaust against the Roma can be commemorated.
Interethnic Relations Agency director Vyacheslav Ryabchinski said that few know the history of the Roma Holocaust, a tragedy that deeply affected the people and families who live among us today and represent this community. The Roma communities should be actively involved in the country’s development and the stereotypes persisting in society should be eliminated.
Alisia Parfentieva, the representative of the Interethnic Relations Policy Service of the Ministry of Education and Research, said that on August 2, Moldova, together with the European states, commemorates the 500,000 innocent Roma souls lost in the Nazi extermination camps during World War II. Also, about 25,000 Romanies were deported from Romania to the “gypsy camps” in the Transnistrian region, of which about 11,000 died in 1942-1944. One of the most tragic pages of the Roma Holocaust was on August 2, 1944, when the “gypsy camp” located on the territory of the largest Nazi extermination camp Auschwitz was liquidated. During one night, thousands of Romanies, mostly women and children, were forced into the gas chamber and killed. Eighty years have passed since that tragic event 80.
The official noted that it is necessary to strengthen the efforts to combat xenophobia and intolerance. The European Roma Holocaust Memorial Day is a moment of public commitment to preserve the memory and awareness of the consequences of these tragic events. “It is our duty to teach the future generations about the consequences of the Nazi atrocities based on superiority, racial hatred, to promote the culture of tolerance, to prevent and combat discrimination,” stated Alisia Parfentieva.
The event was organized by the Working Group on Roma Refugees and Roma Civil Society in cooperation with the Interethnic Relations Agency, the Ministry of Education and Research and the UN Refugee Agency, with the support of the European Union.
