Friedrich Merz

Video statement on the occasion of 2 August 2024, Holocaust Memorial Day for Sinti and Roma

Panie i Panowie,

Dear participants of the commemorative conference,

Dear fellow citizens,

Today on 2 August, the International Day of Commemoration of the Genocide of Sinti and Roma, we commemorate the inconceivable atrocities committed against the Roma and Sinti community during the Second World War.

80 years ago today, on 2 August 1944, around 4,000 Sinti and Roma, including women, children and elderly people, were murdered in the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp in a single night. This was only part of the horrific reality of the genocide to which hundreds of thousands of Roma and Sinti fell victim. It was a senseless, industrialised murder of defenceless, innocent people.

Today we also remember the victims of the Shoah, the murder of six million Jews, and we commemorate all the other victims of the Nazi regime.

This 2nd August is dedicated to the memory of these victims. This date is also a call for vigilance and action. To not let up in our efforts to combat discrimination against the Sinti and Roma minority in Germany and throughout Europe.

The survivor Zoni Weisz once called the genocide of the Sinti and Roma under National Socialism ‘the forgotten Holocaust’. Indeed, many people in Germany are still far too little aware of the full extent of the crimes committed against the Sinti and Roma minority. The same applies to the continuing discrimination and marginalisation after 1945.

On this day, we would therefore also like to recall the unceasing and commendable educational work of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma and the numerous other associations and self-help organisations. I would like to thank you all in particular for your commitment to remembrance, for raising awareness of the crimes, and I thank you for your dedication to peaceful, just coexistence in Germany.

In silent remembrance – and in the hope of a good and peaceful future for us all.

Yours, Friedrich Merz.