2 August 2021
Chris J. Lazaris
Ambassador Chris J. Lazaris, Chair of IHRA
Statement on the occasion of 2 August 2021, Holocaust Memorial Day for Sinti and Roma
Honorable high representatives of States, governments, international and national institutions, Distinguished participants of this commemorative gathering, Ladies and Gentlemen,
My deep feelings and emotions overtake me as I bow in the memory of the innocent victims, fellow Roma and Sinti European Citizens, who were murdered in Auschwitz – Birkenau in the name of an artificial mental construct of racial purity. It is bitterly ironic that the tormentors, who perceived their victims as sub humans, only managed to conclude their gruesome task on their second attempt: Their foray into the so called Gypsy Camp on 16 May 1944 in fact had met with fierce resistance by the inmates and the executioners had to abandon their planned assassination of the interned Roma and Sinti, albeit only temporarily.
This day should remind all of us of some of the darkest moments of European History. Finally, out of the ashes of all the victims, we are here commemorating in Europe which enjoys an unprecedented long stretch of peace and affluence. It is by remembering and education that we will continue to maintain the peace and strengthen human rights that guarantee the prosperity and the continuous advancement of all European citizens.
Thus, it is our duty to uphold and strengthen IHRA’s commitment to Research, Remembrance and, foremost, Education on the Genocide of the Roma and Sinti, the Samudaripen. It is an unceasing process that will make society at large aware of the travails of their fellow citizens and, furthermore, will do away with, I hope, entrenched stereotypes of the other. The scourge of Antigypsyism or anti–Roma racism or anti–Roma discrimination, a major factor that led to the Genocide, has to be eradicated.
IHRA’s commitment to all the above has been transubstantiated into concrete actions, the culmination, in some instances, of work of many years by its Committee on the Genocide of the Roma whose work I would like now to comment. It was during the German Presidency of the Alliance that a working definition on Antigypsyism was unanimously adopted by all the member countries. And it is currently, during the Greek Presidency, that the Committee has been tasked to develop and introduce guidelines of how to teach the Genocide of the Roma and Sinti, the Roma Holocaust, in schools.
The memory of the victims and the remembrance of this dark chapter in European history should serve as the springboard for all of us to strive for the eradication of any form of racism that, in the end, is detrimental to society as a whole. Racism is a burden on all of us.
So, Look and don’t forget, Dikh he na bister.
I thank you.
Statements 2021
Romani Rose
Chairman of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma
Katarina Barley
Vice President of the European Parliament
Helena Dalli
European Commissioner for Equality
Claudia Roth
Vice President of the German Bundestag
Paul Blokhuis
Dutch State Secretary Paul Blokhuis
Chris J. Lazaris
Amb. Chris J. Lazaris, IHRA Chairman
Fernand des Varennes
UN Special Rapporteur UN minorities
Anna-Nicole Heinrich
President of the Synod of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD)
Justin Trudeau
Prime Minister of Canada
Roman Kwiatkowski
Chairman of the Association of Roma in Poland
Erich Schneeberger
Deputy Chairman of the Documentation and Cultural Center of German Sinti and Roma and Chairman of the Association of German Sinti and Roma
Timea Junghaus
Executive Director
European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture (ERIAC)
Adam Strauß
Chairman of the Council of German Sinti and Roma in Hesse
Manon Aubry
Manon Aubry, MEP
Adrian-Nicolae Furtuna
Historian at the University of Bucharest
Philomena Franz
Holocaust Survivor
Angelina Kappler
German former Weinkönigin
Marian Kalwary
Chairman of the Association of Jews,
Survivors and Victims of the Second World War
Piotr Gliński
First Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Culture and National Heritage of Poland
Izabela Tiberiade
Young Activist from Sweden
Ursula Krechel
Writer
Marija Pejčinović Burić
Secretary-General of the Council of Europe
Klaus Iohannis
President of Romania