Žygimantas Pavilionis

Commemoration speech on the occasion of 2 August 2024, Holocaust Memorial Day for Sinti and Roma

Distinguished Dignitaries,

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Representatives of Roma, Sinti and Traveller communities, 

I have the honor to address you not only in my role as Vice Speaker of Lithuanian Parliament but also on behalf of the Lithuanian Presidency of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. 

80 years ago hundreds of thousands of Roma and Sinti women and men, children, adults and elderly, sick and healthy, were murdered by the Nazis as part of their inhuman and criminal racist policies. Holocaust and genocide represent the worst injustice the humans ever did to other humans. I thank the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma, the Association of Roma in Poland, and the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum for organizing this dignified commemoration, supported by a joint programme of the European Union and Council of Europe. 

The death of a single person is always an irrecoverable loss of a whole world of thoughts, dreams, inspirations, memories, sentiments, achievements, seized and unrealized opportunities, and all sorts of human life experiences. As such, it is always a tragedy. To measure the loss of a human community, the entirety or a big part of a nation, one has to multiply that tragedy by hundreds of thousands or even by millions. That amount of suffering is unimaginable. It is especially unbearable if it was caused not by a huge natural or technological disaster as an ‘act of God’, but conceived and perpetrated by other humans and their institutions, on the basis of a cynical extremist ideology and in pursuit of foul and criminal objectives. Every time you think of it causes an outcry of conscience. 

How can future generations live with this burden?  Merely saying “never again” does not even begin to address the immensity and monstrosity of the crime or make amends. Europe and the world should be aware of this history and fully own it. We only can find relative peace of mind if we live up to the memory and dignity of innocent victims by telling the truth about all aspects and segments of the Holocaust and by honestly facing up to the flaws and problems that led us into that unforgettable and unforgivable tragedy eight decades ago. Have no illusion, sure enough they continue to haunt us today: xenophobia, intolerance, hate speech, cultural ignorance, ideological manipulation, misinformation, and recourse to violence for political ends; but also poverty, social inequality and discrimination. 

Teaching history and exploring the culture of the Roma, Sinti and other Traveller communities, and their effective social integration, through dedicated and properly resourced state programs and action plans, are today indispensable elements of democratic government policies. 

That is why we included the fight against discrimination and hate speech among the priorities of the Lithuanian Council-of-Europe Presidency.  Just as every year my Embassy in Warsaw joins the 2 August commemoration here in Auschwitz, our international partners, Roma and Sinti communities in Lithuania and all of Europe can firmly count on our full solidarity and civic action in this endeavour, well beyond the Presidency time horizon.  

Thank you.