Commemorating Roma Holocaust

It's important to commemorate the Roma Holocaust, and not forget what happened during the WWII, so that we won't have to erect memorials to those who will have fought for our freedom, Government Proxy for the Roma communities Peter Pollak said at a commemorative event marking the Roma Holocaust in Banska Bystrica this weekend. The event was also attended by German Ambassador Thomas Goetz, representatives of the Government and various organizations, who laid wreaths at the memorial dedicated to victims of the Roma Holocaust, which is often being described as a "forgotten Holocaust", according to Pollak. More than 300,000 Roma died during the WWII in Europe, while more than 21,000 Roma were placed to Auschwitz-Birkenau, one of the largest concentration camps. "On August 2, we commemorate for the 71st time a day when SS members in 1944 murdered the last 2,900 Roma and Sinti [German Roma] - including children, mothers and the elderly - in gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau. "August 2 is a day that's incomprehensible for all of us today. Every single fate in concentration camps is a story of endless suffering, with a name and life being behind every fate. They were people such as we are. This is still making us helpless and filling us, Germans, with deep sadness and shame," said German Ambassador Goetz in a speech.