Ravasz: Roma Holocaust Mustn't Slip into Oblivion

Bratislava, August 1 (TASR) – Although the Roma Holocaust is rarely discussed, it doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t be commemorated, said Government Proxy for Roma Communities Abel Ravasz on Wednesday in anticipation of Roma Holocaust Memorial Day (August 2).

“We need to commemorate all the victims of Nazi extermination camps. All the more so as we live in times in which a number of groups, including some elected lawmakers, attempt to engage in baseless glorification of the 1939-45 Slovak state, which deported its own citizens to extermination camps,” stated Ravasz.

The Government Proxy’s Office has prepared a symbolic candle, which was created by animator Veronika Kocourkova and is due to be set alight via a social network account to commemorate the victims of the Roma Holocaust. “If you’d like to show solidarity with the victims of the Roma Holocaust, all you need to do is to replace your account photo temporarily with this candle on August 2. You will thus show that you’re not indifferent towards the victims of WWII, regardless of the colour of their skin,” underlined Ravasz.

The Government Proxy will also lay a wreath at a unique wooden memorial in Barca (Banska Bystrica region) that was crafted by a Roma woodcarver.

On August 2, 1944, almost 3,000 Roma were murdered at Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, and yet this figure represented only a fraction of all the Roma victims who didn’t survive the WWII Holocaust.