It took decades before Germany recognized the Romani Holocaust — the Nazi genocide of 500,000 European Roma and Sinti during World War II. Several more decades passed before the European Holocaust Memorial Day for Sinti and Roma became an official German and European day of remembrance, celebrated each year on August 2.
Based on initiatives by Polish Roma groups, the Nazi liquidation of the so-called "Gypsy Family Camp" in the Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration and Extermination Camp on the evening of August 2-3, 1944, was first commemorated half a century later, in 1994. Germany marks the European Roma Holocaust Memorial Day on August 2Image: Joerg Carstensen/dpa/picture alliance
Thousands of deported Roma and Sinti had already been killed as a result of malnutrition and disease. That evening, thousands more were forced into gas chambers, shot and beaten to death by Nazi henchmen.
In 2015, the European Parliament declared this date the European Roma Holocaust Memorial Day. In Germany and other European countries, the genocide is commemorated by officials with the participation of government representatives. In some cases, representatives of European governments travel to the memorial site in Auschwitz.
