Dik i na bistar - Roma Genocide Remembrance Initiative 2013

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“European Integration was a response to the suffering in�licted by two world wars and, even though today ‘s Europe is enjoying its longest ever period of peace, I can only note with concern the current rise in xenophobia, racism and hate speech. It is therefore essential to foster remembrance of the Holocaust in all it’s aspects, as there can be no reconciliation without truth and remembrance.”

Patronage of Mr. Martin Schulz President of the European Parliament

SAVE THE DATE 30 July – 4 August 2014

70th anniversary of 2 August European Campaign 2014 for the Recognition of the Roma Genocide Knowledge and of�icial recognition of the extermination of the Roma during Second World War are still very limited. We need to shed light on the forgotten Roma Genocide, the over 500.000 victims, as well as on social exclusion, anti-gypsyism and hate speech nowadays. The ternYpe European campaign 2014 demands the recognition of the Roma Genocide, and advocates 2 August as a memorial day. Together we spread the awareness about the past and engage against racism and antigypsyism in the present.

About ternYpe ternYpe - International Roma Youth Network was founded in January 2010 and unites different Roma youth organizations from Albania, Bulgaria, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Macedonia, Slovakia, Spain and Poland.

Mission ternYpe is a network of youth and youth associations, which creates space for young people to become active citizens through empowerment, mobilisation, self-organisation and participation. We believe in the common efforts by creating trust, and mutual respect between Roma and non-Roma youth.

ternYpe – International Roma Youth Network ternype@romayouth.com // 2august@ternype.eu // www.ternype.eu

WWW.2AUGUST.EU

DIK I NA BISTAR Youth Conference In summer 2013, ternYpe organised its fourth consecutive international youth conference in Krakow and Auschwitz.

The event brought together about 430 young Roma and non-Roma from over 20 countries; together, they commemorated the 2 August liquidation of the “Gypsy camp” at Auschwitz-Birkenau. The international conference did not focus only on the past, but aimed to: • Strengthen the engagement and awareness of Roma and non-Roma youth and youth organizations on the Roma Genocide, the mechanisms of antigypsyism and current challenges of racism, hate speech and extremism; • Advocate for the recognition of the Roma Genocide and promote its remembrance on the European level.

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“Today, we are standing on the very ground, where so many of our loved ones were murdered.

This pond is probably where my mother, sisters and brother are buried. I always come here.

Listen how quiet and peaceful this place is. I still cannot comprehend that there is such quiet in the place where all these horrible things happened.”

Zoni Weisz, Holocaust survivor

Remembrance

Public Youth Conference

Remembrance and commemoration was a core theme in this youth conference. The Holocaust survivor Zoni Weisz, a Dutch Sinti who lost many family members in Auschwitz, shared his story and vision, and deeply touched the emotions of the participants. An international youth group from Albania, Macedonia, Germany and Poland performed a theatre in the Galicia Jewish Museum about the young Roma girl Else Baker, who was deported to Auschwitz but survived. On 2 August over 430 young people went to visit Auschwitz Museum, they participated in the of�icial commemoration, and organized their own youth commemoration with songs, poems and speeches in the Crematorium V, and on the memorial for Roma and Sinti. From this deep emotional experience we built as a group a strong empowering movement to build a better future.

The public youth conference aimed to foster dialogue about issues of recognition and the role of history in relation to today’s antigypsyism.

PANEL 1: The history of the Roma Genocide and antigypsyism in the past & present: Speakers addressed remembrance and recognition of the Roma Genocide, current debates and questions in Roma Genocide research, and parallels between the past and anti-Roma extremism in the 21st century.

PANEL 2: Holocaust Education among young generations: Speakers addressed different perspectives and challenges about Holocaust education from the practitioners’ side. The panel allowed an interesting space for exchange of experiences.

Closing plenary: Recognition, Remembrance and Youth Activism for Change

Workshops

Follow-up

The Roma were among the �irst victims of the Holocaust due to the Nazi ideology of “racial purity.”In 1933, the Nazi Department of Racial Hygiene and Population Biology determined that most Roma posed a danger to German racial purity and should be eliminated. Years of discriminatory policies followed, culminating on November 15, 1943 when Himmler ended the debate over the so-called “Gypsy Question”: he ordered that Roma and “part-Roma” should be put “on the same level as Jews and placed in concentration camps.” Overall, an estimated 500, 000 Roma were killed during the Roma Genocide of WWII.

In May 1944, the Nazis started to plan the “Final Solution” for the “Gypsy Family Camp” in Auschwitz. On 16 May, 60 SS of�icers surrounded the camp. They attempted to force the prisoners out of the barracks; but they had to withdraw, faced by the rebellion of Roma men, women and children. But in the night between 2 and 3 August of the same year, they succeeded in their earlier mission: despite Roma resistance all of the camp’s 2,897 men, women, and children were loaded on trucks, taken to gas chamber V, and exterminated. Their bodies were burned in pits next to the crematorium.

Participants had the opportunity to take part in a selection of workshops, delivered by experts in their respective �ields. On the �irst conference day, each attendee chose two of 15 available educational sessions on the history of the Roma Genocide, antigypsyism, human rights, etc. On the second day, they instead selected one of 15 workshops on concrete actions for youth activism and change. This combination of the historical and the practical encouraged young participants to think about how historical knowledge of the Roma Genocide might resonate in their own lives and communities. The workshops encouraged to build youth initiatives and to strengthen grassroots youth activism for change.

DIK I NA BISTAR does not stop after the 2 August and the youth conference. Roma and non-Roma youth organizations, and youth activists engage all over Europe in their communities to raise the awareness about the Roma Genocide. Young people interview and preserve the experience and knowledge of the generation of elders. Young people organize presentations and debates in schools and youth groups. In September ternYpe organized with the Council of Europe a study session in the European Youth Centre Budapest to evaluate the conference and to plan a new campaign in 2014 for the recognition of the Roma genocide.

Fotos: Yann Merlin

2 August 1944

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“After many decades, the Forgotten Roma Holocaust and its often nameless victims �ind the proper place in history. It is our obligation to restore these events to the collective memory of Europe and the world, and to pass the knowledge about them to the next generations.

I am convinced that our common work brings us closer to the moment when young and older Europeans alike will not only say about the Roma Genocide: “We remember!”, but they will also be able to reassure with a great conviction: “Never again!”

Agnieszka Kozłowska-Rajewicz, Polish Government Plenipotentiary for Equal Treatment

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Fotos: Gabriela Hrabanova

Roma Genocide

“I’ve held many different workshops about numerous topics in the past, and spoken in front of many different types of groups, but speaking in front of this particular group was such an honor, and was one of the most memorable experiences of my life.”

Andi Gergely, President of the European Union of Jewish Students