Auschwitz memorial for Roma genocide

Officials and survivors are expected to gather for an event on Wednesday to mark Roma Holocaust Memorial Day at the site of the former Nazi German Auschwitz death camp in southern Poland.

A previous event to mark Roma Holocaust Memorial Day at the site of the former Nazi German Auschwitz death camp in southern Poland.

Photo: PAP/Art Service 2

Roma Holocaust Memorial Day is held every year at Auschwitz on August 2, the anniversary of the killing of more than 4,000 Roma and Sinti prisoners, including women and children, in the camp’s gas chambers in 1944.

Today we pay tribute to the memory of the thousands of Roma victims murdered by the Germans during #WW2.#OTD 79 years ago, the last 4,300 Sinti and Roma were murdered in the German Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. pic.twitter.com/PTBr9bjz4T

— Chancellery of the Prime Minister of Poland (@PremierRP_en) August 2, 2023

The event usually brings together former Auschwitz prisoners from various countries as well as Polish and foreign government officials and diplomats.

2/3 August 1944 | The Germans liquidated the so-called Gypsy camp (Zigeunerlager - sector BIIe) of Auschwitz II-Birkenau. Some 4,200-4,300 children, women and men - the last Roma prisoners of the sector - were murdered in gas chambers. https://t.co/4oNbsPuWdU pic.twitter.com/vkzE3Cfofh

— Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) August 2, 2023

Only 2,000 of the some 23,000 Roma and Sinti from 14 countries who were imprisoned at Auschwitz survived the ordeal, according to some estimates.

The Roma people were considered enemies of the Third Reich, condemned to be isolated and ultimately murdered. Some 23,000 Roma & Sinti were incarcerated in Auschwitz. 91 percent of them perished.
Listen to our #podcast about Roma and Sinti in #Auschwitz.https://t.co/uURtCUYjt7

— Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) August 2, 2022

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Source: IAR, PAP