It’s time Canada recognizes Roma genocide
August 02, 2016
Hon. Justin Trudeau
Prime Minister of Canada
On July 10 2016, the Honourable Prime Minister Mr. Justin Trudeau visited Auschwitz Birkenau. Following his visit, Mr. Trudeau declared,
Today we bear witness to humanity’s capacity for deliberate cruelty and evil. May we ever remember this painful truth about ourselves and may it strengthen our commitment to never again to allow such darkness to prevail. We shall never forget.
Institute for Research of Genocide Canada with the The Canadian Romani Alliance in solidarity with Romanipe wishes to take this opportunity to bring attention to the often forgotten plight of the Roma during the Holocaust. August 2nd, has been designated by the international Roma community as the day to commemorate the Porrajmos or genocide of Roma during the period of the Nazi occupation of Europe. August 2nd has been chosen because it was on this date, in 1944, that the last remaining 2,897 Roma and Sinti, including the elderly and children, imprisoned in the so-called Zigeunerlager or “Gypsy Camp” were murdered in the gas chambers at Auschwitz-Birkenau. The most recent estimate indicates that at least half the Roma and Sinti European population, some 500 000 Roma were murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators during World War II.
Unfortunately, this Genocide of the Roma and Sinti is virtually unknown to the general public. It does not appear in public education curricula in Canadian schools and it is merely a footnote in accounts of the history of the Third Reich. For the past 70 years, the unfortunate history of the Roma Genocide has been ignored and forgotten, a fact, which has allowed for discrimination against Roma to continue. With the growing influence of Neo-Nazi movements taking place throughout Europe, we have recently witnessed the very dangers and consequence of forgetting the past. In current day Europe, growing Anti-Gypsyism has led to the racially motivated killings of six Roma including one child by far-right extremists. Such widespread hatred and violence against Roma would not be allowed today, had the history of the Roma Genocide been rightfully recognized and taught.
Only last year, on April 15 2015 the European Parliament finally adopted a resolution, recognizing “the historical fact of the genocide of Roma that took place during World War II. The resolution, which declared that August 2, is a day which should be dedicated to commemorating the victims of the Genocide of the Roma during World War II, also underlined “the need to combat anti-Gypsyism at every level and by every means, and stresses that this phenomenon is an especially persistent, violent, recurrent and commonplace form of racism.”
Institute for Research of Genocide, Canada invites the Canadian government to follow, via a formal recognition of the Roma Genocide during World War II. This recognition would grant legal and moral legitimacy to the demands for restitution for Roma to rightfully be incorporated in the history of the Holocaust, including at all official ceremonies, commemorations and events honouring victims of the World War II.
Because the 2nd of August has been proposed as the memorial day of the Roma Genocide, chosen by Romani organizations The Institute for Research of Genocide, Canada asks the Canadian government to recognise August 2nd as the official day of commemoration of the mass murder of the Roma and Sinti during the Second World War. This recognition will begin the process of education and further assist the collective healing process of this tragedy that befell the Roma and Sinti population at the hands of Hitler and his collaborators.
Professor Emir Ramic
Chairman of the Institute for Research of Genocide, Canada
