Український центр вивчення Голокосту

The Roma Holocaust Memorial Day

Today, on 2 August, the whole world commemorates the victims of the Nazi genocide of the Roma. It was on the night of 2 to 3 August 1944 that the Nazis murdered more than 4,000 Roma prisoners in the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp in Poland.

Roma were subjected to stigmatisation and restrictions long before the National Socialist dictatorship. The Nazis took these prejudices to extremes. The genocide began after the Nazis came to power, with the gradual isolation of Roma and the deprivation of their rights and means of livelihood. As a result of the Nuremberg Laws of 1935, marriages between Germans and so-called "outsiders" were banned.

In the same year, Roma in large cities began to be forcibly relocated to "Gypsy camps". A decree of the Kriminalpolizei of 8 December 1938 stated that it was necessary to "finally resolve the Gypsy question", which stemmed "from the very nature of this race".

In 1943, more than 22,000 Roma from Germany and some other European countries were deported to Auschwitz. About 19,300 people died there from starvation, cold, diseases, exhaustion, medical experiments, or were sent to the gas chambers.

In his publications and interviews, Mykhailo Tiaglyy notes that it is difficult to calculate the exact number of victims among the Roma population in Ukraine during the Second World War. According to his estimates, the total number of Roma killed on the present-day territory of Ukraine is approximately 25,000, although this number could be much higher. Ukraine was then divided into several spheres of influence: most of it was under German occupation, some was subordinated to Romania, and a small area belonged to the Hungarians (from publications by Mykhailo Tiaglyy, researcher at the Ukrainian Center for Holocaust Studies https://www.radiosvoboda.org/.../pid-chas.../31386887.html)

You can learn more about the genocide of Roma in Nazi-occupied Ukraine on our website https://www.holocaust.kiev.ua/Files/News/ukraine_kyr.pdf

Announcements

11/23/2025
Scientific and Methodological Seminar for Ukrainian Educators at Yad Vashem [More]
10/28/2025
International Scholarly and Practical Conference “War in Historical and Individual Memory” [More]
10/7/2025
On 7 October at 4 p.m. in Kyiv, at 12B Kozhumyatska Street, there will be the unveiling of a stumbling stone in honour of Klavdiia Vynokurova (Pianykh). [More]
9/19/2025
Call for Applications: Seminar-School “Learning from the Past – Acting for the Future. Teaching about the Holocaust and Human Rights” [More]
9/13/2025
The Holocaust as a Starting Point: Polish–Ukrainian Dialogue [More]

12/3/2025
Blasphemy, Indifference, and Russian Propaganda: The Story of the Failed Creation of the Babyn Yar Museum

The Museum of the History of Kyiv has published a study by well-known Ukrainian historian Vitalii Nakhamanovych on the history of attempts to create a museum in Babyn Yar, the struggle for historical memory of this crime and tragedy in the history of Ukraine during World War II, a struggle that continues to this day.

[More]
11/28/2025
Claims Conference European Workshop for Shoah Research, Education and Documentation Organizations

On 17–20 November 2025, an international seminar for teachers and researchers of World War II and Holocaust history was held in Amsterdam at the National Holocaust Museum.
Scientists and educators from 44 European countries and representatives of organisations from the United States took part. The event was organised by the international organisation Claims Conference (Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany).
[More]
11/14/2025
Meeting on the Development of Civic Education in Ukraine

On 2 November 2025, a strategic meeting on challenges and prospects in the field of civic education was held, organised by our partners, the NGO Open University of Maidan.
[More]
11/10/2025
Learning from the Past, Acting for the Future - Teaching about the Holocaust and Human Rights

On 29–31 October 2025, the seminar-school Learning from the Past – Acting for the Future on the History of the Holocaust and Human Rights was held in Kyiv.
[More]
11/5/2025
Unveiling of the Stumbling Stone in honour of Mariia Rozhnovska

On 24 October 2025, as part of the project One Stone - One Life. 80 Stumbling Stones for Kyiv, the final Stumbling Stone of the year was installed in Kyiv’s Ivan Kramsky Square in honour of Mariia Rozhnovska, Righteous Among the Nations.
[More]

The Roma Holocaust Memorial Day

Announcements

Latest News

Blasphemy, Indifference, and Russian Propaganda: The Story of the Failed Creation of the Babyn Yar Museum

Claims Conference European Workshop for Shoah Research, Education and Documentation Organizations

Meeting on the Development of Civic Education in Ukraine

Learning from the Past, Acting for the Future - Teaching about the Holocaust and Human Rights

Unveiling of the Stumbling Stone in honour of Mariia Rozhnovska