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
Latest News
-
Bulletin «Lessons of the Holocaust», № 3 (79), 2024
Dear colleagues! The fresh issue of information-pedagogical bulletin of UCHS «Lessons of the Holocaust», № 3 (79), July-September, 2024 has been published.
[More] -
The past helps to understand the present – UCU opens the Mykola Haievoi Center for Modern History
On 17 October in Lviv, the Mykola Haievoi Center for Modern History had its ceremonial opening. The center was jointly founded by Ukrainian Catholic University and Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.
[More] -
On Guard of Saint Sophia. Exhibition project
Starting 18 September 2024, the Kyiv History Museum invites you to visit the large-scale multimedia exhibition project On Guard of Saint Sophia. This unique exhibition demonstrates the modern Russian-Ukrainian war as a result of the centuries-long confrontation between two civilisations with their completely opposite values.
[More] -
Holocaust Remembrance in the Ukrainian Regions
Interview with Olha Limonova, coordinator of the UCHS Formal Education Department, on Hromadske Radio about the problems and changes in Holocaust Remembrance.
-
Seminar on Teaching Holocaust History at High School in Chernivtsi
On 4-6 October 2024, Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University hosted a research and methodological seminar for university professors entitled ‘Teaching Holocaust History at High School’. The seminar was organised by the Ukrainian Center for Holocaust Studies in cooperation with and the financial support of the International Project “Tracks of Memory” of the Düsseldorf Jewish Community.
[More]