On the occasion of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp on 27 January, Ms Roberta Metsola wrote that she was paying tribute to the 6 million victims of the Holocaust, referring to the Jewish victims only. What about the other victims? In Auschwitz there was a huge “Gypsy family camp”. Is this a random omission or a sign of a radical change in European policy towards Roma?
After almost a month, no one dared to write a comment on social networks, to ask a question, to raise the topic in public. I saw people angry that the President of the European Parliament did not mention the Palestinians, I even saw a comment that she had forgotten the Poles. However, I did not see anyone ask her why the Roma victims of the Holocaust were excluded – between 500 000 and 1.5 000 000 according to more conservative estimates but perhaps far exceeding those figures. This speaks volumes about the current state of Roma civil society, and the civil society in Europe in general.
For 80 years, the old generations of activists fought for Roma to be recognized as victims of the Holocaust – something that the European courts and authorities vehemently denied for decades after the war. Prof. Ian Hancock wrote an article on the issue that the Holocaust cannot be a monopoly of anyone, it was published in Magasin DIKKO https://dikko.nu/ian-hancock-holocaust-denial/
Alas, younger generations of activists are not as critical and courageous. A 82-years-old professor, far from Europe, in Texas, is more concerned about these issues than the young people in Brussels whose job it is to fight Anti-Gypsyism and racism. This is sad and worrying at the same time.
How will these people retain the memory and continue the struggle if they do not have the necessary sensitivity and understanding on this topic? Have we failed to create an elite worthy of this legacy? These are pressing questions that need to be addressed against the backdrop of the alarming developments in international politics.
In 2025, we are witnessing a situation in which the Roma elites in Europe are so disempowered and disunited that they are not even able to tell the President of the European Parliament that the victims of the Holocaust were not just 6 million people. Many more people became victims of the Holocaust because the Nazi policy of extermination also affected Roma and Sinti people, Black people, Slavic people and other racialized and ethnic groups in Europe.
This is a dangerous situation of intellectual, psychological and physical weakness. After being excluded from European politics, Roma risk of being excluded from European history and memory. It means a serious retreat from everything hard-earned, so far, by previous generations. New generations need to be reminded that the struggle for the past is a struggle for the future. And whoever controls your history will control your future as well.
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