European Holocaust Remembrance Day for Sinti and Roma
On 2 August, European Holocaust Remembrance Day for Sinti and Roma, 160 mostly young Sinti and Roma gathered at the IYMC for a joint lunch and talks with contemporary witnesses. Guests of honour were the three Holocaust survivors Edward Dębicki, Christian Pfeil and Dieter Flack.
At the beginning of the event, Mihai Oancea, President of the International Roma Youth Network ternYpe, and Georgios Stamatis, PACE General Rapporteur for Roma and Travellers, welcomed the participants and reported on the major challenges that many young Sinti and Roma still have to overcome in their everyday lives and how they are trying to counteract this with their work in the European Parliament.
The participants then spread out across our forum and two seminar rooms and listened attentively in small groups to the testimonies of the contemporary witnesses. After the moving discussions and many questions to the survivors, they gathered for a group photo in our garden before leaving for the next item on their agenda.