Ceremony held for Roma killed in World War II

EDİRNE

A commemorative ceremony for the almost 3,000 Roma who perished in the Auschwitz concentration camp on Aug. 2, 1944, during World War II has been held in the northwest province of Edirne along the banks of the Meriç River.

The program started with a minute of silence for the Roma who lost their lives by being gassed to death at the camp.

Several city council members, Roma Working Group President Turan Şallı and many Roma citizens attended the commemoration.

Aug. 2, 2023, marked the 79th anniversary of the systematic murder of nearly 3,000 Roma in the Auschwitz camp, Şallı said during his speech at the event.

“Romani people, historically known as gypsies, who have been present in Europe for many years, have been subjected to social discrimination, violence and persecution in every time period. They have been subjected to death sentences and genocide on different dates. Today, we still see traces of social discrimination in most countries of Europe,” Şallı stated.

Professor Ahmet Hamdi Zafer, the vice-rector of Trakya University, also expressed sorrow over the loss of thousands of Roma during World War II.

“Our Roma brothers and sisters, with whom we have lived together for centuries, have lived with us and had equal rights without the slightest problem neither during the Ottoman period nor throughout the history of the Turkish Republic. But we know that thousands of Roma lost their lives during the Nazi Germany period,” he said.

After the speeches, flowers were laid into the Meriç River in memory of the victims.

During the genocide known as the Porajmos in the Romani language, Roma were designated for extinction, given mandatory labor and imprisoned in concentration camps.