Prague 8 hoisted the Roma flag on the occasion of the Roma Holocaust Remembrance Day
On the occasion of the Roma Holocaust Remembrance Day on August 2, 2022, Prague 8 hoisted the Roma flag at the town hall (PHOTO: Prague 8)
Today, to commemorate the Roma Holocaust Remembrance Day, some cities display the Roma flag in their town halls. This was done, for example, by the City Hall of Prague 8.
“It commemorates the tragic night from August 2 to 3, 1944, when the Germans murdered over three thousand Roma and Sinti in the concentration camp Auschwitz – Březinka,” explained Prague 8 mayor Ondřej Gros (ODS) about the hanging of the flag.
The most recent study even states that up to 4,300 Roma were murdered in the gas chambers of the concentration camp, despite active resistance.
August 2 was established by the Polish Diet as the Day of Remembrance of the Genocide of the Roma and Sinti in 2011. In 2015, the European Parliament recognized this date as the European Sinti and Roma Holocaust Remembrance Day.
During the 17 months of existence of the so-called gypsy family camp (from February 1943 to July 1944) in which 23 thousand women, men and children were imprisoned. Approximately 21 thousand Roma and Sinti prisoners perished in the camp. Other Roma were murdered in concentration camps mainly in Chełmno, Treblinka, Majdanek, Sobibór and Bełżec. Others, the number is difficult to estimate, were shot and buried in mass graves in the forest. According to estimates, the extermination policy of Nazi Germany led to the death of up to 0.5 million Roma and Sinti from all over Europe. Some estimates put up to 800,000 victims, which is about a quarter to a half of the pre-war Roma population.