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Osviecim 7, August (AMM) -  Ceremonies marking the Day of Remembrance for the Exterminaton of the Roma were held on the sixty-sixth anniversary of the liquidation of the Familienzigeunerlager, the so-called family camp for Sinti and Roma in the Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp. The several hundred people in attendance included former prisoners of Auschwitz and other Nazi camps and ghettos, Roma from Poland and abroad, government officials including Minister Elżbieta Radziszewska as the representative of Prime Minister Donald Tusk, representatives of the European Commission, members of the diplomatic corps, the director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and members of the staff, and local officials.
In his remarks, Roman Kwiatkowski, President of the Association of Roma in Poland, noted that “for us Roma, this is a symbolic place. It was precisely here that the last surviving Roma prisoners in the so-called Familienzigeunerlager were put to death in the gas chamber. That is why I wish to express my satisfaction that, just here at this site of the tragedy of our people, which is sometimes referred to as the Roma Holocaust, there is permanent remembrance in the form of a plaque.

Košice/Saint Maries de la Mer 19 july (RPA) - The Roma revere St. Sarah as their patron saint. Her historical existence is enveloped in a veil of secrets. A number of legends surround her and no one knows exactly which are true. One apocryphal text from the 11^th century even says that Sara was present at the empty tomb of Christ with Martha and Mary.

With wish to openly discuss about policy of genocide, we asked general secretary of the International Roma Union– Mr. Bajram Haliti, who is regarded as one of the most important explorers of genocide over Roms in camps of the Third Reich, to give us better insight to sufferings of Roms during World War II. He published about that great number of scientific works, which has been presented to domestic and foreign publicity. However, he believes that it is final time for exploring of genocide to be institutionalized, that unremembered nazi and ustasa’s crimes could be wrest away from the oblivion.

Denisa Gáborová is 35 years old and has four children. Two of them currently attend secondary school while the other two are in primary school. Her husband is employed. Denisa works as a community assistant for medical education.

Try to describe your childhood. What kind of family did you grow up in?

There were five of us children and my mother and father were both employed. We grew up modestly. We had a strict upbringing, for which I’m thankful. My father worked in construction as a welder. My mother was a cleaning woman in a school.

Žaneta Plachetková is from the village of Švedlár in the Gelnica district. She is 37 years old and a mother of four. She is currently on maternity leave.

How many children do you have?

I have four children. Three boys and one girl.

How old are they?

The oldest boy is 17, then I have a 13-year old and an 12-year old boy. My little girl is three.