Foreign Ministry honors Roma victims that suffered in World War II

The Foreign Affairs Ministry (MAE) firmly condemns any racist act and on the European Roma Holocaust Memorial Day brings a pious homage to all the Roma victims that suffered throughout the entire period of World War II, a MAE press release sent to AGERPRES on Thursday informs. 

"Fighting racism, intolerance, xenophobia, populism and antisemitism represents one of the themes of interest for Romania in preparation for the Presidency of the Council of the EU in 2019", reads the press release. 

MAE reminds that this year it is the commemoration of 74 years since the events of 2 August 1944, when approximately 3,000 Roma citizens from the Auschwitz-Birkenau fell victims to the Nazi regime. In the memory of this tragic event, the day of August 2 has become known as the International Memorial Day of the Roma Genocide. 

"In the context of the multilateral diplomatic actions, Romania gives special attention to the the memory of the Roma citizens victims of the genocide during the Holocaust period and the need to educate younger generations about this tragic chapter in the European history. In this sense, during Romania's mandate as President of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), Romania encouraged international efforts in the fields of education concerning the problematic of the Roma genocide during the Holocaust period. As a result of these actions, with the financial support from the IHRA, the online educational platform http://www.romasintigenocide.eu/en/home has become available, which contains teaching material in 11 European languages, including Romanian," the press release further mentions. 

MAE supports the consolidation of efforts to include in the educational programs the topic of the Roma citizens' genocide during World War II and to ensure some decent social conditions for the last Roma survivors of deportation in Transnistria. MAE also reminds that within IHRA activates the Committee for Roma genocide, whose line of work is aimed at raising awareness of the Roma genocide during the national-socialist regime and including in the school curriculum a chapter dedicated to this topic.